“What were you trying to do that night?”
He squeezed my hand as I felt his anger and grief. “I thought it was going to be the end of our hell. I would have finally had you, and I would have released the power that Esterious was feeding on, weaken Donalt, end Donalt, and move on with our fate.”
“That didn’t happen.”
“No...Donalt has many enemies, and one of them gave us false leads. The entire night went horribly. A lot of souls were trapped that night, and I owe them their freedom. And when they have their freedom, more will follow them out, weakening Donalt—hopefully to the point where we can end this.”
“Tonight? You will free them tonight?”
“I don’t know that we can tonight, but I know what we have to do now. Stay focused. Starve Donalt. Attack.”
I let our thoughts fall silent as we drove on. Before long, we reached a wide driveway that was lined with aged willow trees and low hanging moss. Large buses and eighteen-wheelers were parked along the driveway. I knew without a doubt I was right. This was the place Nana and Evan were at, where Draven needed to play.
My hope dwindled when Landen turned off the driveway and followed a dirt path into the darkness. After a mile, he stopped and stared forward, then began to loop back across the grass. Half a mile back, the lights of an historic home came into view. Long before we reached it, the headlights flashed across ancient headstones. The sight of them caused Landen to stop the Jeep.
Hastily, I followed him out in the tall, damp grass, hearing the sound of nature scream around us.
Landen reached for my hand when I met him in front of the Jeep. I gasped when I saw a man’s figure in the distance. “Phoenix,” he thought. I glanced back at the Jeep to see that he was right. I guess walking was too overrated for him.
Before we reached him, I could swear that I saw the night air move like a wave had crossed it. In that instant, all of nature became silent.
“Willow, we’re going to step in the veil,” he thought, squeezing my hand. “I don’t want you to be afraid of what you see. No matter how terrifying the people look, they are not in pain, and they will not hurt you.”
I dug my nails into his skin and focused on the taste I needed in my mouth. When we reached Phoenix, he glanced back at us.
“After you, Brother,” he said with a mocking bow.
Landen wrapped his arm around me protectively, then stepped through the wave. Though the distance was short from one step to the next, the screams of the damned made it seem like a hundred miles. If Charlie had to deal with this on a daily basis, I had no idea how she stayed sane.
When the screams halted and silence rained, masses of gray, damned souls who carried one emotion—fear—were all around me. They looked as if they were trapped in time, in hell. Their clothes were tattered, and the marks of deaths were apparent. I could handle seeing the adults, the men, but the children, the women broke my heart and made a sick feeling settle deep in my gut.
The souls formed a path for us to follow. In the distance I could see the glow of low lying candles, and before long I saw an image of a young girl crouched down. There was no emotion coming from her, which made me both grateful and furious. She wasn’t like the others – she looked like us. I could see that the hood on her light jacket was pulled over her head. As if she sensed us, she slowly rose, then glanced over her shoulder.
She couldn’t have been any older than me if she were alive. Her hair was long, beautiful, and lavender. Her skin was like ivory, and her eyes were so blue, so pure that you would have thought she was a guardian angel.
The dread, remorse, and tinge of passion that lingered in Landen’s emotion led me to believe the obvious: this was the girl that held him that he regretted, not because it was bad, but because I was now his, and I knew.
The taste of blood poured into my mouth. It was going to kill me but I was going to get through this. I hated her, and she hadn’t said a single word. That was wrong. I knew that. But I’m human.
Skylynn and Landen locked gazes as she turned to face us. In that stare, they seemed to say a million words. Words that belonged to me. Words I wanted to rip from his memories.
“I missed you,” she finally uttered when the silence demanded that someone say something.
I glanced up at Landen, prepared for anything. What I saw was his locked jaw and an intense, unforgiving stare.
“Its time to move forward, tell me how we do that. What have you discovered while I was gone?” he finally answered.
She glanced at Phoenix, who was on Landen’s other side. Her gaze met Landen’s again. “I can’t move forward until you do.”
“The spells do cross,” Landen confirmed.
She glanced at me, nodding politely, but with contempt. “The fates cross. In the end, that is,” she said, returning her gaze to Landen.
“Can I starve them from here?” Landen asked her.
“We can begin here.”
“We are not beginning anything until I have my ashes,” Phoenix spouted, obviously disgusted with her, which in some way made me like him for the first time ever.
“No way,” Skylynn breathed as she rolled her eyes.
Phoenix charged forward, but before I could blink Landen had left my side and was blocking Phoenix’s energy and body from hurting her. Every part of me tensed as jealousy raged though my soul.
“Let it be,” Landen commanded.
“I’ll be damned! That is how she roped you into this in the first place, and you know it. If she hadn’t stolen your ashes, the spells would have never crossed. She played you, and now she wants me to feel sorry for her because karma had its say. She has been dragging me around by mine since the day you left. I have all but an ounce left, and she is not going to play me anymore.”
“Not my type,” Skylynn taunted, which did not help me at all. Just as I was about to come undone I felt cool, soothing hands on my shoulders and the overwhelming ease of peace swarm through me. Gratefully, I glanced back to find Clarissa. I gasped in relief and pulled her to me, nearly crushing her with my grip.
“I’ve got you,” she whispered. A weary nod was all I could offer her.
“Turn over the ashes,” I heard Landen demand.
Gripping Clarissa’s arm, I turned to see what was going on.
Landen didn’t seem to notice that Clarissa had arrived. He was too focused on them.
“No,” Skylynn stated once again.
“What hold do you need on him? I am here. I’m not leaving,” Landen pushed.
“I’ve heard that before,” she replied painfully.
Clarissa held my arm with both hands. My emotions were beyond numb at that point, which was the only thing saving this girl’s life that is, if she had one.
“We had the same goal. I never lied to you. I had no way of knowing the spells and fates were crossed.”
“Five hundred years, Guardian...it was more than a goal,” she said as her gaze melted over him.
“You have been in the veil entirely too long,” Phoenix bellowed. “Five hundred my ass. You knew him for five hundred. We did not run with you. Stop trying to make his girl mad. She has the power to kill you with a thought, and I would make no effort to stop her. Maybe the reason the spell crossed is because your intentions were clouded. His never were, and you know it.”
All right, I admit it: I liked Phoenix. He was real, blunt, and to the point. I needed a friend like that.
Landen glanced back at me, noticing Clarissa for the first time. He let out a sigh as he nodded to her. A sorrowful glance landed on me and when it did I felt a warm hum ease through my body. It was his essence, and I wanted to pull it all to me, to run from this moment, but I was too calm to even sigh.
His entire composure changed as he stiffly returned his attention to Skylynn. “Is that why they are crossed?”
“I have no idea why they are crossed. Too many souls. Too much power in one place. With the awareness and call they each have, it was inevitable. Evil knew our
every play and countered it.”
“You know that I will restore it all, one way or another. Phoenix is part of the deal. Set him free, or I will find another way.”
“Another witch,” she replied dryly. “I know your girl came with one, that they have been helping you, well, her.”
I moved forward to defend Perodine and myself, but Clarissa held me back. My emotions were trying to break free into the atmosphere, but I held them to a breeze that was strong enough for them all to know that I was only feet away and not happy.
“How long do you think my sister can hold her back?” Landen asked Skylynn. “Rule number one: make no advance at me. Rule number two: never—and I mean never—insult her family.”
Skylynn locked gazes with me. “I have no fault with you or your family.” I gave no response. “And I have no regrets of my past, because of that past I will find the end you are blessed with.”
“I do,” Landen said before I could speak. “We crossed a line, and we will pay for it.”
“What line did we cross? They were blind to us. Mine is still blind to me. What were we supposed to do? Live in an eternity of loneliness?”
“It wouldn't have been lonely if we hadn’t forgotten. You know that.”
Skylynn looked down. “You never forgot, Guardian...maybe I wouldn’t have if I hadn’t been fooled by the image of mine...if I’d ever found the real one.”
Something sparked in Landen. I could see it wash down him. He’d put something together, and whatever it was seemed to give him hope.
“You would not be fooled in today’s time. Trust me.”
“That is the problem. I do trust you,” she replied in a weak voice that somehow ignited jealousy deep within me. The breeze picked up speed, only to halt when I understood I was losing my control.
“Then trust me enough to give him his ashes.”
“No. I need them.”
“For what? I’m not a back up plan,” Phoenix seethed.
“I...I don’t have them,” she said, trying to sound more confident than she clearly was.
“What?” he and Landen said at once.
Skylynn let out a heavy sigh. “They’re safe.”
“They’re mine. Find them,” Phoenix said through gritted teeth.
She let her gaze rise to meet his and stepped forward as if she were approaching a regal power. “Your essence,” she whispered, “is helping another. You are not selfish enough to bring harm to them.”
He leaned down, letting the flames burn in his eyes. “Do not play me. What is mine is mine. Now, Skylynn.”
“Truth,” Landen said to Phoenix, telling him that wherever those ashes were, they were helping someone, that Skylynn was not grasping a weak bargaining chip.
“Oh, mate, she can manipulate her emotions for your benefit, no doubt. She is not playing me. Let’s move on to Sunshine’s witch,” Phoenix said, walking toward me.
Skylynn held out her hand to stop him as she glanced up at Landen. “You’re not going to leave me. You promise.”
The breeze was back, and it was a humid one. I could not handle this much longer.
“I know where he is,” Landen assured her, which led me to silently question who ‘he’ was.
She hesitated.
“All right then...Sunshine, lead the way to Hell’s core,” Phoenix said to me.
“Stop,” Skylynn said through gritted teeth. “Give me a minute.”
She vanished at that second, and a chilly silence took over as the dead around us shifted from side to side, anxiously waiting for something to happen.
I wanted to tell them just to let her be, for us to go and tell Perodine what they needed and it wasn’t because I didn’t like Skylynn. It was because I believed her. She was helping a stranger, and for all I know, Phoenix just demanded that Skylynn take back someone’s lifeline. I didn’t need any more guilt added to my plate.
Feeling my emotions and intent, Landen tried to persuade Phoenix to give in, at first with an endless glance that seemed to speak volumes, then he said, “She really was telling the truth. The ashes are helping someone.”
“Yep. She was, and that someone is her. Told you from day one not to trust her,” Phoenix muttered.
I guess Landen knew not to push him because he didn’t defend his insight.
Clarissa gripped my arm as the minutes ticked by, as I was given more time to absorb the past between the three of them. I slowly began to understand that I was in way over my head.
Skylynn appeared in front of him within the next breath. I could not hold back the sharp breeze that flew around the three of them. It was my compromise. They needed to know that even though I had not said a word, I was right here, prepared to pounce at any moment.
Skylynn was holding a small black scarf that was folded and tied into a wide bracelet. “I hope you’re happy,” she said faintly as she swallowed emotions that did not seem to match the moment.
When Phoenix reached for the scarf bracelet, the wind caused the folded pieces of the fabric to sway. He tensed as he breathed in deeply. I thought I saw relief in his eyes, but I must have been wrong because he charged toward Skylynn, yelling, “What did you do?”
Landen dove between them. A second later, he and Phoenix had vanished, only to appear a hundred yards from where they were. I could not hear their words, but the anger behind them was apparent.
Just as I went to ask Skylynn what was going on, she glanced in my direction.
“I have no idea,” she said.
I heard a quiver in her voice. That was a lie. Taking those ashes away from whoever had them was the hardest thing she had ever done, and now she was not looking forward to facing the two of them.
“Did you hurt someone?” I said through gritted teeth as the wind whipped around her.
“Not until a moment ago,” she said, swallowing her nervousness.
“Who? Where?” I stated flatly, prepared to undo whatever damage had just happened.
“She’ll be fine. When we get this spell over with, I’ll go back and find another way.”
A warm rush of air that I did not create whooshed by me, producing both Landen and Phoenix.
“Begin,” Landen demanded, keeping his stance between Phoenix and Skylynn.
Skylynn turned. As she glanced at the ground, a pentagram made of fire appeared. She knelt before it. Landen glanced back at me as he moved to the side of the pentagram. I saw Clarissa nod at him. I didn’t have time to question him as to what he was doing. Phoenix mirrored him on the other side of the burning mark, and in that instant they were still. I wasn’t a fool; the three of them were gone.
“Look at me, Willow,” Clarissa said firmly. “You need to go into The Realm.”
“I don’t know how,” I muttered, frantically looking over my shoulder at Landen.
“Willow,” Clarissa urged, turning my head, “focus. How did you get in last time?”
“Per—Perodine. She opened some kind of door using energy.”
“Okay. This is just like when you move your soul. You remember where you first appeared in The Realm? Go there now.”
Nervously, I shook my head no. I didn’t want to do this wrong—to be stuck there alone.
“Willow,” she said sternly. Her hands fell to my shoulders, and an intense calm swarmed through me. I was inches from a deep sleep. “Go now.”
On her command, my eyes drifted closed, and I remembered the field of orange blades of grass and the dark sky.
“Look at me now,” she whispered proudly.
Slowly, I opened my eyes to see The Realm all around me.
Clarissa looked so different now. Before, I didn’t focus on her, but now I could see every flawless feature. It was like her image was wrapped in silk; she was warm, inviting – yet dangerously deadly at the same time. Her short, dark hair perfectly framed her pale green eyes, which seemed to glow.
She pushed her hands into her black pea coat as she smiled slightly.
“Let it out.”
> “What?” I asked, mystified as I tried to pick one of the millions of questions I wanted to ask her first.
“Let every emotion out. Right here. Right now.”
“No way,” I said with a cringe. I remembered what Nana said, that it would be twice as hard to gain control next time.
“This is The Realm. Your soul, not your body. Your control is locked in place where you stand, but if you do not release right now, you will lose that control.”
I tried to reason if what she was saying was true by judging her with my insights.
“Now,” she commanded.
Even if I wasn’t sure, I had no choice. The fierce jealousy I felt caused the wind to whisk violently by, the anger I had exploded into thunder, and the grief I had made the drops of rain begin to fall.
A massive black umbrella appeared in Clarissa’s hand, shielding us both. The sly grin she gave me made me smile. The night vanished, and the sun beamed through the rain.
“That’s all you got?” she taunted, trying to hold in a grin.
A combination of every hopeless and joyful emotion exploded around me, causing snow to fall with the rain, leaves to dance with the wind, and lightning to crash within the rays of sun. It was remarkable.
Within minutes I was so distracted by the different elements of weather that I didn’t feel the emotions anymore. I understood the weather’s refection of life. In every life, the sun will shine, the rain will fall, the coldest winters are followed by the warmest summers, there will be the death of autumn, the birth of spring in everything we do, and everything we are. Understanding that the chaos of life was natural made experiencing it as it was so much easier.
With my new calm, The Realm returned to its odd base point of a distant stormy sky.
“What happened to you?” I asked tenderly.
“I’m at peace. I promise.”
“How can you be at peace here?”
“I’m at peace because I do not fear my existence.”
“Landen said that you are ready to become a Witness, you just have to make the choice – but Dane isn’t.”
Her cool stare confirmed my statement.
“You’re not at peace,” I countered. “How do we fix this?”