by Jamie Magee
Chapter Six
The sunlight peeked through the open window, warming my face. I smiled before I opened my eyes. When I reached for Landen, though, I didn’t find him. Libby’s small frame was under my hand. I opened my eyes to see her tiny sleeping head on my pillow. I hesitated, searching my memory. Then I franticly rose quickly, thinking it was all a dream.
I reached my senses out, finally finding Landen. Relief swept through me. He was downstairs with the others, maybe someone new?
Their emotions giving me no alarm, I lay back down and traced Libby’s small features as she slept at my side. I couldn’t recall when she’d come in there. Hoping that she hadn’t had a nightmare, I shuddered as I remembered mine once again. Whatever the case, Libby seemed calm enough now, so I decided to get ready for whatever the day held for me.
When I returned to my room, Libby was sitting up in my bed. A smile filled my face; her hair was nothing less than a savage nest, though she did look well rested.
“Morning.”
She smiled a sleepy smile at me.
“When did you come in here?”
She looked around the room, seeming shocked to find herself there.
“I don’t remember.”
“Are you hungry?”
She nodded.
“Then let’s get you dressed. I think we have company downstairs.”
I was brushing out her hair, a difficult task, when she looked at me. “I like Livingston. He’s nice just like the others.”
She was doing it again. I’d assumed we had company, but she already knew him. I didn’t push her to tell me more. I was pretty positive my childhood ended the second I figured out I was different. I didn’t want that to happen to Libby. I didn’t want any of my darkness to touch her.
We heard laughter coming from the kitchen as we walked downstairs. Joy owned the vibe in the cabin.
“Ah, there they are,” Dad said proudly.
Everyone was at the table—Ashten, Landen, and a man I assumed was Livingston, all dressed in black.
“Good morning,” Landen thought, smiling at me as he got up from his chair and walked toward me with my favorite playful grin. Kissing me softly, he sent a tingle through my soul. I blushed. He was still real…everything was still real.
“You left me,” I thought teasingly.
He shook his head, showing a playful pout. “Never.”
I could feel everyone watching our wordless communication; it was embarrassing, spotlights were not my gig under the best of circumstances.
Livingston raised his brow as a grin spread across his face when Landen and I approached the table. He was slightly older than my Dad and Ashten, and he had dark brown hair with a hint of silver tracing through it. He also shared their same trait of dimples and deep blue eyes.
“Willow, Libby, this is Livingston,” Dad said.
“Have a seat, girls. Breakfast is ready,” Mom said.
Libby asked if she could have her breakfast in front of the TV. Normally, that would have gotten an instant no, but sensing the direction of the conversation, mom gave in.
“Willow,” Livingston began when Libby was successfully distracted. “They tell me you can sense emotions, stronger the most empaths. Is it difficult to understand who is feeling what in a crowded room?”
I shrugged. “Sometimes its easier to just say a room has a vibe. If I focus on someone I know where they are at on the inside.”
“How would you describe me?” Livingston asked with a mystified grin.
His tone was complacent, and he didn’t hold any real expression in his face. One might say he was calm.
“Nervous.”
Livingston shifted uneasily in his seat and looked cautiously at my father and Ashten. Landen noticed the exchange and stared at Livingston with his piercing blue eyes, judging his every move.
“Fascinating,” Livingston finally said. “It does seem like you are advanced with your insight. More so, it complements Landen’s insight.”
I smiled at Landen, losing myself in his gaze. For a moment, I forgot I was in the middle of a serious conversation.
“Can you explain how you travel,” Livingston asked.
“I see people who look like they need help, I feel a tug—this hidden force. I touch them, and then I’m there. But after seeing what Landen did yesterday with the string, I don’t think I’m all the way there. They don’t see me, and when I let go, I’m home again.”
Dad sat forward. “I’ve followed Willow before. She makes a path where one doesn’t exist. I was able to see the way back. If she were taught how we travel, she’d be able to see it, too.”
“How far does she go?” asked Livingston.
“Mostly she stays here, but she’s gone as far as Olecence before. More recently, she’s gone further than I’d care for.”
“Wait, what do you mean I ‘stay here’? You can jump around in one dimension?” I asked.
The room erupted into laughter. It must’ve been a funny question to those in the room who could travel, the normal way, but my mother and I seemed to think it was a valid question.
“I’m going to show you the strings today. You’ll see that Livingston is just in awe of you…they’re only laughing because you have no idea the kind of the power you hold.”
I turned crimson.
“Willow, I don’t mean to upset you, but your mother told me something that I find just as fascinating. She said you couldn’t feel anything coming from Drake. You told her he was a void,” Livingston said, leaning forward in his seat.
Landen gave me a curious glance.
“Nothing there. That’s what made me uncomfortable. Otherwise he was just guy.”
I kept staring at Livingston. His emotions didn’t match the room or the circumstance. He was broken, lost, weary.
“Are you ready?” Landen thought.
“Is it safe?”
“We’re going to stay close. I’m going to show you my way, and then you’re going to show me yours.”
“I bet my way is cooler,” I said slyly.
“I want to go, too, Willow,” Libby said as she walked into the kitchen. Everyone looked at her with bemusement.
“Well, Jason, Ashten,” Livingston said, sighing and staring at Libby. “I would have to say that you two have a very talented bunch on your hands.”
Like my father and Ashten, Livingston was holding something back from Landen and me. He was holding something back from all of us.
Landen saw it, too. He gave his father a daring look as we left the cabin. As we walked along the river’s path, he tried to prepare me for what I would see in the string.
“Have you ever swum in open water?”
I’d lived in a landlocked state my whole life. The few times that we had vacationed at the beach, I never went in any further than my knees. “Not exactly…do I need to be a good swimmer or something?”
He laughed as he searched for a different analogy. When he couldn’t find one, he began again. “When you’re in the string, it’s like swimming in natural water. You’re going to feel something like a current. It’s easy to walk through, but I don’t want it to scare you.” He glanced down at me. “Everything but the passages are going to be white.”
When we reached the place where I’d found him, I breathed in deeply, feeling my unease and his excitement.
“Can you see the string?” he asked.
I could, but I still couldn’t figure out why they called it a string. It looked like a ripple in the air, and you could see everything behind it. It reminded me of a glare coming off a scalding hot road in the summer’s sun. I nodded, he took my hand, and we stepped into the ripple, the string.
It was so beautiful.
Everything was a glowing light, and there was no depth or height. I could feel solid ground beneath me, though the ground shared the same white glow. I felt the gentle current. It didn’t scare me; it was very relaxing. The air wasn’t cold or warm—it was perfect. I could h
ear a mesmerizing humming sound. A childlike smile ease across my face.
Landen reached to trace my bottom lip, grinning at the delight he saw in me.
“You’re so beautiful.”
“ I’m just happy.”
He leaned down and gave me the most innocent kiss, but the string, the energy behind the current, enhanced everything. I felt his lips hum against mine and gasped. When his hands moved down my sides I forgot to breathe for a second.
“That’s not my touch, that’s your soul reaching for mine.” His eyes glinted “I can’t wait to show you the universe.” He took my hand and we began to walk. As we moved, the scenery never changed.
“How do you know where you’re going? Do you visualize it, like my dad?”
Landen stopped, looked down at me, and grinned. The string had highlighted his eyes. It was like a light was shining through from behind. I’d never seen anything so absorbing.
“I follow intent. I can feel it through the string. When it changes, I know I’m either entering another part of the dimension that I’m near or approaching a different one. Can you feel emotions from here?” he asked as his eyes searched over my face.
I was so distracted by the beauty of the string that I hadn’t noticed. I could feel Landen’s powerful emotion around me, but in the background I could feel others. They were common emotions: worry, happiness, and sadness. I nodded.
“I think that when you learn the cultures of the dimensions, you’ll be able to use your insight of emotion to help you navigate.”
“How do Clarissa and Brady navigate?”
“Brady has a lot of Aquarius in his birth chart. He can hear music through the string. He says that every dimension has its own rhythm. Clarissa is dominant in Taurus, and she’s known for her voice. She says that she listens to the tones of the voices through the string.”
My eyes widened. I was beginning to see that they relied heavily on the Zodiac in the dimension of Chara.
“What’s a birth chart?”
“A map of the heavens at the exact moment that you were born. When the planets align a certain way, they can highlight a dominant trait. They set the vibe. Our reaction and intent creates reality. The stars are a guide. A forecast that can help you navigate through your life, a valuable, timeless, tool. ”
“Does Esterious study the Zodiac like Chara does?”
Disdain shimmered across his stare before he nodded once to answer me. He was clearly not a fan of Esterious.
“Chara looks to the heavens to find a positive way to impact the world around us. Esterious looks to the heavens to find a way to control others.”
“Drake knows I’m a Scorpio,” I thought, remembering that my father had said the people in Esterious had predicted my birth.
“I have a feeling that Drake knows more about what’s going on with this Blue Moon than you and I do,” Landen thought. He wrapped his arm around me, and we began to stroll through the string.
All at once, I could see a purple haze on the right side of the string. “It’s turning purple!” I shouted.
He jumped at the sound of my voice. Laughing at my excitement, Landen pulled me closer. “Okay, purple is good. This is a natural path.”
“Do you know where it leads?”
“I do,” he thought as an amused smirk emerged on his lips. We walked for at least fifteen more minutes before we reached the purple haze. The color resembled a summer sunset; it was so breathtaking. I felt like I was standing on a rainbow.
“When you come to a passage, always step through it with caution—you don’t ever know for certain what you’ll step into.”
A wary look came across my face, and my curiosity was piqued. As he took the first step into the haze, Landen pulled me close, and a tingle teased my skin as the haze surrounded me. I then felt a burst of humidity in the air and heard a loud roaring noise. Fearing that we had somehow found our way into some horrible danger, I focused my eyes as the haze fell behind us. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing: a vast waterfall. It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen.
“Where are we? Niagara Falls?” I asked completely humbled by this display of nature.
He grinned. “This is Victoria Falls.”
“Where is Victoria Falls?”
“Zimbabwe,” he thought, ducking his head slightly to catch my gaze, clearly wondering if I realized how those few steps we had taken in the string had moved me across the globe.
I couldn’t fathom how we’d gotten there. “It’s beautiful…so big…”
“It’s over a mile wide and very old.”
“How old?”
“One hundred and fifty million years. It’s a powerful natural source of energy, and that’s why it was so easy for you to see. We passed several other passages before we reached this one.”
I didn’t ever want to be alone in the strings. I was sure to be lost.
“Are they all this beautiful?”
“Everything that you see will amaze you, even if you’ve been there before. Each place has its own story to tell. If you listen, you can hear it and feel it.”
True. I could feel this place. I could feel that all those who knew it, loved it, and respected it. The waterfall itself knew it was powerful…it was a life force all its own.
“Can you see your way back?”
I looked behind us, but there wasn’t a purple haze or a wave in the air.
“No,” I thought in a worried tone.
He didn’t seem surprised by my answer. He stood behind me, wrapped his arms around me, and held me tightly.
“Close your eyes and remember the way you came…remember the feeling you had as you passed through… find the energy.” He thought as his hands moved up my sides.
“I wish I knew you were real before yesterday.”
“You doubted that I was?” He asked as he turned me in his arms. Concern was masking his playful image.
“Deep down I believed you were, I really did. There was always a lingering doubt that I had fabricated you to get me through each day. It was so exhausting to feel so much, to see what I saw for no reason, and not understand it. Closing my eyes at night and seeing you made it worth it.”
“They never talked to you about your insights?”
“No, but I never asked either. They were worried enough about my sleeping patterns.”
His hands squeezed my waist. “ I struggled, too. I’ve always been treated differently. They look at me like they know something I don’t, but at the same time like they think I know some cosmic secret. I ran away, a lot. I searching for a way to find you, looking for answers to questions I feel in my soul but cannot understand enough to clearly ask them. I fought every rule they put before me.”
I don’t know what would have been worse, not knowing we were more than just dreams, or knowing and not being able to do anything about it.
“How worried do I need to be about us right now? What secrets are they hiding? Do you really think they kept me hidden because of that dark dimension? I mean, are they expecting something out of us?”
His jaw clenched, he glanced away. “Chara can be just as superstitious as any dimension. I’m more worried about how our dimension is connected to Esterious, what Drake wants with you.”
“Is it really wicked there?”
“Wicked doesn’t begin to describe it.”
A shiver ran down my spine.
“I’m not going to let him hurt you, or our home. I swear that to you.”
“I trust you...” I thought as I glanced longingly at the massive waterfall before I turned in his arms. “Okay, I’m remembering how we came here, what the passage felt like,” I said as I closed my eyes.
“Focus on that for a second or two.” He swayed his hands against my arms. “Now open your eyes.”
When I did, the wave was there again.
“I can see it!”
“Lead the way,” he thought as he laughed aloud.
I walked slowly through the wave
. The roar of the waterfall was gone, and the air was perfectly still again. Only the haze remained behind us.
“How come it wasn’t there at first?” I asked, looking back at the haze daring to reach out and feel the color of the air.
“It was there—you just were never taught to see it. The strings are all over every dimension. You’ve walked by more than you could ever know. Our eyes can see them. You just have to learn to call on what you were born with.”
I glanced around the string, and to my right I could see an array of colors that seemed to stretch out for miles in every direction. They looked like they were blocking our path.
“Is this a wall?”
“This is where the string divides. Focus on the hazes, and you’ll see that the more dominant hazes are framing different paths.”
I studied what I thought was a wall in front of me, and as I stared, I could see that the darker hazes outlined three passages. The colors of the three passages were so bright; they spilled out of their paths and joined the others. It looked like every color that existed was blended perfectly together. They flowed on the gentle current I was feeling. The glow of the white passages reflected on the hazes, looking like diamonds. I was humbled by the beauty before me.
“Three paths,” I thought softly.
Landen grinned.“The storms create these paths. More passages are created with each aggressive flow of energy. When our parents were young, storms were rare. They only really occurred once a year. Around the time we were born, they were so fierce that only the most experienced travelers were able to navigate through them.”
“My father said his passage to my mother closed. Is that normal?”
His eyes told me no. “In our entire history it’s only happened to your father. My grandfather, August, told me that everyone searched endlessly for the gifted healer.”
“That’s a little scary,” I thought.
“I just wish they would have brought you home when they did find you,” he thought with disdain.
We began to walk. I wasn’t sure, but I thought we were going back the way we had just come. I searched the glow all around us, looking at all the hazes that had been absent to me before.
There were little speckles along the sides of the walls of the string. They were all different colors. Some small as dust, others as large as a doorway. We stopped before one of the large yellow doorways.
“I told you that purple was a natural path. Why do you think the color to this one is different?” Landen asked.
“Could be natural, just not as strong maybe?”
Landen held his arm out, indicating that he wanted me to lead the way. My steps were cautious. He may have known where it led, but I didn’t. For all I knew, I could have been in Australia, and a big scary snake would be at my feet when the yellow haze left me.
When the haze passed, the same tingle as the last was there. The feeling was growing more familiar. As the haze faded, we stood on a rocky cliff overlooking a beautiful, deserted, white beach, the water was so clear. Suddenly, I heard a loud noise, and I turned to see water crashing through a hole in the rocks. As I stood in absolute astonishment, I could feel the energy leaving as the water fell.
“Do you want to stay here for a while?” he asked, laughing at my reaction.
I did, but I was hungry for more. Feeling proud of myself, I pulled Landen back into the string.
“You’re quick. It took me almost ten times before I could find the string alone.”
“I’m sure you were only a little boy. It’s not the same for me.”
All of a sudden my smile faded. I could feel someone in the string with us. I was certain of it. They had an eager but defensive vibe.
“Landen, someone else is here…I can feel them.”
He was already looking past me his eyes grew brighter.
“Landen, is that you?” a deep voice said.
Out of the bright light, an image came forth. Dressed in all black was, a young, eye-catching boy. He was tall like Landen with wavy brown hair, and his eyes were so dark, but they had the same glow behind them as Landen’s did.
“It’s Marc.”
“Where have you been?” Landen asked.
Marc stared at me as if he couldn’t believe his eyes.
“You found her!” Marc’s voice rang with astonishment. “Do you want me to help you get home before I go and help Jason’s family?” he asked.
“This is Willow, Jason’s daughter,” Landen said.
Marc’s was completely bewildered. “That isn’t possible…that would mean you’re both from Chara,” he said, looking back and forth between us.
“Willow and I must be the exception in the history of Chara. Listen, Dad found Jason a long time ago. He only wanted to come home now because Drake Blakeshire is looking for Willow.”
“Willow is the Scorpio? Why would he be looking for her?” It wasn’t hard to tell he was not a fan of Esterious either.
“Everyone is silent when I ask. They’re hiding something from us,” Landen said in a tone that reflected the livid emotion his father always seemed to manifest within him.
“That must be why Ashten and Dad asked us to find a path that avoided Esterious,” Marc said, looking back and forth in the string.
“Did you find one?” Landen asked.
“Yeah, the one you told me to check. A storm is beginning to stir that way. We need to wait at least a day before we pass through it. Where are the others?”
“Back in the cabin. I was showing Willow how we travel.”
“Well, I guess I don’t have to come up with an excuse for showing up without you. Are you sure you don’t want to just go home? We can make it if we’re really careful,” Marc said.
“We’re going to wait. We want to make sure Libby, Willow’s baby sister, gets to Chara safely,” Landen said.
Marc nodded. “I’m going to let you finish up your lessons. I’m beat,” he said as he began to move past us. “Stay clear of the gray paths,” he warned as he disappeared in the glow.
“Is gray bad?” I thought.
Landen gave me an impish grin. “No, they’re just man made, so it’s hard to judge what you’re stepping into. Infante is known for having the most.”
“Were you not going to come and help my family? Is that what Marc meant when he said at least he wouldn’t have to come up with an excuse for showing up without you?”
He swayed his head. “We were leaving the day I saw you and you gave me that note. I told Marc and Brady I was going to find you, and I didn’t care if my father wanted me to or not. They both agreed with me. Marc said he would find an excuse for me not showing up at the cabin.”
My heart started to beat rapidly. He made me feel so safe, yet so empowered at the same time. I had no doubt that he would have moved mountains to find me after I gave him that note. I should have thought of doing something like that sooner.
Landen and I made our way through the string, stopping at every color that caught my eye. In one morning I had traveled from Montana to Zimbabwe, then to the beaches of Key West. We gazed at the northern lights and stood at the peak of Mt. Everest. As I looked at the Grand Canyon, in every single one of those places he took my breath away.
“Okay, so maybe your way is cooler,” I teased.
“Not too bad for a first date,” he thought.
I had asked him a million questions throughout the day. About places he went to, who taught him what he knew, and about his family. Everything I could think of. He answered each of them and asked me something about my past. I told him about my friends, how it was the hardest to leave Olivia and Dane behind, that we were the old souls of our group, and that we only seemed to get each other.
I heard all about his brother, and his cousins, the places they had gone, people they had helped, funny stories and scary stories. The ironic part was every story we told each other, in some way we already knew it, because of our dreams, we could remember each other’s moods, or actions on that n
ight.
“How do you know so much about my world, but have only found me now?”
“I was not allowed this far from my home, specifically to Infante. Marc and Brady would bring me there from time to time. I felt pulled here, but I could never see my beacon. My time was short here, someone or something always pulled me away.”
“Did Ashten tell you why?”
“He was always silent when I asked…it doesn’t matter anymore.” He smiled and looked down at me, and I felt his enthusiasm rise. “It’s your turn. Where do we need to go to help you get started?”
I didn’t think I’d ever traveled outside of Franklin. It was easy to see someone out of place in your own hometown.
“I just need people.”
“Jason said that I wouldn’t be able to see the people you could see.”
“Really?”
“That’s what he said, you scared him a few times.”
I laughed. “He looked extremely relieved to see you at my side last night.”
He tried to hide a grin. “I have a reputation when it comes to the string. I’m sure he thought I could follow you no matter how twisted you got in here.”
“What kind of reputation?” I asked, raising one brow.
He laughed, stealing a kiss before he answered. “I seem to see more paths.” He winked. “That made running away easier than it should have been.”
“They always found you, though.”
“I let them. I was just proving a point.” His gaze was all too serious right then. “We could run away now and never come back, but I know you feel pulled home just like I do.”
“I do. I want it all. I want you and I want my family side by side, in Chara.”
He brushed his nose across mine. “Then that is what you are going to get.”
Chapter Seven
