Synergy (See #3)(78)
I felt someone touch my shoulder, and I turned to see Olivia. “Hey,” I said quietly. “Monroe get to Chara?”
“She did. She told me to give you this,” Olivia said, handing me a ring. I recognized it; Monroe wore it on her thumb, it looked like a vine. I slid it on my finger, and I swear at that second I felt calm, very calm.
“Did she say anything, like point out a color or something?” I asked, thinking of the night of Draven’s test, the night I found him in the color of purple as Monroe had casually mentioned.
Olivia looked curiously at me. “I asked her if this would be over when we found Landen and Drake’s bodies in there, and she said ... she said it wouldn't begin to be over until we found Bianca’s. Have you ever seen her there?”
I focused my eyes on Olivia as I analyzed every one of her words. “First of all, Monroe spoke to you; that must mean she trusts you. I’ve seen Bianca in The Realm more times than I care to recount, but I’ve never been able to kill her.”
Olivia glanced at the bed, then to me. “Are you sure you’re fighting her? What if she’s really laying in a bed somewhere, and you’re killing an illusion or something?”
“Interesting,” I mumbled. “Feels good to try, though. Besides, if you die there, you die here, so... I guess if that were to be true, she’d have to be an illusion inside of one. As crazy as that sounds.”
“When we get these boys back, we’ll figure her out,” Olivia said confidently.
I twirled the ring on my finger, noticing that even though I should have a thousand emotions coursing through me, I was calm enough to see clearly. Even though I recognized the seriousness of what was about to happen, I had no fear of it, of anything. “Dreaming what you’ve dreamed - do you really think there’s going to be a tomorrow?” I asked, expecting my death with no emotion.
Olivia glanced at Willow. “She’s more balanced than she looks. When I first had that dream, I would’ve told you no, but now that you’re here...I’m going to say yes.”
I nodded and gave her a faint smile, telling her without words that I didn’t share her confidence. I then walked across the room to Draven. I didn’t know if this ring I was wearing was doing something to me, or if the adrenaline had just exhausted itself from my body, but I felt so calm. Aden glanced over me, noticing my fingers twirling the ring in place. His eyes questioned me, but I had no answers to give him, so I looked away from his intense stare laced in reasonable fear.
I kept glancing into the hall at Madison with Perodine and Jason. I didn’t know what they were saying to her, but it was clear that Madison was growing more and more determined to end this as quickly as possible. Every time she stepped toward us, Perodine would either say something to halt her or reach for her arm.
Willow was standing with Draven and Aden. “Are you alright?” she asked.
“Yeah,” I mumbled, still trying to understand the calm I was feeling. As I reached Draven’s side, he put his arm around me and I leaned into him, feeling his magnetic energy; it was making me even calmer. He glanced down at me with alarm in his eyes.
“What?” I whispered.
He leaned into me and whispered. “You’re dim.”
Ok so Monroe rocks. No doubt there. Where was this ring before? “Considering where we’re going, that might not be a bad thing,” I murmured, closing my hand around the ring. The thought crossed my mind to give it to Willow so she wouldn’t tempt Draven when she was alone with him, but I knew Monroe well enough to know that if she wanted Willow to have it, she would have ensured that she did.
Aden began to explain to Willow how we were going to divide in The Realm, that Bianca had separated Landen and Drake. She was having a hard time understanding how Bianca was using memories of Drake and Landen to create illusions. She didn’t seem to care about the memories, but I knew from experience that she should; when she saw the illusion of them in her arms, it would be paralyzing to her. We also had to make sure we woke them up there, that they knew who they were, but that was a long, complicated story that I didn’t care to explain to Willow right then. I wanted to get this over with. Saving them now meant saving all of us; the stakes couldn’t be any higher.
Willow’s attention was immediately on me. “How do any of you plan to declare an illusion of Drake to be false? You don’t know him. I’m the only one that really knows him.”
She asked me that because Aden had told her that when we saw Landen and Drake in The Realm, it might not be them, and when we declared it was an illusion it would send the memoires - energy back to their souls. Basically, it would wake them up a little more. We all assumed there would be at least a few illusions we would have to face before we figured out where their souls were trapped.
It was obvious that Willow was afraid that we weren’t able to save Drake, at least not without her. She needed to learn to let go - divide and conquer. “We don’t know him,” I said, glancing to the doorway where Madison was, “but we know Bianca. I know her very well. If I call her out on who she is, seeing through the illusion, she won’t be able to hold that memory. Trust me.”
I knew that Madison would know who the real Drake was. Her sixth-sense of emotions was extremely powerful in The Realm, not to mention the auras of energy she could see. I also had a gut feeling that Madison’s dreams had led her to know Drake, more so than Willow thought.