Blakeshire (Insight #9)(54)
“I’ll do what I want, when I want, old man.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Alamos move closer. “You leave here for days, then show up with her dressed in jeans and a modern coat—and what is this?” I saw him reach for my locket. I went to block him, but something beat me to it. What looked like lightning emerged from my locket and stabbed Alamos’ hand.
“Listen to me, little one. We are going to play this game the right way, or not at all. You can’t accept gifts from him until your courting has been established and moves forward. Give it here. I will return it to you when the time is right for him to gift you. When there are witnesses to this act of devotion.”
“Back away,” I sneered, trying to speak without breathing.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Drake bellowed.
Alamos reached once more for the locket, but this time it didn’t have a chance to strike him; with a glance, Drake had sent him flying backward, landing in that chair. I saw his head move from side to side. “Trying to protect her. She may be disposable to you, but right now she is keeping Willow alive,” Alamos said with a sigh.
“DISPOSABLE,” Drake bellowed into the echoing passage of the entry hall.
“Don’t growl at me,” Alamos said as he adjusted his robe. “Go ahead, get it out of your system. Hold her, pretend she is Willow. If that is what it takes to get your head in the game, so be it. But do not serve her up before we are done with her.”
“No one is touching me. Ever,” I spat, bristling as I glared at Drake, then walked toward the doorway that led out of that room. I wasn’t sure I knew where I was going, but I thought I knew where Perodine’s study was, the woman that was a guide to Willow. I hoped that either she was there or Drake’s grandfather was.
My brisk walk nearly turned into a run. I was only a few doors away from that study when I ran right into a wall of a man. I took a step back, ready to fight who was in front of me; right when I did, I saw Landen and took the first breath I had since we had come back.
Landen was Willow’s soul mate. He was tall, lean, and had the most tantalizing blue eyes in existence. If he was here, that meant all of them were. That could be good or bad.
“Hey, hey, what’s going on?” he asked as his hands reached for my shoulders and those eyes of his blazed right through me.
“Is Aden here?”
“I was just passing through. I haven’t seen him.” He glanced around. “I feel him, though; that way.”
Of course, he nodded in the direction I was running from.
“Why do you need him?”
I rolled my shoulders in an attempt to find my balance and silently ask Landen to let go of me. “I need him to see what I saw.”
Right then, Landen’s pupils expanded; that was a classic sign of seeing. He must have picked that up from Charlie and the others. He was already on the brink of discovering this curse when we met him. His varied insights allowed him to peer into souls and find the answers he was seeking.
“Who taught you that?” I muttered.
An overwhelming sense of rage consumed the air. Before I could question it, I felt Drake’s hand on my arm.
I met his gaze for an instant, then looked back to Landen. From Landen’s anger and confusion, I knew he’d seen what I’d seen.
“We have a problem,” Landen said to Drake, so quietly that his lips didn’t even move.
“More than one,” Drake bit back.
“Let me take her to Chara,” Landen demanded.
“What? No,” I fumed.
“No is right. Don’t make me add you to my growing list of enemies.”
“Aren’t I already on that list?” Landen quipped in a tone that was laced with sarcasm.
“Let’s not go down this road again,” Drake said as his anger leveled off. “You all right?”
Was he all right? I was starting to sense a bond between these two. A deep one that not only had a past, but a future.
“Are you practicing what I taught you?” Landen asked him.
“Somewhat.”
“You need to use it. Right about now,” Landen said as he glanced at me.
Drake glanced down at me with questioning eyes. I didn’t dare say a word. I had no idea who was listening or watching.
“Why are you here? Did something happen?” Drake asked Landen.
“I was looking for someone.”
“Someone here?”
“Long story,” Landen answered absentmindedly as his stare moved to me. I felt concern bellowing within him.
“I don’t have time to hear it. So long as no one has been kidnapped, murdered, or possessed, then we have to go.”
“Right, then,” Landen said with a nod. He threw up a fake salute at Drake, but when he did it he used three fingers. That was his way of silently telling Drake that the third thing Drake listed was an issue right now.
Landen leaned in and said something to Drake that I could not hear.
Drake nodded. “Tonight.”
Landen glanced down at me. “Perodine has robes in that study. They will cover your jeans until you get to where you need to be.”
And with that, he vanished. Behind where he was standing, there was a massive oil painting of angels wrapped in black silk, hovering over the sea. In that sea I saw not only a massive octopus, but the eyes of Horace staring back at me.