Enflame (Book 6) ((Insight) Web of Hearts and Souls) (21 page)

“You let Skylynn in.”

He tilted his head down and let his eyes rise to meet mine. “Jealous much?”

“All the time.”

“Typical.”

“Whatever.”

“We never let anyone in, and neither did Skylynn. Don’t let her get to you.”

“She’s not.” I pushed my empty plate away from me. “While I was driving around for no reason, I did manage to think of a few questions for you.”

“Listening,” he said, wiping his mouth.

A second later
I was sitting on my couch in front of the fire. I gasped, looking over my shoulder, hating that he could move so fast—move me.

“I did the dishes,” he said as he sat down on the other end of the couch from me.

“Right,” I mumbled, adjusting myself to a more comfortable position. “All right, explain how I fit into this. How vital am I? I mean, I get the impression that all that time you were with Landen, it was spent trying to find me...did you have a back up plan if you found me and I was broken?”

“Deep thinker when you drive your little box around, huh?” he mumbled as his gaze fell to my medallion. Unconsciously, I reached for it, letting my fingertips trace the perfect details of it.

“Never mind. I’ll ask Landen,” I said as I rolled my eyes.

“Oh, stop your whining
,” he said, throwing a mischievous glance at me. “You’re not broken.” He stretched his legs out as he gazed at the fire. “And your images are only a fragment of your purpose. And don’t ask me what that is. If you haven’t figured it out, then...well, it’s not time to. Better off that way, considering the emotion you are fighting.”

“Love?”

“You’re not fighting love,” he said with a glance that made me feel like a fool. “Fear. You fight fear.”

He had a point there.

“But, okay, say we open this gate and you guys ride the souls out, or Draven and the others throw them out. What’s next? And what happens if it goes wrong? What is the risk?”

“The next porthole is next. This web is bigger than one spell. We’ll deal with what goes wrong when it goes wrong.” His eyes danced across my clueless expression. “Don’t look at me like that. Trying to fix what could go wrong before it went wrong is half the reason we are in this predicament. Souls are power, and right
now a lot of souls are enslaved. Focus on that, not the images. Not the fear.”

“So the point is to get them out? Straighten out the past by looking forward? Confusing, that is what that is.”

He glanced at my wrist to my tattoo, the star. “Has your other been meddling in your mind?”

“Like he had time. Why?”

“I told you: I know how a Scorpio’s mind works. All this time, you’ve been told your heart is the power, needed to break a curse, to run a dimension—making your other look like the bad guy, only wanting your power. Then I show up, Skylynn does. You hear us bickering about the past, that Guardian had told us you were the key. Now who looks like the bad guy?”

“I don’t doubt why Landen loves me.”

“Good. Because I would throw you into the fire if you did,” he said, nodding to the flames that were heating the room.

“I dare you to try,” I mumbled. Before he could respond, I said, “How did you know all that about me? What we’ve been through?”

“People talk. The dead talk. All of people are waiting for your victory.”

“It doesn’t seem that hard now. I mean, we just have to cut off the power, find a way to end Donalt for good.”

He smirked. “Woman, I don’t want to see your version of hard, then.”

“Next question,” I said, adjusting myself to face him more comfortably. “Paths were crossed. Charlie Myers’ daughter and her friends are going to play and open a gate for us. They said they found their way into The Realm when they played a song, that when they stand in a perfect circle balanced by light and darkness that they can pull more out.”

“Very modern. Too bad electric guitars were not invented when the spell was cast the first time around.”

“Let me finish. You said if I could not feel someone, it was because they were dark. I can’t feel Madison, my twin. If she’s dark, then she and Drake are the same, too. That also means their circle was not balanced at all.”

In dismay, he gently moved his head from side to side. “Should have popped in that car long before I did. You are going to think yourself to death.”

“It’s a valid question.”

“Right, then. She is bright as the sun. Hell, it would be nice to have sunglasses right now,” he said, nodding his head in the direction where August’s house sat. “Xavier is no fool. He broke the link between the two of you.”

“Why, though?”

“I’m sure we are going to figure out the ‘why’ right when it’s too late.” He raised his chin. “Then again the good guys could have done that so she would not have to feel any wayward past emotions you have for her man.”

I narrowed my eyes at him playfully.
“So I might feel her if we undo this?”

“
We cannot undo what was done to you. Only what we did. That deal should be good, nice little wall between you.”

I relaxed into the couch.

“Is that relief, Sunshine?”

“Maybe. I don’t think she cares for me.”

Sympathy filled his stoic image. That edgy, playful Phoenix stepped aside for a moment. “Then you shouldn’t feel relief. If she felt you, she would see what I saw, over and over again. She would know you and your other would only destroy each other.”

“She’s a Scorpio, too.”

He nodded once like he knew that. “Looks like bonding time is over,” he said, almost to himself.

A second later, I sensed
Landen and Brady getting closer, slowly. I’d taken the Jeep, so they must be walking. I thought I felt Marc and Chrispin, too.

“His brother is a good guy. Calmed me down a time or two. Loves his family,” I offered.

“Seems all right. Little possessive,” Phoenix muttered.

“You’re a bit intimidating.”

“Who, me?” he said as he looked at me and widened his eyes so I could see the flames.

That made me laugh. “Landen has been around for nineteen years. Why did you just show up now?”

His playful expression left immediately. “If I don’t have all my ashes, it’s hard to be in reality, and everything I would have recognized about Guardian was masked deep inside. The Realm ripped him right open. It would not have taken me long to sense him. You calling me by my ashes gave me a constant link to you, way to ‘pop in,’ as you say. Each minute I was around you when we met, images of him flashed into my mind, what you looked like then did...one thing Skylynn did right.”

“You recognized Dane immediately.”

“I recognized his energy, not what he looked like. Both of you are far healthier looking in this life.”

“Because we are with the ones who
complete us.”

He tilted his head as his gaze filled with wonder. “You remember that if Dane’s mate ends up chasing him to the dark side and we have to fight them. Tell yourself they are together and happy.”

“He’s not going to that side, if I have to turn back time myself.”

“If I were you, I’d save that card,” he said, glancing to my medallion.

“Why?”

“As soon as you show it, t
hey will plot to take it away, and Sunshine, we have barely begun this war.”

Landen opened the front door at th
at moment. He’d changed clothes. He was now wearing dark denim and a white T-shirt. Brady, Marc, and Chrispin filed in after him.

The tension was immediate.
Phoenix never bothered to stand to greet them.

“Phoenix,” Landen said, nodding to him, “you’ve met Brady. This is Marc and Chrispin. This is Phoenix. I’d tell all of you he’s my brother, but the truth is, he’s more than that.”

Obviously pleased with his introduction, Phoenix stood and shook their hands, hearing ‘Welcome to the family’ more than a few times.

Marc squeezed my shoulder to tell me hello as the others pushed the oversized chairs toward the couch. I noticed the ink on his arm, the fake tattoo I usually drew on him to match Drake’s: a willow tree laced with a dragon.

“This is real?” I said as I moved my fingers across it.

He grinned. “Yeah. We went and did that after lining the ship up. It will just make it easier if I have to keep standing in for Drake. Landen healed it for me
. Look good?”

“Yeah,” I mumbled, tracing the lines with my nail. “You sure about this? Standing in and stuff?”

He shrugged his shoulders. “Stella is always with the looking glass. Gives me an excuse to stay close.”

“The boat is lined up?” I asked them all, which caused a rumble of laughter.

Chrispin was stretched out in one of the big chairs. “Lucky for us your man is a good swimmer.”

Landen tossed a pillow at him.

“Olivia?” I questioned, feeling a little outnumbered by all of them.

“Teaching Madison how to use her energy.”

Landen sat down between Phoenix and me. “
You trying to get away from me
?” he teased, reading my intent.

“
Just trying not to get in the way
.”

“
Never
,” he said with a sultry glance.

I blushed in response.

“What’s the plan?” Brady asked, sitting on the arm of the chair in which Marc was lounging.

“I wanted to show them what we’re up against, the big picture. Did you find anything out?” Landen asked Phoenix.

Phoenix cautiously glanced around the room, clearly not wanting to divulge anything in front of people he’d just met.

“Family,” Landen said to him, so quietly I barely heard him.

Phoenix pursed his lips, trying to take in that word. It seemed bitter to him. “There is quite a rumble in the veil.”

Landen relaxed into the couch. “Always is,” he said as the fire caught his gaze.

I noticed the glances Brady and the others were giving each other. They knew Landen was forever more changed. What they didn’t know was if they would like the new Landen as much as the old one.

“Did you find Charlie Myers?” Landen asked.

“She’s at August’s house,” Chrispin said in a bewildered tone.

“Her dad.
Same name,” I said. Chrispin nodded like he knew that and had just forgotten.

“Rumor has it he’s on the other side
,” Phoenix said, raising one brow, anticipating Landen’s response.

“Oh, good then. That must mean this is all over and I can find a beach to stretch out on,” Landen said in a mocking tone, which made Phoenix laugh under his breath.

I guess rumors were not all that reliable in the veil.

“You know rumors.
They have less truth than lies. But apparently, he’d only been in the veil for less than twenty years. Even dying as an Escort would have only afforded him a few hundred more years in experience and skill. They say you would have thought he created it. He was smooth, charismatic, formed an alliance and such.”

“You never saw him before?” Landen asked.

“I think I might have, but I was too busy hunting my ashes, a way out. Pointless for me to focus on The Fall if I couldn’t get through it.”

“He lingered near The Fall?” Landen questioned.

“From what I heard, that is where he came from, how he left,” Phoenix said with a smirk, waiting for a quick response from Landen.

“How in the hell did he make it through The Fall, and why would he leave his family behind? That can’t be right.”

“What Fall?” Brady asked.

“It looks like water falling
, a waterfall. It divides two realities. Some people call it Heaven’s Gate,” Landen explained. He glanced at me. “At one time, certain souls could pass through easily, usually at death, but that has been blocked, trapping everyone on the side they were in.”

“From what I gather,” Phoenix said to Landen, clearly not wanting to take the time to explain anything, “he meant to, his i
ntent, life plan, was to get Charlie here and take his lover home. They say he left her here on purpose.”

“Selected?” Landen said under his breath.

Phoenix shrugged, saying that was a possibility. I wasn’t clear on what The Selected were, but I thought they said they lived against that Fall, had really long lives and such.

“Did he have a Yod?” Landen asked.

“Nope.”

“What?” I asked, growing frustrated with this coded conversation.

“It’s a mark in your birth chart,” Landen answered.

“A mark that Landen has,” Brady added, glancing at Marc. I felt their dread rise.

“Is it a bad mark?”

“Just a mark,” Landen said to me.

“Don’t be modest, mate,” Phoenix stated. “Sunshine, it’s a God-like mark, the finger of God. Where it points is a direction fate has set for you.”

“Where does it point?” I asked nervously.