Vindicate (Insight #5)(73)

He coughed, allowing the water in his lungs to escape. “Love – you are my love – always my love,” he said in an exhausted whisper.

A smile beamed across my face. He was waking up, but that victory was short-lived. In his embrace, I felt my energy being pulled from myself – drained. My head began to spin out of control.

Draven pulled me away from him. “I told you to be careful! Everything is intensified here!”

“He’s not awake ! Not all the way ! He ’s real -- but not awake!” I yelled , shaking Drake ’s chest . Draven held me back with every ounce of his strength, but he was no match for me. I reached for Drake. “Open your eyes – look at me!” I yelled.

I felt someone’s hand on my shoulder and turned defensively, only to find Madison standing there.

“A promise is a promise. Move. Wake Landen. Wake the healer.”

I furrowed my eyebrows as I gazed at her. I understood the promise. Th at this was her place, not mine, but I didn’t understand why she needed a healer. Then the suffocating urgency to get out of here flooded my soul again. Landen needed me. This was not my place.

I pushed back and turned to Landen.

“Are you sure there isn’t any water in his lungs?!” I asked Brady, seeing how calm he and Draven were.

“None. I never left him,” Brady swore . “I felt him come back. All of him. This is him. I would know his energy anywhere.”

He knew I would, too. Brady was just so abu ndantly relieved that he had to tell someone.

I took Landen’s face with one hand, and with the other I splashed what was left of the water across his f ace. His body. I leaned my lips against his. “What words are sacred…tell me what is sacred. Wake for me. Remember who you are. Remember me!”

I pus hed my lips harder against his. I felt them move. I felt his strong lips move against mine. He sat up abruptly, pulling me to his lap, holding me with his powerful arms against his chest. Oh. My. God. His kiss. It was life. It was more powerful that it had ever been. I felt whole, understood. He was not half my soul. We were one soul. And we were alive. Alive in each other’s arms.

I wanted this to be the end. For this to be him. All of him. But something told me there was damage that I could not see or feel. Tears of doubt and joy came to the corners of my eyes as I savored every movement of his lips. His warm, humming lips.

“Say the words, Landen, ” I thought.

“I love you. You are my life. I love you, ” he thought.

He pulled his kiss away from me, and his blue eyes fell into mine. “I love you, Willow.”

I wrapped my arms aro und him, feeling his strength. The essence of his beautiful soul. Whatever the damage was beneath the surface was not worth the worry at this moment.

Before I could sigh in relief, I heard a horrible scream and looked to my side.

Madison’s hand was on Drake’s chest. A fading light w as expiring from her touch. Her and Drake’s eyes were locked inside of each other as wonder took over their expression s . I didn’t see why Charlie had screamed. Why Aden had an instan t panic overcome him at first, but then I saw it. The blood. Madison’s wound . The one I had healed was back. She collapsed in Drake’s arms as her blood pooled on the stone floor.

Without hesitation, Landen moved me from his lap and crawled to her side. He ripped the bottom of her tank top back before he ever looked at her face.

When he saw her image, I felt Landen’s astonishment. “Who is this?” he asked as he looked at Drake, who seemed to be paralyzed with shock.

“Madison – Madison!” I yelled. “Heal h er! When this happened before Dad said she punctured a lung. She’s drowning in her own blood!”

“Before?” Landen said under his breath as if he were seeing the moment.

“Landen, focus!”

Charlie was holding Madison’s head, crying breathlessly against her skin. “Don’t leave me! Don’t leave me!”

Aden did his best to console her, but Draven kept his distance. I felt his yearning. His only desire to hold Charlie, but he wouldn’t move. He refused to touch any of them.

Landen’s hands covered the wound on her small waist, and instantly a glow of light appeared there. He held his hands there longer than he nor mally would. I felt his doubt. He didn’t have my father here to tell him that everything beneath the surface was healed, and he was determined to make sure she was whole once again.

His hands stayed in place so long that her entire body began to glow. From the corner of my eye, I saw Draven step back, ensuring that mor e space was between him and us. It was like he couldn’t bare the temptation of the light.

Madison opened her eyes and took a gasping breath. Landen moved his hands to find the wound gone. All the blood was gone. Like it had never happened.

“When I healed her, the blood was still there ,” I thought.

Landen’s astonished eyes met mine. “You healed?”

I nodded. “Think ing of you – watching you learn I did . I don’t understand why it came back. What did I do wrong?”

“Nothing, ” Landen said as his eyes moved from Madison to Drake, then to me. “You gave her your energy… and she gave it to him.”

I looked down to see Madison staring at me, gaining her breath. It made sense now. I t made sense that Per odine wouldn’t take her blood. That my dad and Perodine were talking so intently to her in the hallway. That Britain had told me I’d been misinformed.