“Freaking-A, Charlie,” Madison said as she bent forward again. “Get a grip on that anxiety. You’re killing me.”
Cashton was now intensely focused on Madison. “I need fire, sweetheart. Like now.”
“Why?”
“Because it hurts,” Madison said. “Draven is fine. The awareness is helping him with control.”
“Because she’s being hunted,” Cashton said at the same time. “I need to know who and why.”
I took in a deep, soothing breath. Hunted. He had no idea.
“I dreamed something. I want to see if what I saw is the same on you.”
“Excuse me?” she said, raising her brow.
“Fire. Is there a fireplace in a private room?” I asked.
She reached in her pocket and pulled out a Zippo.
“Picking up bad habits?” I asked with a warning glare.
“No. It’s for my caracole pencils.”
I nodded for Cashton to leave or vanish or something, but he refused with a bit of a sinful smile on his lips. I stood up and guided Madison against the wall.
“Charlie?”
“I’m not going to hurt you,” I said as I eased her shirt up.
Cashton took the Zippo from me and turned the flame up. He then guided it across her back, so close to her skin that she moved forward a bit. The mark was there, nearly the same as mine, yet the details were out of whack. He lowered the lighter to her spine, in the middle of her back, and examined the mark there. It was way different than mine. She had more spheres in her rings.
“Dear Creator,” he mumbled.
“What?” I mouthed.
He shook his head from side to side. “The two of you should not be this close to each other. You’re making it too easy for them to target you.”
“Who?”
“Who what?” Madison asked, growing frustrated with me.
“Obsession, right?” Cashton said. “She’s an obsessed soul.”
I pursed my lips, halting any clear answer.
He smirked. “You look like Mum when you do that, and she only does that when she knows I’m right and doesn’t want to admit it.”
“There is a mark on you, Madison. A lot like mine.”
“What?” she said as she turned quickly.
She glanced at the lighter in Cashton’s hand. “How are you doing that, Charlie?”
“For the sake of not sounding crazy, I’m going to go with ‘I don’t know.’”
I turned my back to her and pulled up my tank top. As I felt the lighter come close to my skin, I heard her gasp.
“This is like the box.”
“Yeah,” I said, pulling my shirt down as I turned to face her. Cashton closed the Zippo and handed it back to me. I gave it back to Madison, who took it with shaking hands. “I saw mine in my dream.”
“They branded us?!”
“No. I remember my mom tracing mine when I was really little. It’s deep within us and apparently has some kind of life plan or something.”
She didn’t know what to say or do, and my shock and panic were not helping her at all. She clenched her waist as if she were bracing herself.
“Someone amped her up, either trying to drain her or teach her how to use it
real
fast. She needs to control this, or she is going to purge it and the one she is fighting will claim that as a victory,” Cashton warned.
“So is Willow helping you with the emotions thing?” I asked, knowing that girl had more than likely fought what she was going through in some way.
“Willow is M.I.A.”
“Excuse me?” I asked, halting my peaking anxiety. I had just saved Landen and Drake, and now she was off the reservation. No way.
“Thanks,” she said, nodding to me, noticing how shielded my emotions were. “They just found them late yesterday. We were all out cold, so we couldn’t tell them to look in New Orleans - and when we did tell them they were on the move, so it took them a day or so to find them.”
“Are they okay?”
“I assume they’re with your buddy.”
“Silas,” I seethed.
Instantly, I grasped what had happened. Bianca, disguised as Winston, was given to us by Clarissa, and she got him from Silas. Why would the all-knowing Silas send her right to me? Right to Chara? Was he that cold? What was he looking for - for me to run to him for help? Was he trying to prove I still needed him, even after finding this family, after Draven apparently finding his peace? And where was the real Winston? Was he a part of this - or was he a victim?
“Yep. I haven’t gotten all the details yet. I haven’t really left you for long and they all scattered to find them when we woke up.”
A tingling sensation engulfed my mind. I saw Madison and Olivia sitting at the foot of this bed practicing this meditation thing. I saw something else, too. I saw Madison’s soul rise from her body and wander around the room as Olivia coached her on what she should be feeling, seeing...what she was capable of.
My eyes grew wide and I held my breath, thinking that would halt my emotions - which were everything from terror to joy.
Madison’s eyebrows rose slightly as a smirk lingered on the corners of her lips. “Looks like that little sleeping pill helped your seeing issue. I was blocking you with everything I had - and you still got through.”
“What did you see?” Cashton asked.
I ignored him.
“Madison.” I gulped, ignoring that notion. I knew my seeing was getting stronger before I went to sleep. “How...why...is that safe? To move outside of your body like that?”
“You’re telling me you forgot how to do that?!” Cashton exclaimed, like it was as simple as walking.
She glanced at the book in her hand, then up to me. “We are energy and we can move anywhere, at anytime. We just have to believe we can. It’s just like The Realm, only it’s here.”
“Truth.” Cashton said. “Half the reason we live for so long is because we never exert our bodies - we use our souls to move around more than the vessel.”
“Was...was...was it hard?” I asked Madison.
I didn’t know what to say. The images in my mind were too clear. I felt like I was there, that the lesson she learned was mine as well, like I had done this as Cashton claimed I had. Then again, my ability to see had been amped up for sure. It was like I was staring at real life and TV side by side. It was rather annoying, to say the least.
“It’s hard to let go, but once you feel that peace, you drift. Olivia is a good teacher.”
“Where’s Monroe?” I asked, instantly seeing her in a kitchen, one that looked like it belonged to this house simply because that room had books from wall to wall as well. “Grayson? Is he here?”
Madison nodded to confirm the question I was asking myself.
“She’s downstairs. Grayson...he left. He’s looking to either save or kill Winston, and he’s doing so from Esterious.
“Save or kill?” I repeated.
“Yeah. If he didn’t cross over and is with his dad against his will, he plans to save him. If he did - he’s going to kill him.”
“‘Kill’ is a little harsh,” I said, hoping that two brothers could not be pushed to that point, fearing for the twins that I loved. I didn’t want them to follow that direction.
With a protective glare Cashton asked, “How many people are you fighting with? Better yet, how many people are you with that you should be avoiding?”
I returned his glare, which was more than likely causing Madison to question my sanity.
“Apparently, Grayson has no choice. If Winston crossed over to be like his dad, then he will give up the location of Monroe. Can’t let that happen,” Madison said with heavy regret in her voice. “They weren’t worried about the fact that Bianca was here, though. Something about how she would never be able to find the passage again if she wanted to.”
I closed my eyes, trying to find a direction, figure out why I lost my parents and sister and had gained a brother...why I was marked...what was real and what was fake.
“Charlie, does the eleventh hour mean anything to you?” Madison asked, cringing slightly from the rage that was boiling inside of me.
“No. Why?” I asked, searching for a balance in my emotions.
She shrugged. “At that hour twice a day the kids go into deep meditation without warning. Each time they stay under longer. It was also the only hour you stirred in your sleep, the one the rest of us woke at.”
“Echo,” Cashton breathed. “Looks like we
are
the search and rescue. That means that all of you have fouled up somewhere, and now the prodigies cannot see forward.”
“What time is it now?” I asked, ignoring him. I didn’t have time to think of past mistakes. I had to live now.
“Dawn broke a few hours ago,” Madison answered.
I eased my hands through my oily hair, then glanced back at Draven’s still body. I knew he would not approve of my instant decision, and I didn’t know how long I had before he was done with the lesson Drake was teaching him now.
“Here’s my plan. Bianca, she is the core of this, not a freaking distraction. I want to talk to Britain, see my way there. Then I am going to find Silas and rip him to shreds for allowing her to breach this dimension. Will you come?”
She swallowed. “Why would I not?”
“Where are you going again?” Cashton scorned.
“I need to figure out who I can trust,” I said to myself. “I need a shower, clothes.”
Madison stood and pulled my bag out from under the bed, then nodded to the door by Draven. “If you don’t want him to know you’re awake, you better walk softly...he’s intensely aware of you.”
“Oh, I bet he is,” Cashton joked.
I felt my heart begin to race. I was never one to take orders from anyone - especially Draven. We had a balance to our relationship. At least we did before all of this. The tone in Madison’s whisper was laced with a warning. She wasn’t afraid of defying his request to get him when I woke, but she knew he was going to be infuriated when he discovered where we went.
I crept by his still body, not daring to breathe or feel a single emotion. Behind the door, I found a massive bathroom, complete with an oversized claw-foot bathtub. It was inviting, no doubt, but I didn’t have time for a bath. There was a shower stall a few feet behind it. A quick shower - that’s what I needed to wake from this haze.
Cashton had the audacity to follow me into the bath. I took the screen that framed a dressing corner and blocked him from the side of the bath that had the shower in it.
“You need space,” he said into the echo of the room.
“No joke,” I muttered as I turned on the water.
“Not from me. From her.”
“You’re insane. She’s my best friend. We are like the same person.”
“Hardly,” he stated so quietly that I barely heard him. “Mum let you run with her.”
“Run? She let her move in with me.”
“Here?” he asked as I rinsed off. I swear I had never taken a faster shower in my life.
“No, in Salem. A different dimension.”
“How did you get here?”
“I helped out another girl. This is her home.”
“So Mum made sure you got here with her?”
“Yup.”
“This is a fork in the road, sweetheart. Time to divide.”
“Not leaving her or anyone,” I said in a harsh whisper as I turned off the water and dried off.
“Not forever. Trust me, you will have eons to spend with your bestie, but right now the two of you are a moving bull’s-eye.”
“I led her here. She is fighting right now with a sixth sense and a confused heart. This is the last moment in existence that I would leave her.”
I’d pulled my clothes on and was drying my hair fiercely with a towel.
“Fine then. You are just making this harder on yourself. She’s going to get hurt because of you.”
“Why me?” I bit out, thinking that Drake was the one that had a dagger against her fragile heart.
“Because more than a few people in the veil had to have figured out who Mum and Dad were, that they left you here - meaning the one you must take down is squarely focused on you. When he finds you, he will find her - and for kicks and giggles, he will take her out just to do his brother a favor.”
“His brother?”
“Whatever, fellow king.”
“King? I fight demons.”
“Doubt it. Demons are rather easy to kill. No soul. Sounds to me like you are fighting misguided Escorts.”
“That, too,” I agreed, not caring to mention that my boyfriend, that he had yet to approve of, was in fact an Escort that was fighting that label.
Once I was as ready as I was going to be, I pushed past Cashton and eased the door open. Draven was sitting in his still position in the oversized chair. Madison had made the bed and was sitting on the edge of it. As I passed Draven, I felt him tense. I kept my eyes on him as I went to Madison’s side.
“That’s not you. They’re sparring,” she mumbled.
“Another mark for the ‘win’ box. If he is going to love you, he better damn well know how to protect you,” Cashton said, glancing over Draven with heavy judgment in his eyes.
I furrowed my eyebrows at him before glancing back at Draven, a glistening sweat spread across his brow as his body tensed.