Synergy (See #3)(43)

As soon as the question left my lips, I heard a guitar scream out above me.

“Working out his thoughts,” Evan said just before he took a sip of his coffee.

Nana had gotten up and was getting a bowl down. “I’ll eat; I promise. I just want to talk to him first.”

“Sit down,” she said over her shoulder.

I took in a deep breath and gritted my teeth as I walked over and took a seat by Evan. I didn’t feel like arguing with Nana after the day I’d had, and besides, she was right: I hadn’t eaten that day; maybe that was why I was getting tired so early.

“Where’s Austin?” I asked. Right as I said that, he walked in the kitchen.

He looked at Evan and shook his head. “I don’t know what to tell you; that kid has a few issues,” Austin said, glancing at Grayson and Monroe, neither of whom bothered to look up. I leaned back in my stool to see the lights from the TV in the den flashing across the wall in the entry hall. I was sure then that Austin had been trying to talk to Winston. More than likely Winston never stopped gaming during that time.

“Tell me about it,” Evan said as he took another sip of his coffee.

Austin took a seat next to me as Nana sat a bowl of soup and some toast in front of me.

“I need to call Wes, thank him for telling you to come to me first,” I said as I took a sip of my soup and glanced at Austin.

“He knows you’re grateful -- and distracted,” Austin said, trying to reassure me. “Truth is, I already knew I was going to come to you. Seems you made quiet an impression when you went to my house.”

I smiled slightly as I took a few more sips of my soup, then something struck me as odd. “Austin, why didn’t you tell me Madison could be Willow’s twin? Your soul mate thought she was her.”

He smiled faintly as he reached for the cup of coffee Nana had brought him. “Sometimes I think I travel too much.” He took a sip of his coffee. “Landen didn’t bring Willow home until late August. I was gone, so I wasn’t at their celebration, and when Willow was in trouble and we were searching for her in Esterious, we were looking for a different body, the one her soul was trapped in, so I didn’t know what she looked like then either.”

I almost choked on my soup. Once I coughed my way through that, I glanced from Nana to Evan to see if that struck them as odd, which it didn’t. Aden walked in at that moment. He sat our bags down along the kitchen wall, then nodded before he walked toward to the living room.

“A different body.” I said locking eyes with Austin.

He nodded and smiled. “I told you they were powerful. They can move their soul to any place into anyone. They do that to help, but it didn’t work out the way they wanted to then. Actually, it was a near tragedy. After that was over, I headed out to check on the people I had led to different dimensions. I didn’t see Willow face to face until three days ago, and when I did, at first I thought somehow you guys were there.” Regret washed over his face. “I could tell Landen’s attention was divided. He listened to me but then told me he had to go. We said our goodbyes, and as I walked away he came out of the house again and asked a few more questions about you guys, what you could do, why I thought we needed to meet. It was obvious he was terrified to meet you, and honestly I didn’t know how he would react if I told him Madison looked like Willow. Right when I went to tell him, he saw his brother Brady leaving the dimension and told me he had to figure out what was going on and that he would catch up with me in a few days.”

“Was he terrified to meet us because of the darkness we are?” I asked, only to get a dirty look from both Nana and Evan.

“Sorry,” I mumbled as I took another sip of my soup. I knew as soon as it was gone that I would be free to talk to Draven, and from the sound of the aggressive guitar, I knew he wasn’t working out anything; he was blowing off steam, rage.

Austin shook his head no. “He was worried that he would bring darkness to you. He said that whatever you were fighting could not be as dark as what he was, and he didn’t want to make your life worse, or come here and bring what he was fighting to this world.”

“Did you tell him everything, though? How could it be worse?”

“Well, in my defense, I told him everything I knew then. I didn’t know about The Realm or any test Draven faced.”

At that moment, Evan pushed his stool back. “I’m going to get some rest. Wake me if something happens.”

I looked down at my empty bowl. I may have struggled with who Draven had become, but it would be easy for me to say that Evan had the hardest time with all of this. He was terrified for his son, and he would do anything to take his place.

I looked up at Nana. “Did I eat enough?”

“Not really, but there is no sense in making you wait any longer; that sounds aggressive,” she said as she glanced at the ceiling.

I could tell it bothered Austin that Evan was upset by what he said. “You didn’t say anything wrong. We’re just on edge.”

“I know. I should have come back sooner,” he said, looking down at his coffee.

“It wouldn't have stopped it. Chara may be a beautiful place, but The Realm would have still pulled him in, tested him.”

“Maybe so, but if I had come back, he would have opened his eyes in Chara, not a place that was full of shadows and darkness.”