“Landen, are you going to tell me?”
He lowered his eyes.
I reached for his hand. “Landen, tell me …is it 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.
“When we got into the string, we split up. Your father and Marc went back to Franklin so they’d know who he’d taken. Livingston and my dad went with me to find Drake.”
Landen stood and started to walk back and forth in front of me; rage was threatening to flood his emotion.
“When we finally found him, he’d almost made it back to Esterious. I was livid. I wanted to throw him off the nearest cliff. He kept taunting me, wanting me to follow him into his world.”
He was so furious you’d have thought Drake was standing there at that very moment. I stood and moved in front of him to silently remind him we were here, not trapped in yesterday.
“Livingston told me that if I followed Drake.” He glanced down at me, then reached to trace the bottom of my eye. A few seconds later he said. “I just wanted to talk to him. Get some things straight. I was determined to do so, but then Drake hit Livingston. He wailed on him. I pulled them apart and threw Drake through his passage.”
He lifted his chin. “I would’ve gone after Drake but...I wasn’t thinking right.” He glanced down at me. “It was getting harder for me to fight the pain. A place like Esterious, it sucks the life out of you on a good day.”
I was glad didn’t go but I wasn’t going to strike his ego and tell him if he felt anything like I did yesterday, he would’ve lost a fight with Drake.
“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 wreckage.”
“What do you mean?”’ I asked. I could barely hear him over my heartbeat.
“The boat wrecked. There were survivors…two.”
“Two? Where are the rest? Does Drake 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?”
Tears were pooling in my eyes. Landen looked down at the ground, then back up at me through his dark lashes. His remorse told me 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. “Where are the others?” I said in an angry whisper.
“With Drake.”
“How…how are we going to get them back?” I needed action. I needed revenge.
Landen didn’t answer me; his stare begged me to give him time to work it out. “I gotta to protect you, first. Priests in Esterious are known for their dark magic.”
“How can you stop something like that?”
“Erasing you from your world was step one.”
I grimaced. “Was Dad in Franklin when our house was burning? Did he see it happen?”
“We burned the house...your room, at least. I don’t know how far it spread.”
“What? Why?” I raged.
Regret touched his eyes. “To end any lead Drake could use to reach you with dark magic."
“That house meant the world to my mother!”
Landen moved closer to me, trying to make me understand. “And she’d give anything to make sure you were safe.”
I wrestled with blame and grief before I spoke again. “Can we bring my friends home before Drake decides to hurt them?” He nodded as he pulled. “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 get them? They might not even know they’re in danger? Your sister said that.”
“She’s not wrong,” Landen agreed. “What I’m saying is he took them to lure you. He won't hurt them, not until their purpose is met." His stare shifted over me. "We need to be ready to fight him and save them at once. We have to plan. We can't act on emotion; Drake is counting on that."
I wasn’t okay with this wait and see plan.
“I sent travelers out last night to find my grandfather, August. If there is another way, he’ll know what to do.”
“What if they call me, like now? What then?”
“Then we go together. I don’t think we can survive long without one another.”
“I told your mom, your family it hurt when we were apart. They thought I was crazy. I shouldn't have said anything. I wasn’t digging the look in their eye.”
Landen clenched his jaw, “Your dad would’ve told them anyway. He said we were hurt on the inside. Inflamed from so much pain.” Landen glanced to the fields then back. “Don’t let them scare you with the way they look at us. It's superstation. They want to see something, so they do.”
“You’re worried,” I said quietly.
“No, not yet. Not til’ I have a reason to believe. Even then...we can’t help what we were born to do. Being terrified of it makes it real—it means glory is hiding and we only have to earn it.”
I wasn’t signing up to run through any hell. Not until I survived this Blue Moon. Before then, I had a mess to clean up. Friends to save. I kept them in a loop in my mind. Dad told me when I was a kid that what I thought about was a magnet. To think about what I wanted to come to me. I was still working on it. It was easier to think about what I wanted to stay away.
I’d give anything a shot right about now.
My head was spinning. I 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. 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 massive, painful weight on my chest. I can only feel one person, a person who’s afraid. In my nightmares, I can change emotion, and help that person feel at peace. Then they disappear, and Drake shows up and reaches for me, a bright light takes me away.”
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’ve had a nightmare every new moon of my life until last November, and the last two dreams 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.
He turned from me and leaned up against my legs.
&nb
sp; “Does that mean something?” I asked.
“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 there...”
“Did we always meet in Chara?” I asked.
Landen turned and looked into my eyes, then swayed his head. “I have no idea where we’re meeting. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Was Drake ever in your nightmares?” I asked.
“I’ve only dreamed of you.”
“Who’s Perodine?” I blurted out faster than I intended.
Landen’s confusion was twice as thick as Brady’ when I asked him.
“Who told you about her?”
“No one. I dreamed of her.”
“You dreamed of Perodine?” He was angry and alarmed all at once.
“Is that bad?”
“It can’t be good,” he said moving the bench beside me. “Perodine older than time itself. She’s the queen. If you look at paintings from hundreds of years ago—millions of years, you’d see her portrait. They say she lives on and on, never dying, and that she’s the source of all the good and evil magic that the dimension uses.”
I closed my eyes, exhausted from the constant twists that life kept throwing at me.
“What did she say to you?”
“Nothing that made any sense,” I said, frustrated with the added conflict of Perodine.
“Listen,” he said. “Keep this to us. When August gets here, we’ll tell him. He’ll be honest with us.”
“Are the others not being honest?”
“Your Dad is walking this way,” he said leaving my question hanging there.
I glanced the field, but I didn’t see him. Landen ticked his head toward the front door. “He’s coming to see how we’re feeling after yesterday.
Chapter Ten
“A soulmate is someone to whom we feel profoundly connected, as though the communicating and communing that take place between us were not the product of intentional efforts, but rather a divine grace.” – Thomas Moore
When I followed Landen inside, I did sense my dad approaching. Landen reached for the door just as my father knocked. Landen then pulled the door wide open, and my dad was standing there with a bright smile on his face.
“Morning, Jason,” Landen said, extending his arm as an invitation.
“I was just coming to see how the two of you were fee-” my father stopped in mid-sentence. He was staring at Landen’s arm, then his eyes quickly looked over Landen’s entire body, then over mine.
“Come in, Jason,” Landen said again.
Landen led my father into the living room, which was beside the front door. My dad quickly looked us over again while reaching for Landen’s arm and inspecting it closer.
“How did you heal so fast?” Dad asked.
“I don’t know. It was gone this morning,” Landen took a seat on the large tan couch in the center of the room.
My father walked over to one of the matching chairs that faced the couch and sat down, still completely astonished. “Both of you are healed. Last night I could see damage, painful—slow healing damage. I’ve been up all night trying to figure out how it was possible.”
“Have you seen my dad and Livingston today?” Landen asked, trying to change the subject.
“Livingston went to Esterious to see if he could find a way to the girls, and Ashten is helping Aubrey get ready for tonight.”
“Is Mom okay?” I asked.
“She’s fine. Trying to stay busy and positive. She’s worried about your friends.” Dad gave me the same gravity filled stare he always did when he needs me to pull my shoulders back and weather through something. “It was an accident. Josh and Chase said that a storm came quick. Olivia and Monica were knocked out of the boat. They said that Olivia would’ve drowned if Drake hadn’t pulled her out of the water.”
“What are you going to tell Sharon?” I asked.
“Sharon knows there was an accident. The Coast Guard told her that Monica was on a boat with Chase and Josh and that they couldn’t find her. Right now, she wants to believe that Monica is just missing. She’ll say goodbye when she’s ready.”
“Where do they think Olivia, Hannah, and Jessica are?”
“They don’t know. I altered a manifest for a cruise ship that showed the three of them docking in the Florida Keys. It was all I could think to do at that moment. That’ll buy us some time to get them home safely, though”
“I thought you said Chase and Josh saw Drake take the girls. Wouldn’t they have told everyone? Did they see the string?”
“There is an herb that grows in Chara. It erases recent memory. I gave them the herb to help them with their misery. Both of them blamed themselves for not reaching Monica.” I could feel grief from my dad. “Now, the last memory they have is of arriving in Florida. The doctors will assume that their memory loss is due to shock.”
“We have to go and get them,” I said, standing.
“Willow,” Landen said. “They aren’t in danger now.”
“Landen’s right,” Dad said. “Drake wants you, and he knows that if he hurts them, you’ll never come to him.”
“Why does he want me?” I demanded.
The color left my dad’s face. He glanced to Landen, then to me. He stood. “I’m hoping that one of the girls will appear as an image to you,” he said deciding he didn’t have an answer he wanted to give me about Drake.
“Now he's silent,” I thought.
“Will you show Brady and Marc how you travel? If they appear as an image, it would be good to have them on our side,” Landen thought.
“I’ll show whoever you want me to. I just want them back,” I thought, still staring at my father as feelings of betrayal welled inside me.
“We’re going to teach Brady and the others how Willow travels so that when the time comes, we’ll be able to get them all back safely,” Landen said to my father.
My dad turned, “That’s a good idea, but do you think it’s safe for the two of you to leave Chara?”
“We’ll stay close,” Landen promised.
“Just make sure the two of you stay close to each other…I still don’t understand what happened to your bodies yesterday.”
Landen nodded. My father then looked at me, leaned down and kissed my cheek. “Be safe. I’ll see you tonight,” he said as he turned to leave.
I sat patiently on the couch as Landen called his brother and Marc to come over, but my stomach was tied in knots. I needed a pause button. Something to slow my life down, there was too much right and wrong side by side. Too much supernatural.
While we waited on the front porch for everyone to arrive, I stared out into the field, taking in the pure beauty of Chara.
Brady was the first one to make it to the house. He stepped out of a large white Jeep that had gray glass panels running across the hood and doors. I noticed he was dressed almost entirely in black. As he walked toward us, I couldn’t help but ask.
“What is it with all the black? Do I need to change?” I asked, looking down at my white shorts and purple top.
Landen smiled at my new observation. “No, I’ll keep you close. It’s just easier to see each other in the string if you wear black. If you get more than ten feet apart, you seem to fade.”
Brady and Landen were now standing side by side, and their resemblance to one another was more than apparent. It wouldn’t be difficult for a stranger to mistake one for the other.
“How’s your—” Brady started to say as he looked at Landen’s arm.
“I don’t know,” Landen answered before Brady could ask.
Brady dropped the subject. The respect in the vibe between them told me these two had a tight bond. No explanation was needed. They’d been through too much, seen too much, not to know how to ride the wave of unknown.
Another Jeep pulled up. It was dark gray. I could see the same panels that were on Brady’s Jeep. I studied the panels on both vehicles, trying to
understand how they were powering the Jeeps. Landen grinned as he watched my eyes take in all the details.
“I keep forgetting that this is all new to you. It’s like you’ve always been here with me.”
I grinned. “I have been. I just never paid much attention to the scenery around us.”
“You two are talking, aren’t you?” asked Brady. “Now that’s weird. I don’t know if I’d want Felicity in my head…I mean she is the one, but this is just-just something else.”
Landen smirked. “It's awesome.”
There were two people in the Jeep. I recognized Marc; he was the one driving. The other guy was tall and had a lean build like the others, but with a baby face. His hair was a dirty blond and very curly, and he had a playful emotion wrapped in anticipation. “That’s Chrispin. He’s Marc’s baby brother,” Landen answered my question before I could even ask it.
“I have to say you two look a lot better today. You had me worried, little one,” Marc said to me as he reached the porch and hugged me.
“Can I see your arm?” Chrispin asked as he got closer.
Landen looked at Marc, then down to his arm. I felt the shock come from Marc, but Landen just shrugged his shoulders. Marc then looked back at Chrispin and shook his head, letting him know to drop the subject. I felt the confusion coming from Chrispin as he looked nervously back and forth between Landen and me.
I followed Landen’s lead, and we walked off the porch to the fields that surrounded the house. Along the way, we passed a giant windmill about a mile away from our house. “We’re going to take a shortcut to another dimension, Olence. It has towns like yours.”
“I’m worried my insight won’t work outside of Infante,” I thought.
“I know it will. When we were in the string yesterday, I could see your paths everywhere. You’ve gone further than your father thought.”
“Did that upset him?”
“I don’t think he saw them. They’re only clear to you and me.” I looked at him with an astonished expression on my face. “I know, weird.”
Just before we reached the windmill, I could see the string come into view. Brady stepped in first, but Landen held me back; he was waiting for something. Brady then reached his arm out and waved us in. The string was calm. The hum was a little murmur, and you could barely feel the current.