It was daybreak when we reached our home, and for the first time I saw the rain fall in Chara. Brady had vanished into the dawn with Livingston’s body. Marc, still carrying Preston, followed us to my parents’ home. The porch light was on, and upstairs we could see Libby sitting in her window seat, patiently waiting for us. We saw her in a new way. It was clear why her insight centered on us. We loved her even more deeply now.
Libby ran outside to meet us, and we knelt down and scooped her up into our embrace. Both of us had tears in our eyes. We couldn’t ever leave her, no one could.
“I knew you’d come back to me. I just knew it, love you,” she whispered in our neck.
“We love you…” Landen whispered.
Libby let go, then ran to Preston and hugged him. My father was on the steps, confused and scared when he saw us so early with a little boy. We walked past him, keeping our eyes down.
Landen and I walked up the stairs to Hannah and Jessica’s room. The girls were lying in the same positions when we’d left them. We knelt down between their beds, laying the page on the floor between us. We then joined hands and touched the girls. Landen held Jessica’s hand as I held Hannah’s. We looked at each other one last time then to the page to read the words scrolled on it.
“Speak pure, hear love, sleep only to dream, dream only pure, dream only love, be no more…leave this now.”
Beneath our left hands, a pure white light glowed and a mesmerizing hum centered in my soul and sent a sensation throughout my body. I looked to Landen to see if he could feel it, too; in his eyes, I saw a beautiful glow. He smiled at me. Locked in our stare, we didn’t notice Hannah and Jessica wake from their sleep.
“Where are we?” Hannah said.
“I don’t remember,” Jessica answered.
They looked at each other, realizing that they’d they been healed then threw themselves in each other’s arms.
Landen’s eyes were still locked into mine. As he leaned slowly forward and kissed me, the room disappeared. I realized how easy it would have been to succumb to Drake’s touch, and I was amazed at my will power and thankful that Landen’s love was strong enough to carry me through.
Walking down the stairs, we could hear Libby and Preston giggling in the kitchen. My mother was waiting for us, wide-eyed, not understanding what had happened through the night.
“We need to talk, but we can’t do it here,” I whispered to my mother, looking at Preston.
At that moment, Olivia stepped in the back door. We could feel her grief, and we knew she’d seen Brady.
“Um…I can watch Libby if you guys need to go to Willow’s for a little bit,” Olivia said to my mother. “Did…did the page work?” she asked, bracing for our answer.
Hannah and Jessica trailed into the kitchen, answering her question. My mother let out a few happy tears as she witnessed our reunion.
Brady had gathered his parents, Chrispin, Felicity, Dane and Clarissa at our house. Landen made a call to August and Rose’s home, telling them that there had been an event.
We sat in silence, waiting for the others to arrive, feeling the heavy weight of grief coming from those who knew. In rain-drenched clothes, one by one people filled our house. Brady looked to Landen to explain, knowing that Marc wouldn’t be able to find the words. Marc went to Chrispin’s side as Landen stood in the front of the fireplace.
“We left last night,” Landen began. Sighs filled the room, and anger came over Ashten and my father. Landen continued, “Libby told us we needed a page to heal the girls – and she also told Brady and Marc. We didn’t leave you out of this to be spiteful; we only had your safety in mind.” Landen’s eyes shifted between Ashten and Chrispin then he continued, “Once there … once we were there, we saw Adonia’s body.”
Aubrey put her head in her lap, trying not faint.
“Livingston was there,” Landen said.
My father and Ashten sat at full attention, feeling less nervous to know that he’d been at our side to help us.
“Um…you may know this,” Landen said, looking at his father, Ashten, “but it seems that Beth was alive and well. Drake is her and Livingston’s son, not Adonia’s.”
Astonishment filled the room. It seemed Livingston had managed to keep his secret close to him. Chrispin stood, raging with anger as Marc pulled him back down. Landen took an uneasy breath and continued, “Livingston tried to talk Drake down, but he didn’t listen, and with the power of the star…he flung him across the room, knocking him into a stone wall.”
“Where is he now?” my father said as he stood, wanting to deliver any medical attention he could.
Landen swallowed hard and looked at Chrispin, who was still being held back by Marc.
“We brought his body home,” Brady said, helping Landen.
A chilling silence came over the room. I walked to Landen’s side, embracing him, trying to give him peace.
“Where is Beth?” Rose asked.
“We faced Drake, and when it was over, a light came from us, then pushed toward him. Beth jumped in front of it, and she and Drake disappeared. We don’t know where they are.”
“Who is that little boy?” my mother asked.
“His name is Preston. He told us that Livingston was his father and Beth was his mother. He helped us; somehow, he told Libby through a dream about the page and the flowers,” I answered.
August had been staring out the front window, watching the rain. He was calm, at peace, and proud of all of us. Landen could feel it, too; it was the only comfort we had at that point.
“Did it work—the page?” asked Felicity.
“They are completely healed, but we need to take them home soon. I can’t tell you that this world will not reject them again,” my father said, consumed with grief and dread and holding his eyes down.
My mother rubbed his shoulders, calming him with her touch. Aubrey raised her head and looked at Ashten, then at Marc and Chrispin.
“I, um, Marc...I know you have a lot to take in right now, but I want you to know that I’d be honored to raise your baby brother—and give you time.” Aubrey walked over to hug the boys that she’d raised in Beth’s absence, and Marc and Chrispin let out the grief that couldn’t be held back as she held them. Ashten went to help Aubrey comfort them.
August was still standing silently in the back of the living room, listening to our explanation of the night’s events. He cleared his throat, then crossed the room and offered his condolences to Chrispin and Marc. Though he had lost his son, Livingston, I could feel how at peace he was. Reaching into his jacket, he pulled out three envelopes, then handed one to Chrispin and one to Marc; turning to the rest of us, he opened the third.
“Just before Livingston returned to Esterious for the final time, he came to my home and spoke the words that I’ve always known in my heart to be true. He asked that if he didn’t return and we were certain that his life here was over, to read this to all of you – especially the two of you,” August said, glancing to Landen and me.
As if the letter had already been read to us, a surge of adrenaline rushed through our souls. The room was still and silent, waiting for the last message left for us by Livingston.
“The letter reads:
If these words are being read to you, you may very well already know what has been left unspoken for so many years. Donalt was seeking a bloodline, my bloodline. Donalt knew I was a direct descendant of Guardian, and he believed that Beth and I would bear Guardian. I was allowed to go home only to defuse any turmoil. Donalt knew my love for Beth would call me back day after day. Years later, Beth was with child, and we knew that the love of our son would keep us prisoners of Donalt’s for the rest of our lives, and we would bear that burden.
Donalt knew he only had half of the prediction; you see, a man is never whole without the heart of the one he loves, this heart would be the power to move so many. The girl was to come from Chara as well; eight months and three days from the birth of the son, Aliyanna would return as well. Willow was th
e only girl born in that eleventh month.
I asked Jason to keep her hidden, knowing that if she were brought home Donalt would know exactly where she was. I did not realize it was Landen, not Drake, who was born with the power to love Willow until Landen showed us his gift six years later. I planned to take my son and Beth and come home as soon as Donalt had found the fault in his stars. That day never came.
Last November, Drake and I seemed to see eye-to-eye for the first time. I told Drake that soul mates did not need anyone to guide them to one another. If Willow were the one to complete his soul, he would find her without the help of Alamos. He was confident that Willow was meant for him. Drake refused to allow Alamos to invoke the dreams. Beth and I were proud of him; we were both sure that he would find the one he was really meant to be with and leave Willow alone.
With the last new moon, Drake once again refused to dream. The following morning, Donalt and Alamos came to him. They told him before he gave his reign to another man he should first see where my alliances were held. Drake followed me that night to Chara. He saw me in the field with Landen and Marc. He ran to Beth to tell her I had another life. Beth told Drake that it was he that was the secret – not his family in Chara. The next night, he submitted to the desires of Donalt and Alamos and allowed the dreams.
All I could think to do was make sure Willow was safe in Chara. I sent Ashten to warn Jason, but by then it was too late; Willow had been marked, a star that will always serve as a beacon for Drake.
You must know that the priests helping Drake are powerful. My son’s sole ambition is to win Willow’s heart. Donalt believes that Preston, my fourth son, is the innocent one meant to lead Drake, a prediction that was made with Landen and Willow’s birth. Preston is just a child and spoke of Libby days before I knew who she was. Bring him home if you have not already; he and Libby are an undeniable part of this and have a power equal to that of Landen and Willow’s. I love all of you, and though you may never see it, somewhere deep in the soul of Drake is the love that Beth and I gave him.”
August folded the letter and put it in his pocket. The room seemed to stand still. No one knew what to say or do.
Landen looked down at me and pulled my wrist into his view. This star was a brand; for the rest of my life, each time I saw it Drake’s face would pass through my thoughts. From the time I told Landen that Drake had placed that star on my wrist, he had avoided touching it.
Landen stared deep in my eyes. As he gently raised my wrist to his lips, I felt a rush soar through me. He was telling me, and everyone else, that he would never let Drake take me from him.
My father made his way to the front porch and stood silently, watching the rain. Rose left to make arrangements for Livingston. Felicity took a weary Brady home. My mother took an uneasy breath before she stood, and as I hugged her goodbye she whispered, “Thank you for being the daughter I raised you to be.”
Aubrey followed my mother to meet Preston.
The room was quiet. We were waiting for an explanation, for someone to explain it all further.
“We didn’t know,” Ashten said as my father was walking back into the living room. “I mean, he was different after Beth went missing. He never talked about what had happened, and we never pushed him to.”
“You didn’t know about Drake?” Chrispin snapped, raging with anger.
“No. Livingston did everything in his power to protect Landen and Willow. Landen, if you’d followed Drake into that dimension, you wouldn’t have survived,” Ashten said. Trying to clear Livingston’s name even further than the letter had. I shuttered at the thought of Landen being hurt. Landen pulled me close to him.
“He loved all of you. I’m sure if Drake was his son, he loved him, too. He only wanted peace,” Ashten finished.
Landen settled onto the couch, making room for me next to him. We were both tired and weak, but we weren’t leaving there until we understood everything.
Landen looked at his father. “Why did you keep me from her?” he asked in a solemn voice.
“I didn’t think you were strong enough to protect her,” Ashten said as regret coursed through him.
“And exactly when were you planning on deeming me strong enough?” Landen said in a harsh, hushed tone.
“When your fate would not seem forced upon you,” Ashten said quietly.
“What does the time that I was born have to do with this?” Landen asked.
“Everything in the universe moves minute by minute, even twins don’t have the same alignment…a moment would have changed everything,” Ashten answered.
“Is Drake dead? Is this over?” Chrispin asked, standing ready to find him at any cost.
“Perodine told us they’d bring him back,” I answered.
“You saw her?” August asked, smiling.
“She only wants to help us. We can do today what we couldn’t do then,” I answered.
August smiled widely and knelt before us. “Do you know now why you chose to stay and not return?” he asked.
I looked up at Landen and felt his bliss. “We do, a child, our child,” Landen said, looking intently at me. The emotion between us was moving everyone in the room.
“We couldn’t leave her behind, and she couldn’t come with us,” Landen continued.
“Her?” Ashten asked.
“Libby,” I whispered, still staring at Landen.
The room was still, and all at once they understood Libby’s bond with us.
“Is it over now?” Clarissa asked.
“No. She said that there are eight beyond the sun and moon, and that there are more trials ahead,” Landen answered.
I closed my eyes and lay on Landen’s chest, too tired to worry about the next time that I or we would be tempted. I felt the others find their way to their feet, wanting to move past this revealing morning.
“Ashten and I are going to take the girls home. You all need your rest,” my father said.
“I’ll go, too. Olivia wants to say goodbye to her family,” Chrispin said.
“We’re going, too. I want to see my family,” Dane said.
They all left silently one by one. I felt Landen carry me up the stairs, and thunder clapped as he laid me on our bed. I opened my eyes as he settled next to me. Quietly, we lay side by side, staring at each other. Lost for words, we drifted to our place, hiding from the grief that awaited us when we woke. Landen never asked what happened when I was alone with Drake. It would have been too painful for the both of us.
In our waking hours, the next few days went by in a haze as mourners flocked to say goodbye to Livingston. My parents, along with Landen, and me went to Infante to mourn Monica’s loss with my friends. Everyone was given the space they needed to digest all that we’d been through.
Today, Chrispin and Olivia are to return home to be celebrated. My mother hosted this celebration, letting Aubrey ease into her life with a new little boy. Landen spent the day with Marc and Brady, and I helped Felicity and my mother set up the party. As I critiqued the bouquet I’d just made, my thoughts took me away to the dark images that Drake had shown me, and a shiver ran down my back as I wondered where he might be. My mother must have been watching me; I felt her concern as she put her hands on my shoulder to comfort me.
“Willow, I want you to understand that love is the most powerful thing in this universe, and it will be what you’re going to have to call on again and again, but you’re going to see your way through this.”
I hugged my mother tightly and buried the dark images deep in my memory, only to be used as a weapon against Drake’s touch. I stared at her for a moment, taking in everything I’d learned since I found Landen.
“I just don’t understand it all. Doesn’t it bother you about Libby? I mean, I just can’t comprehend it,” I said, almost to myself, wanting to remember something about another life just to make this all make sense.
“Willow, take comfort in knowing that no matter what life you live, you’ll always have the ones you love the
most near you. That’s how I see it,” my mother said, smiling.
I breathed in and wondered what other roles she’d played in my life.
I dressed for the party at my mother’s, remembering how nervous I was going to my own celebration, not knowing my family.
The minutes passed by too slowly. When I walked down the stairs at the end of the banister; I saw Landen was waiting for me. His smile went through me, bringing a unique light to my eyes, and I fell in his arms, welcoming him after a day of absence.
We took our place in the crowd and cheered as Olivia and Chrispin were introduced as one. We raised our glasses, soaking in the harmony that this dimension had bore. Landen took my hand and escorted me to the dance floor, where we danced, lost in each other, thankful that for the first time, the spotlight on our love had dimmed and given way to a new one.
Across the floor, I smiled as I watched Chrispin and Olivia. Brady took Felicity’s hand, and Dane and Clarissa swirled past us all. Watching and smiling were my parents, alongside Rose and Karsten.
Above everyone in the room, we could feel an overpowering peace. Looking to the source, we saw August standing with Ashten and Marc. We approached them, grinning. Seeing our attention being taken, others surrounded August. He looked across at each of us, then down to Libby and Preston.
“Libby and Preston asked me to bring them something. At first, like a fool, I doubted their words, but I listened to my heart and brought you this little one,” August said, staring down at Libby.
She smiled proudly up at him, jumping in place. August then opened his bag and uncovered a long branch with light green and pink blossoms and handed it to Libby.
“This branch comes from a beautiful Willow tree that’s now in Donalt’s center court,” August announced.
The crowd gasped, then everyone leaned in to look closer at all the color the branch had on it.
“It seems it grew overnight, and each time they cut it down, it grows just as tall and faster than before,” August proclaimed.
Landen’s arms were around me. As I closed my eyes, he kissed my hair, and I imagined color in the gray world; the first mark I’d left on this universe, a victory that could be looked to for inspiration long after my days on Earth.
The attention of the crowd quickly returned to Chrispin and Olivia, but Landen and I stayed locked in a stare with August, waiting for him to tell us something. He searched our eyes wildly with a profound amount of bliss and said, “The moon on the wall burned that night, did it not?” We nodded. “Then that was indeed the end of the first trial.”
“What’s the significance of the moon?” Landen asked.
August wrapped his arm around Landen and me and guided us away from the crowd. In the darkness under the stars, he gazed at the heavens for a moment. “The moon is in the fourth house, the house of home and family. It represents your conscious mind, the emotional energy. We all find our own contentment with the moon.” He stepped forward and turned to face us. He then looked at Landen and me and smiled in absolute wonderment.
He continued, “It is true that we choose our life, but it’s also true that we can choose at any moment to change our path. Within the passing of this moon, you found each other, as well as your home and family. You were given a choice. You were tested.” August looked in Landen’s eyes. “You could have surrendered to the turmoil, given away what you desire the most for a chance to change Esterious.” August looked at me. “You could have believed that the only way to protect the ones that you loved was to surrender your soul.” His eyes drifted back to the heavens above us. “You both chose love. Love is prevailing. I can only wonder where every dimension would be if they followed your lead.”
“Did we make the right choice? Are those people going to suffer on because of us?” Landen asked, tightening his jaw, unsure if he wanted to know the answer.
August chuckled a little under his breath, then put his hand on Landen’s shoulder and looked deep inside him. “The people in Esterious are no different from any others. They have a choice, and for now they’ve chosen the fate they live,” he answered.
“I don’t understand,” Landen said in a low tone.
“It is true that there are times we all need to be inspired to change, but it’s foolish to assume that you have the power to think the thoughts of another. Live in your bliss, and you give others permission to find theirs,” August said, smiling widely.
“What are we supposed to do now? How do we inspire?” Landen asked, glancing at me, then back at August.
“Love one another. The stronger your love grows, the more powerful you become. In fact, Jason has a theory,” August said in a delighted tone.
I looked quickly back to the party to see my father and Ashten looking in our direction, full of peace and harmony. My father raised his glass and nodded in our direction. I turned back to August.
“Each time you part, your bodies are damaged. Each time you help another soul as one, your bodies rejuvenate. In theory, if you continue to ‘help,’ then you’ll never age or grow ill. Having immortality in one form will grow undesirable to you one day, but for now enjoy your youth,” August said, laughing under his breath.
I stared at Landen, wide-eyed. He tilted his head and grinned impishly at me. The feeling we received when we joined as one was extraordinary; knowing that it suspended us in our youth was breathtaking.
Laughing, August patted Landen on the back, then turned and walked into the darkness, gazing at the sky. The peace we always felt from him seemed to grow stronger.
The music from the party shifted to a soft lullaby. Landen reached his arm slowly around my waist and pulled me to him. In the darkness, under a diamond blanket of stars, we swayed. Our eyes fell into one another. We both felt overwhelmed with gratitude. He was real…I was real. We had loved each other across time. He reached down and kissed my lips softly and thought, “I love you, Willow…I always have.” I pulled him closer, thinking, “I love you…I always will.”
Special Note:
Insight is part of the “Web of Hearts and Souls,” a massive story where more than one series connect. The series can be read pertly or together.
COMBINED WEB OF HEARTS AND SOULS READING ORDER:
Insight
Embody
Image
Whispers of the Damned
Witness
Vital
Vindicate
Synergy
Enflame
Redefined
Rivulet
Imperial
Blakeshire
Derive
Emanate
Exaltation*
Disavow
The Witches
Revolt
Scorched Souls