Enflame (Insight #6)(31)

I didn’t want to ever see this girl. But I doubted I had a choice in the matter.

His hands cupped my face as his eyes searched mine. “Willow, I know your nature. I know you have every reason to walk away from me, and that I deserve it, but we have to work together to break this spell. It’s not for my benefit, it’s for yours—everyone else's.”

A glance from me threw him on the bed and held him there. I climbed across him so he could get a full view of my glare.

“You listen to me. If you ever insinuate that I will leave you or you will leave me, I will kill you where you stand. That is my nature.”

His bewilderment made me smile on the inside, but outwardly I was fierce. “Up until a few days ago, I thought that when I found Drake’s other, she would be yours, too. I’ve been expecting this. Will I be cordial? Invite her over for dinner? Hell no. But I’m not a shallow-minded, lovesick girl. I’m the woman in love with you. I’m your soul. You’re mine and no past is going to change that. This now, Landen. Not then. If it was we’d both be in the wrong spot and you know that just as well as I do.”

In a flash he had overpowered me and I was lying on my back with my arms pinned above my head. I gasped in awe of the speed his body had gained overnight.

“He was always good to you. He never strayed no matter how many chances he had.” I could swear I saw a flame ripple through his dark pupils. “The last time, I let him love you. I watched you from a blind distance, and when his death came I walked you into the fire hearing you scream his name. All the dark, white, twisted magic I had in my power could not make your heart falter from your grief and surrender to me, not even when I promised you that you would see him again. He was right. Drake was right: he’s better for you. At least he was then. He wasn’t intoxicated with power. I was.”

I struggled under his hold, bowing my chest, unable to break free.

“He was wrong.” I swore.

His grip tightened. “I don’t deserve you. I led you to believe I was someone else.”

“And I don’t deserve you, so now we’re even. We are human, Landen, and having faults, making mistakes is part of it. You didn’t lead me to believe anything. If you knew what happened, you would have told me. You’re still you. I still love you.”

I managed to get my legs out from under him and wrapped them around his body that was literally on fire. “I’m yours. Live in the now with me. Lets walk out of hell side by side.”

His eyes turned tender. The Landen that had found me months ago surfaced. The fiery Landen, the one that The Realm awakened, the one Phoenix brought to center stage was going to have to learn to stop being so self-loathing. He was going to have to see that I was too stubborn to stop this war now.

“I love you,” he thought in the most tender tone he’d ever used with me.

“Kiss me. Show me how much.”

His hands on my arms loosened their grip, they slowly eased down my flesh, leaving a warm sensation behind. He slanted his head ever so slightly as his lips found mine. The kiss, the way his lips brushed against mine started out as innocently as our love did, as we began to move our lips together, let our tongues dance with one another, I felt the rhythm of the last few months, fierce one moment, sensual the next, under it all, a deep, undying, unyielding love.”

“Forgiven.” I said against his lips as he pulled away from me. I wasn’t telling him that I forgave him, I was telling him that he forgave himself because whatever he did led him here.

He knew me well enough to know what I meant. His eyes filled with wonder as he stared at me.

“Mr. Chambers? Or shall I call you Guardian? That seems to be the current title. What is our next move?”

His blushing smile made my heart flutter. I felt like I was falling in love with him all over again. I was willingly drowning in all that he was. A mystery that kept unfolding before my eyes.

“What now?” I whispered to break him from his gaze.

He pulled me to him and held me tightly with one arm as his other caressed my back. “We are walking on glass. We were right to try and separate ourselves from the others, to tell them that this was our fight, but we were wrong to lock them away. We can’t do that to Charlie.”

“I’m not going to let them get hurt for our benefit.”

His eyes squinted closed as if he were trying to see something. The rage in his emotion told me he couldn’t.

“We can guide them, share lessons we’ve learned, but we can’t persuade them to do anything or not to do anything.”

“Catch twenty-two there. How can we guide and not influence?”

“I have no doubt that if we suggest something to them and they would rather not, they would tell us. I mean, when this spell unravels, we can’t advise them. We can teach them to make each other strong. We can be strong for them, but that is it. We can’t interfere until our spells cross.”

“Did you know them from before?”

“The only time I saw them was with you. But, I know our fates entwine...”

Silence lingered. I waited until his emotions balanced out once more before I asked, “What about Dane? Clarissa?”

He let out a painful sigh as he sat up again and leaned forward on the edge of the bed. “The Realm is a shared consciousness. It’s a bank of past deeds. They have to face their past, resolve their grief before they can ascend into the life of a Witness.”