Synergy (See #3)(46)

I nodded to tell him that I’d gotten through to Draven, and he seemed relieved, but uneasy at the same time. I was sure he was furious with Winston.

Draven began to play the bass of the song that had saved so many souls. The song was so viral at this point that if the band really wanted it, fame was inches away, but fame was the last thing we had time for.

I turned my attention to Monroe; she was still calm, but she seemed oddly aware, like she was waiting on something. Her eyes moved to the right, and anxiously I followed her stare.

All at once, a light divided in thin air, and from that light a girl emerged, then another. My heart pounded in my chest: it was Willow and another girl that could be her sister; they looked so much alike. Willow wasn’t the calm woman I had spoken to in my memory an hour ago. She reflected the image that Madison had drawn, the one that I thought was of her.

Willow’s hair was long, dark, and tangled. Tears had stained her face; they almost looked like ash. Her eyes were bloodshot, and she looked furious...she looked dangerous.

I glanced nervously from them to Aden, who was paralyzed with shock. My eyes found Draven, who was still trying to get a response from my father by playing the strings of his guitar as fiercely as he could. He must have felt my stare or the tension build in the room because he glanced over my shoulder to where Willow and that girl were. At first he didn’t seem shocked, but then I saw his eyes begin to change; he had seen a glimpse of them, of whatever they were fighting before they appeared here.

I looked back at them and tried to see, but there were too many questions racing through my mind for me to focus on one, for me to really see what had happened to her before she appeared here. Willow stepped forward and held out an iPod. “Which one of you made this?” she asked as anger trembled through her voice. I recognized the cover art: it was the image that Madison had sketched that mirrored Draven’s test, the snake, the ball of fire. I told her not to post that image, but she said it would be a warning to all Escorts that we were going to fight, that we were going to protect the ones we loved. It was a silent statement that apparently carried more weight than I thought it would.

I couldn't understand why that song would make Willow mad. Aden had pretty much assured me that it was helping those boys, but then I began to see glimpses of her, I saw Landen and that prince whisper the lyrics as she stared at their sleeping bodies. She wasn’t mad; she was desperate, she was trying to figure out how to get to them, and she knew that somehow we had.

The other girl stepped in front of her. “Um...” she said nervously as she tried to smile. “Listen, I know. I know you’re asking yourself how we...” she hesitated as she looked around and tried to figure out where they were. “...how we appeared here, but listen, there’s a very believable explanation.”

I stood up and tilted my head so I could see around that girl and look at Willow. “Willow,” I said as calmly I could, not believing she was there, that this was really happening. There would be no way for me to protect Madison from this, for me to explain my way out of why I didn’t warn her. I tried to tell myself that she knew. She had to have known this was coming. She literally sketched it out this morning, Willow’s eyes grew wide. “You know me?” she asked breathlessly.

I wanted to tell her that I knew her very well, that she was a wise woman that had prepared me for this day, but I couldn't find a way to say that, and I knew that the woman that asked me to love her friend would not have wanted me to say anything. “Not yet,” I said, believing that this girl was not that woman in Egypt, not anymore; a part of her may linger in the soul of Willow, but that calm, wise woman did not exist anymore.

“Did you make this?” Willow asked, glancing to the iPod once more.

I hesitated before I spoke. I kept asking questions in my mind, trying to see if this girl was always like this, this mad and afraid. I wanted to see how she got here, how she knew to come here. Aden had stood and moved closer to me; I had no doubt he was seeing her, too, and there was so much to see.

I saw that just months ago, she was living a normal life, balancing her sense of emotion, her dreams, but when Landen found her, everything changed. She was fighting darkness, but she wasn’t focusing on it because she was told that her heart was being tested. The prince now had a name: Drake. I was right. This was love a triangle. My fear for Madison made me search deeper into her thoughts, and it wasn’t long before I figured out that Willow was seeking Madison; she was seeking her because she believed that Drake had been fooled into loving her. She wanted to find his soul mate, thinking that if she did that, whatever they were fighting would be easier. If not over. Willow was a fool, though; nothing would be over. It was just beginning.

Once I figured out that she wasn’t dangerous to us, that she really did need us, I started to ask more questions, and a glimpse of her past life came to me. I even saw the woman in Egypt for a split second, but every time I tried to go back to a past life, her memories pushed me into this life. I decided to focus on Landen. I wasn’t able to go deep into his thoughts from her memory, but I was able to see my worst enemy toy with him the way she toyed with Draven.

“She’s seducing them,” I said before I could stop myself. I was so mad that it made me sick to my stomach. If I had stopped Bianca, found a way to kill her, this never would have happened; Landen would never have been taken away from Willow. This was my fault. All of it.