Insight (Web of Hearts and Souls #1)(101)

“She had to leave for now. Where’s your father?” Landen asked.

Preston reached his arm out and pointed at Brady holding Livingston.

“He’s sleeping now,” Preston said in an innocent voice.

Brady stepped through the passage, taking Livingston out of sight. Marc walked over to Landen and reached his arms out for Preston.

“We’re going to take you home now. You’re safe,” Marc promised the little boy.

All at once, I felt overwhelming compassion. Marc walked to the opening in the string, shielding Preston. Landen and I followed. Just as we reached the string, I heard, “Aliyanna—Guardian,” in a comfortingly familiar voice.

I turned to see Perodine walking from the shadows toward us. Marc’s fear spiked, but Landen reached his hand back to tell him that we were safe. She had the intent of helping us, we could feel love coming from her.

“It’s not over, is it?” I asked her.

Perodine closed her green eyes and shook her head no. She then walked closer, stopping just before us. Landen wrapped his arms around my waist. Perodine smiled kindly at him, bowed her head, and said, “Your task has only just begun. There are eight beyond the sun and the moon, and they will all test your love.”

“Is Drake gone now?” I asked with an ache in my voice.

“Alamos will bring Drake back. He believes he is Guardian. Alamos has given Drake a power unique to himself, but for any man to see the universe the way he desires it to be, he must have your heart.”

“I will always choose Landen.”

“It was my wish then, as it is now.”

“You aren’t angry with me, for what I did, for not coming back?”

Perodine smiled warmly at both of us. “The words spoken were meant to protect this world from being ruled by only one, which they’ve inevitably done. It was impossible for you to return then.” Perodine waved her arm, and the smoke from candles on the altar began to take the shapes of images—images of me, of a life I could not remember. Landen and I were in this room, and men in cloaks pushed a light toward us, then we vanished. The scene changed to a beautiful field of wildflowers, and my body changed, too—I was carrying a baby. Time then shifted forward, and Landen and I were playing in a field with Libby.

“She was ours,” Landen thought as I felt a deep compassion rise inside of him.

Perodine smiled as she saw me and Landen take in our past. The guilt we had for not returning was washed away. Libby was our reason.

“The power requires the two of you, you couldn’t leave her behind, and she couldn’t come with you. Today, everything has moved, and you can be the people I needed you to be then, both of you can.

I felt Perodine and Landen’s fear rise and heard footsteps coming closer. Perodine leaned in and kissed my cheek, then smiled up at Landen and said, “Go. Quickly.”

Hastily I hugged her, then Landen pulled me into the string. Marc was holding Preston, and when he was sure that we were okay, he led us home. Landen and I followed. We had it all wrong: we weren’t selfish. We had no choice. Knowing that lightened our hearts and brought us closer. We stared forward, wide-eyed, trying to conceive how Preston was Livingston’s son. In the string, it was clear that little Preston had no problem seeing. He looked over Marc’s shoulder at me and smiled. “Do I get to play with Libby now that I’m going home?”

I smiled and nodded, too stunned to ask how he knew her name.





Chapter Nineteen




It was daybreak when we reached our home, and for the first time I saw the rain fall in Chara. Brady had vanished into the dawn with Livingston’s body. Marc, still carrying Preston, followed us to my parents’ home. The porch light was on, and upstairs we could see Libby sitting in her window seat, patiently waiting for us. We saw her in a new way. It was clear why her insight centered on us. We loved her even more deeply now.

Libby ran outside to meet us, and we knelt down and scooped her up into our embrace. Both of us had tears in our eyes. We couldn’t ever leave her, no one could.

“I knew you’d come back to me. I just knew it, love you,” she whispered in our neck.

“We love you…” Landen whispered.

Libby let go, then ran to Preston and hugged him. My father was on the steps, confused and scared when he saw us so early with a little boy. We walked past him, keeping our eyes down.

Landen and I walked up the stairs to Hannah and Jessica’s room. The girls were lying in the same positions when we’d left them. We knelt down between their beds, laying the page on the floor between us. We then joined hands and touched the girls. Landen held Jessica’s hand as I held Hannah’s. We looked at each other one last time then to the page to read the words scrolled on it.

“Speak pure, hear love, sleep only to dream, dream only pure, dream only love, be no more…leave this now.”

Beneath our left hands, a pure white light glowed and a mesmerizing hum centered in my soul and sent a sensation throughout my body. I looked to Landen to see if he could feel it, too; in his eyes, I saw a beautiful glow. He smiled at me. Locked in our stare, we didn’t notice Hannah and Jessica wake from their sleep.

“Where are we?” Hannah said.

“I don’t remember,” Jessica answered.

They looked at each other, realizing that they’d they been healed then threw themselves in each other’s arms.