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  “He has never left them. If they listen, they will hear him. They must pass the anger that stirs inside them,” Pelhan said. Upon hearing Pelhan’s words, August and our fathers nodded. Preston then called Livingston’s attention back, and we all stood in awe - realizing that no one ever really dies.

  Chapter Eight

  An older woman joined us in the courtyard. Her hair was long, thick, and as white as the Aura around her.

  “This is Aora, my soulmate,” Pelhan said, introducing her to us.

  Aora bowed her head to August and our fathers, then to me and Landen. “Landen, would you walk with me please?” Pelhan asked.

  Landen looked at me with dread; he didn’t want to leave my side.

  “Willow is safer here than you can imagine. Aora has longed to speak with Willow...give them their time,” Pelhan said in a tender tone.

  I looked slowly to Aora; she was smiling peacefully at me. Landen kissed my forehead and looked inside my eyes. “I love you, Willow,” he thought.

  “I love you,” I thought, smiling up at him.

  His smile widened, bringing his perfect dimples to life. “Can you control that temper of yours?” he thought in a teasing manner.

  I heard Aora and Pelhan laugh a little, and I looked to them, sure they could hear my thoughts. I nodded up at Landen; he nodded back, then passed by me to take Pelhan’s side. Aora came cautiously to my side and reached for my arm. I turned to see Landen and Pelhan walk into the distance. My father and the others were still smiling in amazement at Livingston’s presence. Aora gently pulled my arm, and I walked slowly in the direction in which she was leading me, back into the beautiful home.

  “One day, you will make peace with all that you have seen and all that you will see,” Aora said to me in calm tone.

  I looked to my side at her, unsure that I wanted to know what I would have to make peace with in the future - or the past, for that matter. Once inside the house, Aora led me slowly across the room. On the other side of the room was a wide hallway; it was clear she was leading me there. “The first time I saw you, I was barley seven,” she said, looking over to me. “Tomorrow, I will turn two hundred and ninety.”

  I slowly turned my head in admiration; Aora was breathtaking, and I could only hope age would be so kind to me.

  At the threshold of the hallway, we stopped. Aora then turned to face me. “There are certain traits that we carry with us through each life. The one you have sustained is a love of color, of art,” she said proudly. She looked down the hallway, and my eyes followed hers.

  Along the walls were large paintings surrounded by gold frames, and I slowly began to walk into the hallway. I stopped at the first painting. It was of me. Landen was at my side, and behind us was a beautiful home - much like the one we lived in now, brick with wide porches on both levels. I walked slowly to the next painting, only to find that time had shifted back further. Landen was still at my side. “Has anything else remained the same?” I asked, swallowing hard and trying to comprehend how there could have been so many lives.

  “Your sun has always remained the same, Scorpio, just as Landen has always remained a Pisces,” Aora said, walking to my side to gaze at the paintings with me.

  “Is that bad? To be a Scorpio over and over again?” I said, ashamed of the temper it gave me at times.

  “There are no bad signs; we choose our sign over and over again to master it. You must love who you are within your sun,” Aora said.

  “Did the other planets stay the same?” I asked, knowing now that each planet and house helped guide my traits.

  “They have only been repeated exactly at the time of your last birth. The other planets that passed through your sun at your earlier births gave you insight to the life you chose to live then,” Aroa said quietly.

  I sighed and walked through the middle of the hallway, searching all the paintings, assuring myself that Landen was at my side each time. As I looked at the last painting at the end of hallway – which also featured Landen at my side – I let out a small breath of relief.

  Aora silently walked to my side. “Now...you were not looking for a life without Landen - were you?” Her tone was amused.

  I looked at her with guilt all over my face. “Were there any?” I asked hoarsely.

  Aora smiled and tilted her head. Her eyes told me there had been. “More than one?” I asked. She nodded yes, and I felt my insides fall. The photo of Drake at my side and the words he said to me – that he had seen me love him – came spinning through my mind. Suddenly, I felt dizzy, and I let my hands catch myself on my knees as I tried to breathe. As Aora reached for my shoulder, I felt her overwhelming calm and breath slowly came back to me. I sat down where I stood, looking past the room. “Where are the paintings of those lives?” I asked, still dazed.

  “You only painted the lives you longed to live again,” Aora said softly, trying to catch my gaze.

  I let my eyes find hers. “Were they...were they lives with Drake?..did I...did I love him?” I asked - not only Aora, but also myself.

  Aora smiled and pulled my hand gently. I stood slowly, looking at her intently and waiting for her answer.

  “It is possible to love another...you can only be in love with one,” she answered.

  “Where was Landen? How did we not find one another?” I asked as tears of grief came to the corners of my eyes.

  “You never spoke of the choices that you made that led you away from Landen and into Drake’s arms,” Aora answered.

  I felt sick to my stomach.

  “You have loved another, and so has Landen,” Aora said in a calm voice.

  The sickness I felt was replaced by intense jealousy and rage. I could see Landen holding a faceless woman the way he held me. I felt betrayed.

  “Now, there is that angry, jealous Scorpio,” Aora said, smiling at me. I didn’t find it funny at all. I also thought her making light of the betrayal between me and Landen was an insult on every level. “There is no need to be angry; we have laughed over this matter together in the past,” she said.

  “I don’t see how being away from my soulmate is funny in any way,” I said shortly.

  “I agree, but you must understand that even though you were separated by physical form, you were never really apart. You lips may have told another that you loved them, your touch may have confirmed your love to them, but your soul beckoned another, restless, waiting for time to pass so you could be as one again,” Aora said.

  My mind took me to last night, where - for the first time that I was aware of - Landen and I combined our energy and were truly one. I felt the anger and jealousy melt away. Aora’s eyes looked to the white band of light that connected me and Landen. “I can see that you and Landen have taught yourself to harness the raw power of your energy,” she said, smiling widely.

  I felt heat rise in my cheeks as I blushed at the blissful memory. “That act will strengthen the bond between you and give you a power that has never been unleashed in any life.”

  “Will it be strong enough to protect us through Mercury?” I asked.

  “You are both are strong enough for every trial - you just have to believe that you are,” Aora said, still smiling at me. She walked to the last painting and moved her finger across its base. A small opening appeared. Aora then reached in and retrieved a small folded piece of paper, yellow from the time that had passed.

  “These are your words. You left this here for you to find today,” Aora said, reaching to give me the paper. I took it and unfolded it slowly, swallowing hard, afraid of what could be written. In beautiful penmanship, I read:

  I would address you by name, but there is no way for me to know the name that was chosen for you in this life. I know that if you are reading this you have found your soulmate and have passed the trail of the moon. I only hope that it did not prove to be a painful awakening for us. If you have spoken with Aora, I’m sure you realize now that we have walked this earth many times. I want to tell you that each life was fu
ll of bliss, but I cannot lie to myself. There were regrets in every life. Know this: with each last breath, we were grateful for having breathed at all. Living is painful. Without pain, reality would escape us and the lessons the world has for us will go untaught. You can walk away from all of this and simply love the one who completes you. We have tried to do so more than once, and each time we learned that regret is worse than anxiety, and we heeded the call to help others. Take this advice from your soul: love yourself, love your soulmate, and the universe will be at your beck and call.

  I read the letter over again, then smiled with a gasp of air, folded it, and handed it back to Aora. “There is nothing there that I haven’t already learned. Why could I not leave a way to help myself?” I asked Aora. She took the letter and tucked in back into the painting.

  “The help you need is in the people you asked to be in your life today,” she said, looking back at me.

  “People?” I repeated.

  “Across your lives, you have found souls that you felt safe with. Those souls chose to help you in this life, and they play a role designed for their purpose in the universe,” Aora explained.

  “I cannot put my family and friends in danger,” I said, looking down.

  “If you do not teach them, they will struggle in their ignorance,” Aora said.

  “What am I supposed to teach them? To leave their bodies, to see Auras, feel emotions, see truth? I don’t even understand how I do it - how can I teach them?” My words fell on one another through my frustration.

  Aora tried not to laugh. “There is nothing you can do that they cannot learn,” she said confidently. “There is one among you now who has played role after role in your life. She should be the one you teach first. As she learns, she will help you teach the others.”

  “Who? My mother? Rose?” I asked.

  Aora shrugged her shoulders. “I only know that her sun rests in Cancer,” she said. My mind raced though birthdays and sun signs, trying to match one to a Cancer. Suddenly, I knew which one she was. “Olivia,” I whispered. “But wait - she can’t even see in the string. She’s from the dimension I was raised in,” I argued.

  “Everyone has your power; they must simply find it,” Aora said quietly.

  Frustrated and angry, I closed my eyes and leaned against the wall. Aora gave me time to take in her words.

  “Alright...we teach our family to do what we can do – then what? We all scatter and teach person by person? Will this life be long enough to teach even one dimension?” I asked.

  “Every soul impacts the universe like a vast wave. Do not concern yourself with the how – focus on the end result. For the universe to be in harmony, every soul must remember the love that they are made of, remember what they were given at that first breath, before they were told that the universe was cruel,” Aora said, slowly smiling at me. “Come, they are waiting for us.”

  I walked silently by Aora’s side through the other end of the hallway. It opened to the outside, the opposite side of where I was before. Even though I’d seen the colors of this dimension before, the beauty still took my breath away. In the distance was a very large tree; its trunk was no less than fifteen feet wide, and the branches were thick and stretched out beyond imagination in every direction. The grass beneath its shade was soft and light green. I could see Landen and Pelhan approaching the tree from another direction; Landen seemed calm, but it was clear - like me - that he didn’t completely enjoy his private conversation.

  When we reached one another, I took Landen’s hand. Pelhan smiled, and as he took Aora’s hand, Landen and I were captured by this beautiful tree; the energy that engulfed every part of it was more than we had seen among any other piece of nature.

  “This has served as your bodies’ final resting place on more than one occasion,” Pelhan said in a low tone. I felt sick again. Somehow, it had escaped my attention that for us to live another life, we must have died. Death was terrifying - with or without the promise of eternal life.

  Landen’s eyes moved to the ground, and mine followed; we were looking for markers, names that we carried before.

  “You will not see any stones. You both believed that your bodies were vessels given by the earth and returned to the earth. At one time, you believed that if a stone was placed above you, it would bind you to that body forever,” Pelhan said.

  Landen quickly looked at Pelhan, only to see him smiling.

  “You were very young souls when those words left your lips. You know now that nothing that you do not allow can bind you,” Pelhan continued, amused by our reaction. “I can only hope that what we have told you today will serve you in the path that you choose,” he finished, extending his arm for us to follow him.

  Landen I both looked over our shoulders to gaze at the beautiful tree and the energy that surrounded it. As we walked back to the courtyard where our family was, we took in the beauty of the sky and the harmony of this dimension.

  Just before we reached the others, Pelhan said, “Do not wait for another invitation; the gate is always open to you. We will always help you in any way we can.”

  Landen nodded and pulled me closer. In the courtyard, Livingston’s soul was gone. Libby and Preston had August and our fathers sitting in mediation mode; I think I was more amused by seeing Ashten comply with learning this than I was with any other. Pelhan and Aora bowed and silently walked into their home. Landen and I waited for the others to complete their meditation; moments later, Preston’s eyes fluttered open while the others remained still. He walked to our side and reached up for Landen to pick him up.

  “Today was a good day for you,” Landen said.

  Preston smiled and nodded. “We don’t want to go to New York with you; we want to go home,” he said, looking at Libby.

  “Umm...OK...we’ll all go home,” Landen said, looking at me for help.

  Preston shook his head no and looked back at Landen. “The others are waiting for you,” he said, smiling. “You don’t have to sit in meditation to leave, to help another,” he continued, putting his small hand on Landen’s face.

  “Preston, we aren’t as strong as you,” I argued.

  “Yes you are. You can leave without the others around you even knowing – you’ll see today,” Preston said, smiling and looking down at me.

  I looked up at Landen. He shrugged his shoulders and smiled at me.

  “Maybe you should go, to show us,” Landen said, trying to make peace.

  “I already have - it’s your turn,” Preston said in a serious tone.

  At times, it was hard to believe that we were speaking to a six-year-old child; the wisdom inside Preston and Libby seemed to reach the heavens above.

  The others came back into consciousness. Landen then sat Preston down, and he ran to Libby’s side and pulled her up. “I told them,” Preston whispered to her. She then giggled and smiled at me and Landen.

  The others rose from their positions, and we slowly made our way to the gate of the dimension. Everyone walked in silence until we reached the passage that would lead us to New York. Libby and Preston reached up to hug us goodbye.

  “None of you are coming?” Landen asked, reading their intent.

  Ashten looked at Jason and August, then shook his head no.

  “I think we’re eager to get home and tell Aubrey and Grace about today,” Ashten said.

  “Are you going to teach Mom to meditate?” Landen asked Ashten, amused by his words.

  “Preston and Libby promised to help us. Besides, your mother is way more open to things like this; she’ll more than likely end up teaching me,” Ashten said with a laugh, reaching for Preston’s hand.

  August lingered a step behind the others, looking proudly back and forth between me and Landen. “Make sure you fall asleep together tonight; this dimension cannot protect you the way ours can,” he said, putting his hand on Landen’s shoulder.

  Landen nodded and pulled me closer. August nodded, then picked up his step to catch Ashten and my dad.


  We stepped through the passage and found ourselves on a roof top in the heart of the city. There were beautiful gardens across it, hidden from the concrete jungle below.

  “Do you know where we’re supposed to meet them?” I asked

  “Dane said they’d be shopping and walking through museums last night.”

  “Where are we staying?” I asked

  “Here. We own a condo here,” Landen said, smiling.

  I shook my head in disbelief, wondering for a moment how many homes our family really owned across the universe. We found a doorway that led to a stairwell. After the first floor, we walked through a door that led to an open hallway. Landen then reached in his bag and found a key and a paper with a room number on it.

  “What? You have so many homes, you can’t remember where you are?” I teased.

  Landen smiled. “No. Remember I was never allowed here,” he said, raising his eyebrows.

  I felt a tinge of anger run through us both. We had tried everything in our power to overlook the fact that we’d been kept apart through our childhood. We both saw it as lost time. It didn’t matter that we had lives before and were sure to have others beyond this one; we were both greedy when it came to the time we spent together. It never seemed to be enough.

  Opening the door to the condo, we saw nothing less than absolute luxury. The entire back of the condo was solid glass, giving way to the entire city. The front room was vast, with large white leather couches. There were water murals that trickled down the wall dividing the living room and kitchen.

  “No wonder they were so eager to come here,” I whispered.

  “My mother decorated this home. It’s how she filled her time while my father looked for yours.”

  “It looks so modern,” I whispered.

  “She’s always been a little before her time when it comes to interior design,” Landen said, winking at me.

  On the table in the center of the room was a note. It simply read: We will be back by four – dinner?