Vital Read online

  I raised my eyebrows “I don’t know that I’d call them best friends. Mortal enemies? Where did you get that from? They’re not murderers. The only real enemy they have is the darkness.”

  “The darkness,” Dane mocked. “That’s a thing that can never be defeated. A man - you can defeat that.”

  I stopped and glared up at him. “If you believe the devil can’t be defeated, then you don’t belong at my side. My sole intent is stop him – and if you recall, I’ve fared well so far.”

  As his face blushed with the anger I felt from him, he gently put his hands on my shoulders. “I just want to see my enemies...I’m sorry. I will try desperately to act like myself, but you’ve got to at least take in my perspective before you make a rash decision again.”

  “Rash? Like I have time to think,” I said as I rolled my eyes.

  He shook his head in frustration, then reached for my hand as we walked on in silence. I could feel Landen just ahead. He’d already sent Beth into the passage, and he was waiting for me, growing less patient by the moment.

  “You know he can feel your intent and see your truth better than I can. You have a choice to make in the next few seconds: either walk away from me, or stand at my side with Landen and Drake.”

  His squeezed my hand and glared forward. “At your side,” he said shortly.

  I felt truth in his words, but something was off about him. Something told me to pull away, not to trust him, and I let his hand go before I could tell myself that that was an absurd thought. I thought about reaching for it again when I felt his eyes rain down on me, but by then Landen came into view and reached for my hand as he judged everything he was feeling coming from Dane. The resistance in Landen’s confident blue eyes led me to believe that he felt it, too; he knew something was off about Dane. I knew instantly I’d have to find a way to convince Landen that he was wrong – that I was wrong. Dane was fine; just confused.

  “Clean slate,” Dane said shortly.

  Landen nodded once, but didn’t smile.

  He’s not going home, Landen thought as he guided me through the passage.

  “No. I don’t know what to say to him.”

  The passage led us to the room in which Drake’s dreams of me were invoked. In an attempt not to remind me of my childhood nightmares, the staff had removed the bed and podium. The ceiling was now covered, and the room was brightly lit, painted in a beautiful ivory tone. What was once a bedroom now resembled a welcoming entry hall.

  Dane seemed surprised by the dramatic change that had taken place in just a few short days. I felt a disgust rise in him, and I assumed it was from the memory of trauma that the demon had put us through as we passed through the influence of Venus. He walked in front of me and Landen, leading the way to Perodine’s study.

  At the other end of the hall, we could see August approaching us. He was eager to speak with me and Landen and had grown tired of waiting for us to arrive. As Landen looked down at me, I could feel him hiding his nervousness; there was no telling what had stirred this eagerness in August. As he approached us, he looked past Dane and into Landen’s eyes.

  “I want to talk to you about something – but not here,” August said to him.

  Landen was instantly alarmed by August’s intent to leave immediately for Chara. “Home?” he said to confirm what he felt.

  “Yes, that’s best,” he answered.

  I was eager to honor his request; if Dane followed us, I’d be able to work out his fight with Clarissa.

  Landen squeezed my hand as dread filled him. “Alright, let’s go.”

  Dane waved at me, then began to walk the other way.

  “Wait, where are you going?” I asked, completely surprised that he wasn’t going to follow me.

  “To the prison to see if I recognize anyone down there. If you’re still gone after that, I may walk the streets. I want to know where those men are and what they’re doing,” Dane answered as he continued to walk away from me.

  “Prison?” August asked as we began to walk back to the passage.

  “Drake was attacked, and the man who hurt him was taken to the prison here,” Landen answered solemnly. It was clear that his thoughts were within the countless possibilities of what August was about to tell us.

  “Is he OK?” August asked as fear spiked inside of him

  Landen sighed. “It’s like it never even happened. Jason said Drake was even better off now than before.”

  Landen pulled me closer, ensuring that we’d both enter the string at the same time. I looked back at August as we began to walk to Chara and could see his eyes searching through his thoughts.

  “Healing him is easy for you,” August commented.

  Landen nodded. “I don’t feel like I have to force myself to focus as much as I did in the beginning.”

  August looked at Landen curiously. “Does it feel different to heal Drake, different from when you heal anyone else?”

  Landen pulled my hand to his lips and gently kissed my warm skin before he answered August. “Healing Willow is effortless; it’s as if it’s my purpose in life. Healing Drake feels differently, though; like my purpose is to still heal Willow, to keep her safe - but in order to do that, I have to keep him alive.”

  I looked curiously up at Landen; we’d never discussed his view on this new gift. August seemed satisfied with Landen’s answer, but he never explained why he asked in the first place. We reached Chara and took possession of Brady’s Jeep, then drove it to our house.

  Landen looked to his side at me. Do you feel Dane differently now? he thought.

  I tried to hide the look that would tell him I did as I muttered the thought that my best friend was still missing. Why do you ask?

  Because a minute ago, I knew he intended to go to the prison and then walk the streets – but you asked him. Were you trying to get him to come with us, or could you not see his intent? Landen asked, glancing at me as we drove across the field. It was clear to me that we were having this conversation in our thoughts so August wouldn’t pick up on the growing disdain that Landen had for everything and everyone.

  It’s hard to say, I mumbled in my thoughts, trying to avoid the answers that would shine a guilty light on Dane.

  Landen raised his eyebrows as his eyes caught mine, then stared deep into me. He knew then that I felt something off, but he didn’t understand why I wasn’t telling him I did. Truth was, I didn’t even really know. I guess it was just a protective instinct I had for Dane. I mean, he may have always been the one that made me feel safe back in Franklin, but when he followed me to help each of those images, I protected him, making sure I always knew he was at my side just before the force of energy was to rip us back into our reality. In a way, he followed me here, right into the hands of my fate, my demons - and I wasn’t going to let him get hurt because of that, even if he was acting like an idiot at the current moment.

  Once inside our house, we made our way to the living room. I hadn’t cleaned up the mess from my nap, and the table was still pushed to the side and my blanket was lying across the floor. The sketch of the butterfly was open on the couch.

  “Must have been some dream,” Landen muttered as he began to help me straighten up.

  August took a seat on the couch next to my sketch. I could feel his concern for us growing.

  “What did the two of you dream of?” he asked as we sat down next to him.

  “I dreamed, not Landen, and I really don’t wanna talk about it,” I answered, quietly realizing that what I saw in that dream was starting to play out in front of me.

  August sighed. “Well, any dream - no matter how violent it was - had to have given your mind the chance to play out its aggression. That’s a vital step in the right direction.”

  I could feel Landen’s eyes on me as August spoke. I knew he was growing more and more concerned with my lack of apparent sleep, as well as how distant to reality I was becoming.

  “What did you wanna talk about?” I asked, changing the subjec
t.

  August cleared his throat before he answered. “Ever since the day we faced Venus, I’ve been trying to convince Alamos to help me rebuild the looking glass.”

  I saw Landen’s body tense and could feel the emotion of betrayal arise inside of him. He’d said on more than one occasion that he didn’t want the world to live in his intent. He truly believed that we could find a way around this demon without thinking for others.

  “I know that upsets you,” August said, putting his hand on Landen’s knee, “but listen, I just want a way out of any doom that may lie ahead. As we move forward, I fear that the devil’s plans will prove more and more complex. I don’t want to rebuild it in the same manner that Donalt had; I want to rebuild it as a porthole, a way to circle back and make a different decision. If that were possible, then we’d never have to fear the death of any of us, and we could go back to the moment that led to that tragic decision.”

  Landen stood and began to pace the floor in front of the couch, moving his head from side to side as he argued with his thoughts. “Even if that were possible, it still doesn’t feel right. I mean, this isn’t a game where when we die, we just begin again. Fate has a course it must travel.”

  August smiled slightly and leaned into the couch. “Look at it from this point of view. We do die, and we do begin again, but when we begin again, we must learn everything over - and in the end, we only find ourselves a few footsteps closer to the fate we’re chasing. The looking glass would allow you to begin again, but not with the ignorance of new life.”

  “Ignorance,” Landen mocked as he ran his fingers through his long, dark hair, still pacing the floor.

  “Listen,” August said, catching Landen’s eyes as he paced, “you’ve lived over and over before, and you’ve fought this demon each time. To defeat you, he simply had to end your life and wait the course of time for you to grow into a man again. This is the life that you must defeat it. You must act as if this is your last chance – don’t live as if you have infinity because there’s no way to be sure that you do.” His words made us both freeze. He was right: there was no way to know where we were on this insane existence we were in. “We can’t make it that easy for him. Six planets and the sun still remain; that’s more than enough time for him to find a way to destroy you once and for all,” August finished.

  I didn’t share Landen’s disapproval; if there was a way to go back and change the mistakes I’d made, I wanted it. “How far could the looking glass take us? I mean, could we go back to the beginning, the very beginning – before this stretched across so many lifetimes?” I asked.

  August shook his head no and smiled at my eagerness. “Going back that far would cause more harm than good. We’re all weaved together perfectly; changing the slightest element could prove to be catastrophic. If my calculations are correct, the new looking glass would only be able to reach back a few hours, at the most a day.”

  I let my shoulders fall as the idea of ending this all suddenly vanished.

  “How are you so sure?” Landen asked, stopping in front of August. “What if you build it and it does reach back that far? What if we get so tangled in the past that we don’t see the present? What if that’s what the devil wants – for you to build him a porthole that will lead him back to destroy what we’ve done?”

  Now look who’s being negative, I thought in a teasing manner.

  Landen’s eyes moved to me; it was clear he didn’t find my thoughts amusing.

  “Well,” August said, “it will be a small miracle if we manage to create a porthole that will take you more than a few moments back. An hour, or even a day, is a high goal, but if you’re going to set a goal, you might as well make it worth it - and besides, the demon can’t come here.”

  “You want to build it here?!” Landen said, louder than needed.

  “The glass, the porthole will be where the last one rested - but the key, the power that gives it life will be here,” August corrected.

  “What power? The medallion? That stays with Willow,” Landen argued.

  “The rings,” August said as a smile beamed across his face.

  “Where did you read that?” I asked, growing excited.

  “I never read it. I was told; I’d just forgotten,” August answered.

  “By who?” Landen asked, sitting on the table in front of the couch, ready to listen.

  “Stella’s father,” August answered, grinning.

  “Are you serious?” I said, leaning forward, completely captivated by this revelation.

  August nodded, and his grin widened. “The original looking glass has always had a keeper, and the keeper has always come from one bloodline: Stella’s. The people in Esterious are very superstitious; they believe that doing something even slightly different would bring tragedy. Honestly, that’s what made them such an easy target for Donalt in the first place. But, anyway, Donalt did have priest oversee the construction of the looking glass. They spoke words that to the naked eye looked like magic, yet these priests, they didn’t have a clear understanding of the science, the engineering. Engineers were the ones that kept the rings in rotation, and Stella’s father was the last engineer to watch over the looking glass. Once he was seen as a traitor and executed for his actions, Donalt declared that there was no longer a need for an engineer, that the time to finally look through was upon us. That was eleven years ago; at that time, he was more than aware that your time was coming.”

  “How was Stella’s dad an engineer? He lived in Atamentous – not Delen,” Landen questioned.

  “Right, but this role was held secret, as it always has been with his bloodline. Once a month, he would travel to the palace and stay for seven days to monitor the working rings. It was in Delen that he saw me the first time. He witnessed me vanish with a young man into the string; months later, I was in Atamentous, helping someone find their soul mate when he approached me and questioned who I was. He had an absurd illusion that I was some kind of angel. I followed him to his home and explained our world to him; he begged me to take him, but I couldn’t because I feared the myths that you must be brought here by someone that loved you. When I asked how he’d seen me in two places that were so distant, he explained his secret role. He also told me that his family were true followers of Guardian, that they ensured that when Guardian left this world, he held the key that allowed him to change the recent past. He said that way Guardian wouldn’t die before his purpose was filled, as he did millions of years ago.”

  “What key?” I asked, looking between August and Landen.

  August patted my knee, proud that I was proving to be open minded. “He told me that Guardian left this world with a small version of the looking glass, that that version would allow Guardian to change the purpose of the looking glass, and he could do so from a blind distance to the devil. At the time, I thought he was lost in a sea of old wives tales. I never told him that it was Guardian and Aliyanna that created my world, that I was sure that Guardian was walking among us now; I knew that it would be too much for him to handle.” August leaned forwarded and folded his hands across his knees as he looked down, regret suddenly swarming through him. “I remember pondering what he meant by a small looking glass, how that would be seen in the eyes of the engineers so many years ago. I knew there was nothing like that in this world, so, like I said, I thought it was an old myth. But this morning, when Jason told me how the ring slipped from Willow’s finger, I had this vision of the ring spinning on its side. From there, I imagined both of your rings spinning inside one another. I honestly believe that the rings are the small looking glass Stella’s father was referring to.”

  “That’s insane,” I whispered, looking down at my ring, trying to understand the reality that everyone in my life right now was meant to be there, that there are no mistakes in nature.

  “Do you know what he meant? I mean, how are these rings gonna bring the rubble of that looking glass to life? How can we be sure that it’ll work the way it’s meant to?” Landen stresse
d.

  August grinned widely at Landen. “I’m glad you’re asking questions now. I’m going to ask Stella if she knows anything; I just wanted to make sure that I told the two of you first.”

  “She may not know anything,” I said bleakly. I loved Stella, but in my mind she was still so timid. In her eyes, I see the ghost of the darkness that each member of Esterious seems to carry.

  “She knows her bloodline. In most cases, the engineers were all male, but at times there were only females left in the bloodline. Her father was teaching Evelyn the trade secrets back then. I’m more than sure that as close as those sisters were, she knows something. Anything will help us,” August answered.

  I stood and went to the kitchen with the intent of calling Stella to come over. “The others are waiting on us; Drake is waiting,” Landen said, stopping me. It was clear he wanted no part of this; he thought our eagerness was blinding us from danger.

  August shook his head. “I told Perodine that I was stealing both of you away for a few hours. Your father was going to tell Alamos and Drake to wait before they came.”

  “Did you tell them why?” Landen questioned.

  “No. I don’t want this action mentioned inside of Esterious - or the string, for that matter. I beg the two of you not even to discuss it in your thoughts. Perodine knows that I have something I’m looking into that the devil doesn’t need to overhear.”

  “You think he’s listening? He can hear our thoughts?” I questioned as a sick feeling absorbed me. If that were true, then the ghost of Donalt knew that I struggled in the place where I must stand between Landen and Drake.

  “I have no doubt. You can tell Drake and Alamos, but you must tell them here. If this works, the glass will emerge, and as far as anyone knows, there it will have the purpose to invoke intent. We’ll know that that purpose has diminished and that now its purpose is to always give us a second chance,” August answered.