Synergy (See #3)(73)

Brady went to follow Willow, but she told him to stay with us and learn to see.

“They shouldn't be alone, not with the mood Madison’s in,” I said to Aden, trying get loose from his powerful arms.

“It’s not her mood you need to worry about,” Brady muttered, struggling with the idea of chasing them.

“They need to work this out,” Aden said, loosening his arms. “Madison needs to wake that girl up.”

“Wake her up?” Brady asked.

“Yeah,” I mumbled. “You guys need to get over this love triangle thing. She loves Landen, and even if she didn’t, your daughter would be fine. All of you are powerful, and you’re wasting that power on Willow’s obsessions. There’s more to all of this.”

Brady’s blue eyes fell into mine. “Thank you.”

“For?”

“The reality check. You have no idea what we’ve been through over the last few months.”

“I know enough. Come on,” I said, reaching out for him. “We need to get ready.”

He nodded, and we began to walk toward the room the bodies were in.

“So, do you guys see with music? Is that it?” Brady asked.

“Music helps us cope. You should pick up your guitar, man,” Aden said.

“You play?” I asked. I hadn’t seen that, but Aden had spent more time around him.

“I used to, long ago,” Brady said, grinning.

“You think you could play that song that’s helping them?” Aden asked him.

He shrugged his shoulders. “I doubt it. That’s pretty intense; never heard anything quite like it.”

“If you can feel it, play a part of it, that might help you figure out how to get there on your own.”

“Perodine will open a door for us,” Brady confirmed.

“This time, you’ll have to go back; we all will,” I promised, knowing that waking these boys was only step one.

We reached the room, and I found Draven at the foot of a massive bed. There was a sitting area and a table on the other side of the room. He was alone in there, staring deeply into them.

I walked slowly to his side. The bed had a canopy over it, and the drapes were pulled almost closed on each side. I assumed that was why it took Madison so long to figure out who was lying there.

I saw Landen lying on the left. His shirt was open, and his dark hair and tan skin was glistening. He looked so pure, like an angel. I couldn’t help feeling immediate respect for him; he almost seemed to glow. Even in the state he was in, I felt the peaceful power all around him.

Next to him a few feet away was Drake. Neither Madison’s sketches nor the visions Preston had shown me of him could compare to the power I felt coming from his essence in real life. I don’t know how to explain it; he was just magnetic, the way Draven was. He held the flawless face of a sleeping king.

Draven reached his arm around me. “They’re closer now, on the level we’re always on.”

“Can you see them?” I asked.

“Not clearly. She’s hidden them. We’re going to have to find them or ask her where they are.”

“I’m sure Bianca will gladly tell us,” I mumbled.

He glanced down at me to see what I’d been doing. I let my eyes fall into his and showed him how messed up these people were, that now they had some illusion that I was older than them. Draven’s eyes returned to emerald green as he glanced over his shoulder at Aden.

“I think they thought he was you a few times,” I said quietly.

“They don’t make mistakes like that,” he said with a quiet sigh.

I furrowed my eyebrows to question him, but he offered no explanation.

“What did Madison say? Or did she just run?” I asked.

“She didn’t see him. She saw his brother, then figured it out, then ran...but get this: Willow and Madison were born side by side.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah. I think that has them all puzzled. Something about having to protect her life now, or something.”

“Let’s just get them out, Draven. I don’t want to be here.” I complained.

“Change of heart?” he asked, pulling me a little closer.

“I wanted to go to Chara, not a place that was more damned than where we came from. I have no doubt that more shadows are gonna come after us, that that evil angel will be back.”

“Right,” he said, turning to Brady and Aden.

“So we have to change it?” he asked, referring to the song.

Aden nodded. “Which guitar do you want?”

Before Aden finished his sentence, two guitars and a small amp appeared around Draven.

“You guys are blowing my mind,” Brady said, as his eyes grew wide with shock.

I let the song Monroe had shown me play in my memory, looking for the difference I knew was there. I rocked my head and moved my fingers to the sound, then all at once I figured it out. “The fifth chord. She changed every fifth chord,” I said, looking up at Draven.

My stomach twisted. I hated how that number haunted me, how it always seemed to surface with change.

Draven leaned in and kissed my temple. “Brilliant,” he breathed. A warm, tantalizing sensation rippled through me. God I loved him so much. He reached for my hands as if he could see the glow that the vision had predicted. “Play for me.”