Enflame (Insight #6)(67)

“Who turned her up anyways?” Phoenix muttered.

Landen looked at Brady. “When did Madison’s insights start to bring her pain?”

“She woke up like that, ” he answered.

“She’s in pain?” I said, moving to go and help her. Landen tightened his arm around me.

“Kinda what you went through,” Landen said. His intent was solid. He wanted me to leave Madison be.

“Something happen?” Chrispin asked.

“She’s just repelling energy,” Phoenix answered.

“Olivia is working with her to find a calm. I’ll go check on them,” Chrispin said as he went to leave.

“I’m going to go back to Esterious, make sure nothing like what we saw is reflecting in the looking glass,” Marc said as he followed him.

Brady leaned down, carefully grabbed my necklace, and handed it back to me. He settled back down into his chair, silently stating that he was not going anywhere.

I put my necklace on and pulled the blanket from the back of the couch around me. It was late, and I was getting tired.

“I have a plan,” Phoenix said as he vanished.

“Is he always like that?” Brady asked Landen.

Before he could answer, Phoenix appeared again with an old book in his hand. “Always like what?” he asked, setting the book on the table and carefully opening it.

Brady never bothered to answer.

“Am I right in thinking that Xavier is lurking around Esterious?” Phoenix asked.

“Yep,” Brady mocked.

“We need to get him out in the open, catch him off guard.”

“He should be at the ball tomorrow night. I doubt he will be off guard,” Brady said.

“He’ll be more focused on Drake, the others, though,” Landen countered.

“That is what I thought,” Phoenix stated. “We need to make him weak before our night. I bet Skylynn has a way in her book of Shadows.”

“Would it not be faster to ask her?” I muttered, trying to hold my eyes open.

Phoenix glanced at me, clearly not enjoying my bluntness. “Sure, go right ahead, Sunshine. Call your mate over.”

I ignored him as my eyes fell closed. I listened to the three of them ramble through ways they could constrain Xavier. I was proud of Landen. He was adamant about not letting what we would do disturb the charade Drake and the others would put on. It wasn’t long after that point that I drifted to sleep, dreamless at first, but then somehow my mind drifted back to the scene I’d watched over and over again in The Realm.

What was odd was that my gaze always went to the pentagram, to where Landen was standing with the others, to Madison’s image. That felt real to me, that perspective. Running across the field didn’t. I mulled over that, taking in every detail. The only thing that made me sure I was wrong was the silver chain I saw around the neck of the girl that was killed in Drake’s arms. I couldn't see the medallion, but it was like I knew it was there. Somewhere in the night, I left that gruesome scene and found myself on the banks of the river I loved so much.

Not long after that point, Landen appeared and pulled me against him.

“Finally sleeping?” I thought.

“I was just trying to make sure we were ready for tomorrow.”

“Are we?”

“I guess we’ll find out.” His gaze fell to my medallion. He reached for it and tilted it, allowing the sun to shine throughout the black glass. If you really focused, you could see all that it had revealed to us before.

“The gift that keeps giving. Did I have this then? The night of the spell?”

His eyes grew sad. “You did before that point. I don’t know if you had it when you died. The Realm opened, pulling your body into it. Why?”

“Just thinking.”

“About?” he thought, pulling me closer to him.

“About how this medallion has my energy in it, how you were in tune with it. I wonder if that is what you felt.”

“I felt you. I was fooled,” he thought as he reached to caress the outline of my eyes.

“I just want to remember it, too. You said before that even if you could see the pasts of others, you would not see their perspective...a lot happened on that field. I just want to get it right.”

“Are you upset that you died in his arms?” he asked as his gaze feverishly searched my sorrowful expression, like he was mad at himself for not picking up on my emotions sooner.

“I’m upset that Dane lost half his soul that night, that because he did, he was possessed over and over again. I’m upset that Madison and Drake were on the same field. I’m upset that we may need Charlie, Draven—Monroe to undo this, and we can’t ask them.”

Understanding me, he relaxed a little. “The power of suggestion can alter fate. We do not want to use that power on our newfound friends. Trust me, they will be pulled into place if they are meant to.”

“I get it.” I glanced over him. “Now spill it. What’s up with Phoenix?”

Grief seized his expression and emotion. “He found the girl he has searched an eternity for…she’s in trouble.”

“Then why is he hanging out in our living room?”

“He’s helping her, too. It’s just really complicated. I wouldn’t mention it to him. It’s a tender topic.”