Insight (Web of Hearts and Souls #1)(34)

“I think that when you learn the cultures of the dimensions, you’ll be able to use your insight of emotion to help you navigate.”

“How do Clarissa and Brady navigate?”

“Brady has a lot of Aquarius in his birth chart. He can hear music through the string. He says that every dimension has its own rhythm. Clarissa is dominant in Taurus, and she’s known for her voice. She says that she listens to the tones of the voices through the string.”

My eyes widened. I was beginning to see that they relied heavily on the Zodiac in the dimension of Chara.

“What’s a birth chart?”

“It’s just a map of the heavens at the exact moment that you were born. When the planets align a certain way, they can highlight a dominant trait.”

“Does the dimension Esterious study the Zodiac like Chara does?”

Disdain shimmered across his stare before he nodded once to answer me. No doubt, he was not a fan of Esterious.

“Chara looks to the heavens to find a positive way to impact the world around us. Esterious looks to the heavens to find a way to control others.”

“Drake knows I’m a Scorpio,” I thought, remembering that my father had said the people in Esterious had predicted my birth.

“I have a feeling that Drake knows more about what’s going on with this Blue Moon than you and I do,” Landen thought. I felt his anger rise. He wrapped his arm around me, and we began to stroll through the string.

All at once, I could see a purple haze on the right side of the string. “It’s turning purple!” I shouted.

My tone scared him, he jumped at the sound of my voice. I realized that talking to him without words would serve as a beneficial tool in the string. Laughing at my excitement, Landen pulled me closer. “Okay, purple is good. This is a natural path.”

“Do you know where it leads?”

“I do,” he thought as an amused smirk emerged on his lips.

He wasn’t going to tell me. I was learning that those two words were code words that meant ‘figure it out.’ We walked for at least fifteen more minutes before we reached the purple haze. The color resembled a summer sunset; it was so breathtaking. I felt like I was standing on a rainbow.

“When you come to a passage, always step through it with caution—you don’t ever know for certain what you’ll step into.”

A wary look came across my face, and my curiosity was piqued. As he took the first step into the haze, Landen pulled me close, and a tingle teased my skin as the haze surrounded me. I then felt a burst of humidity in the air and heard a loud roaring noise. Fearing that we had somehow found our way into some horrible danger, I focused my eyes as the haze fell behind us. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing: a vast waterfall. It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen.

“Where are we? Niagara Falls?” I asked completely humbled by this display of nature.

He grinned. “This is Victoria Falls.”

“Where is Victoria Falls?”

“Zimbabwe,” he thought, ducking his head slightly to catch my gaze, clearly wondering if I realized how those few steps we had taken in the string had moved me across the globe.

I knew that the shock on my face was apparent. I couldn’t fathom how we’d gotten there. “It’s beautiful…so big…”

“It’s over a mile wide and very old.”

“How old?”

“One hundred and fifty million years. It’s a powerful natural source of energy, and that’s why it was so easy for you to see. We passed several other passages before we reached this one,” he thought, studying my face for signs of understanding.

I could see that I had so much to learn. I knew that I didn’t ever want to be alone in the strings. I was sure to be lost.

“Are they all this beautiful?”

“Everything that you see will amaze you, even if you’ve been there before. Each place has its own story to tell. If you listen, you can hear it and feel it.”

True. I could feel this place. I could feel that all those who knew it, loved it, and respected it. The waterfall itself knew it was powerful…it was a life force all its own.

“Can you see your way back?” he asked.

I looked behind us, but there wasn’t a purple haze or a wave in the air.

“No,” I thought in a worried tone.

He didn’t seem surprised by my answer. He stood behind me, wrapped his arms around me, and held me tightly.

“Close your eyes and remember the way you came…remember the feeling you had as you passed through… find the energy.” He thought as his hands moved up my sides.

I giggled like a ridiculous schoolgirl. “I can only think of one thing when you are touching me like that.”

He leaned his shoulder back so that he was able to see my expression, then he gazed into my eyes. My lips were but a breath away from his. “Would it make you feel any better if I told you that it was killing me to be a gentlemen right about now?”

“No, It would make me ask you how long the storms are going to last. I want to go home.”

There was that look again, the one filled with wonder and utter devotion.

His hand smoothed across my stomach daring to edge toward my chest. When he reached the flesh above my heart, he splayed his fingers as his lips met mine. “My home is right here. As sappy as that sounds, no matter what worlds I traveled to, where I laid my head at night, this has always been my home.” His warm tongue just barely grazed my lips as he pulled away.