Insight (Web of Hearts and Souls #1)(93)

“What is it, Willow?”

“I’ve seen that boy before. He’s called me, and I helped him.”

“What boy?”

“The one on the fifth floor.”

As I thought the words, the boy stepped back into the darkness, not to be seen again. Donalt had been speaking the entire time, and for the first time I realized I couldn’t understand the words he was using. My eyes searched person to person to see if I recognized anyone else in the crowd that I’d helped. As Donalt’s speech ended, the crowed turned, and the faces before me all seemed familiar.

Dream by dream, my eyes landed on person after person. My mouth fell open, and every part of my body froze as each and every nightmare came back to me. The fear within me was uncontrollable, so strong that even Clarissa could sense it. She hooked her shoulder behind me and urged me to turn. Wide-eyed and in a trance, my body was led by Clarissa out of the courtyard. Keeping a fast pace, we reached Patrick’s house, where she went to lead me in. Before I took the step off the street, I hesitated, looking for Landen’s emotion behind me.

“I’m here.”

Taking my last step in the door, Clarissa briskly opened the metal door that led to the passage. Still in an absent trance, Clarissa grabbed my hand and pulled me down the stairs. At the bottom, I felt my feet leave the ground as Landen picked me up and carried me through the passages. The only ones that I knew were safe were Landen and Clarissa.

As Landen all but ran to our home, the string’s passages flew past me. As the green fields came into view, I found my clarity.

“Is everyone here?” I thought.

“What’s wrong with Willow?” Marc asked.

“We’re all here.”

“I’m fine. It’s nothing,” I said aloud, defusing the concern I felt coming from everyone.

I looked behind me and saw Livingston pass through the passage; he frantically looked at us one by one, anger engulfing him. “Why did you do that?” he yelled. “You should have never brought them there! Do you have any idea what could have happened?” He halted when his eyes found August.

“You shouldn’t have stayed that long not with all that’s going on!” yelled Marc.

“That’s exactly why I needed to be there because of what’s going on!”

“Let’s just calm down,” Chrispin said, stepping in to squash his father and brother’s feud.

“Let’s go. I’m done,” Landen thought as he pulled my hand toward him.

We walked away from them, still feeling their frustration and hearing their arguments. I don’t think our absence was noticed until we’d already reached our house. Once inside, Landen pulled the drapes and pushed a chair against the door that had no locks. He then led me back into the den and fell into one of the large chairs, pulling me with him.

Landen held me tightly, frustrated and angry. Not forcing thoughts or words from me as I laid with him, I listened to his heartbeat rising and falling with his chest. Time passed and the sun that had glowed behind the drapes faded into night.

As my eyes grew heavy, I thought, “Can we go to our place?” Landen stood with me in his arms and carried me to our bed. Lying side by side with him, I stared into his eyes, losing myself somewhere inside him. He kissed me just as softly as he had the first time, only now warmth accompanied the love that rushed from him. This was the only place where what I was made sense, and it was easy to feel that my feelings weren’t alone.

Now the rush that had become so addictive was called again, and we were immersed with a feeling of love that was incomparable to anything on earth. We’d both missed our place, the place where we’d met each night in our dreams throughout our childhood; it was even more beautiful than the world where Landen was raised. Everything was bright, full of life. The only element it needed was sound. Though we could see the birds, their song was absent to our ears, and the water that flowed through the gentle stream did so in silence.

We glided hand in hand as we’d done since we were children. I watched Landen’s eyes search each new horizon that came into view. We both felt safe there but had our bodies on high alert as they lay in our bed.

“Do you know where this is?” I thought, wanting to assure myself that now that he stood there again, he’d only been there with me.

“I’m surer now than I’ve ever been,” Landen thought, pulling me to him and kissing me tenderly.

Our path had led us to a place we’d always loved to go: a small waterfall. Beneath the fall was an indentation that wasn’t affected by the light mist that surrounded it. Inside, as we nestled, we looked through the water at the soft warm sun.

“How many did you see today?” Landen thought, drawing me against him.

I called the memories forward. “It was as if they all were there.”

His eyes closed as he pushed his rage down.

“Landen, something is…something is off about that little boy.”

“What do you mean?”

“When I helped him, he was dirty, and he was in the town like the others. How do you think he got to be in the palace?”

“Are you sure it was the same one?”

“He looked right at me and smiled, like he knew me. Why were there children in there?”

“Donalt has what you might call a court: his blood line, the women he spends his time with, the priests and their families live in the walls.”