“You’re making me happy.” His lips met mine once again. “Very happy,” he murmured as his hands framed my face gently, as if he wanted to ensure that I would not pull away from his touch.
“Then what’s with the delay, Blakeshire?”
He smirked before stealing one more deep kiss. “It’s your birthday. You should not be lurking in the cold, damp corners of that palace or knee deep in old books.”
“Am I that obvious?” I asked with a bit of a blush.
“You talk in your sleep.”
I lifted a brow. I didn’t remember any words that I had said in that wicked dream. “What did I say?”
“Several phrases.”
“Enlighten me.”
He pursed his lips as his eyes fell into mine. “He was forced to fake love, and now with his true lover he will fake hate…something about fooling them all, going back to the beginning.”
I swayed slightly, hearing those words from another voice in my mind—a powerful voice that was connected to Drake in some sacred way.
Drake wrapped one of his arms around me as he saw my perplexed expression. “Tell me about the dream.”
I moved my head from side to side as I let out a deep breath. “I didn’t dream that. I remember hearing it, though. Understanding something.”
“You repeated that line at least fifty times. You dreamed it in some way.”
I swallowed nervously. “Take me to your father.”
He leaned away from me as he nearly turned white as a ghost. “No.”
“Why not?” I asked, reaching for him, but he swayed back, avoiding my touch.
“Why do you want to see him so badly?” he asked before he took a deep, exasperated breath.
I didn’t have an answer to that. “I just…I just want to know your roots. What is in your blood.”
“You don’t want to know that,” he said as the room grew colder and his expression turned to stone.
“Fine,” I said as I looked away from him. I had been around my cousin Draven long enough to know when to stop pushing a furious man. Drake’s emotion right now was more of grief than anger, but I knew he was only a breath away from drastically changing his mood.
He stepped forward and gently turned my chin so I would have to look him in the eye once more. “Not yet, Madison Marie. I can’t go to him like this.”
“Like what?” I asked as my eyes rushed over his addictive visage.
I could tell he wanted to answer me, but words had abandoned him. When I focused, tried to see him, I could see flashes of Donalt, the past king that was now trying to take over Drake.
“You don’t have to say it.”
“It’s hard,” he said as he leaned his forehead against mine and reached to trace my bottom lip. “You allow me to talk about him, and when you do I feel myself healing…thank you for that.”
For the first time ever, I kissed him first. Instantly, that grief in his emotion was gone and devotion and what I was currently calling love filled his soul.
Just as we started to lose ourselves, one of us—I’m not sure which one—managed to find control and end our embrace.
He grinned boyishly. “It’s cold where we are going. Olivia said there were several coats in her closet for you to choose from.”
“I have no say in this?” I pushed.
“I promise tonight when you lay your head down, it will be in Esterious, under the roof of my palace.”
“I’m kinda caught up on sleep,” I teased as I playfully tilted my head and raised one of my eyebrows. I would go on this adventure with him today, but I was going to find my saltwater one way or another.
“We don’t have to sleep,” he said under as his breath as he pushed away from me and a sinful grin spread over his lips, lips that I was craving to feel against mine again.
All I could do in response was smile slyly. I climbed down from my stool and made my way upstairs to steal one of Olivia’s coats.
With each step I climbed, I saw that dream, heard those words Drake said I spoke, and knew without a doubt the answers I was seeking were going to take me down a road that I would have painfully feared before this day.
One thing about me: when I have my mind set on something, I can’t move past it. It was going to drive me mad that I was off somewhere with Drake while a deep mystery was waiting for me to discover it.
I peeked into Aden’s room. He was still asleep, but I had no choice but to wake him.
I felt the air tighten with jealousy as I moved closer to him. I glanced around the room, looking for any sign of where that was coming from. One thing was for sure, Aden needed to figure out this violin thing soon. I was starting to question how innocent that anomaly was.
When I sat down on the edge of the bed, he flinched. When he slightly opened his eyes, he drew in a gasping breath and pushed away from me.
“Why, thank you. I know I’m a gorgeous sight to wake up to,” I teased.
Apparently, something didn’t find it funny because I felt the air sting my skin. Aden must have felt it, too; he glanced around the room, then back to me. “I was just dreaming of someone else,” he muttered, pulling himself up and rubbing his eyes with the palm of his hand.
I reached for his shirt and handed it to him. “Was a jealous violin involved?” I quipped.
“You feel that, too?” he asked as he pulled his shirt on.
“Like needles.”
“Misunderstood,” he said under his breath. “At least you’re awake now. I was getting worried.”
“Don’t let me sleep for days on end, not with everything that is going on around us.”
“You of all people needed your rest. Are you feeling better? Insights back on track?”
“No…I feel blind.”
“Not in pain?” he said as if he were trying to convince himself not to be worried about me.
“Where are Charlie and Draven?”
“Not sure. I saw them for a few minutes yesterday.”
“You don’t look happy,” I said as I tried to feel his emotion. It was pensive as usual.
“They’re fighting again.”
“What did he do?”
Aden playfully glared at me. We were the ambassadors for Charlie and Draven. I defended Charlie; he, of course, defended his twin. Most of the time, we found a way to see a common ground.
“I think it’s her this time. She keeps going into the veil, and he doesn’t want her there.”
“Veil...like the veil of death?”
“Apparently.”
“Maybe that is why she has ghosts lingering near her,” I mused.
He shrugged. “I’m not getting in the middle of it this time.”
“Me either.” I reached for his arm, ignoring the stabbing feeling in the air. “Do you have any free time today?”
“Whatever time you need, birthday girl.”
“Just another day. Listen. I have to go somewhere with Drake, but I wanted to know if you could do some digging for me so when we get back I would know which way to go.”
“Where are you going?” he asked harshly, not cool with my vague, ‘I’ve got plans’ statement.
“I don’t know; like, a date or something.”
A perplexed grin spread across his face as his deep green eyes gave me a once over. “A date. Maddie has a date.”
“Madison.”
“Fine. Your gift from me is not giving you hell about this.”
“You like him?” I questioned absentmindedly.
His smile faded. “It’s never mattered what I or anyone else thought, Maddie. You know what makes you happy.”
“Could have fooled me when it came to Britain, or anyone else for that matter.”
“We were just reacting to you. We can see the wall you put up and say what you can’t.”
I let out a deep breath. “Yeah, I do that.”
Out of habit, his pupils expanded, taking in what he could see around me. I was sure he saw my nightmare when I felt his emotion shift to panic, then submit
to rage. “What the hell?”
“I don’t know. But I know it all connects. I have this gut feeling that I have to go back to my beginning.”
“Like, first life?”
“Yeah, maybe. It has to do with that palace. The saltwater, the ink, the octopus. All of it. Can you start to dig into that? Like maybe talk to that Alamos dude and see what he remembers or figure out why anyone would die that way, if there is water in that palace, if it has salt in it.”
“Should I be writing this down?”
“That is just the start. I think something jacked me up the first time I died and caused all of this strife. I just don’t know what.”
“You have been around these people too long—first death?”
“Whatever, Mr. ‘A wall was knocked down in my head.’”
“Yeah, but wait, chill for a second—you think you lived and died in Esterious?”
“You think you lived and died in Italy, so what if I died in a different dimension?” I gripped his arm. “Listen. It is no secret that something sinister wants Drake and Willow to be together, but I think that started long before a few months ago, before this life. I think they set him up to cross her path.”
He sighed as he closed his eyes. “Maddie.”
“Don’t ‘Maddie’ me.”
“Yeah, I’m going to ‘Maddie’ you. You’re looking for a reason that he quote-un-quote cheated on you in a past life and was fooled in this one. Who cares? It doesn’t matter. Move forward.”
“Look, I know you think that I’m being jealous or vindictive, but I’m not. I think they did this to us, and the only way to stop them is to figure out what they did. It plays into something bigger, like massive. Like New World Order kinda stuff.”
“Who is ‘they’? Charlie and Draven already have the weapon that will end Xavier, or at least a plan to get to that point. Landen and Willow have more than halfway found a way to kill that Donalt jerk. I really think you are just exhausted. You need sleep. Sleep without wicked dreams.”
“I slept for, like, twenty-four hours. That is not it. I told you I had my own. And you know what? If I’m right, you might have your own, too.”
“My own what?”
“Evil Master Escort to end.”
That made him laugh, but once he saw that I was not amused, he ceased his laughter. “I’m all for fair, Maddie, but I’m not raising my hand to have my very own evil to kill. At some point, I would like to have a normal life.”
“Nothing will ever be normal about our lives. And like it or not, you are haunted by something. You don’t want to help me, that’s cool. I get it. But what if or when we figure out mine—figure out how they all connect—we figure out how to beat this.”
“Last time I talked to you, you told me we had to go our separate ways. Now look, see how your mind is messing with you?”
“I still think that. But you know what? You are still here. And if you are here, I’m putting you to work. So either go figure out that stuff or go and figure out why every time a female gets anywhere near you, the air fills with needles. Oh, and while a violin plays in the air why you sleep.”
He turned white as a ghost. “You hear that, too?”
“Not now, but I did before. That is jacked up. You’re haunted.”
“Not haunted,” he muttered as I felt grief emerge in his emotions.
My eyes moved rapidly across his image. “You’re grieving.”
As soon as I said that, I saw a flash of light out of the corner of my eye. Aden jumped back, seeing it, too.
“It stopped,” he said with an ache in his voice.
“Why are you grieving?” I asked, knowing he had no reason to feel that way. Even when I focused on him and saw the flashes of his perception, I couldn’t find a reason for that deep, horrid emotion.
“Just feel…empty.”
I glanced away. “I’m not pushing you away. You know that, right? I only said what I said because I really think that we have our own battles.”
“Maybe so, but mine is still blind to me. I’m not getting in the middle of another fight with Charlie and Draven. So like I said, you’re stuck with me for now.”
A sly smile crept to the corners of my lips. “Does that mean you are going to be my little detective today?”
“One condition.”
I glanced back at him, feeling how serious he was. “Drake mentioned his plans for today. I didn’t think much about it because I had my doubts he could convince you to go anywhere with him.” Sorrow filled his green eyes.
“Should I be worried?”
“No. Listen, he is looking for balance or something that he can declare real. When he told me where he wanted to take you, I tried to talk him out of it—I didn’t tell him why I was against it because the last thing either of you need is a reason to walk away. Just…see what he wants to show you, and not what your mind wants to show you.”
“You do like him.”
“I like that he can and will protect you from whatever this hell is that is chasing us but…Maddie, that boy is broken. I really don’t think there is another soul on this planet that can reach him. He is waiting for you to vanish. Prove him wrong.”
I stared at Aden, letting him see my deepest fears, something he had often picked up on long before Charlie and Draven had. “Britain fooled me. I don’t ever want to play that part again.”
“He didn’t fool you. You never let him in. You’ve let Drake in.”
I narrowed my stare on him.
“Don’t look at me like that. You have never taken a boy home. You took him home days after you met him.”
“I was proving a point.”
“To who? You? Every day, you tried to prove points to Britain, and I doubt he ever stepped foot in your house. No one is going to rag you for hooking up with Drake or tell you that you should or shouldn’t. I just don’t want you to let your head get in the way.”
“My head is always in the way. I have to stop mentioning Willow around him.”
“Agreed.”
I punched him in the arm. “He said we were going to be at the palace tonight. I’ll meet up with you there.”
“I’ll catch you tomorrow.”
“So you do have plans?”
“Nope, you do,” he said as he pushed me off his bed. “Out. I want to get up.”
Feeling accomplished, I went to leave. Right when I reached the door, I heard a name whispered in my ear. One that I had heard before.
“Aden,” I said as I stopped at the door and glanced over my shoulder.
“Yep.”
“I think you need to spend some time around Phoenix.”
“Who?”
“He’s a friend of Landen’s.”
“Does he know any of this you asked me to look into?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
“You lost me.”
“I don’t know,” I said as I reached for the door. “Maybe he knows something about violins.”
I lingered for a second, letting him see my perception, hear that name whispered to me just now in a girl’s voice.
Aden’s eyes grew wide for an instant. I closed the door before he had a chance to tell me I was pushing him away or something.
As soon as I did that, I felt something or someone embrace me briefly, warmly.
“He’s stubborn,” I muttered into the thin air around me. “You are going to have to play a little louder.”
I shook my head and made my way to Olivia’s room, feeling a little foolish for giving out advice on how to get through to my cousin to an invisible entity.
Butterflies were engaged in that thing that they do in my core. I had no idea where I was heading.
Chapter Nine
~Madison~
I felt like such a girl. After I found a coat in Olivia’s closet, I rushed to my room and ran a brush through my hair, added a little mascara, eyeliner, and perfume. I changed my top three times, looking for something warm but not suffocating; kinda revealing, but n
ot too revealing. A tight long sleeve T-shirt was what I settled on. I figured that I had to look kind of basic simply because if Drake was planning on taking me to some other dimension beyond his own, there were bound to be social rules I would have to adhere to. Knowing that all the travelers usually wore black made me feel confident about the choice I made.
I pulled on Olivia’s black pea coat and fastened the large silver buttons, pulled up the collar a bit, and took in a breath. If I still had fear, I’m sure anxiety would have halted me there, but instead I was just nervous; more excited than nervous, but still a bit jittery all the same.
I found Drake on the front porch, leaning against one of the large columns. Now he was wearing a long black coat that somehow managed to make him look even more powerful. He sensed me before I ever opened the door. When he turned to face me, I saw a long, dark purple scarf in his hand. I’d loved that shade for as long as I could remember, and he was the reason why; I always saw that particular hue in his aura.
“I was starting to wonder if you fell back asleep,” he quipped.
“Talking to Aden.”
His eyes questioned me. “About?”
“Dreams and such.”
“Dreams that you will not tell me about?”
“He could see them.”
He held in a grin that made me question once more if somehow Draven had taught him to see.
“What?”
“Nothing,” he said as he stepped closer and wrapped the scarf around me, tucking it beneath my collar. That was when I noticed he had one on, too, only his was on the inside of his jacket.
“Is this like a uniform or something?”
“Sort of,” he said with a shy smile “Shall we?”
I took his hand and stepped off the porch with him. The passages to the string—the white, glowing path that connected all the dimensions—were all over this dimension, but there was one that was very close to Olivia’s house; it was only one hilltop away.
I didn’t bother to fill the silence with meaningless words. That was never my style anyway, and I was sure if I tried I would sound like a fool.
Drake guided me over the hill and then right through the wave that danced on thin air.
Do you want to hear something odd? A friend of mine named Austin was the one that had managed to connect my friends and me with the idea of other dimensions. The one who allowed us to think we could escape the darkness around us.