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  Her eyes found mine, and she squeezed my hand. “He’s going to have to learn to forget you first,” she answered.

  I let my shoulders fall and leaned back into the couch.

  “One day, when all this nonsense is over...he will,” she said to me, but I knew she didn’t believe the words she said. I reached my hand to my charm on my neck and let my fingers run across the sun and the moon. I hated that it – who I was – had caused so much trouble that day.

  “When that wall falls – I want you to take me to visit Chara,” Beth said.

  “Why don’t you just come home, live there?” I asked quietly. Her eyes found Drake, and he glanced over his shoulder, catching her gaze.

  “He needs someone,” she said quietly.

  I felt a horrible guilt rise inside of me; it was so strong, Landen looked over his shoulder. He pushed away from the table and walked over to us, and Beth stood, allowing him to sit at my side. “I’ll sit over here,” he said, pointing to the other couch that faced the fireplace. She shook her head no and stretched out on couch opposite us.

  “It’s almost dawn,” Landen said, sitting down beside me. Dane had drifted to sleep next to me.

  I leaned into Landen. “Did they say anything?” I asked.

  “August and Perodine are showing him what they found before,” Landen said, sighing.

  Marc found his distance from Landen uncomfortable and made his way to the couch beside ours. “You look horrible; you need to sleep,” Landen said to him as he sat down.

  “I’m fine - thanks for the compliment,” Marc said, rolling his eyes. “Why don’t the two of you sleep and do that thing you do and go check on our family?”

  “No!” Perodine and August said in unison. Perodine walked up behind the couch where Marc was sitting, and August came to our side. “It will follow you there,” Perodine warned. “We have to make sure the children are protected.”

  “I don’t think it’s wise for you to even rise outside of your bodies,” August added.

  “We slept hours ago; it didn’t appear until we had awoken,” Landen said to calm August’s fears.

  “Yes, but as the hour grows closer, he becomes stronger,” August said to Landen.

  “Perfect; they’ll be so exhausted by tomorrow, tonight – whenever – that they won’t be able to think clearly,” Marc said, folding his arms across his chest.

  “We aren’t tired; we’ll be fine,” Landen said to Marc.

  Drake stood from the table and walked to the doorway that led to the hallway. I looked at Landen.

  “He’s going to get a blanket for Beth,” Landen thought, answering my unasked question.

  “You have sympathy for him,” I thought.

  Landen smiled slightly and looked deep in my eyes before he answered. “I know what it’s like to watch my mother struggle with the decisions that I’ve made, that were made on my behalf; we’re all victims, but Beth – Beth has had to endure more than all of us,” he thought.

  I let my eyes fall from his and squeezed his hand. I’d seen the pain in Beth when she’d cared for me; she was a woman that had lost so much and had never been repaid. “I want her to go home with us, but she says Drake needs her,” I thought.

  “Until this is all over – Drake has found his place – she won’t be at peace. We just need to do what we can to make her comfortable with the path in front of us all,” Landen thought, moving his arm around me as he stared at Beth’s sleeping body.

  My thoughts took me to my own mother, my father; I could only imagine how worried they were right now. I knew that Palhen himself would find it a challenge to keep them all balanced in our absence. I hated it; I hated that I somehow always seemed to cause so much trouble for the people who loved me.

  Drake returned with a warm quilt. He covered Beth’s body and adjusted her sleeping head on the pillow, and I felt a jealousy rise inside of Marc as he watched Drake care for his mother. I don’t think Marc would ever get over not having her throughout his childhood, fearing that she was dead for so long. Drake took a seat on the opposite end of the couch where Marc sat.

  “The wall will fall, right? We will see them again?” I thought.

  “One way or another, we will find them again,” Landen promised.

  Drake stretched his legs out in front of him a sighed deeply, closing his eyes for a moment.

  “It wouldn’t be wise for you to sleep either,” Alamos said across the room to Drake. Drake opened his eyes as he heard Alamos’ voice.

  Landen tilted his head curiously and looked at Drake. “You leave your body, too?” he asked.

  “I can, but I don’t prefer to; I’d rather dream,” Drake said, looking into my eyes.

  “Another gift from your dear Alamos,” Perodine said under her breath.

  My eyes questioned Drake, but he just smiled slightly and rested his elbow on the arm of the couch. “It’s not that I remember my past lives; I relive them each night. To me...well, this is just a nightmare,” he said, looking around the room.

  “Ironic choice of words,” Marc said, turning his head to the side to see Drake.

  Drake looked coldly at Marc, his eyes softening as they moved to me. “I didn’t see them through your eyes. To me, you were helping the people here - and I was bringing the light,” Drake said quietly.

  “Where are your demon friends anyway?” Marc asked casually, closing his eyes.

  “They weren’t mine, you fool; their keeper lurks in the shadows,” Drake said, looking to the dark corners of the room.

  I saw a chill run down Perodine’s back; she shook it off and returned to the table. August sat on the arm of the couch next to Landen and stared at Drake. I could feel his curiosity; he wanted to know everything about Drake, what he had seen and learned. “Who taught you to use your energy to protect yourself?” August asked Drake.

  Drake took in a deep breath and looked into the flames of the fire in front of him. “I’ve had Donalt’s attention all my life,” he answered.

  “Did he ever tell you where he received his power from? Or what he wanted you to do once you found Willow?” August asked.

  Drake’s eyes moved to me, and he shook his head no. “I never asked, he never said; I just knew that I was to love her and rule this world and beyond,” he answered.

  “Is he the one that taught you to make time stand still?” Landen asked, moving himself in front of me so Drake would have to look at him.

  Drake sighed and smiled slightly. “No, my father taught me to do that,” he answerd.

  “Livingston?” Landen questioned, leaning back in his seat.

  Drake nodded, then looked to the flames in the fireplace. “He said he always wanted me have a way to stop and think before I made choices that would change my life,” he answered.

  August smiled and looked down; I could feel the pride for his son, Livingston, come over him. Landen and I both felt envious; that was one lesson we’d never been taught.

  “Is is hard?” Landen asked.

  Drake stared forward and relaxed into the couch, then smiled slightly. “You just have to want more than anything to make things right; you have to have the best intentions,” he said. Raising his eyebrows, he tilted his head and glanced at me. “Once you have that intention, you send it out through your energy. It has to be strong enough that all the energy around you is shocked into stillness as yours passes by. When you lose your focus, time begins again.”

  “How are you forcing your energy at that darkness over and over again and not getting weaker? How do you build yourself again?” Landen asked Drake.

  Drake laughed under his breath and winked at Landen before answering him. “My friend, I fear it is from the same place you find yours - only from another time. My dreams...I remember them so vividly that my imagination can take me back to the moment...to feel...feel they way you do when you’re complete.”

  I felt like the wind was knocked out of me. Landen’s perfect blue eyes found me; he was jealous, but he didn’t show
it to the others. He reached his arm around me and pulled me to his side.

  August looked at Drake, to Alamos, and then to Landen. “The dreams were unlocked to protect him, to give him the ability to withstand the darkness for so long.”

  “Is that true?” Landen asked Drake.

  Drake shrugged his shoulders. “It would be impossible for me to tell you if there was any truth in what I hear or see,” he said, catching my gaze.

  I let my eyes fall from his; I could barley manage the pain I saw there. Landen sat at attention and looked at Alamos. Perodine was pointing to the scroll, and the look on Alamos’ face was absolute disbelief. August followed Landen’s stare.

  “Are we all on the same page now?” August questioned.

  Alamos looked up from the scroll in our direction. “You intend to kill him – you’ve lured us here as a sacrifice,” he said, standing to walk in our direction.

  My face turned white as a ghost, and my stomach turned. Drake looked slowly behind him at Alamos, then to his mother, Beth, who had drifted into a deep sleep.

  “Kill who? What are you talking about?” I asked, sitting forward and looking back at Landen.

  Perodine’s face was full of grief as she followed Alamos to the couches where we were sitting. Alamos stood in front of the fireplace and stared at Drake.

  “This family has betrayed you once again,” Alamos said to Drake as he looked at Beth and Marc’s sleeping bodies.

  Drake looked unshaken by Alamos’s words. My eyes raced between Perodine and Alamos. Landen let his hand rest on my knee; I knew he was trying to calm me, but it wasn’t working.

  “Answer me – who is killing who?” I said louder. Beth stirred but did not wake.

  Perodine looked sympathetically at Drake, then to me. “‘The darkness shall consume the blood of Jayda and subdue the power’...it cannot live in Landen...you are his soulmate; Jayda and Obea proved that point once before. It will consume Drake, kill Landen, and then overpower you at the moment Venus and Earth align,” Perodine said carefully as she knelt before me.

  I expected Drake to protest against Perodine calling Landen my soulmate, against the idea of his murder, but he didn’t; instead, he looked calmly at Landen, then to me.

  August stood abruptly; I was more than sure that he hadn’t realized the details before now. “It said ‘three would stand strong’...we thought it was Jayda, Alyianna, and Willow...it could be the three of them...dying is not an option here,” he augured.

  Perodine squeezed my hand to get my attention, and I looked into her green eyes and found the sympathy that I felt coming from her. “Your only defense is to move the knife through Drake’s heart at the moment the darkness consumes him; that’s the only way to protect your life, Landen’s life, the life of the children.”

  I shook my head from side to side, and tears gushed from my eyes. I then looked at Drake and saw that he was looking at me; his dark eyes reached in my soul and pulled at my heart. I looked at Landen, who wrapped his arms around me and pulled me to his shoulder; I squeezed him as tight as I could and tried to find relief from the grief that was consuming me.

  “This is not the answer. You saw what happened yesterday when Drake was taken from these people: war will erupt if he’s slain – and everyone in Delen will pay the price for this decision,” August said into the room.

  “There is no other way. Donalt has been preparing Drake’s body for this moment; he will be capable of immense power the moment he joins him,” Perodine said, standing.

  “He’s already consumed him once; he didn’t look any more powerful to me,” Landen said.

  As I heard his words, I took in a breath a released my hold on him. I then leaned back and looked at Landen, then at Drake; hope was starting to come back to me.

  “What was it like?” Alamos asked Drake.

  As he answered Alamos, Drake’s eyes never left me. “I cannot recall the moment he entered me – but I can recall the time he was inside of me. It was as if my dreams had come to reality; what I wanted was mine, and life was perfect,” he said.

  “It kept you calm so it could control your body,” Alamos said.

  “I suppose, but I don’t want to live a fantasy. If I can’t have what I want in this life – then I’m ready for the next,” Drake said bleakly.

  August stood and began to pace, then stopped abruptly in front of Landen. “The looking glass,” he said, looking at Landen. He turned to look at Drake. “Is there another one?”

  Drake’s eyes moved to Alamos, and August followed his gaze.

  “Do you honestly think that we’ve had time to reconstruct another looking glass?” Alamos asked. “It took Donalt over a year to build the original.”

  “Is it possible for us to reconstruct it if we all worked together?” August asked.

  “No,” Alamos said.

  “Even if it was, you’re assuming that I’ll look into it,” Landen said, looking bleakly at August.

  August knelt in front of Landen. “Whatever your intent is – it’ll be better than war...better than murder,” he said.

  Landen looked down; I felt him struggle with his intent. He’d told me that he’d never look into the glass, and I knew right now that he’d do anything to protect me from the demon that was chasing me. Landen nodded, but he refused to look August in the eyes; he didn’t want to promise anything to him.

  August stood. “Are you certain that it can’t be rebuilt in time?” he asked Alamos.

  “Not in time for Venus; not in time to save Drake’s life,” Alamos said. I could see the grief in every part of him.

  Drake was staring at me, and I let my eyes meet his. “I am not killing you – or anyone else,” I said, staring back at him.

  Perodine looked down; I knew I was letting her down. She felt after all this time - all of these lives - I was submitting to the darkness, and she tried her best to hide the frustration she felt.

  “I’ll heal him,” Landen said, standing. “Willow will strike him, and I’ll heal him - and all of this will be over,”he said, looking at me.

  “This is not a cut,” Alamos argued. “She has to strike his heart – that’s the first place a soul connects with the body. Have you healed a wound of that degree?” Alamos asked sarcastically. Landen looked at Drake and shook his head no, but he still held the same confidence.

  “She strikes him, and as you begin to heal him, the darkness overtakes Willow...what’s your priority - his life or hers?” Alamos continued. “His fate is sealed. Once again, the bad soulmate pays the price for loving the one he desires.”

  Sunlight peered into the room. I felt the astonishment and fear coming from Perodine and August. When Landen felt it, his eyes looked to the rising sun, and a fear rose in him; at that moment, he felt overpowered.

  “What is it? “ I asked as I watched them walk to the window.

  “The sun is rising in the West,” Landen said quietly. I stood and walked slowly to his side.

  “Just as it does on the planet Venus; we’re all trapped in an illusion now,” Alamos said in a sullen tone.

  I watched as the sun rose. I’d seen so many sunrises since I’d found Landen; I knew that it rose gracefully, that you could barely see it climb through the sky. This sun was different, though; within a moment, it was suspended in the middle of the sky. A purple haze reflected below it, and darkness above it. The city of Delen, the wall that always had workers surrounding it, was abandoned. We were alone in this dark world.

  Chapter Ten

  Perodine turned and crossed the room to the doorway that led to the long hall. Drake hadn’t moved from his seat. He seemed unsurprised by the sun rising in the West (as it did on Venus), and that right now, in theory, the world was trapped in a prison - and the guard that held the key was the devil himself.

  I walked slowly back to Dane’s sleeping body. Alamos leaned against the back of the couch and let his hand rest on Drake’s shoulder. Landen and August stared at the sun, which refused to rise any higher
in the sky.

  Perodine returned with a large hourglass; the top and the bottom of it were made of gold, the bars that framed the glass bowls were made of emeralds, and the sand was black. She sat it on the wide base of the fireplace.

  “We will have to watch this and turn it twelve times; can we reason that that is how much time we have?” Perodine said to us.