Read an extract from Love and Gravity by Samantha Sotto Yambao
Discover the enchanting speculative romance novel where love defies science and time, from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Water Moon.
Andrea pressed the cello’s strings. Heat flared in her fingertips. She gritted her teeth, shut her eyes, and played on. Light glowed behind her eyelids. She kept them closed. Flashing cellphone screens had disappointed her before. The light grew brighter. “Please be there,” she whispered, parting her lids halfway,
A crack, no bigger than her backpack, broke through her wall. The glowing hole opened into a large room filled with rows of tall bookshelves. A lean, dark-haired man stood with his back to her, returning a book to a shelf. His broad shoulders tensed through his coarse black coat. He spun around. His hazel eyes darted over her face.
Andrea? he said without making a sound.
Andrea recognized the shape of her name on the young man’s lips. She nodded, wondering if she looked as different to him as he did to her. The three years that had passed since she’d last seen him on Carnegie Hall’s stage had polished his features into an assembly of handsome angles and lines that was difficult to tear her eyes from. “Isaac?” she asked, daring for the first time to say his name out loud. Its syllables tickled her tongue, effervescent and sweet like ginger ale.
His eyes widened. He strode toward the wall and waved, inviting her to come closer. Come, he said silently. Please.
Andrea glanced at her cello. She was less than three feet away from Isaac and answers, but her instrument kept her pinned to her seat. She pushed it away and lunged toward the crack, unsure how long it would remain open after the music stopped. Isaac thrust his hand through the shrinking hole. She sucked in a breath and pressed her palm against his.
A wave of warmth spread through Andrea’s fingers. History told her that she was standing in front of one of mankind’s greatest minds, but all she could see was the boy whom she had shared a secret with for more than half of her life. His long fingers closed around hers. Pieces of plaster appeared between their palms. She gripped his hand, digging her nails into him. A thick book materialized and pried their hands apart. The rest of the wall reappeared, sealing the crack.
Andrea staggered from the wall and knocked the audio recorder from her desk. Its tiny red light flashed from the carpet. She scooped up the recorder, her hand tingling from the heat of Isaac’s palm. She pressed the play button and waited for the song she had recorded to call the dark, beautiful, and magical creature behind her wall back.