Blakeshire (Insight #9)(39)
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 not 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.