Image (Insight #3)(55)

“Did you cook?” I thought, amused.

He slowly pulled away from me. “I may be able to heal and make time stand still, but cooking is a gift that still escapes me,” he said, amused by his words.

I ran my finger along the side of the warm cake, gathering as much icing as I could.

“Your mother gave this to you. I told them that I didn’t think you wanted a party,” he said, tracing the other side of the cake with his finger.

I knew my mother wasn’t surprised. I don’t think I can recall a single birthday party when I was growing up; I hated the attention, the intensity of the emotions. I smiled, remembering that every year my mother had appeared in my room with a small cake, humming to me. Landen had assumed that role now, and the reality that I was in his care was refreshing.

“She gave you some inside tips to my birthday rituals, I gather,” I said.

Landen nodded and set the small cake on the table, then reached his arms around my waist and pulled me to him. “Though, if I recall correctly, I all but had to drag you to our celebration; it wouldn’t be hard for me to assume that you wouldn’t have wanted any attention for a birthday.”

“We were in the middle of major turmoil; a party didn’t make sense,” I said, brushing the dark, wet locks of hair from his perfect blue eyes.

“We still are,” Landen said as he moved his hand to my face, “but we won’t stop living to worry.”

I laid my head on his chest, hiding in his energy. I felt his hand on the back of my head, as well as the calm he was giving me. “You can’t hide your emotions from me, Willow. We are one; they belong to me as well - and pushing them down makes us weaker,” he said gently to me.

I leaned back and looked into his perfect eyes and saw the seriousness there.

“What did Jayda show you?” he asked.

As a rush of adrenaline and panic soared through every part of me, Landen held me tighter, giving me all his love, his calm.

“Oba was Drake,” he said, looking into my eyes.

I nodded and stared at him through the glass panes of tears that I refused to let fall. “How did you know?” I whispered.

Landen smiled slightly and let his fingers trace the dark circles under my eyes. “Anytime Drake is given the opportunity to proclaim that he’s your soulmate, he takes it – except for when Perodine told you that the darkness couldn’t live in me and that I was your soulmate. His intent was to save your life at any cost, and his emotion was full of grief - a grief that he’d already passed through in another life.” He sighed, then continued, “And when you told us that Jayda and Alyianna showed you your lives, a rush of panic came to him; it was as though he was prepared for you to scold him.”

“I don’t understand,” I said in a weak voice.

“Willow, I told you the day that Delen was redeemed that I didn’t care who we may have loved before; we had each other now, and that’s all that matters. We can’t change it,” he said.

“I want to blame someone. I want to seek revenge on whoever caused Drake to live in his illusion, but these memories...they tell me it’s me, that I did all of this to myself - and now you have to endure it with me,” I said.

Landen let his hand fall in mine, then he pulled the covers back on my side of the bed; I gladly lay down. He was at my side, and his eyes searched over me carefully; his emotions were balanced. I didn’t understand...if I was him, I’d be jealous, angry.

He began to trace my eyes and smiled slightly. “Why are you not angry?” I asked.

“If I was angry, that would mean that I doubted our love, that I thought there was a chance he could take you from me. You know that doubt doesn’t live in me - not tonight, not in this life.”

“When we find my ‘twin’ and she’s your bad soulmate, I can’t promise you that I won’t be jealous – but that doesn’t mean that I have any doubt that you belong to me,” I said.

He smiled, bringing his dimples to life, then laughed under his breath. “There won’t be any need to get angry because hopefully she and Drake will be so consumed with one another that they’ll leave us alone,” Landen said, amused by his words.

I rolled on my back and stared at the ceiling. “You don’t think I’m wrong about the twin, do you? I mean, I had a twin then, Samylia, and she couldn’t stop the darkness.”

Landen pulled himself up on one arm and looked over me. “Let your thoughts rest. We have no way of knowing if it’s love of soulmates or the power that rests in your heart that makes the darkness tremble,” he said, smiling slightly.

“I’m going to ask him tomorrow. His memories must hold an image of her.”

His smile lessened, and he traced his fingers on my arm, trying to calm me. “I have the impression that his memories are only of the lives he had with you; he may not see her.”

“We can thank Alamos for that,” I said in a disgusted tone.

“Alamos only wanted to find a way to protect him,” Landen promised.

I turned on my side and pulled him closer to me. “I’m not sure I like you defending them,” I said in a teasing manner.

He laughed casusally at me as his hand moved across my back. “I will never lie to you. I’ll tell you what their intent is, what their emotion is; I only want you to be at peace with your emotions in return,” Landen said.