Enflame (Insight #6)(19)
“Who’s your daughter?” Landen asked sympathetically, as if he owed a debt to this woman.
“Skylynn. The last witch that dared to help you on your quest.”
“The last that you know of,” was Landen’s honest reply.
“Do you remember her?” she asked hopefully.
“She performed the spell that allowed me to die.”
She nodded in response. “She can’t return until your path is aligned again. Or until her lover grieves for her.”
“Why would he not grieve for her?” I blurted.
Saige cast a wayward glance in my direction. “Because he didn’t meet her in that life. My daughter’s eagerness led her to chase visions that were not ready for her see them.” The silence pressed her to say more. “He’s with you. The core of what you need for change is nearly in place now. You have no choice but to carefully unweave this web of spells. For I fear you are all connected. One death brings all. Then no one is bringing down any master Escort.”
“What spell?” Landen pressed.
“There are countless spells chaining you. ”
“Can you not undo the spell?” Landen asked, looking for a simple solution.
“No. Only the creator can.”
“Your daughter.”
“No. You. You either created it or had someone else do so on your behalf. I know my child, she would have not helped you unless she was sure that your battle plan was solid. She fought for balance before that notion was ever considered to be an option.”
“Let me open your eyes, mate, so we can unweave this,” Phoenix said as he appeared beside Landen.
Landen nodded once to agree.
“Are we not going to talk about this?”
“They can open my eyes, Willow, let me see how we got here, what we have to do to find peace.”
“We have Draven, the others, that can see for you.”
“They can see my actions, not my thoughts or reasoning. I feel them. There is no negative intent. He wants balance, she wants her daughter back, and those goals only come if victory is reached on this side of reality.”
“I can only feel Saige...and the truth in your thoughts...if it’s best, it’s best.”
He gazed into my eyes for what seemed like forever as he carefully weighed his decision.
“It’s best,” he thought finally.
I nodded once and let out a nervous gasp of air.
“Open them. Let’s finish this,” Landen said as he let me go.
Saige walked to her table and pulled a drawer out beneath it. A small broom was retrieved, then waved across the table. New candles were then added, and she pulled out another chalice and filled it with something I could not see. She then stepped back and moved her hands across the room, and instantly a sphere of energy surrounded us all, locking us in some protective bubble. Once the circle was complete, she closed her eyes and let words whisper across her lips.
Phoenix moved in front of Landen, locking gazes, fire to ice.
I wanted to feel fear or uncertainty in Landen, anything that would give me a reason to stop this. My heart was pounding out of control, but the sphere of energy was not letting the weather reflect that emotion.
“Brother,” Phoenix said as he beckoned the fire from the candles to his hands. “All that you were, all that you are, I call to thee. I call it from the fire that birthed your soul. I call it from the ocean that guides your spirit. I call it from the wind that carries your thoughts. I call it from the earth that claims your ashes...”
At that moment, images of Landen appeared all around us. I counted sixteen, noticing the different eras of time they reflected, the way he wore his hair, the clothes he wore, the attitude in the blue I loved so much.
“Remember,” Phoenix demanded as the fire bolted from his hands and encased Landen.
Each of the images of him stepped into that fire, and one by one they disappeared into his body. When the last one was gone, Landen’s knees buckled beneath him. Instinctively, my energy grasped him, but Phoenix was already there, holding him up.
“What did you do to him!” I screamed as Landen’s eyes rolled back and his head fell forward.
“It’s a process,” he half-heartedly answered me. “Darkest room,” he said to Saige.
“Down the hall, under the stairs.”
“Break the circle,” he demanded.
The energy sphere in which we were standing vanished, and in that second Phoenix vanished with Landen in his arms.
“What did you do!” I bellowed with the thunder that erupted outside.
Saige glanced at me, then walked to her altar and whispered something before extinguishing the candles there.
“Listen to me,” she said bleakly. “I don’t know where you have been or what you have been doing, but playtime is over. Too many souls are not at rest.”
“Yeah, I can name a few billion. And if you think we have been having some kind of party, you’ve lost your mind. We’re trying to save a dimension, and we’ve already paid for whatever curse this is—dearly.”
“Dearly?” her tone was sharp as she swiftly turned to face me. “Your vessel is intact, so is his. Your souls are strong. Others—they have paid dearly. I can only hope that you have somehow managed to bring us closer and there is not more for us to undo now. The Witnesses give me hope.”