They nodded in agreement.
“They’re getting on stage. Let’s get back,” Landen said to me.
I brought myself back to where I was standing before I entered The Realm. When we stepped out of the veil and appeared in the graveyard, I saw Charlie walking away from it, all alone.
“Was she looking for us?” I asked, feeling like a really bad friend.
“I think she just needed a breath,” Landen said solemnly.
I looked around for Phoenix and Skylynn, but they were not around us. The next thing I felt was Landen’s arm around me, then a warm rush of air. I was standing off to the side of the stage. Nervously, I looked around for Landen.
“Right here,” he thought.
That is when I saw him in the crowd next to Brady. Draven was just behind the instruments, adjusting his guitar strap. Aden was taking his seat behind massive drums. Across the stage, I saw Drake. At first he seemed out of place, but the relief of having him in this with me took over, subduing the nasty flavor in my mouth. He gave me a subtle smile, then his eyes drifted out to the crowd, which is when I saw Charlie and Madison perched on large speakers. The circle was complete.
“Can you see me?” I heard Skylynn say.
I glanced to my side, finding her there and nodded once. She wasn’t even looking at me; she was intently focused on Aden.
“I wasn’t going to say it in front of them, but you and Madison are in the line of fire. Xavier will do whatever he can to humble your power so he can steal it.”
“Good warning. Exactly how do I avoid that again?”
She glanced to her side at me. “My motto: if I can’t have it, then no else can either. Give it all up, let it explode out of you. Do whatever you want, but don’t let him have it, and if you do by some miracle have control, pull down. The door is at our feet, not above us.”
She vanished before I could press her for more information, or at least ask her to warn Madison.
Draven was walking toward the stage. As another man introduced him, he leaned into my ear so I could hear him.
“When you see the energy rise, that is when we leave, usually around the bridge of the song.”
I nodded to tell him I understood.
He stepped forward into the view of the ecstatic audience. When my heart began to beat faster, I reached in my pocket for a lemon drop, noticing it was my last one. I also grabbed a few leaves of the lemon balm and slowly rolled them between my hands as the drums began to beat with the rhythm of my heart.
It wasn’t long before I could see the energy rising from the crowd that had both the living and dead within it.
“Ready?” I heard Landen say in my thoughts.
I gave a weak nod to say I was.
“Love you,” he thought.
“Love you,” I thought as I focused my eyes and remembered The Realm, sending my soul there.
The field didn’t come into view like it had every time before, and I wasn’t standing in some quaint circle of people I knew and trusted...no, I was in the middle of the war.
Stunned, it took me a second to understand that. I assumed I would be walking toward the fiery pentagram, but I wasn’t. I was watching Drake walk away from me.
I screamed his name, but he could not hear me. I started to run after him, and a few steps in, my perception changed. Now I was walking toward the pentagram that had Skylynn, Phoenix, and Landen around it. Xavier was not near me, and I was at least a few hundred feet away. A force that I could not see was drawing me closer.
The next second, I found myself in a sprint, chasing Drake again. I was trapped in some kind of loop, and that made my emotions go insane, causing wind to blow and thunder to crash.
I ran right past where Clarissa and Dane were lying, but then I turned, remembering they had to make it to the pentagram, too. Before I could focus that thought, my perception was shifted again, and I was walking toward the pentagram.
I couldn’t figure out why I was in both places, if it was just me, or if Madison was shifting back and forth, too. If she was, did she have any idea what the goal was? I glanced across the field and saw that there was no image of me down there, which told me I was playing both parts on my own.
Where is she?
An instant later I was back on the field, feet from Clarissa’s body. I dove across the grass to her.
“Tell me you know who I am! That you are real!” I screamed at her and Dane.
“I do, but she is still dying...I’m weak,” Dane said to me.
I let my hands rest where his hands were on her stomach, touching them both, sending as much energy and determination as I could through my touch. I was too scared to let all my power seep out. I wanted to save it for the pull on the door.
“You have to get to the pentagram. Can you carry her? Shift your way there or something?”
He didn’t have time to answer. I was shifted back to my walk to the pentagram. It was so frustrating. I could see Drake’s charge across the field, Dane struggling to carry Clarissa to us.
The next second, I was shifted back. Knowing that Dane was trying, I went after Drake, screaming his name.
He turned to see me. “Get down!” I yelled. I saw him fall as I flashed back to the pentagram.
Now closer to the fire, I thought I saw something within the center of the burning mark. It looked like a person. There was a whirlwind of dark and light energy swarming within the fire, so I had no way of knowing if what I was seeing was real or not.
The next second, I was back. Drake had crawled to where I was.
“We have to get to the pentagram. I don’t know where Madison is, but I can’t be two people.”
He glanced around the field, noticing how far Dane had gotten.
“Come on, love,” he said to me, clasping his energy around us, protecting us from anything that would be shot in our direction.
A few hundred feet away from our goal, I realized I was not shifting anymore, and a glance told me why: Madison was now walking toward Landen.
“No, no, no!” I screamed in a panic. “Drop your energy! She is in my place, and I’m in hers. This is wrong—so wrong!”
Drake seemed to doubt my words. I was sure he thought that the other girl could be an illusion.
“Let me out!” I screamed again.
His energy fell, and at that second I was where I was supposed to be, walking toward Landen. I heard Madison scream out in protest. Drake was trying to hold her back, telling her to be careful, but she was too focused on getting to where I was.
I didn’t have time to figure out why. Instead, I focused on the flames of energy. Deep inside, I felt the power of Mother Nature wanting out of me, my emotions wanting out of me. I used that feeling to focus on the whirl of energy, tasting the blood that was flooding into my mouth. Whatever control I had was seconds away from falling. I sent everything I had at that whirlwind, pushing it down, demanding that a door in this Realm to be opened.
Seconds after that, the light and darkness started to spin faster, at a downward angle. My confidence grew. I could see Landen and the others now, their focus on the words they were whispering across their lips.
All at once, Skylynn fell to her knees and screamed, “Guardian!” in agony.
Landen broke his focus and looked down at her, then somewhere in my direction. He vanished the next second.
I was dumbfounded, in shock. How could he just leave like that? Leave me here, forced to walk into these flames, for the sake of Skylynn’s pain?
The emotions in me erupted, filling the air with an electric current. A step later, I saw something in the energy I was pulling down, something I should not have: Monroe.
Then it made sense: Madison was trying to pull her out when she was in my position, and I’d pulled her away from that. One glance toward where she was told me I was right. She was screaming her name as she and Drake ran toward us.
I had no idea what to do, or how to do it. She was standing in the middle of the power we were pulling
out. It was almost like she was channeling it, moving faster than I could have. I pushed against the force that was keeping me at a slow pace, wanting to get to her faster to pull her out of the flames.
The circle was so large that I would have had to walk through at least three feet of flames to reach her.
I tried to manifest anything and everything I could to put the flames out to make a path for me, but nothing worked. My energy would impact anything and everything but this pentagram.
I had no choice: I had to step into the fire.
Chapter Eighteen
The flames were agony, and they were pulling every part of my energy away from my body. I doubted I was doing anything to open the porthole we were all trying to unlock, but I couldn’t think about what it would mean if that door was not opened: Dane’s soul, which was still trapped, and my sister would drift away. I had to fight the pain and reach this girl who should not be in the middle of this.
I wasn’t the only one in there with her; Madison had stepped through seconds after I did. Before I could take a step closer to Monroe, a bold, shadowed figure emerged from the flames and forced me out of the fire.
I struggled under an empowering hold, thinking it was someone evil. I only stopped when I heard, “Sunshine, you’re not burning tonight!”
I knew then that Phoenix had stopped me.
“Monroe!” I screamed, trying to push him off me, but he was too strong. I thought he was hitting me, but I realized he was only squashing the flames that were slicing into my skin.
My stare was hazed over, but I could clearly see my energy. There was no gold seal holding me in balance. Crimson was spilling out of me, and everyone was feeling the pain of it. The sky protested with thunder, lightning, and wind, the ground vibrated, and the rain was sharp as knives as it rained down on us.
I felt like my insides were ripping in two, that a million hurricanes were fighting to come out at once. The bitter taste in my mouth was nauseating.
I heard an innocent scream and moved my head to the side, seeing Madison on the ground, Drake putting out her flames, Monroe screaming her name. A dizzying glance showed me Clarissa, Dane, and Skylynn on their knees, all in pain, facing the fire, the tornado of energy that was still spinning downward.
At the same time, Madison and I started to shake against our will. It felt like convulsions, power trying to break out. What looked like a bolt of lightning exploded from both of our chests. Clearly, Phoenix and Drake had no idea what to do. I kept hearing Skylynn in my head, telling me that if she could not have her power, she surely would not have given it to someone else. I knew something dark was ripping me apart, and I was not going to let that happen. I focused on that whirl of energy and pushed everything I could at it, determined not to open a door, but instead rip the sky open.
The pain was unexplainable. The harder I pushed, the louder I screamed in agony.
Landen appeared between where Madison and I were lying. He had two blades in his hand, and he tried to strike the bolt that was coming from Madison, but no luck. Drake took the blade from his hand, and with one powerful blow he set Madison free.
The ground began to break away around us, and darkness rained down through the holes in the Earth. Landen jumped over the crack separating us.
“I can’t stop it!” Phoenix yelled at him.
Landen’s long arm, with blade in hand, sliced through the bolt of light that was soaring through my chest. The next second, his body was covering mine, his arms wrapped tightly around me.
“Humble...be humble to the power,” his thoughts demanded as his touch sent a paralyzing hum through my body.
I screamed out in pain, unable to find control. It hurt so bad, I just wanted to give in, to let my soul die. Living was not worth this.
“Breathe for me! Breathe!”
I took in a gasp.
“One more, slowly.”
It took all I had to listen to him and not call him every name in the book, but at that point the pain hurt too badly to matter. The angry thunder around us slowed its rumble, which gave me hope that I was in control.
“Breathe,” he thought again as his hands rushed down my side, ensuring that every part of me was as calm as possible. He wanted to take this pain from me, to endure it alone, but it was my battle to face. One breath after another, I found my way back to sanity.
All around us, the cracks in the Earth grew wider. The rain of black smoke fell through the Earth so swiftly that the wind of their wake blew me to the side a few inches.
I sat up slowly, not answering Landen and Phoenix as they asked me if anything hurt or where I was hurt.
“Is this bad?” I said in an exhausted tone.
“The door is open,” Landen told me, pulling me into his arms, holding me so tight that breathing was not possible.
Over his shoulder, I saw one gleaming light falling from the sky. My arms were wrapped around Landen’s neck, allowing me to smell the lemon on my hands. Calmly, I extended my reach and sent a gentle wind to guide that light to where I could see Dane and Clarissa. When the light reached Dane, they were freed from the illusion. They both stood and resembled the Witnesses they were born to be.
Clarissa glanced in my direction, offered a subtle smile, then vanished with Dane.
“Is she okay?” I asked Landen as I pulled away and went to stand so I could cross over the broken ground to reach Madison and Monroe. By the time I made it to my feet, Phoenix was already there. He knelt down and helped Drake pull both girls up. The glance he gave Landen told me that something was off.
“Wake now, Willow,” Landen said to me.
“Not without them,” I protested, but that protest was in vain. Both Monroe and Madison vanished at that moment.
The ground began to shake violently.
“Now!” he said again.
Even if I had an argument, my soul was not listening. The next instant, I was watching Draven finish his song.
Landen said something to Brady, then he vanished, only to appear at my side. Phoenix was across the stage, next to Drake. He nodded to Landen, then the warm air wrapped around us, carrying us away.
It had to have been the distance that made me dizzy before because this time it was worse. I felt my knees buckle right when the air went away.
Landen caught me. I wasn’t entirely sure where we were in the palace, but I thought I recognized the hall.
“What is wrong with her?” I heard Drake demand. Phoenix must have carried him here.
Landen’s hands were on my face. “Can you find a memory for me?”
I must have looked as weak as I felt, and only the memory of us would save me at this point. I pulled in long, deep breaths, feeling balance come to me, but something was off. I wasn’t thinking about control, but my emotions were not creating anything around us. Even when my heart began to beat wildly, nothing happened. Fear took over. I must have done something wrong. I was missing the one insight that had been my hell over the last few days.
“I lost it,” I muttered, almost in selfish relief.
“Not all of it,” Landen said quietly to me. “Not the part that matters,” he said as his eyes glanced to my chest, to where my heart was.
“He took it from me?” I asked, trying to focus.
“We lost a part of both of them, mate,” Phoenix said as I nodded to tell Landen I had my balance.
“To who?” Drake seethed.
“Xavier,” Landen said as his eyes drifted to the open doorway feet from us. “But we’ve got bigger problems now.”
Pushing me behind him, Landen advanced with Phoenix toward the door. Drake came to Landen’s other side.
Following them, I realized where I was: this was the room Donalt died in, the one that led to the looking glass.
It was dim, but I felt Perodine and Marc in there. I could only assume Alamos was not far away.
As the three of them moved farther into the room, I saw the same pentagram I’d created before, only it looked as if it were paint
ed on the floor. Small candles marked the points of the star.
I glanced to my side, seeing more images than I felt. There were at least twenty people blocking the path to the looking glass.
I furrowed my brow, wondering why they were absent to me. The second I focused on them, I felt them. It was odd, like I had to think to feel them – when less than an hour ago, I not only felt everything, but it was reflected all around me.
Landen, Phoenix, and Drake spread out along what could only be a trap that Landen had made.
Several tense, silent moments passed. I was starting to think that the part about the dead falling was wrong and wanted to go home and make sure the kids were fine, that they were not sucked into some deep meditation – but before I could suggest that we do just that, the air grew cold and the floor began to rumble.
In the center of the circle that held the pentagram, an image began to form, a grotesque image. The smell of burning flesh manifested, causing me to cover my mouth with my fist so I would not get sick.
The image had its back to us. In a flash, it turned to face where Landen and the others were standing. It was only one-third man. The rest was either missing or charred, barely recognizable.
Drake went to throw everything he had at the image, but Landen held his hand out to stop him.
“The fastest way to get what was taken is to hold him as ransom.”
“Hold me?” the image that could only be Donalt’s bellowed. “You fool! The fact that I am here states that you’ve lost.”
“Are you trying to be ironic? You’re dead!” Drake seethed. “You’re an evil son of a bitch who needs to learn when to quit.”
“You’re a stupid son of a bitch,” Donalt said in an exhausted tone, glaring at Drake. “We could have had it all, you and I. I warned you, didn’t I? Told you they would fool you. Why did you not listen?”