Insight (19 page)

“I made these, so if they are too big, I can take them in for you.”

“You made these?” I asked.

She smiled. “I love to make clothes. I will stop back by before the party and make sure they fit you well.”

I stood, staring at them in admiration. I wasn’t even sure I knew how to thread a needle.

“I’m sure Landen will be up soon. I’ll see you when the sun goes down.”

I found the way she kept time very comforting. I hugged her goodbye and watched her leave.

When I walked back in the house, I found Landen standing at the bottom of the stairs. I could tell he had been up for awhile; his hair was wet from where he had showered, and he was dressed for the day, all in black again. I shyly smiled at him. I couldn’t believe this was real. I was home.

Then the distance between us seemed too far, so I let the dresses fall and ran into his arms. He laughed out loud at my unconventional enthusiasm.

“Why didn’t you wake me?” he asked against my neck before he kissed the tender skin there.

“You looked too peaceful.”

I looked at his arm to make sure he’d dressed his wound again. My eyes widened as I stared at his unbroken skin. I reached out with my hand and ran it across his arm.

“How?”
I thought.

“I don’t know. It was healed when I woke up, and my shoulder is healed as well,” Landen said, pulling his shirt up to show me.

It was like it had never happened, but both of his burns had been severe enough to cause scarring. I kissed his shoulder softly before I lowered his shirt. He then turned to look at me, and I felt the utter devotion coming from him.

“You healed me,” he whispered as he put his hands around my waist, staring into my eyes.

I thought through yesterday and the pain that I’d endured. I wasn’t sore anymore. It was as if it had only been a bad dream.

“You took my pain away, too,” I whispered.

He leaned down and carefully framed his lips around mine. My heart let out a quick beat as my soul pulsed. I was going to have to learn self-control around him. I could not get over how one glance from him evoked so many emotions in my soul.

I pulled him closer and laid my head on his chest, hearing his heart racing, too.

“I see you met Felicity. She wanted you to wake up just as badly as I did last night. I was surprised that Brady got her to go home,” he said in an amused tone as his hands slowly glided down my back.

I let my arms fall from around him, then picked up the dresses I’d let fall to the floor and draped them across the banister.

“She brought some food. Are you hungry?”

Landen eyes brightened up. I smiled and pulled him to the kitchen. I had watched Felicity closely, so I knew were all the dishes were. As I set the plate before him, I looked at him. He was smiling at me in absolute disbelief.

“What?” I asked, blushing.

“Nothing.”

“Tell me.”

“You just look…you look like you belong here. I just can’t believe it—that you’re here,” he answered shyly.

I let Landen finish his breakfast before I started asking the questions that had haunted me all morning. I needed to know, and my stomach turned while I waited for the answers. Once he was finished, I cleared the dishes away and followed him outside through the back door, onto the wide porch.

Large white windmills were scattered across the fields. I could see the wind turning them. It was so nice out. The breeze made it seem worth it to linger on the porch. Sitting next to Landen on one of the long benches that lined the house, I could feel the dread coming from him. He knew what I was going to ask him.

“Landen, are you going to tell me?”

He lowered his eyes. I could see he was wishing his way out of it, hoping that I’d be able to let it go, but he had to know that I could still see Sharon…how upset she was. My conscience wouldn’t allow me to let it go.

I reached for his hand. “Landen, tell me…is it really that bad? What did he do?”

Landen adjusted himself in his seat then looked out past the fields and back at me, replaying the day in his mind. I could feel the anger and remorse as well as the same pain that I had rush through him.

“When we got into the string, we split up. Your father and Marc went back to Franklin so they’d know whom he’d taken. Livingston and my father went with me to find Drake.”

Landen stood and started to walk back and forth in front of me. I could feel his rage.

“When we finally found him, he’d almost made it back to Esterouis. I was so livid. I wanted to throw him off the nearest cliff. He kept taunting me, wanting me to follow him into his world.”

I walked to where Landen was pacing to calm him down. He was so furious, you’d have thought Drake was standing there at that very moment.

“Livingston told me that if I did, I’d never see you again. Drake then hit Livingston, and I pulled them apart and threw Drake through his passage.”

“Did you find the others?” I asked.

As Landen’s remorse grew, my stomach turned. It was bad. I could feel it through him.

“Marc and your dad had gone to a passage that Livingston told them to search…they …they…found what was left of a boat.”

“What do you mean, ‘left?”’ I asked. I could barely hear him over my heartbeat.

“It was wrecked. There were survivors…two.”

“Two? Where are the rest? Does he have them?” I said, covering my mouth in disbelief. The pain in Landen’s eyes was ripping me apart.

“The two guys, Josh and Chase, saw Drake take three girls, Hannah, Jessica and…Olivia,” Landen said as his eyes judged every inch of my body, looking for an emotional break.

My eyes raced back and forth, trying to process and count the names that he’d said, and I suddenly realized he didn’t say Monica’s name. She was there—it was her idea—why didn’t he say her name?

“Monica?” I asked hoarsely, looking up at Landen.

Tears were pooling in a film over my eyes. Landen looked down at the ground, then back up at me through his dark lashes. I could feel his remorse, and I knew she was gone.

“Josh and Chase said they couldn’t reach her before she…drowned,” he said slowly.

Feeling like I was going to be physically sick, I walked to the side of the porch, trying to hide my failing composure from Landen. I couldn’t breathe. Monica’s face was rolling through my memory. Landen came to my side and caressed my back, grieving with me. Days ago, I’d told him who she was and that I’d spent my childhood at her side. “Where are the others?” I said in an angry whisper.

“With Drake.”

“How…how are we going to get them back? Why is he doing this to us? What do we not know?” I asked, looking down and wanting to escape from the pain.

Landen didn’t answer my questions. I turned to look at him when I felt his anger building, and I knew his resentment was aimed at our family. Suddenly, it felt like he and I were all alone, no matter what dimension we were in.

“Was Dad in Franklin when our house was burning? Did he see it happen?”

Landen looked down at me, reached his hand to my face, and, bracing himself for my response, searched for how to answer me. “We burned the house,” he said finally.

I stepped back quickly and stared at him in disbelief, causing him to lose his touch. That hurt him, but I was so angry. I remembered the look on my mother’s face when Sharon had called her, how grief had filled her.

“What? Why?” I raged.

“We couldn’t leave anything of yours for Drake to have,” he said as he pulled me back to him, giving me no other choice but to look into his piercing blue eyes.

“Why does it matter? It’s just stuff. It’s not me. That house meant the world to my mother.”

Landen pulled my face closer to his, trying to make me understand. I could see the urgency in his expression. He needed me to listen to him.

“There are a lot of things that cannot be explained, in any dimension. Esterious is known for the dark things that people believe. They use spells and magic to control the world around them. Livingston and our fathers believed that the priest would be able to use your family’s belongings to hurt you,” he explained in an almost painful tone. He didn’t want me anywhere near any of this.

“I don’t understand,” I said, almost to myself.

“The answers will come when they’re supposed to. I’m sure of it.”

I could feel how unsure he was and how he was attempting to hide that from me.

“Can we bring my friends home before Drake decides to hurt them?” Landen nodded as he pulled me to him and rested his chin on my head. “How?” I asked.

“They’ll call you. You’re connected to them.”

“What if they’re under some spell or something? Can we not just go get them? They may not even know they’re in danger?” I squinted my eyes closed not believing I said those words, days ago I was sketching in my backyard without a
real
fear, and now this madness. Now Monica is gone. I would completely lose my mind if something happened to Olivia. Besides Dane, she was my closest friend. Someone I never saw my life without. I should have stuffed her in my suitcase. I should have told my father that was my only demand. He could have easily convinced her aunt to let her come. I know he could have. Olivia had spent more time at our house than theirs.

“I sent travelers out last night to find my grandfather, August, who will help us. I don’t want anyone else to get hurt. If we charge in there, it would be dangerous not only for your friends, but for us as well.”

“What if they call me? What then?”

“Then we go together. I don’t think we can survive long without one another.”

I leaned back and looked at him intently, understanding completely what he meant. I had thought I was acting foolish, like a lovesick little girl.

“Did it hurt your body, too?” I asked.

“It was almost more than I could bear. I felt pain everywhere. That’s why I listened to Livingston and my dad. I didn’t think that I could make a clear decision in the state I was in.”

I knew what he meant. I’d never felt the way that I did yesterday. The pain was real and could be felt in every single muscle of my body.

My head was spinning. I let go of Landen and walked back to the bench on the porch. He came to my side and wrapped his arm around me. I laid my head on his shoulder and let yesterday play through my mind.

Landen’s emotions were shifting from moment to moment. I felt them finally settle on jealousy. I knew what he was about to ask me, and I braced myself for the emotion that he would feel.

“Are you going to tell me what he meant about the nights together?” His voice was low and calm.

I stayed very still and quietly answered him. “He meant the nightmares.”

Landen shifted his shoulder to face me with anxious eyes. “He was in more than that one?” he asked, knowing the answer. I let my eyes tell him yes. “Is he the reason you’d be so upset all those nights?”

He knew the answer to that question, too. He stood quickly and paced the porch. The anger inside him reached the point of wrath. All at once, he stopped and knelt before me. “Tell me what happens, when they happen,” Landen said in a desperate tone.

“There’s a heavy, painful weight on my chest. My gift of emotion is taken from me. I can only feel one person, a person who’s afraid. In my nightmares, I can change emotion, and I help that person feel at peace. Then they disappear, and Drake shows up and reaches for me. I just never saw his face before last week.”

Landen placed his hand in the center of my chest, as if he wanted to take away all the times that I’d suffered under the overpowering weight. I placed my hand on his, and his eyes met mine.

“I’ve had a nightmare every new moon of my life until last November, and the last two nightmares don’t fit any pattern. I don’t understand why they’re different.”

Landen lowered his hand and looked down. “Do they see you, or are they like the images?” he asked quietly. I could feel his fear laced with rage. He was aiming to destroy Drake.

“Like the images,” I said under my breath as my soul told me there was more to this. That maybe just maybe, Drake had the wrong girl, that all of this was a misunderstanding. I guess that thought was there because the dreams with Landen seemed so natural, and with Drake they seemed forced, like someone else was causing them to happen. Men in black cloaks maybe? Like the ones I saw carry Perodine away in that dream.

He turned from me and leaned up against my legs.

“Does that mean something? Is that why you’re scared?” I asked, a bit timidly.

“If we met in the same place every night, I’d think that you met Drake in Esterious in your nightmares. The thought of you there alone takes my breath away.”

“Did we always meet in Chara?” I asked.

Landen turned and looked into my eyes again, and shook his head no. “I have no idea where we’re meeting. I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said with a degree of respect. He then pulled himself up on the bench beside me and held me tight.

“Landen, was Drake ever in your nightmares?” I asked.