We knew this was his intent, and at that
moment there would be no way to sway him. Landen nodded and smiled
a little.
“At this point, I just want you to look.
You’re turning into an old man; we already have one grandpa - we
don’t need another,” Landen teased. Ashten smiled, thinking of his
new granddaughter.
My mother waved us in from the window.
Walking into Aubrey’s home, it was easy to feel that no one had any
concerns over what we had seen little Preston do. In fact, the
relief that Marc felt about still having one living parent
outweighed the fear that we had managed only to push ourselves past
the first trial. Facing Drake and Esterious nine more times seemed
to be inevitable. I shielded my concern. I knew it was impossible
to love anyone more than I loved Landen, but Drake’s touch was a
battle I’d always have to struggle with.
After dinner, I helped my mother and Aubrey
clean the kitchen. Aubrey prepared plates to take to Brady and
Felicity; my dad had decided to go with Ashten and Aubrey to check
on the new mother and baby.
“Tell them if they need to sleep and want
our help, to call us. We can take the night shift,” Landen said to
Ashten just before we left.
Ashten nodded. “Why don’t you call August
and Rose and ask if they care for a late night discussion?” he
added, taking the plates from Aubrey’s hand.
Landen looked at Marc, who was lying on the
couch with Preston beside him. “Are you done for the night?”
Marc nodded. “Whatever you guys are up to, I
don’t have the energy to process it. Fill me in tomorrow, will
you?” he asked. Landen nodded.
Libby ran over to us and reached up for a
goodnight hug, “We’re going to have lots of fun tomorrow,” she
exclaimed.
I smiled and hugged her tight. “You be a
good girl for me tonight,” I whispered in her ear.
Landen kissed the top of her head. I hugged
my mother and made my way out the door. The walk to our house was
silent; Landen was somewhere else. It scared me when he acted that
way. I’d seen him like this before, and when he erupted we had our
one and only real fight.
“Why are you being so quiet?” I asked,
walking up the steps to our house.
Landen shrugged his shoulders and pushed
open the door. He then walked through the house and turned on the
lights to the kitchen. I heard him pick up the phone to call August
and Rose. I took in a deep breath, concealing the temper that was
trying to break through. I decided to stay on the porch and let the
night’s breeze calm me.
I let my mind take me back to every time I’d
faced Drake, relishing in the victories and building my confidence.
Perodine flashed through my memory; she had helped me then. I
daydreamed about being able just to sit down with her and talk.
Maybe if she told me more about who I was, it would be easier to
remember. Landen found me on the porch. He walked up behind me,
wrapped his arms around me, and leaned his chin on my head.
“
I’m sorry,”
he thought.
“
You’re not going to explode on me and
tell me to go off with another man, are you?”
I knew those words stung, and wish I hadn’t
thought them. Inside Landen, I could feel his regret and anger. He
turned me so I’d have to look him in the eyes; he often used them
as his secret weapon.
“Never,” he said, staring somewhere deep
inside me. “I just don’t like not having control. I want to take
you to the furthest corner of the universe and hide you there,” he
whispered intently.
I looked down, ashamed that we had no choice
but to face our destiny.“It’s going to be fine – we’ve been here
before,” I whispered.
Landen pulled me closer to him and rocked me
back and forth. “Maybe so...I just want to make sure we all come
home this time,” he said quietly.
I hesitated and stepped back, looking up at
him. “Delen... is that the name of the city the palace is in?” I
asked. He nodded. “Were we in Delen that night we helped all those
people?” I asked.
Landen looked away from me; I could feel his
dread building. He was hoping I would have more patience and wait
before I began to urge him to let us go back.
“In Delen, I can feel the intent to serve
Donalt, an immediate fear; the further away from the city, the less
intense the fear is. It’s like they know he’s real, but they don’t
have to stand in front of him - so their fear is milder. I would
guess we were on the other side of the dimension, nowhere near
Delen.”
“So, we could argue that wherever we were
would be the best place to start helping people?”
A serious expression came over Landen’s
face; I felt his intent of stalling me as long as possible.
“Willow, there is not a city in Esterious that I would argue was
‘safe’ enough to help people,” he answered, prepared to argued with
me.
“But, Delen would be the least safe,” I
clarified.
“It’s the largest populated area in
Esterious, in clear view of Donalt himself. Yes, it would be the
last place I’d begin,” he answered, choosing his words
carefully.
I stared into the distance, trying to figure
out a logical, safe way to help all the solemn people. I felt
Landen studying my face. He gently pulled my chin up and kissed me
tenderly.
“
How I wonder what’s going on in that
mind of yours,”
he thought, pulling me closer.
I wrapped my arms around him and let the
matter settle for now. I then felt Rose’s excitement and knew she
was close. Looking to the side of the house, I saw her shadow
emerging. She settled on one of the couches on our wide front
porch. August was close behind her, full of an odd excitement; Rose
smiled at herself as she felt it, too. August stretched himself out
in one of the padded wicker chairs.
“Nyla wanted me to thank you for that
painting,” he said to me.
“Anytime,” I answered, giving him a curious
look; I was forevermore trying to figure him out.
“Lots of excitement today,” August stated,
looking away from me, trying to hide his grin.
I looked at Landen. I had a growing
suspension that August already knew what Preston could do. I would
even bet that he knew Drake was back. August looked in Rose’s
direction, and they both laughed under their breath at each other.
Landen shook his head, realizing that August was always a step
ahead.
“Would it not have been faster if you’d just
told us?” Landen asked, sitting down on the short couch opposite of
Rose.
“Actually, we were hoping that we’d be
there,” August said with a large smile on his face.
“We?” I repeated, looking at Rose. She
smiled, trying to hold back a deep laugh. I shook my head in
disbelief and sat down next to Landen.
“Did you know Drake was back, too?” Landen
asked.
“I just knew it wouldn’t be long,” August
answered.
Landen looked down, feeling the weight of it
all fall back on his shoulders. Feeling it rise in him, Rose leaned
forward and smiled brightly. “So, um...who did you see move first -
Libby or Preston?” she asked.
“Libby!” Landen and I said in unison; our
shock told Rose that we had no idea Libby could leave her body.
Rose smiled, raising her eyebrows and
leaning back in her seat. “I guess that means you saw Preston,” she
said.
“How did you guys see them?” I asked, still
in shock that Libby had developed another gift – as if seeing our
future wasn’t remarkable enough.
“We just knew that they weren’t sleeping,”
August answered.
Landen could sense that they didn’t know as
much as we thought they did.
“Jason could see him leave his body, then he
saw him when he appeared in Aubrey’s. We only saw him in-between,”
Landen reported.
The smile on Rose and August’s faces faded;
they looked at each other, then at us.
“What do you mean ‘Aubrey’s body?’” August
asked, trying to hide his excitement.
“He just took over; he wanted milk and used
her to get it,” Landen answered, more confident now that they
didn’t know as much as they thought they did.
My Dad and Ashten climbed the steps to the
porch. My Dad took a seat next to his mother Rose.
Ashten sat in one of the chairs, sighing;
you could feel the bliss coming from him. “You may be getting a
call tonight. They both look so tired,” he said to me.
A smile came across my face. I hope they’d
call. With a family as large as ours, we would all have to fight
for time to bond with the new baby.
“So, did we miss anything?” my father
asked.
“We were just comparing notes,” Landen said,
running his fingers through his hair and sighing deeply.
“It would make sense that the two of you
knew about this,” Ashten said in a disapproving tone.
“Apparently, they didn’t know as much as
they thought,” Landen added, leaning back and wrapping his arm
around me, pulling me closer.
August shook his head, smiling at Landen,
then leaned forward and looked around at all of us. “OK, let’s just
make sure we all understand they can leave their bodies and enter
another person’s.”
“They?” my father said, looking at me.
I shrugged my shoulders. “You saw what we
saw,” I said defensively.
“How are they doing it?” Ashten asked,
shaking his head with wide blue eyes, trying to process what he’d
just heard.
“They leave through meditation. I don’t
understand how they’re entering another body, though,” Rose said as
her eyes searched blankly.
I looked at Landen, and he was already
looking at me; we both wondered if we could do that.
“This all fits with Mercury - having
complete control over your mind,” August stated.
My father leaned forward, staring back in
his memory. “Do you remember when Livingston was telling us that
Willow should be able to help people realize what they were capable
of? Maybe he already knew about this.”
Landen dropped his arm from around me and
leaned forward in full defense mode; he didn’t like the notion of
me in Esterious by choice then anymore than he did now.
“We are not stepping into other people and
taking over...that’s...that’s rude.” Landen said, looking back at
me.
I smiled, a little glad he was seeing things
my way now.
Rose’s searching eyes stopped, then looked
at Ashten. “What did Aubrey say? Did she feel it or remember it?”
she asked.
Ashten leaned forward. “She said she watched
herself pour the milk - she just didn’t know why,” he said.
“It would have been interesting if she’d
overpowered him,” Rose said.
“Believe me - next time, she will,” Ashten
said, laughing a little while sitting back in his chair.
August looked at Rose, then at Landen and
me. “I want you to understand what we’re talking about here - the
next element of humanity,” he said in a deep, slow voice.
“Who, them?” I asked
“Them, you, every child that has reached the
age of six recently in this dimension has a gift. At one time,
gifts were generational; then it became more common for it to
repeat itself - and now it’s seen in every child.
Rose picked up where August left off, “These
children are highly aware of themselves. When we begin to teach
them a subject, if we don’t make it challenging enough, they grow
bored. We have six-year-olds who can read and comprehend math and
science as if they were young adults.”
“Is this everywhere, or just here?” Landen
asked, relaxing a little under the growing mountain of
pressure.
“Jason and I have looked while we travel;
these children exist everywhere, but not in the numbers that we
have,” Ashten said
“Do they have our gifts?” Landen asked.
“Not entirely. It’s more like they choose
their gift, and it could be whatever they want it to be. They don’t
see the universe the way we do,” my dad answered.
I envied the mind of a child; they have no
fear and forgive instantly. If we could remember that as adults – I
could only imagine the peace we would know. I looked at Rose, then
at August. “Today, when Allie was born - do know what her first
emotion was when she saw another human being?” I asked. Landen
smiled as he remembered it. “It was unconditional love. Somehow, we
manage to forget that as we get older. What if they
just...remember?”
“Interesting...very interesting,” August
said. He leaned forward and sighed. “Both of you need to understand
that we have no precedence for this. The two of you are the ones
writing the book.”
“
Fantastic,”
I thought
sarcastically.
Landen smiled, then cleared his throat.
“We’ll just watch them. I don’t want to jump into this. I can only
imagine that there are risks.”
They all nodded in agreement. August stood,
gathering himself. “It’s amazing to think that everyone may be
right.” He was reveling in his own words, staring up at the night
sky. I really didn’t know who ‘everyone’ was, or even what they
were right about. I only hoped the peace and excitement I felt
coming from August was a reflection of the distant future.
Rose and our fathers stood as well,
gathering themselves to leave. “It’s good to have you guys here,”
Ashten said to me as he hugged me goodnight.
I kissed my father goodnight. We watched
them leave before I spoke. I looked up at Landen. “Next element,
huh?” I said, elbowing him.
He smiled at me, hesitated, then tilted his
head, showing his dimples in a shy manner. “Do think we should try
it? What they can do?” he finally asked.
“I don’t even know how to meditate,” I said,
feeling a little envious of Libby’s new gift. Seeing that I wasn’t
completely opposed to the idea, Landen straightened his head, his
eyes growing wider. “Neither do I, but maybe when we sleep tonight
we could try stepping into someone.”
“I thought we agreed it was rude?” I said
defensively.