P.N.E. (The Wolfblood Prophecies Book 4) by Avril Silk Page B

the Holy Ghost…’
    Don’t let her touch it! Please! The words flashed into Jo’s mind in a voice Jo recognised. Sebastian himself was nowhere to be seen but his desperate message was as clear as a bell. The urgent plea made Jo want to help, but she could see at a glance that there was no way she could get to Lethe through the crush of people.
    Titus looked uncomfortable. ‘That’s enough, little lady,’ he warned, but Lethe was busy making the sign of the cross and chose to ignore him. Her mocking of religion angered Titus. ‘I said, that’s enough!’ he growled and he seized her by the wrist. Her eyes flashed with fury, and she pushed him away. As she did, she knocked the stand holding the test-tube, and it began to tumble.
    For a moment everyone froze. The fall seemed to happen in slow motion, then there was a scramble and Zachary Lake deftly caught the test-tube and returned it safely to the stand. There was a round of applause during which he said, modestly, ‘Shaken, not stirred.’ Baffled glances all around led him to add, ‘From Ian Fleming’s latest – Diamonds Are Forever . Very exciting.’
    No! The cry ripped through Jo’s soul. She felt Sebastian’s anguish. Revelation after revelation tumbled through her mind and she grasped that his dream journey had been a quest to change his beginning. Because in the future his body was trapped in a coma, he could not physically intervene in the past, so he’d brought Jo along to act as his hands, to ensure no damage occurred to his embryo. He wanted to create a different life for himself. Jo saw clearly how he hated his appearance and his life as Lethe’s henchman, blaming both on the mishap with the test-tube. She felt wretched.
    I’m so sorry. She had no idea if Sebastian received her emp. One minute her mind was filled with his distress, then her thoughts were her own again. He was gone.
    Zachary Lake fixed his wayward daughter with a glare. ‘You had better apologise, Lethe.’
    ‘Sorry,’ she mumbled, adding anxiously, ‘Will Sebastian be alright?’
    With a struggle Titus returned to his avuncular self. ‘No harm done, missy. If – and it is a big if – there ever is a Sebastian, I am sure he will be as right as rain! Now, we need to make our way back for the final part of our tour.’
    He led the group to the bus stop. Jo held back. She wanted to be on her own and work out how to return home. Without Sebastian she might be trapped here forever! How was she going to get back?
    There was a grove of elm trees to the side of the building, and Jo quietly slipped away to the shelter of the ancient trees. No-one seemed to notice her departure. There was something vaguely familiar about the grove. Jo felt as though she had been there before. Or rather, she thought, perhaps she would be there one day in the future.
    When safely out of sight she set about disposing of Moby Dick . She had decided to bury the book that linked Lethe and her father and started scrabbling at the earth. She knew it was a first edition, and as it wasn’t in her nature to vandalise books, particularly valuable ones, she looked for something to protect it. There was nothing to hand, so in the end she took off her radiation suit, not needed since she was skipping the tour of the reactor, and wrapped the book in that. She buried it among the roots of the tallest tree. She imagined someone coming across it again years into the future.
    Once that was done, she leaned back against a tree and racked her brains. Maybe she would be able to travel in her dreams, like Sebastian did? She’d heard of astral projection, or soul flight, but hadn’t the faintest idea how to set about that.
    She curled up into a ball and tried to sleep, concentrating on visualising her room in the hospital. Eventually she did doze off for a few moments, but dreaming eluded her and when she woke, nothing had changed.
    ‘There has to be a way back,’ she said out loud. ‘I can’t stay here forever.’
    If