Synergy (See #3)(29)

Her eyes glassed over. “No, I meant it when I said it,” she said as she tried to smile. “I’m very human, Charlie, and sometimes I lie to myself. Whether you can see me or not, I’m right here,” she said as she touched my chest. “Right now, you have more to worry about than coming home.”

“Mom, if I can’t see you, then I’ll just find those boys in The Realm from here. I’m not leaving you alone.”

“You have to help them from where they are, and when that battle is over, there will be another, and then another.”

“I don’t know what to do,” I said, looking down.

“You know more than you think you do. The damned hear you, they listen to you.” She moved a lock of my hair behind my ear. “You’re going to have to teach them. I’m not asking you to walk into another world and take control; I’m asking you to go into another world and teach them what you can do. No matter how intense any situation is, use it, use it to teach them. When you do that, you’re pushing them years in front of where they are.”

“How do you know this? If this is Willow and Landen, they’re kids just like us.”

“Spirits talk, baby, and it’s been made very clear to me that you’re at the forefront of this. You teach them what you know and let them teach what they know, then grow together.”

“That doesn’t really sound that hard, Mom. Why do you look so nervous?”

Here eyes searched over my fearful expression. “Because you’ll learn and teach on a battlefield, all of your emotions will be in play. You have to understand that your weakness is your love for Draven. This darkness will play with your heart, every emotion just to distract you, and I have no doubt it’s doing it to those people you’re going to help. Hold on to your convictions, never -- and I mean never -- make a deal with the devil on anyone’s behalf.”

I had to look away. I knew I couldn't make that promise, that I would I sacrifice part of myself to save Draven, that I’d gladly take whatever place Madison had in all of this, and that I would defend Monroe, her innocence, with my last breath.

“Charlie, I mean it,” my mom said as she put her hand on my shoulder. “It’ll be a decoy. You have to know that you can’t save anyone that doesn’t want to be saved, that whatever bargain you make will do no one any good; in fact, it’ll be a victory for what you fight against.”

“Just tell me what to do. What do I do right now?”

She forced a smile. “You’re going to walk out of this bathroom, you’re going to pack your bags, and you’re not going to look back until you’ve won.”

“What am I supposed to tell Kara?”

“I imagine she’ll call you and tell you she’s boarding a plane. Tell her goodbye. Robert will take care of her.”

I nodded and wiped away a tear that tried to escape.

“I love you, Mom,” I whispered.

She reached her arms around me and hugged me as tightly as she could. “Love you, little one,” she said. And with those words, her image faded.

A dark sense of foreboding came over me. I didn’t know if it was the innocent fear that I’d just told my mother goodbye forever or the fear of what was to come. All I knew was that I wanted out of this house, the faster the better. I could swear the air had grown colder, that someone - or something - was watching me.





Chapter Seven



I grabbed my things from the bathroom and took them to the bag I’d started to pack from before. I pulled another bag down and threw more clothes into it, then ran upstairs and grabbed my phone charger. I thought about taking a guitar, but I couldn’t bring myself to; I thought by doing that I was assuring that I would never return.

I ran my bag down the stairs to my old room. Monroe had her bag over her shoulder, and Madison was zipping hers up.

We loaded my car with our things. As I closed the trunk, I looked at Madison. “Look, just take your car to your mom’s and have dinner. The faster you get to Draven’s, the faster we can talk this out as a group.”

“I’m going with you to talk to Silas.”

My eyes grew wide with shock. “What? What makes you think I’m going to talk to him?”

“I know your emotions better than mine. I know how you feel when you think of him or think you’re going to see him.”

“And how is that? How does he make me feel?” I asked, knowing I was coming unraveled by the moment.

“Nervous. A good, safe nervous, like you find comfort with him but are afraid of that emotion.”

I balled my fist and took in a deep breath. “Why are you being so selective with the emotions of mine you choose to talk about?” I asked, wanting more than anything to get everything I knew out in the open.

She just stared back at me.

“Fine, then I guess we’ve both silently agreed that those emotions I have, the ones we aren’t talking about, are too much for you to handle. I guess we both have decided that I’m going to do what I have to do to make what’s coming at you as easy as possible.”

“Nothing is coming at me that isn’t coming at you.”

“You know that’s not true.”

She began to walk to her car, but she hesitated. “Charlie, I know myself. I know what I have to think and do in order to walk forward. If I change the way I’m thinking right now, I don’t know that I can leave with you. I don’t know that I can tell my parents and Britain goodbye. I’m trying to walk forward and not run like a coward.”