Enflame (Book 6) ((Insight) Web of Hearts and Souls)

by Magee, Jamie

  “Nothing,” I murmured, knowing if I told her she would really be in pain.

  I walked into the common passage we always used, assuming it was safe because Landen left me here with them. Inside, Alamos was waiting with Perodine. They were both pacing back and forth.

  “Where the hell have you been?” Alamos bellowed at Drake when they followed me into the passage.

  Madison fell forward, as if his anger had stuck her. I didn’t understand how or why her insight of emotions was so out of line.

  With a glance, Drake pushed Alamos back as he helped me pull Madison up. I sent what calm I had through my touch to her. When she sighed in relief, I took care of myself, reaching for a lemon drop in my pocket. My stash was getting low, too fast. I didn’t even have to focus on my energy to know that my stress was causing even more cracks to appear in my gold shield.

  “I have every right to leave this dimension when I want to with whomever I want,” Drake seethed as he dominantly walked toward Alamos, who was doing his best to remain calm.

  “If you want out, tell me now,” Alamos stated flatly.

  “Willow,” Perodine said, touching my arm, looking over Madison and me. “How strong are you right now?”

  I lied. “Well rested, should be good. Why?”

  “I want you to be careful tonight.”

  “Did you read something?” I asked in a confused tone.

  “Nothing more than you already know. We’re ready for whoever falls, but it’s not going to matter if you don’t survive. Know your limits, and don’t pass them. It’s—” she froze. Everything stopped.

  I locked eyes with Drake across the room. “That’s not good,” I gasped.

  “He had to have a reason to stop it.”

  “And it would not have been a good one.”

  “What happened last night after we left?” he asked me.

  “Like I know. I had my own getaway.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means I was not babysitting your dimension while you went out on the town.”

  “Our dimension. When are you going to get that through your head?” His tone was sarcastic and harsh.

  I started to argue with him, but the shocked emotions of the room let me know that time had been unfrozen for a second or two too long, that Madison had heard that, that they all had heard it.

  “It is going to take every last one of us to save them. You want to have a good time? Fine. So do I. Next time, we plan our absences,” was my stalled rebuttal.

  I glanced back at Madison to see her in too much pain to care about our argument.

  “What is going on with you?” I asked her.

  “I feel it all,” she said through gritted teeth.

  “Like pain?”

  She nodded stiffly to answer.

  I reached in my pocket and grabbed the broken leaves of the lemon balm and walked over to her. I took her hands and rubbed the leaves across her skin, then her lips, so she could take in the aroma.

  “Lemon balm. Is it calming you?” I asked.

  She nodded once, taking the leaves from me.

  “Time stopped, something happened. I’m going to figure out what,” I said, walking to the passage.

  “Willow, you have to get to that spell,” Perodine ordered. “We only have a small window.”

  “There will not be a spell without the others.”

  Marc and Aden stepped through the doorway to the room we were in.

  “I’m leaving,” I said, then glanced back at Drake. “Not asking anyone to come with me or for any paths to cross.” I looked forward. “I have to help my sister and Dane.”

  With the exception of Perodine, Alamos, Drake, and Marc, everyone followed me.

  Once in the string, I felt confident. Landen was close, so were Brady, Draven, and Charlie. Charlie was a wreck, furious, and Draven wasn’t much better.

  Brady just kept walking when he reached us, heading toward Infante. I caught Landen’s glance when he reached me, ignoring everyone else that was asking him what happened.

  “You stopped time.”

  “I was testing them. Their insights are growing,” he thought as he took my hand and kept pace with the others. “I think someone is trying to frame Skylynn. She reached out to them, and a Mirror is telling them they sent her.”

  “What Mirror, Landen?” My thoughts were short as the girl that took him from me came to mind.

  “Let it be.”

  “Let what be? They are following us here—spells, paths, whatever are crossed.”

  “Different restaurant, same street. We’ll see how close they really are before long.”

  “What do we have to do now? Where are Skylynn and Phoenix?”

  “Around, I’m sure. Brady made sure there were Jeeps outside of the passage we are going to use. When we get there, we are going to call Nana, ask her where she is so she can see them. If she is at the house, so be it.”

  “You know she will come to where they are, that they are going to play tonight.”

  He glanced down at me. “Monroe is with Nana. She asked to go. Brady took her.”

  “So she is going to be here tonight. Just like Clarissa said she needed to be.”

  “Not arguing that we are all going to be there just what roles we have, what intentions we have.”

  “What am I supposed to do? Be your cheerleader?”

  That broke his composure and made him smile. “I think because we are doing this at the right time that this time you will be pulled in.”

  “So I’ll be at the pentagram with you? So I can do what I did last night? Use this jacked up insight to manifest energy?”

  “I can only hope. Truth is, because of what Xavier did the night of the original spell both of you were in both places...your essence was, anyway. I don’t know where The Realm will pull you—any of us...I don’t mean to be short...I’m just trying not to think of all that could go wrong with you in the middle of this.”

  “I get it. I just want everything to be right. Even if we don’t cut off power to Esterious, I want to make sure what was taken from Dane is returned, that he can choose to be what he wants to be. I want to ensure the clock is moving forward, that Libby and the others can see past this night.”

  He hesitated, letting others walk past us. His eyes held the compassion that I always loved.

  “I don’t want you to have false hope, think that Dane is out of the woods after this. He’s faced what he knows he’s done recently, and when that part of him comes back, he will have to live with what that energy did. It is going to take him a while to balance it all, that is why he has twelve moons, to shift through his personal judgment.”

  “He needs to be whole, and he is strong enough to fight his past. Clarissa will help him,” I argued.

  “I know he is. I just wanted you to know that this is step one tonight, that there is a good chance that we could make this all worse.”

  “And there is a good chance that no matter what happens, we will get through it.”

  A proud smile came across his lips, bringing his dimples to life. He took my hand and led us to the others.

  We’d reached the passage that led to the basement floor of a Cajun restaurant, the one I chased him into days ago. Once we awkwardly made our way out to the street, we were stopped. Ghosts were everywhere, staring at us in silent protest.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Landen clutched my hand, then walked through all the corporeal beings around us. I tried to offer more respect by stepping around them, which I’m sure made me look like an idiot to those behind me.

  On the curb sat our trademark Jeeps. Landen reached in the driver’s side of the black one and pulled out a cell phone, following through on what he said he would do.

  I glanced down the street, seeing Charlie and Draven surrounded by ghosts. I thought they were helping the way they always did, but then I saw Saige approaching Charlie. I went to defend Charlie, but Landen grasped my arm.

  “It’s
all right,” he assured me.

  “Oh, so she can tell them what’s going on, but I can’t?”

  “Saige is focused on the dead, her path, not ours,” he said, handing the phone to Chrispin so he could see the address that was texted to it and add it to the GPS in the other Jeep that they were going to give to Draven and the others.

  He tossed the keys to the Jeep to Brady, then Olivia and I climbed in the back. Landen got in with us, and a second later Chrispin got in the front seat.

  “Had a good night out on the town?” Brady scorned as he pulled out on the road.

  “We were just trying to make Madison feel better. She’s having a hard time,” Chrispin answered, not feeling the slightest bit guilty for vanishing.

  “You should thank us. We followed them. She and Drake were going to go one way or the other,” Olivia said.

  “Tell somebody,” Brady said, throwing a glare back at her.

  “You can’t tell me Stella didn’t see us leave,” Olivia rebutted.

  “That doesn’t mean that she knew where you were going or that you needed a wake up call,” Brady said in a more approachable tone.

  “What is wrong with Madison?” I asked Olivia, feeling Landen tense next to me as soon as I said it. Olivia must have felt it, too, because she glanced at him before answering.

  “I don’t know. She’s miserable, feels everything, but not like you. It hurts her. I don’t know what the real her is like, but I don’t think she’s really been herself lately. She wanted to go home because she said it didn’t hurt there.”

  “Why would it not hurt there?”

  “Oh, it did. She just thought that it wouldn’t, that Chara was hurting her.”

  “She needs Nana. She’ll help her,” I swore.

  “What is the plan, Landen?” Brady asked.

  “Stay close to them. I can get Willow and myself back in an instant.”

  “Will you not need us all if the dead really do fall?” Brady asked.

  “I do need you,” Landen confirmed. “Get back as soon as possible. If you’re sure Austin can handle it, then let him. I’m going to do this spell, then check my traps.”

  Olivia elbowed me, just to give me a ‘What the hell?’ look. She hadn’t been around Landen, so this new attitude he had was catching her off guard.

  “New normal,” I said under my breath.

  “Drake coming?” Brady asked after a few silent moments.

  “His choice. I don’t need the circle to get in,” Landen commented dryly.

  “He’s coming,” Chrispin offered. “He told me he was.”

  Landen and Brady gave him a curious look. Chrispin was usually distant when it came to Drake, but I could feel a bond building between them, between all the brothers on that side of the family. I guess we were falling into our own paths.

  We slowed down as we approached the driveway I knew we had to turn into.

  “What the hell?” Brady said, slamming on the brakes.

  Landen and I both looked behind us just in time to see the Jeep Draven was driving fall back on its front wheels. It was like someone had picked it up and dropped it.

  Landen pushed his door open to rush to them and make sure they were all right. I followed. They all seemed fine to me. Confused, but fine. I did notice someone familiar standing in the shadows across the street. Her violin and lavender hair made her stand out.

  I started to walk her way to scold her, feeling Olivia behind me. I was almost in front of her when she vanished.

  “Willow? Where are you going?” Olivia all but shouted.

  “Nowhere now.”

  “What are you looking at?”

  “Landen’s ex. Did you not see her?”

  “No,” she said, looking all around.

  I assumed I was seeing the veil and she wasn’t.

  “What’d she do, attack the wrong Jeep?” she asked, looking at me, her pupils dilating.

  I was starting to think that Madison had managed to teach Olivia to see. It didn’t really surprise me that Olivia would pick up on it instantly. More than once she had found a new vision on this path we were on.

  “Aden?” she questioned.

  “You can see,” I responded in a vacant tone.

  “I’m really bad at it. Seriously? Aden? But I thought she was—”

  I stopped her from going on. “It’s a weird story. They’ve never met.”

  I glanced back to see Draven’s Jeep pulling into the driveway. Landen was walking toward us. Clarissa had appeared, and she was embracing Brady, whispering words of comfort in his ear.

  “Oh my God,” Olivia said, noticing her.

  “I have a feeling I’m about to be zapped away. Go talk to her, and I’ll see you when this is over,” I said to her.

  She looked at me like I was crazy, but two steps later Landen had his arms around my waist, and a whisk of warm air moved us to the field with the graveyard.

  “Skylynn tried to hurt them. Make her show up now so I can repay the act,” I snapped at him.

  “If she wanted to hurt them, she would have. She didn’t mean anything.”

  “She picked up the Jeep and dropped it!” I said, stating the obvious.

  “Listen,” he said, reaching for me to send a calm through his humming energy. “The past few days have been really hard on her.”

  “That’s odd. They’ve been awesome for me.”

  I don’t know if it was my tone or my words, but his eyes seemed to smile at me. It was like my anger had ignited something inside of him.

  “Aden...she is bound to him. If or when he is close to death, she grows really weak, and lately Aden has been a bit daring.”

  “Then he was safer with Pelhan,” I pointed out.

  “Safe, but not helping. He is a part of what Draven and Charlie are dealing with. Tonight is going to be hard, like last night. I may have to leave you to help them, and I’m fighting with that right now. I have been.”

  All at once, it made sense to me: he was keeping the paths we were on out of my view for not only the fear of crossing them, but also so he would not have to face the reality of them. In the past we’ve always faced death, the threat to others. But this time was different because in no way could anyone fall tonight. If they did, it would cause a massive chain reaction, one that may not hurt us today but eventually would catch up to us.

  “You help them. Do not let me be your crutch. I can defend myself. If you hold back, we’ll fall later.”

  “I knew you’d say that,” he said as he leaned his forehead against mine. “I’m going to fight hard for you, for all of us.”

  I reached up to steal a kiss from his humming lips. His arms tightened around me, pulling me in to a deeper embrace.

  After a whisk of warm air, I heard, “Well.” It was Phoenix, who huffed, “I see that you two are in no shape or form concerned about this spell.”

  Slowly, I pulled away from Landen, smiling shyly. “That makes you a blind man, then.”

  “Oh, so that was a kiss goodbye or something? I do not approve. More effort next time, mate,” Phoenix said to Landen, only to get a harsh glance in response. “You want to see what we are up against? Something tells me this is the right time.”

  “Lead the way,” Landen said, reaching for my hand.

  The wave of the veil appeared a few feet in front of us. We followed Phoenix in, hearing the painful screams of the dead as we passed through. Once we entered it, there was no one to claim the screams we heard.

  “Where is everyone?” Landen asked.

  “Gathering for a show, it looks like. I guess everyone likes a good concert,” Phoenix said, nodding toward where the house was. He was right: there were thousands upon thousands surrounding the home.

  “It might not be the concert. It could be because Draven and the others are in that house,” I said under my breath.

  “Thought that, too. It’s The Realm that had me change my mind. You can get in there, right, Sunshine?”

  “Yes,” I said,
rolling my eyes and bringing an instant focus to mind. I was in the orange field before he could utter another word. He and Landen appeared right after me, clearly not fond of how eager I took off.

  The field of the battle was empty, looking like a set stage, but that wasn’t what Phoenix wanted to show us.

  “Over there. Your mate, Silas, and Dane are leading that defense.”

  On the far horizon, I saw a wall of black with lightning shattering through it.

  “They’re sending everything they have at us, on every level of The Realm,” Phoenix offered.

  “They’re coming after Monroe,” Landen said under his breath.

  “Maybe you’re right. There is no need for them to be this upset over us shutting one channel of energy down,” Phoenix said, crossing his arms and pulling his shoulders back. I’d never seen him look anything but confident before this moment. He was just as worried as Landen was about tonight.

  “Why did we bring her here, then?” I asked.

  “She told them she could stay hidden in the darkness, but I’m sure that little girl knows something,” Landen murmured, keeping his fierce blue eyes on the horizon.

  “For every strong point we have, a weak one is in place. Sunshine is aware this go around, but Skylynn is weak, distracted,” Phoenix said to Landen.

  “I am not,” Skylynn said as she appeared next to us.

  “Oh yeah? Why are you throwing Jeeps around, then?” I seethed at the sight of her, tasting the blood that was seeping into my mouth.

  “Displaced energy. Try living a few thousand years without being heard by the living, and see how balanced you are,” she said, not really caring how upset I was with her. “Listen, the best way in The Realm is through the circle the band will make. It will ensure we have a bigger porthole, that we all come out together.”

  “Or die together,” Phoenix rebutted. “We both know you’re trying to make sure lover boy makes it out alive.”

  “Whatever. There is no room for sacrifice. If we are connected, then we know who is falling and when. We will have to adjust our actions accordingly. We have no way of knowing how this is going to play out. Where or if Willow will be in this Realm, or the others. The best plan is to know that at any second, we will have to adjust our energy.” She reached in her pocket and pulled out another velvet bag and handed it to me. “Your emotions are your weapon. Calm yourself and use them wisely.” She glanced at them. “The point is to get to the pentagram. Everyone that was there that night needs to be there.”