Emanate: Insight Series ((Insight) Web of Hearts and Souls) (17 page)

“Why are
you using past tense?”

He stared at me, looking for words apparently.
“
Let’s get you dry and home to Chara.”

I didn’t need my insights back to know that he was not looking forward to telling me what was weighing on his mind. There was another cliff in my future, one that was surely more dangerous than the ones I’d faced today.
I told the fear that was daring to creep up my spine to go to hell. It only vaguely listened as it stole my breath, as my heart started to pound at a slow, reverent pace.

Chapter
Eleven

~ Landen ~

Watching that thin tank of hers drying in the sun on the bank of my favorite hideaway was enough to make me debate never leaving here. I knew I could find us food, shelter, and that there was enough adventure here that we would never grow bored. In those silent moments, I lived an entire life at her side, one that I had imagined more than once.

I knew it was a foolish daydream. We would be found.

It was no secret that the Chambers bloodline preferred stubborn, adventurous women, ones that would put us in our place with one hard glance. My Willow would take it as an insult if I didn’t tell her everything. For all I knew, she was going to be angry and insulted anyway for me telling her this late in the game, but I was hoping for bonus points on being honest now; better late than never, right?

She stood before me, now completely dressed. She hadn’t said a word since I carried us back to the top of the cliff. Her gaze was pensive. Her intent was set on facing the worst, on preparing herself for an unfathomable fear.

I hated that she felt that way, and I wanted to tell her there was no reason to worry a thousand times over. Because one way or another, I would make this choice easy for her. I would make sure she knew that for the first time in her life, maybe her existence, she had to do what was right for her, not for the world. She had to feel her own heart, her own intent, and make the choice that only she could know was right. Because honestly, this ceremony would not happen if we were not both a hundred percent there for the right reasons.

I pulled her against me.

“Hold on.”

She braced her hands on my chest.
“Where are you taking me?”
she thought with a weak quake.

“
Chara.”

I pulled her head to my chest and wrapped her in my energy, sending her calm and balance, then moved our bodies home. To the place rumored to be where we first appeared so many years ago.

Once I’d brought us to the outskirts of the Radiance, I continued to hold her against me. I could feel my heart pounding, my palms sweating.

I was no stranger to this place. I’d spent most of my days here, at my father’s side, with my brother, my cousins, and the rest of the Rampart Warriors. I knew every branch, every blade of grass, every single inch of this land. But as a child when I played here, I had no idea that I would be standing here today as a king, with my queen in my arms…I would have never wanted that weight.

Though I had commanded the warriors to action, stood before members of them at my doorstep, I had yet to come here since I’d found Willow. I’d yet to claim the throne that was so clearly mine, that had always been mine.

My mother wanted me to walk Willow through these gates the first instant we came home. She wanted the world here, wanted a celebration that would be remembered for all of time. Before we even knew that Drake had taken Willow’s friends, I shut the idea down. I told my mother, via phone, that I would never terrify Willow, I would never push this role on her. That we deserved the time alone before we stood before this creation.  Besides, I wasn’t completely convinced I was who they thought we were at the time.

Fate must have agreed with me. Willow didn’t walk through the gates of Chara; I carried her as she lay unconscious in my arms. The days that passed after that were dark and trying, and each of them pulled us away from this world, telling me in some way that we were not ready for this.

After the Blue Moon, once everything settled down for a few days, I was prepared to bring her here, let her know that we had time to think about this step.

Unknowingly, Perodine had convinced me that I was indeed Guardian. She had done that when she showed me Willow here with Libby in her arms so long ago. It took me a few days to find peace with that, to really breathe in the idea that I was the king that I was raised to respect and honor, the king that we should all strive to be like, the one who ruled with his heart and always put his family before the world, because family is the world.

I planned to bring her here one day when
I knew it would be near silent. I had dinner, an entire night planned. But when I came in that night from playing football with my brother, Willow was standing at the door with her travel bags, ready to run. I took it as a sign. She may have wanted to run from the grief of losing her friend or the memory of facing Drake, it could have been a million things, but under it all she wanted out of Chara, and I was—am—a fool for her. I would never have the power to deny a desire of hers. We ran, only telling Brady that she needed time, space.

Until now, we had never been home long enough for me to find the courage to lead her here. Even now, I was waiting on the stars themselves to fall from the sky to stop me from showing her this place.

“Home
,” I thought, letting the back of her head go. She looked up from my chest, then very slowly all around her with wide eyes.

We were in the field just before the Radiance. The blades of grass were lavender, lines of blue veined through them. Tiny glowing lights were mingling just above them and throughout the air. I knew that they were nothing more than a reflective light of energy, but to lay eyes on them for the first time, you would swear that tiny fairies were swimming through the air.

The sky was a deep purple. The sun hiding behind the massive trees just behind us.

“This is not home.”

“It is the home I was meant to show you…it’s the only home in Chara you should know.”

I felt her fear rise in her as she squeezed my hand. “Breathtaking
…”

I suppose that was a good sign.

“Where in Chara are we?”

“
Just before the Radiance.”

“What is that?”

“It’s a place that is well guarded and held to a sacred level.”

“
Rampart Warriors
,” she thought, intending to no longer let her voice disrupt the silence.

I let my eyes tell her yes. I knew that Justus had not clearly described their role to her, or exactly what they were protecting
. That had been left to me, and I wasn’t sure where to start. As I child when I heard the stories, they were just that, stories, fairytales. Standing here now, after everything she and I had been through, I knew they were not just stories. I felt the gravity of every word. I felt the moments that were not recorded for the history of the world. I felt as if I had returned.

“
The Radiance is where Aliyanna and Guardian, you and I, first arrived in Chara. There is an immense amount of energy in this place. It has always been cherished, in some ways worshiped.”

She didn’t like the sound of that. She stepped back slowly, looking all around her. In our little talks in the late night hours, she told me more than once how she despised how Esterious was ruled by one person, how foolish she thought it was for everyone to bow down to one thing, to one place.

“The energy is worshiped, the peace of the place; nothing corporeal. People walk through this place in search of themselves or when they wish to find courage. That peace and courage are already within them, but here, because of the energy, they feel it, they find their way.”

I took her hand and led her toward the forest before us. I suppose that was the best way to describe it. These were the smaller trees in Radiance. They were only a few hundred feet t
all, and their branches interlocked and stretched out just as far. Moss that was the shade of lavender hung high above, and as it swayed with the wind you could easily imagine a sea above you. The glows of energy were abundant in here as well. You could see them through the thick of the forest, miles in each direction.

There were worn paths around the trees, and white stones across the ground amplified the dark colors of the bark perfectly. It wasn’t dark or light here; it never was. At any time of the day or year, this p
lace looked the same. Serenity. 

“
Breathtaking,”
she thought.

I glanced up toward the towering branches, feeling the eyes of the forest gaze at us with a mix of awe and relief; neither emotion I could agree with right now.

I pulled Willow closer to me on instinct.

“
Why did you seem so worried about showing this place to me?”
she asked.

“
I suppose I was having a hard time placing you and me here
,” I breathed in, noticing how her scent of lavender brought life to the colors, how all of nature seemed to sway and bow, acknowledging her presence.

Her pensive stare stabbed my soul.

“To me, knowing that you and I began this world terrified and honored me at the same time. I denied the thought, even when we were sitting at that table in the cabin in Montana, when my father was telling you the story of our world. I knew he had already declared this was our place. I couldn’t take it in, not even when August laid out the charts.”

“
When did you take it in?”
I felt the doubt in that thought, her wondering why it took me so long, wondering why if I understood my world’s heritage I didn’t embrace it.

I swallowed the emotions that wanted out and simply thought,
“
Libby.”
The moment we both saw that image of Libby, the moment we knew she was ours was an epic one that still stole our breaths; even now as we both remembered it, we were near speechless. By saying Libby’s name, Willow knew the exact moment I grasped the idea that we founded this world.

In the silence after that thought, I struggled to find words, wishing she could just feel my emotions, that she could ask me what she didn’t understand and we could leave the rest unspoken, as we had done with everything in the past.

“Ideally, it’s a fairytale. Who would not want to tell the world they had dreamed of their soul mate their entire life, that they had brought her home—and lo and behold, they discovered this world, this home, one that I dreamed of escaping over and over was one I had created with you?”

“
Ideally, but not in reality?”

I could feel the pain in her heart, the rejection she was embracing with fear. I couldn’t figure out why she would jump to such a painful conclusion.

“Everyone in Chara is extraordinary—we are raised to be so—but some families seem to have more insights, strengths that are more easily seen. I came from one of those families, and first and foremost I was taught to be humble about my bloodline, to never boast, but to help people discover what was amazing about their blood, their life. It was…it’s just hard to fathom that I was part of this creation, that something like this came to be because I was lucky enough to get you to run away with me once before—to build a life here.”

“
And now you want to run again…with me?”

Those last words were full of uncertainty. I’d asked her days ago to run away and not look back, for us just to fix this darkness and not hurt anyone else. She told me that we had to come home so we could remember what we were fighting for. 

Home
. To her, home was the four-bedroom house I built for her when I assumed my life would be nothing more than a traveler.
Home
. A place where everyone in my bloodline was less than a mile away.
Home
. A place that had the quaintest, friendliest town only miles away.
Home
. The home I’d given her, the one she thought we all grew up in, was a sham. It was created to give my family some sense of realism. It was created to hide my second coming from this world. It was created to teach me to be humble, to teach me what really mattered. It had served its purpose, but it was not a home my Willow deserved.

“
I don’t think we can run from this anymore.”

“
Your eyes look scared. Why?”

I tried to give her a smile, but I couldn’t.
“
I never wanted to be king…”
I let out a sigh. “
I wanted that weight to rest on another’s shoulders…I wanted it to be someone else’s fault when everything went wrong, the guy that fixed destruction, not created it.”

“
But…you’re not a king.”

I glanced away from her.
“
I haven’t…we haven’t taken our reign yet, but as far as this world is concerned, it is decided.”

“
How could they decide something thing like that? Because they think we’re some kind of supernatural couple? We are just people. They haven’t had anyone rule them before; why would they idolize someone now?”

“
They’ve always idolized the dimension’s creation, the beginning…and they have always known that couple would return to
protect
them.”

I tried to weight the word ‘protect’ as heavily as I could, but I knew she didn’t hear it the way I wanted her to.

“We’re not going to let anyone hurt them. They can idolize us any way they want, but we don’t have to tell anyone what to do or how to do that—you have said as much when you have spoken to crowds before.”