Image (Insight #3)(29)

Suddenly, the silent room filled with a dark roar. Dane and Marc woke instantly and stood over me and Landen. Landen sat slowly up and let his eyes move across the darkness. I couldn’t feel the emotion of anyone beyond us – but I could feel a presence. A chill ran down my spine, but Landen suppressed whatever fear he had and pulled me up to him. We moved slowly to the door, not turning our back on the room. Marc opened the door and stood at the threshold, ushering us out. Once we all reached the hallway, he slammed the door shut - then it suddenly began to rattle violently, and just stopped.

Landen wrapped his arm around my shoulder and moved us into the study. Perodine was still at the table, studying the scrolls. August was asleep where we left him. Beth and Drake were stretched out on the other two couches, sound asleep. In the center of the room were three carts full of untouched food; the aroma reminded us that we’d only eaten once that day - and that meal had been interrupted by an astronomy lesson.

As Landen and I stared in August’s direction, Marc and Dane made themselves a plate. His emotion was calm; near blissful. My eyes moved to Drake; he looked so innocent as he slept. My eyes searched carefully over his perfect features. His lips were turned into a slight grin; I wondered what he was dreaming.

I felt Landen’s eyes on me and turned to look at him. He looked to Drake, then back to me.

“It must be a good dream,” he said, explaining Drake’s emotion to me. I looked away, not wanting it to seem like I cared.

I could see Marc shaking his head in disapproval. He hated having Drake this close; he saw him as a threat. I looked at Dane, who was looking back and forth between Marc and Landen, waiting for one of them to say or do something.

“He won’t hurt her – that’s all that matters,” Landen said to Marc.

I breathed out, pushing the tension I was feeling away from me. I walked to Landen’s side and buried my face in his chest. Landen wrapped his arms as tight as he could around me and let his head rest on mine.

“He does love you – but it can’t compare to what I feel for you,” he thought.

I heard the truth in Landen’s words, and a single tear fell from my eye. I squeezed him tighter.

“It doesn’t matter that he does. I can’t love him back; you are the sole keeper of my heart,” I thought.

He kissed the top of head and whispered, “I know.”

The tension Marc was putting off fell, and I felt Dane relax a little. August began to stir. The four of us walked to the couch he was on and leaned over. In our eagerness to hear what August had to say, we’d managed to stir Beth and Drake. As he turned in his sleep, August’s eyes were still closed. Drake and Beth slowly sat up and waited with the rest of us for him to wake. Augusts’ eyelids fluttered, then opened. Startled to see us all leaning over him, he struggled to focus.

“Well...?” Landen said.

August sat up slowly and looked around the room at all of us, then to Perodine - who was lost in her own world, looking over the scroll. “I didn’t dream of Nyla,” he said. “I did have a vivid dream of Preston and Libby standing in a white glow – as bright as the string. Before them, I saw a dark wall. Then Willow appeared; at her side were two others that looked just like her – and then they merged,“ he hesitated, then looked at me, “then everything turned red, like blood.”

I swallowed, imagining his dream. I looked over my shoulder to Perodine; she was looking at me, and she let her eyes fall back to her notes. I turned back to August.

“Were the children OK?” Beth asked, sliding down the couch she was on to get closer to August. He nodded.

Drake stood up and stared at the ground. Landen leaned against the back of the couch and stared into the distance. “We have to find that knife,” he said under his breath.

Drake looked up quickly. “What knife?”

Suddenly, I could feel Perodine’s emotions elevate out of control. I turned to look at her and saw that she’d stood abruptly and was staring at the doorway. My gaze followed hers; Alamos stood in the threshold of the door. His hands were full of books, and behind him a young man was standing with more books. Alamos and Perodine were locked in a stare as if they were in a world of their own. I looked up at Landen, trying to judge Alamos’s emotion through him - but he was a void to me as well. As his eyes searched over Alamos, Landen tilted his head curiously, and I knew that whatever he was feeling - he was having a hard time believing it.

“The one that cut the cord separating the woman I love from our daughter,” Alamos said, answering Drake’s question.

The entire room froze; it was as if Perodine’s butterflies were consuming us all. A truth was being told to us for the first time: Alamos was my first father – not Donalt.

Alamos moved his eyes to me and searched carefully over my face. Dane leaned protectively in my direction, and Landen just stared forward. Drake walked slowly around the couch, looking from Alamos to me. “You wait until now to tell me this?” he said, crossing his arms.

Alamos looked back at Perodine, who was still frozen in place. He then walked slowly to the table she was standing behind and laid down the books he was carrying. The young man behind him walked swiftly to the table and set the books down that he was carrying, then looked up at Alamos. Alamos nodded, and the young man left the room.

“I take it you haven’t spent the remainder of the day divulging your secrets,” Alamos said, staring at Perodine.