by Jamie Magee
I’d never seen that look in his crystal blue eyes before. It was daring, near reckless.
“Brother,” Phoenix said with a sigh.
Landen did not falter his stare. Instead, he gently nodded his head, and my body was pulled across the ceiling to above where he was standing.
Without warning I began to fall, but he caught me before I could bother to fear that. In his arms I felt the blissful, numbing sensation that before this day had never belonged to him. Gently, he set my feet down on the ground, never looking at me, then urged me behind him with one brush of his hand.
“Who pinned her on the ceiling?” Landen asked, as if he were the judge and jury at that moment.
Though both Phoenix and Dane had acted fearless until this point, now they looked terrified.
“I was trying to get her away from him so I could bring her to you,” Phoenix answered, holding Landen’s stare with utter awe.
“To me,” Landen seethed, stepping forward.
“Right. As soon as I saw her energy, that medallion, I knew who she must be, that you had to be close.”
“Dane,” Landen said solemnly, “where are you at now?”
“Weak,” Dane answered.
“Go to The Realm. Clarissa is waiting on you.”
“You’re letting him go?” Phoenix roared.
“Are you going to stop me?” was Landen’s flat response.
“Brother, listen to me. I don’t know where he’s at. He was raised. That is good and all, but he could fall fast and in the wrong direction. He cannot be left unguarded.”
“He will be well guarded,” Landen stated flatly.
“Wait what’s going on?” I stammered. No one bothered to answer.
“Fine,” Phoenix said as he crossed his arms.
Within that second, Dane vanished.
Landen took one step forward and slightly nodded his head, and with that nod the entire room began to return to perfection. The broken glass flew back into place, sealing the window. The scattered papers found their way back to Saige’s desk, and the overturned chairs found their way to an upright position.
It was as if nothing had ever occurred in this room, like it was a quiet night by the fire.
I wanted to gasp in shock, but I was still paralyzed by an uncalled for calm and balance. If I didn’t know any better, I would think I was waking from one of the blissful moments when Landen and I had combined our energy. It was almost like I didn’t know him anymore, like he was this new man...what did that Realm do to him?
Phoenix smiled sardonically. “What is your name in this life, Brother?”
Landen tilted his head slightly, as if he were watching an instant replay in his mind, then he smiled slyly. It was a grin I’d never seen before, one that was nothing less than predatory.
“Landen.”
“Were you trying to blend in or something?” Phoenix teased dryly.
“You’re in the same form,” Landen said sternly.
He reached back for my hand. Once his skin touched mine, his addictive energy swarmed so deeply inside me that I gasped and slightly curled my toes. The vibration of his energy may have reminded me of Drake at first, but it was anything but...this hum was deeper and just as passive as it was aggressive. It was fire. I felt it in my core.
He urged me to come closer, then together we walked to the antique couch. He nodded for me to sit, and almost against my will I did. I could not stop staring at him, studying him...something was different...maybe not different. Maybe it was there all along and I just didn’t see it. It was like I was finally seeing him as others always had: dangerously fearless.
“I told you that you were a fool to die,” Phoenix uttered as he sat down in a tall chair next to the fire. The flames danced in his eyes as he appraised Landen.
Landen eased down to the couch and leaned ever so slightly in the corner. “Did you?” he said coolly.
Phoenix leaned forward. “What is that delay? Something is triggering in your mind, isn’t it? Where are you on this path? Why do I sense mint on you? What alliance have you made?”
Mint. I didn’t smell that now, but I thought I remembered being saturated within that powerful aroma. I think I’m losing it.
Landen smiled wryly. “Nineteen years, four planets, and one moon.”
“So I’m your Jupiter? Clever.”
“How do you know him?” I asked timidly. I may have complained about never being alone with Landen, but right now I wanted his family here. I felt alone, vulnerable. With the birth of that emotion, he glanced at me.
“You’re scaring me,” I thought quietly.
“It’s okay, I promise. I’m fine. We’re fine.”
I hated that word. He hasn’t been fine since before Mars.
Landen’s gaze found Phoenix once again. “What I remember of you is vague. You’re a Phoenix. I know that.”
I cautiously glanced between them. It was the wording of his sentence that had caught me off guard. He said, ‘you’re,’ not ‘your name.’
“You were one at one time, Brother. How long did it take you to find her? How many times has that bastard taken her from you?”
I wanted to ask which one because it was clear that Phoenix didn’t like Dane. But for Landen, there was only one man that had tried to take me from him. I know it’s wrong, but having Drake here right now would make me feel a little better, at least grounded.
“No one is taking her from me.” Landen’s tone was meant to intimidate Phoenix, but warm chills spread across my skin. I’d always felt safe at his side, but now I felt invincible. It was like I knew that because he’d said that, I was more than protected. In Phoenix’s eyes, I was ‘claimed.’
“Are you blind, too? What was his name? ‘Dane,’ is it?”
Landen’s jaw clenched as he leaned forward ever so slightly. “I know he’s been possessed in the past. He’s risen now.”
“Not saved. Whoever was foolish enough to do that must know that if he falls in the wrong direction, he will be more than a mortal enemy to you.”
“Fall?” I uttered.
“He’s not completely a Witness yet. Neither is Clarissa. She’s closer.”
“What fall?”
“It’s not a fall, but a test. He will face everything he’s been.”
“Fall into place,” Phoenix answered. “He’s in my world. The veil. He cannot die any longer. He’s a warrior now. What side he’s on will not be clearly determined for at least twelve moons. The first and last are the hardest.”
“He’s not bad. He was possessed in the past. If it wasn’t him, then he can’t feel guilty for it,” I argued, as if I were defending Dane’s existence.
“You’ve said that before,” Phoenix stated all to evenly.
“Show her respect, or I will give you every reason to think twice before you cross that line again.” Landen said so powerfully that his voice vibrated through my soul.
“Right, mate...no doubt,” Phoenix replied squarely. “What’s going on? What do you remember about me? Why are we just sitting here? You have the girl. Let’s undo this web.”
There was a sharp intensity in the air, a standoff. I knew Landen was trying to gauge how much he could trust Phoenix.
“Not enough,” Landen finally said.
“When did the memory of me start to surface? On sight, or before?” Phoenix asked as if he were struck by grief. It was clear he was in some way upset that Landen didn’t know him the way he thought he should.
“Before.”
“What were you doing?”
“Running into a burning building...” Landen’s gaze moved to the blazing fire. I could swear the flames reached for him when his eyes settled within the glow of orange.
I knew I was in way over my head. What happened in that Realm? Oh God, I needed Draven.
“Building or manor?”
“It could have been that. You tried to stop me. I went anyway.”
“Because you thought she was in there,” Phoenix said
with a nod in my direction.
“Right,” Landen said in a ghostly tone.
Phoenix moved his head slowly from side to side. “Those are memories, mate. That was our beginning. How did you tap into them? The Realm?”
Landen nodded once.
“If you found your way to The Realm, you should know more than you do.”
“I didn’t find my way. I was sent there.”
That seemed to enrage Phoenix. He was furious that someone had hurt Landen.
“If you let me see her medallion, I can explain your life plan a lot faster.”
Landen held his stare for what felt like an eternity, then he glanced at me and gently nodded. With shaky hands, I reached back to unclasp my necklace. As soon as the hook was loose, it began to float in Phoenix's direction. At the same time, a small ball of fire emerged from the fireplace. Guided by Phoenix's stare, the necklace floated over the small ball of fire that was centered between us.
The fire lingered under the medallion, causing shadows of its details to dance across the room. A few seconds later, the necklace started to vibrate. I leaned forward, not sure what to expect next. Then all at once a burst of energy pushed through the room.
Focusing on the necklace, I could see the black glass moving, then all at once four rings of energy began to circle it. Details in the black glass that were hidden before started to reflect within the rings of energy that were moving. They looked like planets.
The fire enflamed the rings, then the necklace vanished into the illusions with the rings. It was two universes side by side, and between them was what looked like a wall of water with one bright spot in the center. The rings looked as if they were trying to move more fiercely, but they couldn’t. Half of it was stronger than the other, brighter. The part that was dim looked as if it were slowly easing into the bright part. I could see hazes around what I thought were planets, lights of energy snaking through them.
“You’re here,” Phoenix said, pointing to the dimmer half of the circle. “But, we came from here,” he said, nodding to the brighter side.
“Where is there?” Landen asked curiously.
“An alternate reality.”
Phoenix spread his long fingers apart, pointing to both sides of the circle. “Two realities existing side by side. Notice the curves of the beams, how on each side they balance above each other?” he asked as his blazing eyes rose to meet mine.
Timidly, I nodded once.
“One side is set further back in time, or ahead, depending on how you look at it. It’s our mirror. Both sides have one. Time is always moving in each reality in its own little loop.” His stare moved back to the illusion my medallion was creating, and he began to trace faint lines of light that were connecting the spheres and four rings. “These are the paths between each reality’s dimension.”
“The String,” Landen acknowledged.
Phoenix nodded once to confirm, then moved his fingertips to point out a dark mass that was on one side of the wall of what looked like water that was dividing the circle and outlining the dimensions. “This is the veil. The Realm is just before it.”
“That’s it?” Landen commented dryly. “Where is the heaven and hell, the battle between darkness and light? What are you saying? That this is some Ferris wheel we are all on, fighting each other to prevent boredom? What is the point of reaching the other side?”
Phoenix smirked. It was as if Landen’s sarcasm was giving him hope that the Landen he knew was not that far away.
“Heaven is the peace you find in your soul. Hell is what you overcome to get that.” Phoenix pointed to the curves of one of the rings. “Each half circle represents over four million years of life. There is enough room there for you to find any war or heaven you seek.”
“And the other side?” Landen asked, obviously noticing that Phoenix’s attention was on the darker of the two universes.
“Balance...meant to be, anyway. From the looks of this image, they are faring well. We are the ones that are failing. If we don’t figure out how to save this side, heaven’s gate will turn into a wall and the end will be inevitable.”
“Heaven’s gate?” Landen said, cocking his head. “What happened to ‘heaven is the peace in your soul’?”
“It’s what the wall of energy is called by the majority. The other side is not like this. Its basked in light. In peace, balanced souls reside there.
Landen’s eyes were distant. I could sense memories breaking lose in his mind. They were causing a mix of emotion and confusion within him.
“I can open your eyes, if that is what you need,” Phoenix murmured.
Landen leaned forward. “I can buy this. It almost makes sense, but this,” Landen said, letting his sharp stare fall to the image, “doesn’t explain anything I’m going through. So, I don’t have time to care that some gate will turn into a wall. The dimensions on this side are enough for me to handle.”
“This is why you are going through what you are going through. It’s a curse. Eight beyond the sun and the moon. It’s a curse Dane had a part in tricking you into. We have weaved a dangerous web, and the only way out is to undo our past.”
“Explain,” Landen pushed.
Phoenix clenched his jaw before he spoke. “You were my brother. We’re only fourteen months apart. When you were ten, a fever nearly took your life. When you finally overcame it, you believed the hallucinations you saw when you were sick were real. I didn’t believe you until years later when you began to predict life moments, then weeks, before it happened. Years later, at your adamant request, we took you to The Selected.
“The Selected?”
Phoenix nodded once. “They live against The Fall, Heaven’s Gate. In the past, all souls passed through that wall, but by the time we left, only The Selected could or would. They are or were the ambassadors and warriors from our reality.”
Landen narrowed his eyes and rolled his shoulders. It was clear he was remembering something I could not perceive. From the humble tone in his emotion, I knew that whomever these selected beings were, he felt honored to have been acknowledged by them.
“I’m fighting a curse from over four million years ago. Is that when this started?”
“Brother, after all we have been through, in my opinion, I think it started with your birth. You have a fate that neither of us have found the courage to truly understand. There are too many lore’s counteracting one another.”
Landen and I both glanced at each other. I knew for a long time Landen had felt pulled between the lore of Esterious, and the heritage of Chara, and now, now apparently there was even more worlds or lore’s we had to contend with.
Landen gave his attention back to Phoenix “If I am from the bright reality, why am I here. What was the plan when we began.”
Phoenix looked away as if it was too hard for him to say.
“When you were gone, I called Nana, Draven and Aden’s grandmother. She can see like them, and she should be here soon.”
Landen’s glance questioned me. I’m sure my timid stare told him that I was terrified and had no other choice but to look for help. He reached for my hand, and a calming emotion weaved with his deep hum absorbed me.
His attention returned to Phoenix. “This is what mind is telling me.” He clearly pushed down emotions that he didn’t think belonged to him, or rather didn’t’ want to belong to him. “They killed our family, but we could still hear their cries. A shaman told us that if we went into the fire, we could pull them free.”
Phoenix nodded once. “We were away, defending our points of view. We abandoned our cause and headed home the second you had one of your visions. When we got there we found our parents’ graves, all of our families, everyone except the girls we were in love with. We had to hide in the woods. Our home had been burning for three straight weeks. The town thought evil had seized our family. From inside the house, we heard the girls scream our names. We could see their images in the window, begging us to save them.”
Pho
enix hesitated as grief washed over his stunning image. He glanced at me. “You and her had barely spent the cycle of a moon together, but that didn’t matter. You told me you and her were made from one soul.” He moved his head slowly from side to side. “A shaman eased into our camp. He didn’t say anything for almost two days. We thought he was deaf and blind, so we let him be as we debated why the fire would not go out, why we only heard our girls in there. The shaman stood one night, gazed at the blackened sky, then at you. He told you that you were a guardian. That your must complete your purpose in the dark world. He told you the flames would not burn you, but set you free.” His eyes locked with Landen. “You didn’t even question him. You just ran, and I followed you.”
Landen glanced at me, then to the fire. “We did burn. We did die. There was no one in that house.”
“Right, mate. We burned to ash, woke three days later to that shaman performing some ritual over us. He gave us our ashes, then told us we were immortal. He told us that he was not from our world, but the dark reality, one that we were now firmly stuck in with him. He claimed that you were the one that asked him to turn us, in some past.”
“Why would I want to be immortal?” Landen asked so quietly that you would have thought he was asking himself.
“Why would you not? I admit I was mad at you for the better part of two hundred years for dragging me into this, but it makes sense. The only way to survive on this side, to maintain your course diligently, is to be immortal. When you die, all the deals you make are still in play. Your intent is set. When you are born again, you’re held to those notions but do not recall them. By staying alive, you remember, you know who’s playing you. Wide awake forever more. Being immortal is the only way for us to have any hope of returning to our roots. Our only hope of winning this.”
Landen leaned forward, enhancing the glare he was giving Phoenix.
“I’m not immortal now. At least not in that fashion. I changed, you didn’t. Why?”
“Her,” he answered, glancing at me. He held out his hand and the fire vanished. My necklace fell into his palm and with a nod he sent it back to me. I didn’t put it on at first. I couldn’t figure out why I’d always seen the glass as solid black. As the metal cooled, all the illusions it had displayed disappeared. With shaky hands, I clasped it around my neck once more.
