Enflame (Insight #6)(59)

“Actually, we were going to have Olivia play the role of his sister. Madison suggested otherwise,” Perodine said, nodding to Drake as he opened the door next to her and came in.

His dark gaze moved between Landen and me. He had to have known we’d fought about him, my reaction to what he went through. He was trying to see where we were with that.

“She volunteered because of Charlie,” Drake stated evenly into the room.

“What about Charlie?” Landen asked, glancing at Draven, whose eyes had returned to green.

“Charlie will go with me. Madison is never far behind.” With obvious concern, Draven glanced at Drake.

“She’ll wake up, a few hours time,” Drake assured us.

“What is going on?” I asked.

“Nothing,” Draven said as doubt and disdain filled him.

“You’re sure she’s all right?” I asked softly.

“Just dreaming,” Draven mumbled, looking over me once more.

“So, if this all plays out right, everything will be in balance again?” I asked, avoiding Draven’s eyes. I wasn’t going to invite him into what we’d been up to in New Orleans. I knew he’d seen it, and if he were meant to be a part of it, he needed to make that move.

“We’ll have control of the palace once again,” Perodine answered. “Draven will bring no less than two hundred members of Chara here. They will stay in the palace; that control is needed right now. This meeting right now is dangerous.”

Landen nodded once. “We’re heading to Chara anyway. I’ll figure out what is needed of us there.”

“Wait,” Draven said, reaching for my arm. “How did you know I was supposed to play there? And why do you need me to do that now?”

Everyone else was confused, but Landen answered anyway. “It’s complicated. Basically, that land has a lot of old energy in it that was displaced after a spell went horribly wrong. I rode souls into The Realm, trying to find Willow and kill Donalt. I need to let them out. I didn’t plan on asking you to help me, but your mother has heard that you will in the echo. I’m still not going to ask you to help. You have to feel that that is what you need to do.”

“That is where you have been. What you have been doing?” August gasped.

“No,” Draven said as he tilted his head, stepping slightly away from me. “That happened a long time ago, and they’ve been trying to undo it. Why did you have to ride them into The Realm? Could you not just go?”

Landen smirked, holding in the envy he felt for how blindly Draven had mastered entering The Realm. “Back then, there was only one way in, through energy, one shared emotion, and war was the only way—apparently the wrong way.”

“How did you get in?” I asked Draven.

His eyes fell into mine. “Music. I was pulled in when I wrote that song. I didn’t pull anyone out until it was played live.”

Landen and I looked at each other, then to Draven. “Playing it live allows you to pull souls out?” Landen confirmed.

“Yeah, a lot. I can only pull out a few thousand when it’s not in front of a live audience, when we play in The Realm.”

“A few thousand?” I gasped. “How many do you need out?” I asked Landen.

“Hard to say. At least that many,” he said as his respect and admiration grew for Draven.

“Well,” Draven said coolly, “a small concert would get you that. One problem: I have no band.”

“Aden is on his way back to Chara, at least I think he is,” Landen said.

Draven nodded as if he had already seen that. His doubt told me his brother would stall before coming back to them. I didn’t know if that was best or not.

“That makes a drummer.”

“Can your dad not find other musicians? Do we need to find Winston and Grayson?” I asked.

“Winston is too deep; no desire to come out. Grayson, I don’t know. I doubt you have the time to, and yeah, my dad could find other musicians, hundreds of them – but Dad can’t see energy. I doubt he knows much about it. In the past, my band protected ourselves and opened a larger gate because we stood in a perfect circle of light and dark.”

Perodine handed her pen to him. “Explain.”

Draven furrowed his eyebrows and sighed, then walked over to the table and turned to a blank sheet in August’s notebook. We all crowded around him to see what he was doing.

“It’s not hard. Charlie, Aden, and Madison are light energy. Charlie stands in front of me, off to the side a bit, between me and Grayson.” He placed dots for them on the page. Then you have Madison, who stands off to the side between Winston and me. On the back side, you have Aden. It’s light and darkness, one circle.”

“Charlie and Madison are in the crowd, so the circle doesn’t have to play,” Drake stated.

We all turned to face him, finding him just behind us with crossed arms.

Draven shrugged. “Madison and Charlie have strong energy. They don’t have to play at all. If I didn’t need the best drummer in the universe, Aden wouldn’t have to play either. If I had to bet, I would say that Winston and Grayson would have to play to help open that door. They are not as focused on their energy, at least not without music.”

“So,” Drake said as his stare grazed across me before returning to Draven, “if two people who were aware of their energy—energy that is supposedly dark—stood in the places you have marked to create this circle, that would work?”