“When did I say that...?”
“Just now. Mom wants you to come downstairs,” she said, crossing her little arms.
My mother topped the stairs, looked in my direction, and said, “Willow, can you please come downstairs?”
Wide-eyed, I looked at my mom then back to Libby, convinced I was now delusional.
“Mom, did you send Libby to tell me that?”
Slowly, she swayed her head no. I walked over to Libby, knelt down in front of her, and said, “Libby how did you know about the brush and Mom?”
“You told me to get your brush,” she said flustered. “I heard Mom ask you to come downstairs.”
Shock absorbed my mother, but it couldn’t compare to mine. It was like watching Libby take her first steps all over again. She’d found her gift, but I knew she didn’t understand it. She didn’t even realize what she was doing.
“Hey, I’m sorry. I just forgot. I’m pretty tired from our trip.”
Libby hugged me tightly and said, “I guess it’s okay that you’re acting weird…just don’t give me your cooties.”
My mother turned on her heels and went downstairs. Reluctantly I followed her.
Ashten and my father were sitting on the couches in the center of the room. Their quiet conversation halted when my dad saw the look on my mother’s face. “I think Libby has a gift, Jason,” Mom said when she got closer to him.
A surge of anxiety and denial came over Dad and Ashten.
“What is it?” Ashten asked dismayed.
Mom glanced at me. I guess she thought it would sound more believable coming from me.
Her reasoning made no sense, but I explained anyway. “She can see what’s coming, short term, at least. Just now, she brought me my brush just as I began to look for it, and she told me Mom wanted me before Mom came upstairs. She doesn’t know that she’s doing it.”
Dad glanced warily back at Ashten then forced a smile as he took in the concern in my mother’s expression.
“If it’s a genuine insight, it could grow stronger or leave her altogether if we provoke her to use it. Leave her be."
“Willow,” Mom said shifting the conversation. “I told your dad you had another nightmare.”
My stomach turned. “It was nothing,” I muttered, looking away.
Libby. Let’s talk about Libby, not Willow’s slow fall into insanity.
“Was it the same as the other nightmares?” Dad asked.
“No,” I admitted, swearing to myself that if I just told them what they wanted to hear I could get back to my space. “I was in a huge home, like a palace. Libby was there, and so was Drake. There was a large crowd that cheered as we stood side by side. It was just a product of the last few days. Nothing to worry about.”
Anxiety bloomed into the room.
“That’ll never happen. You’re going home to Chara, where you will always be safe,” Dad said as he sat forward.
His words were soothing enough to chill Mom out, but I could still feel the unrest coming from Ashten. He kept his eyes low, avoiding mine.
Mom shook off the conversation, then went to the kitchen and started unloading bags of food. Dad glanced at Ashten then leaned back.
Gathering all my nerve, “Can we talk for a second,” I asked.
“Ashten’s hear to help, do you need him to leave?”
I didn’t like the guilt trip I felt behind his words. As familiar as Ashten’s vibe seemed I didn’t know him, and I had a rather embarrassing enough topic on deck.
“Fine,” I said under my breath. I stared at my dad. “On the way home, if I see a door that’s bright or whatever, you gotta let me go in it. I’m looking for someone.”
“Willow, you’re only eighteen,” Dad said. “I think you’re just a little overwhelmed by what you’ve learned about Chara. You have your whole life ahead of you.”
“Dad, it shouldn’t matter how old I am. I can’t explain it. I just know I need him. His my best friend.”
“Who?”
I didn’t have a name. Only eighteen years of life with a soul that got me as we stood alone in our world.
“You haven’t even seen the string,” Dad said as I blushed with embarrassment and anger. “It’s not as easy as you think to see a beacon. It’s a powerful moment. Most build up to this for months—years, before they even look.”
I’ve been building up since my first breath! “He will tell me where to go. I dream of him—every night. Look, I can show you what he looks like,” I said, walking to the counter to get the sketch out of my tote.
Ashten and my dad followed me over and watched as I turned the pages. I smiled when I flipped to the page he was on then turned it so they could see. Shock hit Ashten, and he ran his fingers through his hair, turned away, and started pacing. “Ashten, calm down,” Dad said.
My mother circled the counter, took the sketch from me, and stared at it.
“Jason, I cannot do this,” Ashten said through his teeth. He walked briskly back to the couch, sat down, and leaned forward stiffly. “Do you have any idea how furious he’s going to be?”
My eyes raced back and forth between them, trying to understand what I’d triggered.
“This is just one part, Ashten,” Dad said.
“Part of what?” I asked, protectively taking my sketch back.
Ashten stood and walked over to me.
“I want you to understand where I’m coming from,” he said, trying to be polite.
Dad stepped defensively in front of me.
“Jason,” Ashten said, raising his hand to let my father know he meant no harm. “I’ve made mistakes,” he continued, looking at me. “I’ve overlooked a truth that lived before me, but my only intention was to protect my family.”
“Protect your family,” I repeated, then I realized why Ashten looked familiar to me—he had dark blue eyes, soft dimples, and was built just like the one in my dreams.
“He’s…he’s your son.” My chest rose and fell rapidly. This was real. He was real. “What are you protecting him from? Me?” I asked as my cheeks filled with heat. I was so incensed that I felt sick to my stomach.
“Not from you,” Ashten said.
Dad turned to face me. “Willow, I need you to calm down, you’ll faint if you don’t,” he said, trying to catch my eyes.
“Tell me his name,” I demanded, focusing on Ashten again.
“Landen…Landen Chambers,” he answered, looking away.
“Willow, sit down. We need to talk about this,” Dad said, reaching for my arm.
I stepped back, dodging his touch. I raised my hands and started to say something, but I was too angry—to confused. I took two steps back then walked to the door. I wanted to be alone. I opened and slammed it behind me as hard as I could.
No one dared follow me.
How? How was any of this real? How did I dream of my father’s best friend’s son for, like, my whole life? Why was all of this hidden from me only to explode in my face without warning?
The daylight was leaving, and the stars were above the light blue sky. There was a river that ran behind the cabin. I walked down to it in a stunned trance.
Once there, I followed its path until I reached a mound of large rocks. I climbed up on them and listened to the aggressive river that rushed by.
I replayed my last dreams, the one of the Blue Moon with Landen and Drake beneath it, and then the one where Perodine had told me I would have to choose. If that were all that I had to choose, then I’d made this bigger than it was. I couldn’t understand how that could be so important. Looking back at the cabin, I could see Libby sitting on a bed in the upstairs bedroom, coloring quietly. Her innocence touched my soul. She now had insight. I’d seen her vanish in my nightmare. I wanted to run from my life, but I had no choice now. Some way, somehow, I had to protect my little sister.
I felt a gentle pull in the air around me on me. An image was about to appear, a needed distraction. I stood slowly and stared into the darkness next to the r
iver.
I vibe in the air lost its sting of anxiety. A blanket of peace wrapped around a sense of urgency shifted around me.
I knew this vibe...
The night air in front of me began to move; it looked like a wave gently swaying with a current. A thin light began to emerge then Landen stepped through the wave. Adrenaline rushed through my body as my heart violently hammered in my chest. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I couldn’t comprehend a wish that moved through my mind daily had come true.
“Landen…”
In the darkness, I could see his haunting blue eyes widen, we were both soaked in the emotion of disbelief, along with the fear that this wasn’t real.
In that beat of my heart, he’d reached my side. His hands were trembling as they cradled my face. His thumbs grazed the flesh of my cheekbones. He was staring at me like I was a forbidden fruit—like I was every sin in the book, desire washed over that lasting look as he leaned in and let his lips frame mine.
When we fused our lips together, his hands fell from my face and slowly waved down my body, embracing me—proving to himself I was no longer a dream. I was doing the same to him. He was warm; he was on fire, I could hear his breaths hear the sound of our kiss.
He was real.
I was trembling with the need to be closer. I think Landen misunderstood my reaction; he slowed our kiss, as one arm went around me and the other cradled my face. His thumb reached to my lips just as his kiss ended.
“I found you,” he said with the lips of an angel. His voice was deep and entrancing, those three simple words sounding like poetry as he spoke them.
His eyes danced over my image. “I’ve loved you...every day,” he said as he leaned his forehead to mine.
I’d always felt this emotion coming from him, this sincere claim, connection, and bond, but hearing the words...it was crazy fast and overdue at once.
He pulled me to his chest, caging me in his arms.
I didn’t care what the hell was hunting me anymore. It didn’t matter because I knew this boy would stand at my side and help me fight all my demons. He was strength. He was liberation. He was mine.
He slowly turned to look at the cabin, then down at me. He raised my chin so I would have to look at him.
“Willow?” he said with a disbelieving gaze.
I nodded shyly.
Anger came over him as he looked back at the cabin.
“What’s wrong?”
“You were here the whole time, and he kept me from here,” Landen raged under his breath. “How did you come to me before?” he asked as confusion came over him.
“What do you mean? I dreamt, just like I always do.”
His haunting blue gaze filled with awe. “I wasn’t asleep…I thought it was real.”
“How is that possible?” I whispered breathlessly.
“I don’t know. I’ve never known anyone who has dreamed of the same place and person so vividly, every night,” he said, searching my eyes for answers I didn’t have.
“Neither have I,” I said, trying to catch my breath.
“You’ve always been real to me,” he swore.
“It was all real, dream to dream, soul to soul,” I said to myself.
Landen glanced at the cabin, then down at me. He tucked a loose lock of my hair behind my ear. “I’ve been following my beacon for the last few days, but it kept moving.”
“We were traveling here to meet your father.”
“What happened?” he asked.
“There’s this guy, Drake, who wants me to come to his dimension with him.”
“Drake Blakeshire?” Landen asked, fury immediately overtaking him.
The astonished glint in my stare gave him his answer. How did he know him? Why did I feel an insane amount of emotions swelling within him? How much danger was I in? The sharp spikes of anger and grief in Landen’s emotion gave me my answer: a lot.
He put his arm around me and started to walk in the direction of the wave from which he’d come. I looked over my shoulder to the cabin, where I could still see Libby. I wasn’t going to leave her here.
“Wait, Libby, my sister. I can’t leave her,” I said, stopping in my tracks.
Landen followed my eyes to the window where she was sitting. His anger faded, compassion took its place.
“Let’s get her; then we’ll go.” There was no room for compromise in the tone he used.
“Our parents won’t let us take her without them,” I warned.
He reached to caress my face once more, a shy smile emerged, “I finally found the missing part of me. My father is not going to make decisions for me anymore.” The love he felt for me swelled inside him. “I should’ve listened to my soul,” he said. “I’m sorry.”
“For?”
“They held me back, and I let them.”
I let out an uneasy breath. “They held you back, and I stayed silent. I never told my parents about you. Maybe if I had, I would’ve found you before now. I just…I just didn’t want anyone to think I was going mad.”
His spellbinding eyes glanced over me. “You had the best intentions, Willow. Deep down I did, too. But that doesn’t make me any less furious with my father at this point,” he reached for my hand and began to lead me toward our parents.
I focused on the emotions coming from the cabin. They were of regret, sorrow, and anticipation.
“Being angry didn’t get me very far,” I said. “I don’t want to fight with my parents or yours. I want to understand why I’m the way I am. I need them safe.”
He squeezed my hand. “I’ll bring our family home.”
My head was spinning. Too fast, the reasonable chick inside me said. The rest of me couldn’t agree. The only thing different between right now and every single day Landen and I had spent together is words. Sound.
He was bigger than life now. I was acutely aware of him. I didn’t sense his emotions. I knew them.
Too fast, too slow, either way, life was exploding around me. I had no choice but to make the most of every moment.
Chapter Five
I don't believe in astrology; I'm a Sagittarius and we're skeptical. ARTHUR C. CLARKE
When we stepped into the cabin hand and hand, Ashten was pacing the living room floor. My parents were leaning against the bar that separated the kitchen and the living room. My mother gasped when her eyes met mine; then they moved to Landen’s.
She rushed to us and embraced us both. Landen shyly hugged her back, refusing to lose his hold on me. Standing behind my mother, my father reached his hand out to shake Landen’s hand. His relief to see Landen at my side was more than obvious in his eyes; it was as if his watch over me had ended.
“I’m proud to meet you, son. Your father is an honorable man, and I’m sure that you are as well.”
Ashten had stopped pacing and was staring at Landen with a deep sense of pride and sorrow emanating from him. He looked in his son’s eyes and mouthed the words, “I’m sorry.”
Landen had no response. His respect for his father outweigh his anger, but under it all, Landen was hurt.
“I found her. That’s all that matters,” Landen said. “We need to leave now.”
Ashten cautiously stepped forward. “Son, we have to take them all. Libby may have been the only one in the dream, but you know just as well as I do that he’ll stop at nothing to get what he wants.”
“What is he talking about? What dream?” I heard Landen say.
“I had a nightmare. Drake was there…Libby disappeared.”
As he pulled me closer as he glanced down to me in shock then back to his father. I felt Landen’s sense of urgency grow; he realized why I wanted Libby to go with me. “I’ll lead them both.”
Ashten looked at my father; both of their expressions matched the confusion coming from them.
“Landen,” Dad said, “were you just speaking to Willow?”
Landen’s chin ticked up just so to answer.
“Did she answer you?”
“
Um, yeah. Dad, what’s wrong with you guys?”
“Are they always like this?” I heard Landen say.
My mother seemed to have figured out what was going on. Meanwhile, I was lost, embarrassed, and confused.
“Landen, Willow, you’re not using words,” Dad said almost like he was expecting this revelation.
My heart pounded in my ears. I couldn’t comprehend what they were saying. Landen’s emotions were swarming out of control, too.
There was no way this was possible. I couldn’t read minds! I didn’t want anyone to be able to read mine. I turned crimson as I tried to remember if I had thought anything embarrassing.
I listened carefully to see if I could hear Landen’s thoughts, but I heard nothing. I closed my eyes. “Landen, can you hear me?”
“Yeah.”
I looked up at him.
“Do you hear everything, or can you only hear me when I’m talking to you?”
“I guess when you’re talking to me,” he thought. His eyes raced over my face, the connection between us took the edge off the rightful shock I needed to have.
“Do you think this is bad? I mean, is this common in Chara?”
His profound stare screamed no loud and clear.
“What is this, Dad? How are we doing it?” I asked, stumbling over my words.
“Have a seat. Lets talk this through,” Dad said.
On guard, we followed Dad to the kitchen table. Landen and I sat side by side. He held my hand under the table, his piercing blue eyes judging his father’s every move.
Dad glanced at my mother, trying to size up her take on what she was seeing, then he nodded in Ashten’s direction for him to begin. Ashten sighed as he gathered his words, first looking at Landen, then settling his eyes on me.
“The creators of our world, the woman Aliyanna and the man Guardian could speak without words, and they shared each other’s dreams,” Ashten said.
Landen swayed his head in denial. He knew this story. His disbelief told me so.
Ashten went on. “They were both born in Esterious. The priests in Esterious tried to gain control of the power between them. They needed to divide them. The priest pushed a force of energy at Aliyanna and Guardian. The strength of vim used against them forced them into the string, and once there they found their way to a different dimension: Chara. When their children grew up, Aliyanna and Guardian taught them the paths in the string so they could find their soul mate. Couple by couple, our world was born. Now everyone has to leave to find the one that they’re intended to be with.”