The Spirit Guardians Book 1: Enlightened

Chapter 15

Cassie tossed and turned, groaning into her pillow in defeat. The insomnia simply would not vanish. She'd been up three hours now, listening to the distant rumbling of thunder. Even if the storm had gone and passed, she still couldn't manage to sleep.

Cassie was a spiritkeeper now and for the rest of her life. Had she really made the right choice? She pressed a hand to the tattoo, feeling the skin underneath, but it didn't possess that warmth that had once been there.

She shut her eyes and yawned, trying to let the calm wind and faint hooting of an owl lull her to sleep. Each sound just appeared to make her more restless the longer she tried to concentrate on it.

Frustrated, Cassie pushed her covers aside and sat up in bed. She shivered, the cold night air outside dropping the cabin's own temperature. Even if they had air conditioning and heating, it wasn't as if it worked particularly well.

She threw a thin blanket over herself and walked out of her room toward the kitchen. Cassie rummaged through the cabinets and retrieved a glass of water. She winced at the clanking it made, hoping it would not wake the others.

She sighed and began sipping on the water. Though Cassie took deep breaths, she wasn't sure how she'd ever manage to fall asleep on a night like this.

A shadow cast over her, and she jumped. Cassie turned, noticing someone sitting up on the couch nearby that she had apparently woken. She crouched quickly and rested her back against the cabinet, clutching her legs close to her. What if someone had broken in? What if they'd found out she was a human-spirit?

"Cassie?" came a husky voice.

Cassie slowly rose to her knees, peeking above the kitchen island she had crouched behind. She squinted her eyes and sighed in relief.

"Marc? That's just you, right?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah. And you're up because--"

"I couldn't sleep," she admitted. "Why are you out here?"

"I crashed on the couch by accident," he explained. "You seem to have lots of trouble sleeping. I can sometimes hear you pacing around your bedroom at night."

Cassie bit her lip. Her bouts of insomnia were louder than she thought.

"It's not just that. I was too excited to sleep tonight," she admitted, shuffling toward the couch he was resting on.

"I get that. But you should probably rest," Marc told her.

"It's not like I haven't been trying that," she grumbled, wrapping her blanket tighter around her.

"It's not just excitement, is it? You're nervous," Marc muttered.

Cassie took a seat on the carpet, running her fingers over the fibers. "Yeah."

"It's going to have its pros and cons. You'll just have to trust the process," he told her. "I remember when I first became a spiritkeeper..." His voice quietly lingered on as he spoke to her, and she felt her eyes growing heavy.

"Can you keep talking?" Cassie asked. "It's making me tired." She sprawled out on the soft floor, wrapping her blanket tight around her.

"Sure, but make room," he said, shoving her with his foot.

She huffed and scooted over as he took a seat next to her on the floor.

"Tell me a story," Cassie murmured.

"Okay. I can tell you about my favorite day I was living on the streets," he explained.

"Favorite day being homeless? Now that sounds ironic," she muttered.