More Than an Echo (Echo Branson Series) by Linda Kay Silva Read Free Book Online Page B

his head at me.
    “Now, Jacob, just because we have a pretty one doesn’t mean you can go and forget your manners.” She turned her smile at me and warmth ran from the top of my head to all my extremities. Whether it was from me or her, I couldn’t tell. “I’m Melika, dear. You must be Echo.”
    Jacob scurried off the boat and helped me out.
    “Yes, I am. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
    Melika reached for my hand and held it tightly as she gazed deep into my eyes. I felt like I could stand there forever. “Oh my,” she said softly.
    “What?”
    Releasing my hand, she picked something from my hair and tossed it into the water. “It appears George got to you not a moment too soon.” Melika continued looking in my eyes, searching for something. I could barely feel it, but I knew she was there.
    “You can barely feel it, my dear, because I am virtually unreadable to any but the strongest of us. Try as you may, you will never know what I am feeling, just as a telepath will never know what I am thinking.” Melika took my chin in her hand. She smelled of mint and oranges. “But you do have a great gift, to be sure.”
    “It feels more like a curse every day.”
    She released my chin and patted me on the shoulder. “Every gift can become a curse and every curse, a gift. It is how we choose to use it that makes the difference.”
    And so, without taking another step, lessons began that would change the course of the rest of my life.

    I met Tiponi Redhawk next. She was sitting on the stairs to the porch of Melika’s cute little cottage that looked like something a Keebler elf might have lived in. Unlike so many of the other shacks lining the Bayou that were made out of thin pieces of wood and sheet metal, this cottage was fashioned out of stone. A small wisp of white smoke curled from the chimney, and I wondered if there was a trail of breadcrumbs somewhere. A covered deck wrapped around the front of the house and had a wooden swing hanging at one end and a set of green plastic Adirondack chairs at the other. Quaint.
    That was when I noticed Tiponi sitting on the stairs with her arm draped around a bloodhound. I was immediately struck by her exotic and out-of-place looks. Unlike the black folks I’d met or seen so far, Tiponi’s perfect complexion was that of a Native American; a golden hue  with a slight reddish tint. Her hair was black tar that hung well past her shoulders. Her light hazel eyes looked at me with such intensity, I had to look away. She was at least twenty...maybe older. It was hard to tell. I’d never been good with ages.
    “Stop it, Tip,” Melika admonished. “Please bring her things to the blue room, Jacob. Tip, please take Zeus for a walk, will you? I don’t need you underfoot right now.”
    Tip rose and seemed to keep rising for several seconds. She was enormous; legs like the trunks of some of the trees we had passed, shoulders that stretched her shirt to the tearing point, and arms that said she did a lot of heavy lifting all made her quite an imposing figure for a woman. “I thought—”
    “I know what you thought, Tip, but not now. Can’t you see she is a fish out of water? Scoot. Come back when you can be useful.”
    “Yes, ma’am.” Tip and the wrinkly dog strode away, leaving tree branches and leaves bending in their wake.
    “Don’t pay her any mind for right now. You’ll be working closely with her later, but this trip has made you weary. Jacob will take you to your room. Take a little nap before dinner and get your energy back up. My son explained what happened to you in the hospital, but I’ll need to hear every single detail of your life from the first moment you felt what that boy was going to do to you. So, rest, my girl. We have a lot of work ahead.”
    Nodding, I took two steps and then just started bawling. I’m not talking crying and sniffling; I mean an all-out meltdown. I sobbed uncontrollably until Melika put her arms around me and pulled me closer. She