Emanate: Insight Series ((Insight) Web of Hearts and Souls) (7 page)

Chapter Four

~
Willow ~

This boy was moving entirely too fast to have been dead a day ago. His powerful stride flexed every muscle in his long, lean, warrior body and had him moving so fast that the only way I could track him was by moving my body at mach speed. I was beyond grateful that Pelhan had bothered to mention to me and Landen that we could move our bodies from place to place with a mere thought. It was draining me, no doubt. I felt all too mortal as I chased him to the gates of the string, then within the passages.

I felt my gut clench
, knowing that leaving this way would do nothing but infuriate Landen. Yet he was the one that left me behind, wasn’t he? That feeling failed to hinder me as Justus approached the gray passages of Esterious. He bypassed the ones that I traveled through, the ones that were as large as doorways and led to the safe places within this dark dimension. Instead, he halted just past them, at a point that I doubted many travelers could see. The gray haze was no bigger than a baseball and was just above his six-foot-four stance.

He vaguely
bothered to glance over his shoulder at me before he raised his head and exalted himself upward into the haze that could in no shape or form allow his body in.

I was wrong. As if it w
ere welcoming Justus home, the haze expanded and a dark mist absorbed him.

Now
, any reasonable person would have stopped in their tracks and turned back to find help, someone that could tell me without a doubt that the passage before me was safe. But I’m not reasonable. For some unknown, wacked out reason, a carnal maternal instinct had seized my soul.

I followed his lead
, gazed up at the haze, and thrust myself upward. When the haze opened, I felt a tepid fog reach out for me and pull me forward at an unprecedented speed. Unlike the other passages, this was not one step between dimensions. It felt like I was caught in an ominous undertow. Breath was not possible for those brief few seconds.

Before I knew it
, I was falling, fast and hard, to a stone floor a hundred feet below. I should have thought to stop myself, send my energy downward to give me some kind of landing barrier, but I was too astonished that I was falling to think rationally.

A mere two feet before I landed
, I felt strong arms clasp around me. Justus. He didn’t even bother to meet my eyes. Instead, he set me down like a wayward toddler, then went about his task at hand, which apparently involved a blade that would make any soul quiver with fear.

I knew this room. It was the one I
’d watched Livingston die in. It was the one we’d saved Preston from. The one that I’d faced Drake alone for the first time within. The distant memories slammed into my mind, allowing me to see how close, yet far away that night was from this day. So much had happened, and very little of it could be considered a blessing—especially since the universe seemed hell-bent on throwing curveball after curveball at me.

I angl
ed my gaze to stare at my latest curveball. Justus was standing over an all too familiar coffin: Adonia’s. His hands caressed the glass that contained the body of his fallen lover. At that moment, I was beyond happy to have my insights on hiatus. I despised grief. It always fired off unruly thoughts of doom in my mind. All the what ifs and dread of the day I would have to say my own goodbyes, whether it was me leaving this world once and for all or someone else. What ifs were poison to me. My mind was my enemy as my body became swamped with emotions that no soul should be forced to feel.

Right as I stood and began a somber walk toward him
, his hands which were flat on the glass managed to break it into a million pieces. The dark-haired girl with ivory skin looked as if she were cascaded beneath an array of diamonds. She was so pristine that I halfway expected her to take a gasping breath.

Within the next beat
, Justus raised his blade and with both hands drove it into her core. I gasped, forgetting that she was not merely sleeping. Justus bolted back as if he were expecting a reaction. Seconds ticked by, then he charged forward and pulled his blade out, only to stab her heart this time. With this strike, not only did she gasp, but the wound in her core began to saturate her white gown with crimson.

Justus stepped back, glancing to me as if to ensure I was behind him, then pulled yet another blade from his boot. It was far more modest than the last one he had used
, but still just as deadly.

What happened next was beyond reason. She began to laugh. A deep, dark, sinister laugh echoed from her lips and
ricocheted across the stone walls. Wicked words in a hastened whisper began to leave her lips as her laugh ceased. I was sure I would understand them if I could hear them clearly.

I stepped forward
, but Justus held his hand back. Adonia rose from her coffin, then glanced to the blade in her heart before she half-heartedly pulled it from her flesh.

“I’m heartbroken, Justus, truly
,” she said with a rasp.

He sneered
. “I told you I would have the last laugh, lover.”

She glanced down to her stomach and gently reached to
the oozing blood there. “You missed,” she said with a sinful smile. “Your seed is mine. My sovereign is everlasting.”

“I didn’t miss
,” he said with obvious disdain. “Do you feel it, love? Do you feel the poison in your heart? In your vacant womb?”

Her eyes grew wide
with a mix of rage and obvious fear. At that moment, black veins began to snake across her body, aging her at a speed that was beyond reason, far past the point that would have brought her to the age she would be today, if she were alive.

She screamed out as
her hands began to turn to ash. With her last words, I could have sworn I heard her say, “I’ve been forsaken—claim another.” Her last words never made it out, though. Her entire body turned to ash and melted into the satin pillows she was perched upon.

Justus wasted no time
. From his pocket he pulled a bottle and sprinkled clear water across the ashes. After a few whispered words from him, the remains erupted into flames, then vanished from sight, leaving only the table that had held his past lover.

“Time to go
,” he said to me.

I crossed my arms
over my chest and glared at him, determined not to move from this spot, not until I understood why the first love story I’d heard about Chara—spoken by my father, mind you—ended this way.

“Did you just kill a child in front of me?”

Wrath was easing into my veins, pushing aside rational emotions such as fear or remorse.

“
No child of mine had taken seed in her, or anyone for that matter. I will vow to that. She had my essence. Therefore, she had yours.”

Obviously
, he was still under the illusion I was some kind of cosmic Goddess. “Do you have any idea the strife you caused this family by coming here years ago? By dying here? Do you realize that Beth has been a prisoner here? That because she was, Drake grew up in this hell, brainwashed from day one into loving my image?”

“I was there. Were you?”

My energy flared out at him, causing him to sway backward. He was strong, stronger than I thought; that blow should have landed him on the ground.

“I felt my father
’s unyielding grief when he told me the tragic story of you and Adonia, how he was there when you came to bring her home. How she missed her father and went home to see him against your will—how they killed you and the fate of Beth and Adonia went unknown. Marc and Chrispin grew up without a mother because of
you
.”

“Because of me
, their father was alive to conceive them. Because of
me
,
his sons were born and led to you and yours. I did as I was
told
.”

“By whom
?”

“You, S
overeign.”

“Get over yourself. Are you telling me that you never loved this woman? That my father and everyone else was fooled by you? Manipulated by you?”

“Do I look like someone that would bed a mirrored soul?”

I
knew that terminology, vaguely. Landen had told me about it a few days ago. Apparently, those souls were entrapped by master Escorts. Shells of what they were before. Something I doubted any child of Alamos’ would endure. He was too strong in the way of magic. I knew he could have protected Adonia from such a fate.

“I have no idea what you look like. I don’t get you.”

He stepped dominantly forward. “She was bred to bring destruction to your existence when every other way failed. You see, the sovereign you must bring to death never allows one course of action to decide his fate. Adonia was told who to seduce and when. I stole this woman’s affections from Livingston. Coldheartedly, in fact. I went knife-to-knife with Livingston over the likes of this mirror for one purpose: to protect him from producing a child with her.” He took in my awestruck expression, showing no shame for his actions.

“It wasn’t hard
. All I had to do was tell this worthless servant that I was a First. That my visions had promised me an eternal right of royalty. That I could not hold her unless her soul was strong enough to hold me through that course of time. She dropped Livingston as fast as lightning.”

“This woman was behind a beacon fo
r Livingston? Is that what you’re telling me?” I will grant you that I hadn’t had the time to completely comprehend the heritage of Landen’s world, but I knew one thing: dating was not their style. They only went after the ‘one.’

“
The Rampart Warriors rarely seek a beacon. Most of them dodge them with haste. They would not dare tempt fate and bring cosmic karma to their doorstep.”

“What the hell are
you talking about? According to you, my father is one, as well as Landen’s—and furthermore, your timeline is off. My father was there when you claimed this woman, but long gone before that tragic night of your death. How did you and Livingston overcome your strife? How could Beth openly defend this woman, leave her infant sons behind to rescue an old lover of her soul mate?”

“Not all women drink from the well of jealous
y, Sovereign.”

“You want to bet on that?”

He smirked. “Adonia came after Livingston when we were barely seventeen. Livingston was possessed by her essence; she was drugging him with the perfume she wore. I made my move. Made sure he saw it, saw her response. We fought. Nearly to the death. Jason stood between us. In the end, each of us convinced Livingston that she was toying with him, manipulating him. He agreed to wait until his soul called him to find someone. He swore to me if his beacon led to her, he would end my life the moment after he brought her home.”

“It le
d to Beth,” I said, almost to myself.

He bowed as if he were accepting applause.

“You just told me Rampart Warriors do not seek soul mates.”

“Most
, yes. Some, though, have no choice. They feel a burn. The worst pain you could fathom. It is a fated call, meaning that the life of a Rampart has asked them to leave the borders they felt called to defend to create more defenders. Those warriors know that the women they are called to will no doubt bring forth the next generation of warriors, that they will continue to defend our world.”

“So it’
s not rare?”

“Apparently not for the Chambers and Haywood bloodlines
. Most that feel pulled away do not do so until they are staring the age of thirty in the eye. Imagine the upset this world felt when myself, Jason, Ashten, and Livingston all backed away with a fevering burn at the infant age of twenty. This world knew then that war was imminent.”

“Is that when you decided to tell my father of my fate? When he swore not to conceive me?” I said
, still jaded that he would accuse the noblest man I had ever known of such a thing.

“I told him that when we
were twelve, then again at fifteen. By then, he was already called to the role of a Rampart Warrior…by then, it was easy to speak such words.”

“Words he forgot.”

Justus smirked as his deep gray eyes narrowed on me. “It is my understanding that women have a way of making you forget your convictions. Some with a mere glance.”

He was making my head spin. I felt like the floor was moving
, even though I was standing still. None of this made sense to me, but deep down I felt a withering voice begging me to listen to it. To understand all of this.

“I still see no need for warriors in Chara.”

“You live in the safe haven of the warriors’ personal homes. Do you honestly think that you would see war from your front porch? Or even hear whispers of its approach?”

“You don’t have to be a smart ass.”

He adjusted his stance, clearly holding back his anger. “Then let me be blunt, Sovereign. When you walked through the gates of Chara for the first time, you did nothing less than ensure the end of time. With nothing more than a glance, you had seized the heart of the most powerful warrior known to live—and you didn’t stop there. Within a month’s time, you pulled more warriors from the line and led them to lovers. You created a pattern, a warning. Surely, you have felt the honor the world gives you. Surely, you have noticed how their gaze, when aimed at you, reflects nothing but humbleness. They are seeking salvation. Salvation that will not come if the war within you remains.”