“You will not reside in my soul. No one fools me,” Drake threw back at him.
Donalt laughed at him, shaking his grotesque head from side to side. “Now you’ll never know, will you...which one is real?” Donalt sauntered to the edge of his trap. “Or will you? Take me in now, and you will have the right one—no doubt, son.”
Drake spit in his face as Phoenix shifted so he could hold Landen back.
Donalt raised his hand of decaying flesh and wiped away the spit. “I don’t want your mind, your heart, or your soul. I just want to share the body. You can have her, hold her for all of eternity. You will never live in doubt or wonder if they just threw you a bone to chew on while they took over your kingdom, a kingdom I built for you.”
“What kingdom? I only see Hell,” Drake said, glaring at him.
“I see power.”
Drake crossed his arms and glanced to Landen and Phoenix. “What are we waiting on?”
“Xavier,” Phoenix stated. “He’ll try to get him out.”
“Save your energy for him,” Landen ordered.
Which only made Donalt laugh. “How do those strings feel, puppet? How long before you see that he is blinding you?”
Landen went to charge forward, ignoring his own advice. Phoenix blocked him, but I barely noticed. Someone had pushed past me, charging for the trap Donalt was in, and my father and Livingston were feet behind this person. He was young, my age, blond, long curls, and furious. There was a blade in his hand, and he had one focus: Donalt.
Noticing him, Donalt stepped back in his trap. Obvious fear was across his image.
The boy kept his charge, raised his blade, and sliced it through Donalt. Half of his image fell to ash instantly. The other screamed and rose, disappearing into flames.
The boy didn’t stop there. With an angry glare, he searched the room, finding Alamos off to the left of the trap. He charged forward with his blade in hand.
Drake ran to his defense, but Ashten was already there, holding back the boy’s arms.
“Justus! Stop now!”
Landen and Phoenix had appeared in front of Alamos. Landen took the blade from the boy as the room began to shake violently.
I didn’t know what to do.
Perodine was gathering the ashes that did fall. Once Phoenix was sure that Landen had the boy under control he went to help her.
I kept thinking the name ‘Justus’ over and over in my mind, trying to figure out who he was—then all at once I remembered: he was the first story that my father ever told me about this place, the boy whose soul mate was Alamos’ daughter. He was killed and her body was suspended.
I knew now why he had such rage for Alamos.
He was bellowing, “Where is she!” as he fought to get loose from Ashten and my dad.
Landen put his hands on his shoulders, calming him down with his energy. Slowly, Marc and I approached them. Justus’ eyes glassed over as the anger vanished. Wearily, he turned to look at my father.
“Jason?” he questioned. “Why are you old?”
That kind of made me smile on the inside.
“You died, my friend,” my father said calmly.
Justus didn’t seem to comprehend what he said. He locked gazes with Landen, then threw a glare at Drake.
“Are you his new guards? Some kind of black magic weaver?” His tone was exhausted, unfocused.
“That is my son,” Ashten said, nodding to Landen. “And that is Livingston’s.”
“He took them from you,” Justus said. “Where is she? Tell me where she is!”
“He’s too disoriented. We need to get him home,” my father said to Ashten, who took the weight of Justus and began to lead him toward the doorway.
The people who were blocking the bookcase dispersed, leaving us all to understand what had happened. I had no idea what happened to the ashes that fell. Perodine was walking toward us, and Phoenix had vanished once again.
“Did...did Adonia fall, too?” I asked, knowing that was the name of the girl Justus loved when he was alive.
The pale look on Alamos’ face told me she didn’t. He dropped his head and left the room.
“She was suspended. She can’t fall,” Perodine said to me as her gaze cascaded all over me. When I focused, I felt her grief.
“What is wrong?” I asked her, looking between Landen, Drake, Marc, and her.
“How are you feeling?” she asked.
“Confused.”
“Empty?” she asked.
“No...I do have to focus to feel emotions. A wicked opposite of what I’ve been dealing with, but I’m fine.”
Perodine looked between Drake and Landen. “If she has dwindled this much, I can only imagine what state the other is in.”
Drake didn’t say a word. Instead, he just turned and charged out of the room. I went to follow him, but Landen reached for my arm.
“He’s going to Chara. Let him.”
I couldn't argue with that. I was sure Brady and Austin would have led Madison and the others back there.
Marc was staring past us at a man who was in the doorway to where the looking glass was. He shook his head no once he was sure Marc saw him, then turned to go down the hall.
“Xavier hasn’t been in the palace all day. As of now, he has not returned,” Marc relayed to us.
“He will,” Perodine promised. “I’ll go see what I can find to undo this,” she said, reaching to squeeze my shoulder before she left.
Marc gave a weak grin. “Let me know what you need,” he said, then made his way back to Stella.
“Why is everyone so sad?” I asked.
Landen let a sardonic smile come to the edges of his lips. “They think you’re broken, but I know nothing can break you.” As he reached his arms around me, a warm rush of air surrounded us. The next instant, we were on the roof of the palace.
It was dark outside, but I could see the clouds moving away, almost being sucked into the heavens.
“We pulled the energy,” I said under my breath, feeling the victory.
“More than we thought we would,” he said under his breath, pointing to the distant sky.
At first, I thought it was the moon I was looking at, but then I saw more than one. I saw what looked like planets orbiting the massive sky. They were still hazy, telling me that even though we’d passed our goal, there were still more channels of energy that had to be released.
Wide-eyed, I stared forward, telling myself it would be fine, that I could live through what I went through tonight again if I had to.
Endless moments passed by. Though I could see the people on the streets standing outside, staring at the sky, I could not feel them unless I really focused. They were scared, but it was a blind fear of the unknown, not terrified emotions.
A whisk of warm air produced Phoenix. He took a moment to take in the sky, then turned to face us.
“He doesn’t have it, mate.”
“You’re sure?”
“Positive. He’s weaker now than before. I searched The Realm. It left with us. With whom or where it is, I don’t know.”
“Libby?” Landen asked.
“Wide-eyed and bushy-tailed at 11:10 Chara time. The clock is moving forward.”
“For the moment,” Landen said under his breath.
“Skylynn is a bit weak, but she’ll recover. And your mate, Dane, is whole. Let’s just hope he can handle what he has to face.”
“He will,” I stated blindly.
Phoenix glanced down at me. “You scared the hell out of me, Sunshine. Never do that again, you hear me?”
“Shouldn’t talk about throwing people into the fire so much—they may decide to jump in on their own,” I said with a smirk.
“Not funny,” he said, crossing his arms and letting the flames in his eyes rage for the sake of looking angrier than I was sure he was.
“You got somewhere to be, right?” Landen said to Phoenix as his arms tightened around my waist.
Phoenix’s expression grew grim. “I do.”
“It’s going to work out,” Landen promised.
“We’ll see, mate.” And with that, he vanished.
“Should we help him?” I asked, assuming he was going to the scarf girl.
“He thinks he’s going to say goodbye.”
“Is he?” I asked as a sick feeling settled in my throat.
“I hope not,” Landen murmured.
In that instant, Landen pulled us away. The next thing I saw was our quiet getaway that he’d taken me to the night before. It wasn’t quite as inviting, though. There was no romantic dinner waiting for us, and most of the rose petals had glided away.
He let me go and walked to the edge of the bed, sat down, and leaned forward. I hesitated, taking in his image, how flawless it was, how the stars beaming around him made him look like the king I knew he was.
Focusing on his emotions led me to believe he was worried about me. Slowly, I approached him.
“You know, sometimes things are taken away from us, only for us to appreciate that we had them in the first place...” I said quietly, letting him know that if I really wanted that power back, I would find a way to get it.
He glanced up at me.
“I’m fine...I can bring it back…I know I can,” I promised.
When I reached him, he opened his arms, pulling me to him. An instant later, I was lying in his arms in the center of the bed.
“I’m just mad I wasn’t there,” he said quietly.
“Where did you go, to stop who was hurting Skylynn?” I guessed, wondering if that was what took him away from us.
“To help Charlie...Draven...I should have been faster. Seconds could have changed everything.”
“No good deed goes unrewarded. I’m not upset, and I don’t want you to be. We all walked out of that Realm. We did everything we set out to do. I’m going to breathe that in for a minute or two before I worry about what is to come.”
As my gaze moved to the sky, I wondered why I could see the planets so clearly in Esterious moments before.
He leaned over me. His hand hovered over my chest, calling my medallion away from my skin. A small flame appeared beneath it. The huge illusion did not appear, but through the black glass you could see the dual universes. The dark one now had light veining through it. Not much, but you could see it.
“See? We won,” I whispered to him.
His hand clasped the medallion, putting out the flame and cooling the metal. His eyes found mine.
“I love you so much, it hurts,” he said with an ache in his voice.
I reached to cradle his face with one hand. “Glad I’m not the only one who feels that way,” I said so quietly that I barely heard my words.
His eyes rapidly moved across mine, then he slowly lowered his lips to mine. I took in the hum of his energy, savoring every movement of his soft lips.
I had no idea how damaged I was, how damaged Madison was, but I knew one thing: with souls like Landen and Drake to protect and love us, we would not be broken for long – and God help the evil we were fighting when we regained our strength once more.
Special note to the reader:
This is not the final book in the Insight series, however this series is a part of a 'Web of hearts and Souls,' where each of my series connects as one large story.
Rivulet is the first book in a brand new series, where you will find the new characters this novel presented.
Thank you so much for reading these daydreams of mine!
Please enjoy the preview of Rivulet.
Chapter One
When death shadows your path, you only have one viable defense—adrenaline. All the rage, panic, and jealousy coursing through my veins vanished instantly. There was no room for such emotions. There was no choice between fight and flight—I’ve always been a fighter.
The light was blinding, but that was nothing compared to the piercing sound of the train’s whistle that was bellowing through my body. I braced my arms on the dash, knowing there was nowhere to turn, no way to stop.
Out of sheer instinct, Wilder turned the wheel sharply, which rapidly plowed us through the brush that surrounded the frozen lake. The ice carried the wheels of the car so far out onto the lake that turning back was not an option.
Gavin’s truck, which was just behind us, had followed our path onto the ice. The only way to go was straight ahead toward the manor, but that was a foolish mistake.
Seconds later, just before the hood of the car, I saw the darkness spider web across the pristine blue of the ice, and the frozen lake opened wide, swallowing us whole.
The shock of the cold water never registered to me as I struggled to undo my seatbelt.
Once I was free, I reached for Wilder, who was already loose. He leaned back in his seat and lunged his long legs at the windshield, trying to give us both a way out, but before he could break the glass Gavin’s truck landed on us with a sickening thud.
The added weight caused us to sink faster than before, and now the icy water was seeping over our necks. Wilder was so cold that he couldn’t think—he couldn’t move. I swam over the seat and angled myself so I could kick out the back window. It took me three tries, but finally I forced it open.
Wilder was gone, completely unconscious. I positioned my arm under his shoulders and pulled him with every ounce of my strength. He was almost too broad to fit through the window. The jagged glass scraped his arm—the pain from the gash shocked him awake. I heard him scream under the water as I thrust him forward then followed, finding air with the next beat of my heart.
After a second of thought, I realized that when I swam by Gavin’s truck it was upside down; I knew they were either hurt or trapped because no one had broken through the surface of the frozen lake. I had to go back. I had to save them.
“Indie, no!” Wilder screamed at me, but I didn’t bother to argue or even hesitate.
I dove into the water, pushing through the blocks of ice. Wilder was behind me, swimming faster than I could.
The dark color of crimson was escaping out through the windows of the overturned truck.
Wilder started to kick out the passenger side window as I swam down to the crevasse where our car met theirs. The back window was buckled. It only took one kick to break my way through.
Wilder had broken through and was pulling Cadence out; she was the one that was bleeding. Gavin was awake and struggling with Wilder to rescue her.
I wrestled with Sophia’s seatbelt; just when I got it loose, the truck began to fall to the side, losing its balance on our car. I pushed Sophie out just before the car tumbled in the water, trapping Mason and me.
The tumble knocked him out cold, but it also crumbled the windshield, giving us a faster escape than I could have hoped for. I took my scarf off and looped it under his arms, then I pulled, kicked and fought my way past the massive blocks of ice, wanting air – wanting survival, wanting death to leave me be tonight.
It was as if the lake were demanding a sacrifice, payment for breaking the peace it had before we lost control and broke through her barriers.
I climbed and climbed, pulling the weight of Mason with me, careful not to let the ice hurt him anymore. It felt like a century later, but I broke the surface and sucked in the freezing night air.
My heart was pounding so hard that it was making me shake. I knew. I just knew I was too late, that somewhere in this battle with this lake I’d lost one, if not all, of my closest friends.
Each time I pushed the weight of Mason onto the ice, more broke away. He wasn’t going to be able to handle this water much longer—there was no way. I pushed forward, knowing the bank wasn’t far, which meant the ice would be thicker, stronger.
Behind me I could hear the thrashing of the water against the ice, the sound of death itself chasing me from this lake. Adrenaline was coursing through every inch of my body. It was my weapon at the moment, and my intent was to use it fiercely.
After the seventh attempt, I found ice that was strong enough to hold Maso
n. He groaned as I pushed him up, coughing out water.
I was exhausted, but I had to go back. I had to get my camera. It was my proof, my only proof, and I wasn’t going to give it up without a fight.
Just as I went to dive into the freezing lake once more, a blinding light stopped me and my hell vanished instantly.
“Indie, what the hell? Get down!” Cadence said in a harsh whisper.
My eyes were wide with shock. I couldn’t understand where I was or what had just happened. I gripped the side of the wide beams above my bedroom. I’d climbed almost twenty feet in the air, and I had no idea how I had managed to do that. My room was a disaster; bookshelves were turned over and lamps were shattered on the floor.
My heart was beating so fast that I couldn’t breathe. I could not understand how I was at death’s door one instant and perched up here the next. I tried to breathe, but no air would come. I kept seeing the ice, the water, the blood…that couldn’t have been a dream—could it? The last thing I needed was for my night terrors to return.
I glanced at the beam just beneath my hand to see ice growing. I clenched my teeth and thought of every word or image that resembled fire wanting to hide this dangerous curse.
My wrist began to burn, then warmth eased through my hand, my arm, and my body. In my mind, I heard a familiar, deep whisper echo, ‘I’ve got you, Love. I’m never going to let you go.’ I clenched my wrist; the black scarf that was wrapped there, it was my magic, my defense, and most importantly at that moment it was my sanity. Tiny rivulets of water appeared where the ice once was, evaporating just as they emerged. I let out a sigh, knowing I’d talked myself down once again, which was a miracle in and of itself considering how insanely my heart was beating—how out of control my emotions were.
Echoing footsteps made their way down the hall, and that did nothing but make my alarm grow. I could see my breath and feel the ice coming back. Focusing on the fire burning within the scarf, the warm sensation, was my only hope. One beat later, the fog of my breath vanished, along with ice on the beam holding me in the air.
“Freaking A,” Cadence said under her breath as she rushed around picking up lamps and scattered books, trying to make the room look less violent.