Felicity nodded and started breathing short breaths. I put my hand on her stomach and shoulder. She screamed out, then started to count along with my father. When it was over, she smiled a little.
“Not so bad...I can do this,” she said to herself.
The advantage of having a doctor that could see everything going on inside your body and understand it without even touching you continued to be virtue for all of us.
“I think we should go back to your house now – unless you were intending to deliver in the string. You have one hour left,” my father said. Felicity nodded, and we started to walk to the opening.
“Wait – here’s another,” my father said aloud. We all played our parts and counted with Felicity. When it was over, Brady leaned down, picked Felicity up, then carried her through the string. Landen and I walked alongside them, never losing touch of Felicity. Outside the string, most of our family was waiting. Ashten was doing his best to keep Aubrey calm, and Rose and Karsten were playing with Preston and Libby in the field of flowers. My mother and August were waiting as well. My father took the driver’s seat of Brady’s jeep, and we all climbed in the back with Felicity. Their house was only three small hills from this opening.
As we passed by our house, I smiled at Landen. We had spent such a small amount of time here that I missed it deeply. I remembered visiting it through dreams before I ever even knew Landen; it was my safe haven.
Clarissa and Dane were waiting on Brady and Felicity’s porch. I was sure that Chrispin and Olivia were close; I was even surer that the four of them had been spending a lot of time traveling back and forth between Franklin, giving Olivia and Dane’s family a chance to ease into the separation. I knew that Chrispin was keeping a close watch on my friends. He wanted nothing more than to say his peace to Drake.
As Felicity was carried to her room, Aubrey made her way into the room with us. Ashten and the others waited outside with discretion. Landen had positioned himself so that his body would face Felicity, making room for Brady to be by her side. It was not hard to continue giving Felicity the love and peace she needed; we could feel it coming from the ones we loved.
My father smiled at Brady, then at Felicity. “Alright, with this next contraction, I need you to push,” he said
She nodded, and three contractions later - at exactly four thirty two - we heard the first cry of the beautiful baby girl. I could feel her remarkable emotion as her eyes meet my father, then Felicity and Brady. The first emotion we feel when we enter this world is unconditional love; it’s strange to think how we lose that as we get older, only to search for it again.
“I guess your women’s intuition was right again,” I said to Felicity. She had told me before that she knew it was a girl. My father had offered to tell them, but they wanted to wait.
“So do we have a name?” Aubrey asked, edging closer to see her granddaughter.
Brady looked at Felicity; she nodded at him. He then smiled up at me, then down at his new daughter. “Her name is Aliyanna,” Brady said.
“Little Allie,” Felicity said, kissing the baby.
I felt my insides fall; that was the name I was told I’d carried in another life, the name of the woman who followed her heart and began Chara. I was touched. I reached down to say hello to my new niece, Allie.
A month ago, we had learned that the reason we never went home to face the evil priest so many years ago was that we had a child of our own. We hadn’t looked at my baby sister, Libby, the same way since then; we were almost sure that she somehow remembered that life with us.
Landen and I walked outside to take in the fresh air, giving Brady and Felicity their space. Landen saw Dane and Chrispin throwing a football back and forth in the field and went to join them. Clarissa and Olivia were sitting on the steps, lost in conversation. I made my way over to them.
“Where’s Libby and Preston?” I asked, sitting down next to Clarissa.
“Rose and Karsten took them to their house,” Clarissa answered, looking me over. “You look really good. Where have you guys been?”
“Everywhere... nowhere...we just needed some time,” I said, staring at Landen playing his game.
“Did you tell him about the photo?” Olivia asked, looking across at me.
My eyes widened; I had successfully forgotten about it. I slowly turned my head from side to side. “Did you guys tell anyone?” I asked, trying to push down my panic.
“No,” Clarissa said, smiling. “We were going to give you until today to come home, and then we were going to pull you out of whatever cave you were hiding in.”
I heard Olivia laugh. “Yeah, we thought for a minute that you had told Landen and he had taken you to the other side of the universe to hide you, but then Libby and Preston told us the two of you were just growing stronger,” she said.
“Was my mom mad?” I asked, feeling guilty.
I heard the footsteps and could feel my mother. “What would I ever be mad at?” I heard her say as she put her hands on my shoulders before sitting down next to me. I smiled and laid my head on her shoulder.
“I’ve never been away from you for so long. I’ve never left without saying goodbye,” I said quietly.
My mother put her hand around my shoulders. “I would have taken off long before you did. I know you know where your home is,” she said, smiling. I smiled back at her. I did feel at home here, at peace.
“So when are you guys going back to Franklin?” My mother asked, looking across to Olivia and Clarissa.
“Maybe tomorrow. We want to go exploring. To see Pairs, New York, to find some deserted beach,” Olivia said, her eyes smiling with anticipation. “You and Landen should come with us. We’ll have so much fun. We can pretend to be anybody for a day,” she finished.
“To be young again...” my mother said, almost to herself.
“I think we’re going to stay home for a little while. We want to spend time with Libby and Preston,” I said cautiously. I didn’t want any of them to worry about the planet Mercury.
“Well, I’m going to Aubrey’s to help her fix dinner. You and Landen come; I want to know everywhere you’ve been - and you owe me some paintings, little one,” my mother said, squeezing my shoulders before she stood. “You guys come, too,” she said to Olivia and Clarissa.
“That sounds fun, but we promised August and Nyla that we’d have dinner with them,” Clarissa said.
“Another time, perhaps. Thank you girls for bringing all that stuff home. I’ve never even seen some of those things. I suppose I should have gone in that attic more often,” my mother said. I looked down, avoiding eye contact.
“It’s no big deal, Grace. We enjoyed looking through all of it,” Clarissa said.
My mother nodded and walked away. Once she was out of earshot, I looked over at Olivia and Clarissa. “Did you guys find any other photos?”
They were silent. They knew it was foolish to lie to me, and they were not prepared to watch me panic. I let my head fall, fearing there had been at least one life with Drake in it.
“Willow, I told you before: that’s the past. This is now; let it go before it hurts you...we destroy everything we find,” Clarissa said, standing and stretching. Landen looked in my direction; he could feel me getting upset. I smiled at him.
“Well, we’ll call you later. You guys need to travel with us; we’ll have a lot of fun, I promise,” Olivia said, standing to follow Clarissa.
I nodded and leaned back on the step to watch them go, fighting the urge to get up and run away. I knew if I was ever going to help those people in Esterious, I’d have to stay here and face an unpredictable future.
Chapter Three
I was watching Preston and Libby coloring at the table. Aubrey and my mother were cooking in the kitchen, and Landen and I were in the living room with our fathers. They wanted a full run down of where we had been and what we had done.
Preston asked Aubrey if he could have some more milk, but she was so caught up in what she was doin
g, she didn’t hear him. I felt Preston’s intent to pour the milk himself, so I stood to get it for him, knowing he could not reach it. As I stepped closer to the kitchen, Preston leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes - and as he did, his soul left his body; it was exactly like what Landen and I did when we slept. My shock caught Landen’s attention, and he was now watching Preston, too. Ashten and my father followed our stare. From my father’s shocked emotion, I was sure he could see something. Ashten looked at Preston and said, “Looks like the little guy is tired.”
He couldn’t see Preston’s soul, but I watched as it walked over to Aubrey, then stepped inside of her. Aubrey’s body went to the refrigerator and pulled out the milk, walked over to the table and poured both Libby and Preston more milk, then turned to put it away. Once the milk was sat down in the refrigerator, Preston’s soul stepped out and ran back to his body. His eyes opened, then he and Libby giggled to themselves. Aubrey shook her head, questioning why she was standing in front of the refrigerator.
Speechless, my father and I stared - but Landen laughed out loud. Overlooking the fact that what Preston could do was amazing, I quickly walked over to him, pulled him from his seat, and put him in a chair facing the wall.
“That was not very nice. You sit here – all of you,” I whispered in his ear.
I then walked over to Libby and turned her chair to face the wall.
“Laughing at something naughty is not nice,” I whispered to her. They were sorry for what they did, which made me feel guilty. Landen was still laughing.
“Why are you encouraging him? Don’t laugh,” I thought.
“You know you want to know how he did it.”
“Well, yeah...but it’s kinda rude to jump into another person’s body - isn’t it?” I thought with a confused look on my face. Landen shrugged his shoulders and stood, trying to hide his approval from Preston and Libby.
Ashten and Aubrey were staring at me, trying to figure out why I was punishing the children. My father broke his trance. “Um...maybe we should go outside,” he said, looking at Ashten.
I nodded and said to the kids, “If you can be nice and patient, then you can color some more.”
They giggled at each other, then moved their chairs to the table and took a big drink of their milk before picking up their crayons.
Aubrey followed us outside, leaving my mother to finish cooking. As my father kept his eyes down, trying to process what he saw, Ashten was trying to read him. Landen was still grinning profusely, and his emotion drove me to laughter, too. It was just one of those proud parent moments - even though weren’t our children.
“What’s so funny?” asked Aubrey.
Ashten was looking at us for an explanation as well. Landen looked at me, then at his mom. “It looks like we aren’t the only ones that enjoy the ability of leaving our bodies,” he said, tilting his head to the window, where you could see Preston.
“What do you mean?” Ashten exclaimed.
No one was comfortable with what Landen and I could do, especially Ashten; he didn’t find this humorous at all.
“Did you feel Preston step inside you? Do you even remember pouring milk for them?” Landen asked his mom.
Aubrey’s awkward expression showed the shock she was feeling, and her eyes raced back and forth as she shook her head no.
“Jason, you saw something, too...how?” Ashten asked.
My father looked at me and Landen.
“I don’t think I saw what you saw. I couldn’t see him in-between; I just saw his soul leave, then appear within Aubrey’s,” my father explained.
Aubrey covered her mouth, and Ashten wrapped his arm around her, trying to calm her.
“How...I just don’t see how he could just take over...where was Aubrey?” I asked.
“She was still there - just not paying attention, so to speak,” my father answered.
“We couldn’t see him in there, but we saw him in-between,” Landen said.
“Can you two do that?” asked Ashten, looking at Landen.
Landen shook his head no. We had to be completely asleep, but it was like Preston could will it at any time. Just then, Preston came crashing through door, with Libby close behind him. They ran down the porch steps and toward Brady’s house.
“Where are you going?” yelled Aubrey in their direction.
“Marc is coming!” Preston shouted over his shoulder, running full force through the field. In the distance on the hilltop, you could see the outline of Marc in the perfect blanket of stars. When Preston reached his big brother, he was picked up and twirled trough the air. Aubrey smiled, shaking her head, then went back in to help my mother, forgetting what had happened.
Marc had made it a point to bring both Libby and Preston something home from the dimensions to which he’d traveled. Sometimes it would be something as simple as a rock, but the kids would relish it as if it were diamonds. Chrispin had tried to get close to Preston, but it seemed that Preston had formed an attachment to Marc from the moment he carried him home from Esterious. Each moment Marc was home, you were sure to see Preston at his side. Landen had said it was because Marc was so much like Livingston in the way he carried himself.
“Maybe we should...um...let’s just have dinner, and then...and then we’ll go to your house and talk about all of this,” Ashten said to Landen. “Did...um...August talk to the two of you about spending more time around here - them?”
Landen was staring at Marc; as he came closer, he ran his fingers through his hair and nodded. He was distracted by what we could feel coming from Marc; he was relieved and angry all at once. Landen thought, just like I did, that he had either heard that Drake was back or saw him with his own eyes. It felt like our vacation from destiny was coming to an end, and the change in our demeanor didn’t go unnoticed by our fathers. Ashten looked at me and asked, “Is there something wrong?”
“I don’t know yet,” I muttered, walking to Landen’s side.
I wanted to freeze time. The stress of facing Drake had nearly torn me and Landen apart last time - and I wasn’t about to let that happen again. Marc reached the porch, carrying Preston and holding Libby’s hand.
“That’s a beautiful baby girl – good name,” Marc said, smiling at us.
Landen nodded but didn’t smile.
Marc’s smile lessened as he sat Preston down.“You guys go get ready for dinner. It smells good,” he said to the kids. They both ran into the house, full of excitement. Marc cleared his throat. “Well, I guess I better say it so you’ll stop giving me that look,” he said to Landen, whose face held no emotion; he nodded once, telling Marc to go on. Ashten and my Dad stepped closer. I wrapped my arm around Landen’s waist, bracing myself for what Marc had to say.
“The girl I was helping today was drawn to Esterious, to the city of Delen.” Marc stepped up on the porch and walked over to the rail, pulling himself up on it. We all stepped closer, waiting for him to go on.“Today, when Donalt spoke, Drake was at his side – without a scratch on him,” he said in a bleak voice.
Ashten sighed deeply, then leaned against the rail next to Marc.
“Did you see Patrick?” my father asked.
Patrick was an ally of ours in Esterious. I had met him only once before; it was the first time I went to Esterious awake.
“Yeah, that was the passage I used. Today is the first day they’ve seen him. It was never acknowledged that he was even gone.”
I could feel Landen’s anger building; he was trying to hide it, but I knew him too well. I squeezed his arm, drawing his attention to me. He looked down at me - and I could see clouds in his perfect blue eyes.
My father cleared his throat. “Well, if he’s fine, then I’m sure Beth is, too.”
Marc was looking past us through the window at Preston. He loved him deeply. “I think I’m going to stay around here for a day or so. I feel like I’ve let Preston down by not being around,” he said.
Landen shook his head in disapproval, then stepped clos
er to Marc, forcing him to look him in the eye.“You need to clear your head – he’s happy. Trust me. You need to follow your feelings,” Landen said.
“We will help you,” I added.
Marc sighed, struggling with the words he wanted to say, looking back and forth between us. It was clear he wanted what we had, what everyone had.
“Listen...thank you...you may be right, but I don’t know. I’m just going to rest, then I’ll see if it’s time. When I go - I want to go alone,” he said, looking around at all of us.
“What? Why?” Landen protested
“It’s not going to be easy for me. I’ve pushed it down for so long, it’s going to take me a while to find it. I don’t think I’m capable of walking into a passage and knowing exactly what content to land on - or even what dimension, for that matter. I just want to go alone. Do it my way.”
We knew this was his intent, and at that moment there would be no way to sway him. Landen nodded and smiled a little.
“At this point, I just want you to look. You’re turning into an old man; we already have one grandpa - we don’t need another,” Landen teased. Ashten smiled, thinking of his new granddaughter.
My mother waved us in from the window. Walking into Aubrey’s home, it was easy to feel that no one had any concerns over what we had seen little Preston do. In fact, the relief that Marc felt about still having one living parent outweighed the fear that we had managed only to push ourselves past the first trial. Facing Drake and Esterious nine more times seemed to be inevitable. I shielded my concern. I knew it was impossible to love anyone more than I loved Landen, but Drake’s touch was a battle I’d always have to struggle with.
After dinner, I helped my mother and Aubrey clean the kitchen. Aubrey prepared plates to take to Brady and Felicity; my dad had decided to go with Ashten and Aubrey to check on the new mother and baby.
“Tell them if they need to sleep and want our help, to call us. We can take the night shift,” Landen said to Ashten just before we left.
Ashten nodded. “Why don’t you call August and Rose and ask if they care for a late night discussion?” he added, taking the plates from Aubrey’s hand.