Blakeshire (Insight #9)(48)

“What?”

“We are almost to part of this surprise. I want to see your eyes when you see it first, and I can’t do that and drive at the same time.”

“I really suck at not peeking,” I said as I leaned forward and put my forehead on my lap. I heard him laugh, but I knew my weaknesses.

A moment later, he parked.

“Now?”

“I’m going to come around,” I heard him say as the door opened, then closed.

When he opened my door and I felt the cool air race in, I turned my head to look up at him. “Should I be nervous?”

“No,” he murmured with a blush. What was odd was that he was nervous. It was the first time I felt an emotion coming from him so clearly.

I reached for his hand and held his gaze as I stepped out. He nodded for me to look forward, and when I did I saw a waterfall that was only thirty feet or so high. On the top ridge there were endless flowers in every color known to the imagination. As the water ran by these flowers, the pigment of them flooded the fall, making it look like a rainbow. As it pooled in the basin, some of the colors remained solitary and others mingled creating a pastel shade off which the sun was gleaming merrily.

I’d heard of déjà vu before, but I had never felt it this deeply. A wave of energy swept over me—it took my breath away. I felt a slow, deep pounding in my chest.

“Like it?” he said so quietly that I barely heard him.

All I could do was nod once as my wide eyes took in the detail. More than once, I had created something close to this. I would stand at the top of a ladder and let the paint run from the ceiling to the floor, but I was never able to create something this breathtaking.

“When you showed me some of your work the other night, this place came to mind instantly.”

My work he was referring to was the bonus room in the house I grew up in. My mother gave me free rein to paint or do anything I wanted to do. The waterfall wall had been there for years. Months back, for some reason when I was mad at my dreams, mad that the boy I was dreaming about was looking at a girl that looked just like me, I destroyed that wall. Well, kind of; I threw a bucket of black paint across it, and ran my hands through, as every piece of it was covered with that darkness. In the end when it dried, the colors beamed through the black. My mother thought I created that on purpose; she had no idea it was the result of an emotional breakdown.

I remembered Drake staring at it as I loaded the DVD. His emotion was so reserved when he gazed at it. Peace. That was what I felt from him. I didn’t have the nerve now or then to tell him why the black paint was shrouding the once bright images.

“This feels…I’ve been here.”

That nervousness mixed with excitement absorbed his emotion. “You mean that?”

“I could almost swear to it.”

He reached for my hand and placed it on his chest; there, I felt his heart racing. “Do you feel what you are doing to me right now, Madison Marie?”

I blushed. “How am I doing that to you when this is my surprise?”

He grasped my hand and started to pull me to the edge of the waterfall. We walked around the water basin, then up the hill which was steep enough that he had to balance me a time or two.

Right when we reached the top, my breath seized.

The waterway that was feeding that waterfall was coming from two different sources, and the springs circled a beautiful scene. Massive willow trees were there. The trunks were not solid, but several pieces growing together as they joined just before the branches broke free. The space in the center of the trunk was so massive that you could camp there, build a home inside. The branches had white blooms and reached from the ground up to at least a hundred feet in the air.

I had dreamed of this place. In vivid detail. It was just too unreal, too beautiful to be real.

I felt that slow pounding, my heart crawling to a stopping point. Even though I felt Drake’s stare, I could not utter a word.

I felt warm. Feeling like I was getting ready to faint, I unbuttoned my coat, trying to find air.

“Are you all right?” he asked so quietly that I wasn’t sure he really said it.

“I dreamed of this place, more times than I can count.”

“Are you sure it was this place?” he asked in far too serious a tone.

In a daze, I walked forward. The largest willow was in the center of this field that was lined with springs. This was the tree that I always found myself within. I would pull out a hidden box, gaze at what was there, and then tuck it away safely.

Once I was before this tree, I felt a burst of energy reach for me. I wished with every ounce of my soul that my vision was restored to the way it was a few days ago. I could only imagine the shades of energy that were in this sacred place. I stepped inside the fortress of the massive canopy, then into the hollow space between the trunks.

With a trembling hand, I reached up and found the wooden crevasse that I had explored a million times over. I felt something cold and heavy. Nervously, I pulled out the small box; by then, Drake had crept closer and was peering in at me.

The box was so heavy that it had to be made of pure silver. As I brushed my thumb across the metal it shined, and a simple smile came to me as I opened it. Lying there on the velvet pillow was a locket. An intricate top with an array of symbols hinted at what could only be a clock on the inside. As soon as I unlatched that top piece, a burst of warm air and energy blew past me, pushing the long strands of my hair over my shoulder.