“Daddy, let Uncle Jude explain.” Everly turned her attention back to Jude. “How does it work and what could we do together?”
“We’d have to meditate together, very deeply, to the point where our physical senses stop working.”
Ronan opened his mouth. What the actual fuck was Jude talking about. He was about to demand an answer to that very question when Everly held a hand up and shook her head. Ronan shut his mouth, but he wasn’t happy about it.
“So I wouldn’t be able to hear, see or speak?” Everly asked, eyeing Ronan, as if she were expecting him to interrupt again.
“Right, that’s how you know it’s time to leave your body. You visualize yourself floating out of your body. When your spirit is separated from your physical body, you’ll have all of your senses back.
“Once we have separation, how do we find Bellamy?”
“Again we’d need to visualize ourselves in the cell with him. We’d be able to speak to him for as long as we need without Benedict or anyone else interrupting us.”
“I’m in. Let’s do it!” Everly looked ready to try it this very minute.
“Hold on a second,” Ten said. “We need a little bit more information about all of this.”
“Yeah, like what happens if there’s an emergency and we can’t wake up your physical body? What if you go tumbling off intospace and we can’t get you back? What if Benedict finds a way to trap your spirit in that prison forever?” Ronan turned to Ten. “Did I leave anything out?”
“I think you just about covered it all, and then some, babe.” Ten wore a worried look.
“You and I need a code word, Dad,” Everly said. “If you say the word, I’ll know to come right back to my body. I won’t go tumbling off into space, like Daddy thinks, because my spirit is still tethered to my body. Like a dog on a leash. As for Benedict trapping my spirit, it’s never happened before.”
Ronan’s eyes widened. His heart pounded hard enough to beat out of his chest. “Either I’m having a nervous breakdown or you just admitted that you’ve gone astral projecting before. Which one is it? I’m sort of hoping it’s the nervous breakdown.”
Everly rolled her eyes. “I’ve been astral projecting for a while now. Mimi Bertha taught me how to do it.”
Ronan’s mouth open and closed like a fish out of water. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “How? Why didn’t you ever tell me?”
Everly shot Ronan an are-you-kidding-me look. She waved her hand around Ronan. “This is why I never said anything. Mimi thought it would be a handy thing to know. Every once in a while, when I’m struggling with something, she takes me on a spirit walk. We go to a pretty place and talk. I always feel better afterward.”
“Why don’t you come to me when you’re struggling?” Ronan asked, feeling as if he were a complete failure as a father.
“You’re not a failure, Daddy. It’s just that questions or problems with my gift aren’t your thing. There are things I see or feel withmy gift that I don’t always understand and need a woman’s help with.”
Ronan understood what Everly was saying, but it still hurt that he couldn’t be everything his daughter needed. “So, you know how to do this thing Jude’s talking about?”
“Not exactly. When Mimi and I go on our spirit walks, it’s just the two of us. We talk to each other. I’ve never tried to find another person or another soul before. I think that’s where Uncle Jude comes in.”
“Exactly,” Jude said. “I know how to find Bellamy.”
“Who taught you to do this, Uncle Jude?” Everly asked.
“No one taught me. I just sort of knew how to do it. The first person I went looking for was Crow. I knew he’d be able to help me with things I was struggling with, just like you do with Bertha.”
“That’s really amazing,” Ten said. “Does Cope know you can do this?”
Jude nodded. “He’s threatened to divorce me if I hook up with James Dean or Elvis, or Freddie Mercury.”
“Have you?” Ronan asked, feeling a bit calmer now. Thinking about boning famous dead celebrities relaxed him.
“My lips are sealed!” Jude zipped his lips and threw away the key.
Ronan had a feeling that was a yes. He wondered which spirit he boned. Probably James Dean. Jude had a thing for bad boys with leather jackets. “I want to come too.”
“Where? To bone James Dean?” Jude asked with a snort.
“No, dumbass, on this spirit walk. Is this something I can learn on the fly?”
