Insight (9 page)

I could feel the fear coming from the three of them, just as I thought I would…if they only knew the rest.

“That will never happen. You are going home to Chara, where you will always be safe,” my father said as he sat forward.

His words were soothing and gave my mother peace, but I could still feel the unrest coming from Ashten. It was like he knew something more. He kept his eyes low, avoiding mine, and guarding his emotions.

My mother shook off the conversation, then went to the kitchen and started unloading bags of food. My father glanced at Ashten then leaned back. The room grew tense.

Gathering all my nerve, I stared at my dad. “I need you to do something for me,” I said in a shaky voice.

He looked up at me, afraid of my request. “On the way home, I want you to help me find my soul mate.”

I saw my mother freeze as she heard my words, and I felt a guilty sense of relief come over Ashten and my father.

“Willow, you’re only eighteen,” my father said in a tender tone. “I think you’re just a little overwhelmed by what you’ve learned about Chara.”

“Dad, it shouldn’t matter how old I am. I need him,” I said, growing angry.

My father shook his head in disbelief.

“Willow, you haven’t even seen the string yet. What if the beacon is not there?”

“He will tell me where to go. I dreamed of him. Look, I can show you what he looks like,” I said, walking to the counter to get the sketch out of my tote.

Ashten and my dad followed me over and watched as I turned the pages. I smiled when I flipped to the page he was on then turned it so they could see. Shock hit Ashten, and he ran his fingers through his hair, turned away, and started pacing. “Ashten, calm down,” my father said, wide-eyed.

My mother circled the counter, took the sketch from me, and stared at it.

“Jason, I cannot do this,” Ashten said through his teeth. He walked briskly back to the couch, sat down, and leaned forward stiffly. “Do you have any idea how furious he’s going to be?” he continued as dread filled him.

My eyes raced back and forth between them, trying to understand what I’d triggered. This is not where I thought this conversation would lead. They were supposed to tell me I was too young, that I had bigger issues to worry about, not this.

“This is just one part, Ashten,” my father said, running his hands through his hair.

“Part of what?” I intervened.

Ashten stood and walked over to me.

“I want you to understand where I’m coming from,” he said, trying to be polite.

My father stepped protectively in front of me.

“Jason,” Ashten said, raising his hand to let my father know he meant no harm. “I’ve made mistakes,” he continued, looking at me. “I’ve overlooked a truth that lived before me, but my only intention was to protect
my
family.”

“Protect your family,” I repeated, then I realized why Ashten looked familiar to me—he had deep blue eyes, soft dimples, and was built just like the one in my dreams.

“He’s…he’s your son.” My chest rose and fell rapidly. This was real. He was
real
. “What are you protecting him from? Me?” I asked as my cheeks filled with heat. I was so incensed that I couldn’t feel the emotions of the room. My head began to spin. I felt sick to my stomach, betrayed.

“Not from you,” Ashten said, realizing I didn’t understand.

My father stepped in front of me and put his hands on my shoulders. “Willow, I need you to calm down, you’ll faint if you don’t,” he said, trying to catch my eyes. I gently pulled his hands off me. I was in a daze, trying to understand how close the dream really was.

“Tell me his name,” I demanded, focusing on Ashten again.

“Landen…Landen Chambers,” he answered, looking away.

“Willow, sit down. We need to talk about this,” my father said, reaching for my arm.

I stepped back, dodging his touch. I then raised my hands and started to say something, but I was too angry. I took two steps back then walked to the door. I wanted to be alone. I opened and slammed it behind me as hard as I could. No one dared follow me.

How? How was any of this real? How did I dream of my father’s best friend’s son for, like, my whole life? Why was all of this hidden from me only to explode in my face without warning? Why was my sister pulled into my dreams now? What the hell was about to happen to me—us? I could not hold one thought long enough to rationalize any of this.

The daylight was leaving, and the stars could be seen above the light blue sky. There was a river that ran behind the cabin. I walked down to it in a stunned trance.

Once there, I followed its path until I reached a mound of large rocks. I climbed up on them and listened to the aggressive river that rushed by. I’d come to the point in my life where everything I knew had changed. My nightmares had returned, I was told I was from another dimension, Drake had found me, and…Landen was real.

I replayed my last dreams, the one of the Blue Moon with Landen and Drake beneath it, and then the one where Perodine had told me I would have to choose. If that were all that I had to choose, then I’d made this bigger than it really was. I couldn’t understand how that could be so important. Looking back at the cabin, I could see Libby sitting on a bed in the upstairs bedroom, coloring quietly. Her innocence touched my soul. She now had insight, a gift. I had seen her vanish in my nightmare. I was angry that my family was being pulled into the curse that was chasing me. I wanted to run, but I had no choice now. I had to stay and protect them. Some way, somehow I had to protect my little sister.

I was going to make sure that she made it home safely, and I hoped she wouldn’t struggle the way I had. I wouldn’t wish a single nightmare on her, or anyone, for that matter. As tears welled in my eyes, I pulled my knees up to my chest and fought the urge to cry. My thoughts then flashed through all that I’d seen, and the voices of my memories overlapped, screaming at me. Everything inside of me felt like it was falling apart.

I felt a gentle pull on me, the way I always felt when I helped one of my images, so I pushed down my own trepidations and searched for whoever needed my help. It was easier to help them than deal with the erratic thoughts in my head. I needed a distraction.

I stood slowly, stared into the darkness next to the river, and reached out with my sense of emotion.

I felt a blanket of peaceful love with a sense of urgency. The night air in front of me began to move; it looked like a wave gently swaying with a current. A thin light began to emerge then Landen stepped through the wave. I felt the air leave my lungs and adrenaline rush through every part of my body as my heart violently hammered in my chest.

“Landen…” I said.

In the darkness, I could see his haunting blue eyes widen, we were both soaked in the emotion of disbelief, along with the fear that this wasn’t real.

In that beat of my heart he’d reached my side. His hands were trembling ever so slightly as they cradled my face, and his thumbs graze the flesh of my cheekbones. He was staring at me like I was a forbidden fruit, like I was every sin in the book, desire washed over that lasting look as he leaned in and let his lips frame mine. When we melded the flesh of our lips together, his hands fell from my face and slowly waved down my body, embracing my flesh, I was doing the same to him. He was warm, he was on fire, I could hear his breaths, hear the sweet sound of our kiss, the way our clothes were moving under our touch. He was real. He was in my arms, and he was driving me wild. That first kiss was nothing compared to this. That was a dream, it was fleeting, it was something that could end at any second.
This
—this touch, this emotion, this pulsing of my soul was eternal.

He pressed our bodies together and held me with more strength than he had ever displayed. We both sought air more than once, but the other moved closer as soon as that gasp was taken. His warm tongue was uninhabited yet sensual as it danced with mine. I was devouring every sensation he was giving me and wanting more, so much more.

I was trembling with passion, I think he misunderstood that, he slowed our kiss, as one arm went around me and the other cradled my face. His thumb reached to my lips just as his kiss ended. He tenderly caressed the moist, swollen flesh he found there.

“I found you,” he said with the lips of an angel. His voice was deep and entrancing, those three simple words sounding like poetry as he spoke them. 

His eyes danced over my image. “I love you,” he said as he leaned in and kissed me once more. This was a sweet kiss, only lips, only warm sensual lips. It ended far too fast.

I had always felt this emotion coming from him, this deep claim, connection, bond, but hearing him tell me that he loved me left me weak in the knees.

“I love you,” I said so faintly that I wasn’t sure he heard me.

He pulled me to his chest, caging me in his arms as if I were the most precious soul he’d ever laid eyes on.

I kept telling myself over and over that this was real. After all this time he was real. Even if I was insane at this point I didn’t care. He had a voice, a name, and he was in my arms. I didn’t care what hell was hunting me anymore. It didn’t matter because I knew this boy would stand at my side and help me fight all my demons. He was strength. He was liberation. He was
mine
.

I felt him slowly turn and look at the cabin, then down at me. He raised my chin so I would have to look at him.

“Willow?” he said with a disbelieving gaze.

I nodded shyly.

Anger came over him as he looked back at the cabin.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, panicked, thinking I had done something wrong.

“You were here the whole time, and he kept me from here,” Landen raged under his breath. He hesitated. “How did you come to me before?” he asked as confusion came over him.

“What do you mean? I dreamt, just like I always do.”

His mesmerizing gaze filled with awe. “I was not asleep…I thought it was real.”

“How is that possible?” I whispered breathlessly.

“I don’t know. I’ve never known anyone who has dreamed of the same place and person so vividly, every night,” he said, searching my eyes with a near sinful smile dangling on the corner of his lips.

It took all I had not to throw myself in his arms again. My soul was still pulsing, as if it were all too aware of him. I felt the vibration of his every word against my skin.

“Neither have I,” I said, trying to catch my breath.

“You have always been real to me,” he swore, pulling me closer to him.

“Have we always had one another?” I asked, feeling the sensation of relief sweep over me. Were we meeting soul-to-soul, not dream-to-dream? How could that be?

Landen kissed my forehead before he said, “Knowing that gives me some peace.”

It may have given him peace, but he was still livid. I knew that emotion was aimed at his father, not a doubt in my mind.

Landen glanced at the cabin, then down at me. He tucked a loose lock of my hair behind my ear.

“I’ve been following my beacon for the last few days, but it kept moving.”

“We were traveling here to meet your father,” I said quietly, feeling all of my anguish melt away.

“What happened?” he asked as concern filled the stare I was lost in.

“There’s this guy, Drake, who wants me to come to his dimension with him.”

“Drake Blakeshire?” Landen asked, fury immediately overtaking him.

The astonished glint in my stare gave him his answer. How did he know him? Why did I feel an insane amount of emotions swelling within him? How much danger was I in? The sharp spikes of anger and grief in Landen’s emotion gave me my answer: a lot.

He put his arm around me and started to walk in the direction of the wave from which he’d come. I looked over my shoulder to the cabin, where I could still see Libby. I wasn’t going to leave her here.

“Wait, Libby, my sister. I can’t leave her,” I said, stopping in my tracks.

Landen followed my eyes to the window where she was sitting. His anger faded, and compassion filled him.

“Let’s get her, then we’ll go.” There was no room for compromise in the tone he used.

“Our parents won’t let us take her without them,” I warned.

He reached to caress my face once more a shy smile emerged. “I finally found the missing part of me. My father is not going to make decisions for me anymore.” The love he felt for me swelled inside him. “I should have listened to my soul,” he said, pulling me closer. “I’m sorry.”

“For?”

“They held me back, and I let them.”

I let out an uneasy breath. “They held you back and I stayed silent. I never told my parents about you. Maybe if I had I would have found you before now. I just…I just didn’t want anyone to think I was going mad.”

Those spellbinding eyes glanced over me. “You had the best intentions, Willow. Deep down I did, too. But that doesn’t make me any less furious with my father at this point,” he reached for my hand and began to lead me toward our parents.

I focused on the emotions coming from the cabin. They were of regret, sorrow, and anticipation. I knew that they never meant to hurt us. Ashten meant it when he said that all he wanted to do was ‘protect’ his family, and I was a part of that family. I stopped Landen.