Emanate: Insight Series ((Insight) Web of Hearts and Souls)

  Before I could go on, she spoke. “The spell. Justus told me about it. If Donalt breaches this world, he will be able to breach them all. He will win. He was the first to almost be taken down, and he will win.”

  I stared at her with absolute wonder. I suppose Justus had been schooling her on the curse before us. I assumed he would have spent more energy on the ceremony, gently swaying her to rise, but it seems he was thinking beyond that one moment. That was a good sign, I suppose. One that fortified the idea that we were indeed one of the seven souls that would rise. For the life of me, though, right now I couldn’t think past that ceremony.

  “It’s not as simple as standing up and declaring our love, Willow,” I thought with a clear rasp in my tone.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I told you, we have to feel it deep inside, let go. If lore is correct, this ceremony is painful. Our bodies will diminish, our souls will rise and collide, then we will form into corporeal images our people can see.”

  She looked all around us before she thought her next words. “No one in this family doubts who we are, that they are standing with their Flame?”

  “The mark trumps all. They never doubted who we were or that this ceremony would come to pass, but they thought we had time. Years, at least. The mark changed that. Now they feel what will be will be. What they don’t get is how aware we are of our past lives. If we weren’t, it may have been shocking to see those moments during the ceremony, but we would be firmly in this reality, not caring. But because we have seen or been told of our past, we’ve had time to build emotions and thoughts around those points. In a way, we have been poisoned, a slow poison that Donalt has given us over many lifetimes.”

  Her eyes met mine. “Maybe all he’s done is prove to us where we belong.”

  I smiled vaguely, sensing her point, her telling me that her past with Drake told her without a doubt she was mine, what was between them was lacking what we have. When I thought of Skylynn, the nights with her, I always remembered what was missing. I mean, in a way what Skylynn and I had was powerful, but at the same time it could not touch what was between Willow and me.

  I stole a kiss from her lips, just to prove to myself she was right here, just to taste her flesh, a taste that I found myself craving near constantly. I pulled away from that kiss, looking into her eyes, seeing the power of her, not doubting for a second that she was born to rule, a born queen.

  “Seven,” she said, looking deeper into my eyes as her soul filled with guilt.

  I swallowed harshly, wondering how she managed to pick up on my thoughts so easily. I wasn’t seeing her as a queen of Chara in my mind just then; I was seeing her as a Goddess, one that would stop the hell of fear in souls across every dimension.

  “Right.”

  “That doesn’t anger you? That I will become what you have fought against?”

  I furrowed my brow in disbelief. “I fought fear, Willow, those who brought it forth. My eyes searched hers. “Nothing, no past, present, future, or title could ever stop the way I feel about you, and if you doubt that, then I really have failed you.”

  She slowly moved her head side-to-side. “You could never fail me.” Her eyes welled with tears. “The flashbacks are harsh, Landen. I’m taking it all in. The worst were not my death or any time I’d faced Donalt, but when I thought you’d died. When I saw your body in that Realm.”

  I caressed her back, wanting to take away the harsh emotions that were absorbing her.

  “I can’t place the memory, or understand it, but something saved you.”

  “The power of the Phoenix,” I offered, knowing that Charlie had seen that power soar into me.

  She shook her head. “Mint.”

  Every part of my body tensed. That scent was unmistakable. The King of Anger: Vade.

  “Mint,” I repeated, trying not to look taken back by it, but she clearly felt my body’s response.

  “Regal. Power. Grace. I felt that. It saved you. I don’t know what we are a part of, if we are even worthy to be that, but I know there is something past this. There is something we are supposed to do. Something we were designed to do.”

  “Rule fear.”

  Her hand reached to caress my visage. “I’m not raising my hand to sign up for any of this, but I know that I want to protect the king that saved you. That I am in his debt. And I know taking down Donalt is what I need to do in order to make that happen. He gave me you. He gave Drake back. He is a great man—Sovereign—God—whatever. I just know he is just. We are going to make it through this ceremony. We will find a way to be pure, to face this judgment, because fate states as much.”

  My insights told me that she didn’t completely believe that last part