Insight (Web of Hearts and Souls #1)(82)

“Dane, your mother is expecting you any day now. I say we go to Franklin with Dane. Jason, you can run into one of the parents and convince them that you have to take them away somewhere,” Landen planned out. The others nodded in agreement.

“All right then. We need to go, it’s almost night time there,” my dad said.

August decided to stay behind. I reasoned he didn’t want to place himself between Ashten and Landen. We waited as Ashten and my father called home. Brady and Chrispin didn’t have to go far to say goodbye to Felicity and Olivia. They were in the field by our house, picking flowers. Olivia’s emotion elevated as she heard Chrispin’s voice…the emotion was undeniable. “Has he told her yet?” I asked, knowing how they both felt about each other and that Olivia would never have the nerve to say it first.

Landen smiled as he watched them. “He’s waiting. He thinks she needs to see his face,” Landen answered. Feeling my disapproval, he wrapped his arm around me. “I know. Don’t worry. I can tell he can’t wait much longer. It’s kind of funny to think back about how worried he was about looking, and then you come along and throw her into his arms.”

The smirk on his face made me smile, but we were both too stressed to find the energy to laugh.

In the string, I lingered near the back with Clarissa. I thought Landen needed space. I didn’t feel comfortable with the way he was acting…he had changed since he’d seen the charts. He was aloof and trying desperately not to seem that way to me. Brady and Marc took the time to try and show Dane the passages. He was able to feel them, but the colors escaped him.

“So, do you think I am going to like Franklin?” Clarissa asked me.

Like any other time I’d seen Clarissa, she resembled a runway model: a unique beauty that could capture anyone’s attention.

“I think Franklin is really going to like you,” I muttered, smiling faintly.

Clarissa grinned, staring at Dane. “He never really talks about anyone from there, except you and his family.”

I smiled, remembering how oddly Dane and I fit into Franklin. “For us, it was like a waiting room. We’ve always known that we were meant to be somewhere else,” I offered as I realized that my soul seemed to know way more than my mind.

Clarissa grinned and wrapped her arm around me. “The first time I heard about New York, I was ten. Something always told me that was the place I was supposed to meet the one…that makes me think this is all fate. I was meant for the one person out there that could see in the string, already connected to you. We were meant to help you.”

As Infante came into view, green passages illuminated the walls. Landen glanced back in my direction, smiled slightly, and then walked on. A moment later, the walls seemed to turn completely green, and you couldn’t see one passage from another. Landen stopped and looked at the wall cautiously. The others watched him carefully. To them, it was solid white.

“What is it, Landen?” Ashten asked.

“I’m trying to remember which one is Willow’s house. That’s the best place we could all appear out of nowhere without being noticed,” Landen said, debating now on one area of the wall.

The admiration coming from the others was intensified in the string. Landen held his hand up, telling us all to stay put then he stepped inside the haze. Everyone in the string tensed, expecting Landen to feel the burn as he walked through the wall. I saw Ashten look at my father and shake his head in disbelief.

Seconds passed, and Landen didn’t come back. I felt my heart rate rise. Pain was seeping into my veins, the same way it did when he left me before. I held my breath, trying to block it out, but with each second that passed it intensified. I saw spots in my vision, and my head started to spin. I fell back without warning. Brady, who was standing beside me, caught me.

“Jason, what’s going on here?” Brady yelled.

My father quickly turned and saw my condition. I felt his panic, along with everyone else’s. It wasn’t helping me at all—it was draining me.

“It’s happening again. Their bodies can’t be separated by the string,” my father said, trying to remain calm. My head was so heavy it fell back.

“What do we do?” Brady said, picking me up. “Do I walk through the wall?”

Suddenly, I felt life come back into me—I felt Landen again.

“No,” I heard Landen say.

He emerged several feet from where he’d disappeared, walked quickly to Brady, and took me from his arms. With his touch, the pain left, leaving a tingle in its wake. I was weak. It had taken my energy, but when Landen kissed my lips, it sent a rush of energy through me. He squeezed me in his arms, and it was as if nothing ever happened.

“I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. Are you okay?” he thought.

I nodded. Hating that I looked weak. Feeling that emotion he slowly put me down.

“Is something wrong? Why didn’t you come back?” Marc asked, ready for a fight.

“No, that goes to their house, but there are a ton people there, cleaning up after the fire.” I couldn’t just disappear. I had to find another opening.

“Let me look at you,” my father said. He circled Landen and me, shaking his head. “I don’t understand why you can’t be apart. I mean, you were apart for eighteen years.”

“Maybe that’s their bodies way of saying that they should have never been kept apart in the first place,” Brady bit out, still upset with Ashten for hiding me from Landen.