“Well, what is the real plan? Because you are not mucking with Draven or Aden’s soul for the sake of having some Escort fall. We’ll find another way. Besides, this guy who is stirring up trouble - you don’t even know who he is.”
“Is that what your gut says?” Landen said so quietly that I barely heard him.
I didn’t feel like talking about my gut. I turned to face Draven, finding his jaw locked, anger engulfing his eyes.
“Don’t you dare tell me you agree with this - that you are planning on this?!”
Draven grasped my arms and pinned them behind my back. I could have gotten away, I was sure of it, but I stayed still just so he could get the full effect of my glare.
“We do know where this master Escort is. Obviously he either plans to kill Aden, you, or me. I have no choice but to stop him. If I don’t - we lose, all of us. You will not lose me in this, you will not lose Aden, and we will continue to save billions of lost souls. Tell me how this is wrong?!”
“It’s impossible,” Cashton said under his breath, which gave me hope. Draven’s decidedly stone cold expression, however, didn’t waver.
I jerked away from him. “It’s wrong on every level. You are two different people. You do not toy with something as precious as a soul. If something goes wrong, then all the souls you’re throwing in my face will have no hope.”
“Why would it matter?!” he belted. “The worst that could happen is that we kill this evil bastard and are stuck as one. That is the worst possible outcome. And you know what - at least that way we are both still alive in some way.”
I knew that look in his eyes. He was terrified for not only me, but also Aden. He was willing to do anything to protect us.
God help me, right now I was choosing to be selfish and fight this.
“It matters because I don’t love Aden that way! It matters because what goes on between you and me is sacred and private - not something I would share with half of Aden. He’s like a brother to me. That’s...that’s just sick! This is final. You’re not doing this! The risk is too high. We’ve survived everything they have thrown at us. We stay on this path - the safe path.”
Draven didn’t say anything. Somehow, I’d left him speechless. Maybe it was because all I could think about were those very private moments with him. They weren’t all physical. We only let each other see the real us. Everyone else saw what we wanted them to. I was only real when I was alone with him. If he were even trying to see me, he would have seen the reflection of those moments in my thoughts, the promise that those moments would end if he went through with this. I couldn’t keep watching him throw us away every chance he got. It hurt too badly.
Draven leaned down and harshly kissed my forehead before turning to walk back toward the house.
“Where are you going?!”
“To play,” he responded in a tone that was brimming with a chilling anger.
I reached up and ran my fingers through my hair as I squinted my eyes closed. I felt Landen stepping closer to me and defensively stepped back.
“I’m not going to touch you,” he said humbly. “Sometimes it’s good to feel anger.”
I opened my eyes and stared at him pleadingly.
“Listen. We are going to make it through this,” Landen promised.
“Tell him that. He’s self-loathing. He will find any excuse to prove that we should not be together because of it.”
“That’s not true.”
“Is it not?”
“I can’t see like you can, but truth, intent, emotions - that all allows me to see in my own way. You just made his life.”
“What?!”
A boyish smile came cross Landen’s angelic image. “Pure elation swarmed through him when you said you would not love him and his brother as one, when you said that you would put Silas in his place. He loves you more than music, and you and I both know how he feels about that. When he suggested this should be done, we disagreed with him because in Chara we know that the love of soul mates trumps all, that like you said, everything happens for a reason. We refuse every risk that puts our souls in mortal danger. And for us, that is the loss of a soul mate. Draven argued that he had to do this to save the souls, both living and dead – that this is what you would want him to do. I guess he just didn’t imagine that you loved him as much as you do.”
“What is it going to take?” I said, almost to myself.
“Lifetimes,” Landen responded faintly.
I stared up. “How would that even be possible? For them to become one?” I asked, clearly planning to block that possibility.
“A wicked spell, perhaps. August told him if this was the right course a very simple way to accomplish it would surface.”
“Let’s make a pact to squash any simple way that pops up.”
Landen smirked. “I told him that if he dared to do this, then he better know a safe way out. That if he found a way to join the power of his soul with his brothers, then he better have someone lined up to break them apart. We need them both. Trust me, their paths are in opposite directions.”
Landen was blocking me on purpose. He knew something for sure. He had a clue as to where Aden’s fate would lead him. Something told me it would be tragic if Aden weren’t there to claim it.
He cleared his throat. “Here is the warning I don’t want to give you. Tomorrow, the alignment of key planets will be the same as the moment Draven and Aden supposedly divided. As luck would have it, our families have arranged for us to be in the same place that night: a concert his dad has set up. I’m not telling you not to play live, to go into The Realm. That is your choice. I just want you to know the risk.”
“Well, it’s The Realm. I’ll just throw the planets out of the universe. No big deal,” I said with heavy sarcasm.
Landen looked at me like I was insane, then smiled, revealing his dimples.
“What?”
He shook his head. “Nothing. I just like a woman with a temper. Apparently, we all do. Um...but don’t throw the planets around. One fight at a time. Tonight comes first.”
“Are you going to be there?”
“In spirit,” he said, raising his brow. “I may not want to cross paths, but that doesn’t mean that I won’t. You’ll be safe.”
At that moment a warm breeze whispered across the field and mystically surrounded him as if it were embracing him.
“If you will excuse me, my soul mate is calling.” he said with a wink before following the path from which the wind had come.
An unexpected chill ran down my spine. They were a bit too supernatural for my taste. Controlling weather? Really?
I glanced at Cashton who was still oddly silent at my side.
“Draven is a twin?” he said to me as he crossed his arms.
“What? Is that another secret I withheld from you?”
“Not as big as a flaming bird, but pretty high up there.”
“Tell me this is all B.S.,” I said through gritted teeth.
He just stared back at me, clearly looking for a way to tell me either the truth or a lie that would buy us some time.
Chapter Ten
Cashton’s eyes continued to evaluate me carefully. My heart ached as I waited for his reply.
“If his brother has the same level of energy as he does, then that makes them rarer than our bloodline,” he finally said.
“I don’t know how to compare that. All I know is that Aden is suffering somewhere in another dimension because Bianca tried to knock down a wall in his head. Bianca was either trying to kill him or pit Draven and Aden against each other. She wants me to end her - and I will. I don’t know what master Escort they are focusing on now, but as far as I’m concerned that girl is going down.”
“What triggered this?” he asked as those eyes rushed across my determined expression.
“I’m sure it was The Realm. The demon I’m chasing, Bianca, manifested my birth in Pompeii. Aden’s image was beside the bed. It put ideas in all of our heads because he
was grieving for me, told me that was his place that he would find me. Then Bianca tried to tell me she was a distraction, which is probably why they were looking for some phantom master Escort to conquer. Not buying it. She’s the problem.”
“Then they knocked a wall down in Aden’s head?” he clarified.
“I guess.” Why was he not asking me about Bianca – helping me find a way to end her?
“I know one thing: they were not divided in that arena,” Cashton said with a certainty that confirmed I was right. Draven and Landen were way off track.
“You are a hundred percent sure?” I clarified.
“If they were, the reaction in the universe would have been catastrophic.”
“An entire city perished after an eruption,” I said with a tremble, telling him that he had just assured me that it was very possible.
“The dimension would have perished, little one,” he said as the blue in his dark eyes dimmed. “You have no idea how powerful you are, what our blood carries. And from the looks of things, your enemies do. They know you were sent to bring them down, for they have forsaken their divine roles. They are going to continue to pit you against each other.”
“So now you are saying that Aden can’t be near me either?”
“Eventually you are all going to be side by side, but right now you are unnaturally twisted, too close to each other. Basically, your enemy is willing you to point the barrel of the gun right at your heart.”
“That is why I need to kill her.”
“Whoever this girl is, she is not your issue. Her master is.”
Really? Not him, too.
“Fine. I’ll end whoever he is, too. Right now, I have to figure out how to get these crazy ideas out of Draven’s head and get Silas to back off. That has to be an underlying issue with Draven’s push to keep me safe. He wants to stop this hell because we were happy before Silas came around, before Bianca and Britain came around.”
“Silas,” he said with a smirk. “I meant it before: he has an identity crisis. Listen, he loves you, but he is not - nor has he ever been - in love with you. Remember, he said loving you is a necessary evil.”
“How is any evil necessary?”
“It’s not, really, but he can’t play the part of a Witness unless he feels love. He is full of wrath, a born warrior. I bet you were the only thing that even came close to making him back off that emotion. You are a lifeline for him. Makes sense he showed up when those others started to threaten you. Draven was just looped into it somehow.”
“I feel for Silas. I know we lived through a lot together, but this is ridiculous. I can handle Draven. If Silas wants to help me, then he needs to help me end Bianca, not threaten Draven every chance he gets.”
“Why do they keep saying that Draven is pulling from you? Why is that a threat that Silas has to stop?”
I glanced away, not wanting to reveal the one secret that I had been unconsciously hiding from him.
“Draven...he’s an Escort.”
Nothing.
Finally, he raised his arms and said, “Waiting...?”
“For? That’s why.”
He furrowed his brow at me. “Why would he pull energy from you if you give it to him?”
What the hell did that mean?
“I don’t know how to give it to him. If he gets angry or whatever, he leaves me, shuts me out because he says he feels a desire to pull - that he will drain me.”
“Drain you?” he said, trying to hold in a grin as he looked at me like I was a fool.
“He almost killed me a day or so ago. Landen had to stop him, push light energy into him.”
That revelation made his eyes grow wide for an instant. “Seriously?”
“Yeah,” I said with a sigh. “He didn’t know he was a dark Escort. This is recent. The Realm tested him, showed him past lives where he was bad. Now he sees energy and craves it.”
“He’s unclaimed,” Cashton said with a sigh.
“Excuse me?”
“This is strategic. It has to be.”
“A play by my enemies, I know.”
“Obviously you don’t. Have you ever caught the scent of mint on Draven?”
“Mint?”
“Or something close to that. Does any part of him give you a warm but kind of cool sensation? Sweet, maybe?”
I was turning crimson. Draven’s touch was always so warm that it gave me chills when it left. And his kiss was the sweetest taste in the universe.
“Okay, don’t answer. Doesn’t matter. I can smell it on him.” He grimaced. “How can I say this without putting thoughts in your head...”
His eyes angled down as he began an obvious internal argument. Every other second he would shake off whatever idea he had and start another one.
Finally, he spoke. “I know the line Draven comes from. The only way the master of that line would have left him to fight his transition would be if it were strategic, meaning that you are the strategy.”
“How am I a strategy? And how do you know a master Escort?” I asked with an accusing glare.
“What exactly do you think they are?”
“They pull energy. They are dark and they need light.”
“So misguided,” he said as he moved his head from side to side. “This is why you should not hang out with low-lying petals. Escorts are supposed to relieve emotions the soul cannot handle. They relieve them so evil cannot manifest.”
“What book are you reading from?”
“The first,” he said with a sustained seriousness. “Some of the original Escorts have gone rogue. They are addicted to the emotions they were meant to take – so they invoke them. Your boy, his line is legit.”
“How sure are you?”
He glanced to the house and grinned slightly. “After today? Very.”
“So he does not pull light energy?”
“I’m sure it feels like he should. He has a craving to take it in, but it’s misguided because he has not been claimed.”
“He was tested, though.”
“Sure he was. But...umm...you would know if he was claimed. Trust me.”
Trust him? He was confusing the crap out of me. My biggest issue has been this transition that Draven is going through, and now he is telling me it’s no big deal.
“Even Mom talked about how she and Dad fought with this – how it hurt Dad.”
“On a stage, little one,” he muttered as his concerned gaze seemed to understand volumes more than I did.
“They shouldn’t have been on a stage for their own daughter,” I bit out. “Some part of what you are saying has to be wrong. You have no idea how he struggles around me, around anyone with light.”
His lips became a straight line as his eyes playfully narrowed in my direction.
“Seriously, Mum could have found a second to tell you this before she made her way home,” he said as he moved his head from side to side, as if he were arguing with his thoughts.
“You are giving me a headache.”
“Me? You have no idea what is going on in my head right now. Downright criminal,” he grunted. “Who gave you the birds and the bees talk?”
I only smiled because he turned crimson and it was the first time he didn’t look cocky.
“Nana, Draven’s grandmother. I was visiting them when...well, when nature reared its ugly head.”
“Stop!” he said, raising his hands. “Geez. I guess a brother is better than your boyfriend’s grandmother. When we see Mum again, I am going to give her hell about this. Wait. No. I’m not. Because we are never going to discuss this again.”
“Will you just spit it out already?”
He sucked in a deep breath, moved his fingers wildly, then brought them to his eyes as he squinted them closed.
“Okay, I’m sure you know all about how to...well, you know how to express love with your vessel.”
I started to laugh just because he looked ridiculous.
“You have no idea how hard this is,” he said as he d
ropped his arms and tried to hide a smile behind a scowl. “You’re supposed to do that with your soul,” he said so fast that I didn’t quite catch it at first.
“All soul with us.”
“I doubt it.” Before I could take offense, he rambled on. “Before this hour, you didn’t see energy. Tell me your soul has been out of that vessel,” he said as those eyes gave me a once over.
“Umm...kinda attached to it, so no.”
“You need to get out of your vessel. He does, too. Then...” he brought his fists together, “then one.”
“You’ve been in the veil too long.”
“Apparently, you have been in the real world too long. He would not pull if he already had it. Your soul is his, half anyways. You are starving the man. No wonder he is always mad.”
I don’t know why, but I just kept laughing.
“I’m totally serious. Soul-to-soul. It is not like anything you two knuckleheads have dared to try before.”
“He will never agree to this,” I said as I stifled my laugh. “He’s scared of me. He thinks we are wrong for each other.”
“Are you telling me that I need to kick his ass?”
I shrugged. “I don’t believe it. Opposites attract. I even told him that Dad was an Escort and that he and Mom found a way.”
“Okay, so lying to the man is not a good idea.”
“It’s not a lie.”
“Is Dad’s energy darker than Mum’s? Yup, but he has never been a part of the lines that you are fighting.”
“That’s not what I heard.”
“And I told you they were on stage, fooling whoever was watching. But there was a lesson there. Use them as an example if you want. Honestly, opposites do attract. You need some of his dark energy in you, too, so you will be a more aggressive peacemaker.”
“That is an oxymoron, right?”
“You need to balance each other. I’ll talk to him.”
“I’m sure he would enjoy the show,” I teased, knowing how hard it was for him to try and tell me this.
“Tonight, you are going to meditate so deep that your soul detaches. And once it does you are going to stop starving each other.”
“So now I’m starved, too?”