Joanna is smart, beautiful and successful. She is also a very talented witch. She has acquired every material possession she will ever need…except that she has never found true love. Then she meets Aaron, a college music teacher. After they marry, she subtly, and not so subtly, goes about removing the obstacles in the way of his career path, all without Aaron knowing of her singular talents.
Her ancestor, Jolina, now dwelling in the spirit world of the Realms, disapproves of Joanna’s choice of a mate and prospective father of her children. She sets about to destroy the relationship, just as she did to Joanna’s grandmother, Lydia, in 1939 Chicago.
Jolina sends Aaron through a series of mind-bending dreams where he relives scenes of Burt, a jazz musician in 1939 Chicago, and his doomed relationship with Lydia. When Aaron and Joanna continue to resist, Jolina propels Aaron through a bizarre series of alternate realities, in an attempt to drive him mad and destroy his mind.
Joanna enlists the spirits of Lydia and Millicent, an earlier victim of a self-serving grandmother, to fight the evil Jolina. Is Joanna strong enough to fight the powerful spirit of her ancestor before she succeeds in destroying the mind of her one and only love?
When he looked down the street, it appeared to be more of the same as far as he could see. On impulse, he turned into the first alley he came to.
Instead of back entrances to stores and rows of garbage cans, he was looking across the front green of the University of Central Georgia. He spotted the Fine Arts Complex sitting right where it should be, shrouded in dense fog.
At least it was something familiar, he reasoned, and briskly strode across the green. Even his footfalls made no sound. Like everything else in this strange place, all was silent.
He entered the building and made his way to his office. Everything was where he would expect, except there were no papers on his desk, no coffee cups strewn about, no pictures on the walls. The room looked like a phony mock-up, cosmetically accurate but sterile.
He walked down the hall and turned the corner toward the entrance to one of the large ensemble rehearsal rooms. He pushed through the swinging doors and found himself in the foyer of The Keynote.
The mahogany bar shined brightly, but Tony the bartender was missing. There were no traces of beer mugs or cocktail glasses anywhere. Behind the bar, the liquor cabinet was filled with various bottles, except they were all empty.
He walked over to Burt’s piano. He struck the middle-c key. To his total lack of surprise, no tone sounded. He lifted the cover and, predictably, there were no strings, or anything else inside the shell. It was entirely empty, like a movie prop.
There was nothing useful here, information-wise, so he decided to exit through the rear entrance and see what planet he stepped onto next. Halfway along the bar, he stopped.
Something was emanating from behind one of the doors of the three adjacent rooms reserved for private parties. There was a strong sensation of music being played from behind the middle door. He didn’t actually hear any music, but sensed some sort of oscillating vibrations emitting a steady stream of binary rhythmic pulses from the hidden room. They weren’t really vibrations, but he could think of no better term to describe the feeling. He deliberately walked toward the door. He felt tiny puffs of warmth moving through his body in precise, measured waves. The feeling was not unpleasant. He warned himself not to assume he was going to walk in on a party, complete with a band and pretty girls. So far everything was inexplicably odd and wrong. It would be foolish to assume otherwise simply because of a compelling sense of something that could otherwise pass for normal.
As he reached the door, he paused, listening intently. There were no sounds of partying patrons or of a band. The warm inviting vibrations, however, continued. He took a deep breath and, prepared for anything and everything, placed his hand on the door and paused for just a moment before pushing through.
“No!” a piercing voice shrieked in his head. He staggered back two steps, suddenly disoriented. After this interminable period of total silence, the sound of a mind-rattling voice that overloaded his brain sent him reeling.
“Stop! For God’s sake, Aaron, don’t go in there!”
