Emanate: Insight Series ((Insight) Web of Hearts and Souls) (28 page)

“Not anymore,” I answered honestly as my lips fell to her mark.
“
Yours?
” I thought as she bowed her back and let out a deep breath.

“
No.”

“This is new,” she said as her hands landed on my arms, which were caging her in. I glanced to my arm to see dark flames embedded in my skin, right where I had felt the burns before. It was the most eccentric mark I’d ever seen. The way they waved over my skin, the pattern seemed calculated, as if it meant something I could not comprehend right now, or even cared to. A ray of sun flashed across the room, and something shining caught my eye. Thinking it was her mark, I glanced back to her. Not only was the flower on her chest gleaming, but so were flames across her arms. Where mine had seared dark into my skin, hers looked like a dusting of jewels, peeking out from her silky, dark skin.

I reached to touch them, and as I did I felt her skin hum under my skin. A beautiful glow was left in the wake of each stroke of my fingers. A gaping smile spread across my face as I heard a low moan in her throat.

“Yours feels that way, too,” she whispered, reaching for my face.

I felt yet another weight leave me. I was furious when Perodine told me that Drake brought a hum to Willow’s skin, even though she swore to me it was enforced.

When I became a P
hoenix, I knew that the vibration of fire in my soul would surely trump whatever sensation Drake could have given her, but I was cocky about that. It was one-sided.

True soul mates, true F
lames, each make the other feel that sensation, and only they can bring it to them. I only knew that because my big brother knew I was aching when Willow was taken from me. He gave me that lesson. At the time, I didn’t see it that way. I saw it as further proof that I was not what he thought I was.

“I don’t really care. But where are we?” she asked as she caressed the side of my face, making me feel light as a feather—as if I owned the world.

“Would it be cheesy to say locked in my mind, where we are going to stay forever?”

She laughed
, I mean, really laughed. A good, gut-busting belly laugh that was beyond music to my ears and soul. It was as if the barriers of stress had been broken from her soul. I wanted to hear more. Her laugh was my new favorite addiction. I let my fingers trace her rib cage, feeling her try to jolt out of the enclosure of my arms.  She was laughing so hard that I started to.

It was a tickling war at that point. Game on. We didn’t stop until our sides hurt. Until tears were at the edges of her eyes. She let out a sigh as her laugh settled, then reached to trace my jaw as I gazed into those eyes that were so beautiful they stole your breath.

“I’d love to believe you, Mr. Chambers, but unless you have a few million people in your mind, I don’t think we are alone.”

My brow shot up as my eyes questioned her. She had brought me into focus, and she was right. I felt that many people not far from us, not to mention my warriors. Reality was closing in on us.

“Your insights are back?” I asked under my breath.

She nodded her head against the satin sheets.

“Are you okay? In pain?” I asked, reaching for her stomach.

“You balance me,” she said as her hand landed on mine.

“You’re sure?”

She smiled. “My soul is in charge now. I’m sure my ego will rear up a few times, but I have the rei
ns.”

“Odd symbolism,” I said with a shy smile.

“I met Mark Twain. He gave me a few tips.”

Now I was worried. I thought she was losing her grip on sanity.

“I’ll show you,” she said as she stared into my eyes. Right then, without a forced touch or thought, I was in her mind, watching the lessons she had learned.

That was no man. I was sure of it. It was a higher power.

“I should have figured that out as soon as he spoke of Donalt as a wayward son.”

“You heard that thought?” I asked in disbelief.

“I saw it in my mind.”

“Do you hear everything?”

She moved her from head side to side. “I sense you on every level, but I think you have to open that channel to me. There are barriers in your mind, some I never want to cross.” As she said that, I saw Skylynn’s lavender hair flash in her mind. “Some I think you have in place to protect me. I’m okay with that for right now. I trust you to keep me safe.”

“I don’t think Drake or Skylynn’s names belong...” I glanced at the silk sheets we were on, “in our bed, but I know they will be with us, with the ones that they love, for a very long time.”

“I saw what you did for Aden. I saw Rasp.”

“This is going to take some getting used to,” I said as I raised my brow at her.

“We have infinite time to figure that out.”

I knew what she meant. She felt, as I did, that we had crossed some threshold, some barrier, and our flesh was no more. I didn’t know what we were, but I knew we were born again as one.

A breeze picked up, causing us both to glance to our side. Folded neatly on the floor were the clothes that neither one of us took off each other but had managed to shed.

“Maybe we should explore,” I murmured, taking in the room that was solid white and framed in gold, the fresh cut flowers in a crystal vase sitting on a mahogany table at the foot of our bed.

Chapter
Twenty

~ Landen ~

Even though the gravity of life was crashing down on me, I felt like I could take on the world. I literally felt the strength in every one of my muscles as I moved them.

I hated to see that dark dress cover her body, but we were both rippled with curiosity. We had no idea how we went from a hurricane to here, if any of that was real or an illusion. The last stable memory either of us had in reality was me being taken by Skylynn and her seeing that.

I could sense my warriors
. They were on edge, but not in any sort of lethal mode, leading me to question where we were on this time scale. As I buttoned my shirt, I closed my eyes. I sensed the other three, Phoenix, Draven, and Drake. They were alive, and I would say calm, even though I felt an edge in them. It was the same edge I felt, the one that was asking that gnawing question: ‘What’s next?’

I took my F
lame’s hand and led her out of the room we were in, only finding a vast hallway that led to more floors, more vast rooms. The entire place was steeped in royalty. The air was regal, yet it was all so new at the same time.

There were paintings on the wall, some with just an array of colors, others with scenes from every mythology I’d ever studied. I was looking for a way out, a doorway so we could see where this was. I knew it couldn’t be far from the Radiance. I could feel the same magic current it carried in the air.

As I began to lead her down another hallway, we both stopped short. These walls were lined with art, too, but it was Willow’s art. I would know her paint stroke anywhere. They were not the dark images I’d seen recently, but beautiful images of souls she’d helped across her young life.

“Oh my God,” she breathed. “How?”

I couldn’t explain how or why. I was reading her right then, and her mind told me that most of these had burned when her home did. Some had never even left the sketchpad. Others had been sold, but none of them was as large as the canvas before us. She wasn’t afraid. She would have been if this were only a few days ago. She was in awe. She even whispered a
Thank you
in her thoughts as she held the image of Mark Twain.

We walked down that hall slowly, and she told me, with her thoughts, the story behind each image. She was letting me in, deeper and deeper, letting me see all those thoughts I was only given a glimpse of with her words.

That walk stilled time. It was a long while before we remembered we were looking for a door, and it was only the anxious emotions of masses of people that made us recognize the gravity of reality once again.

A few hallways later, we found wide doors that opened into a massive ballroom. The back wall was windows, hundreds of feet in the air. The lavender sky of Radiance was highlighting the dark wood floors. I led her there, feeling my heart thunder. I had no idea where this building had come from, but I knew it was too massive to be in Radiance and unseen by me.

I had a horrid fear this was a dream, that I was about to wake up in that cold, damp passageway and take my last breath.

She put her arm around my waist, pulling me closer. “Not a dream, Sovereign.”

I looked down into those blues eyes, questioning if she could be any more perfect.

The doors before us flew open with a gust of wind, and we stepped forward, finding ourselves on a balcony. Millions and millions of people were below. Floating gleams of light were dangling in the air. Bleeding hearts, the petals of them red with white daggers, were raining down on the people who roared when they saw us emerge.

Both of our hearts were thundering as we took in the sheer magnitude of all of them.

I looked all around, trying to find my bearings. We were standing on what should have been a massive body of water. We were standing in a palace, one that could hold the entire town I grew up in, and then some.

“I don’t know what to say to them,” I said under my breath.

“I think they can sense you. Send them an emotion.”

“An emotion?”

“Yeah, I feel my mom. She told me she was proud, her emotion did. I told her I loved her, and I felt her emotion spark, like she heard it.”

I turned her into me, blocking out the crowd that was rejoicing. Carefully, I pulled her chin up. My eyes moved across hers, still not able to comprehend the beauty there. I leaned in and kissed her softly at first, but then deeper, pulling her against me.

“
I want them all to feel this. To be this happy.”

I would have thought it was impossible, but the crowd grew louder.

I started to take a silent inventory of what I knew and what I didn’t know as I held her before our world. I knew the other kings were alive, that they were not in agony; so were the girls they loved. I knew from the thoughts of my warriors that they had fought an energy flow of those explosions. And sadly, my childhood escape had perished; it was now given to the dead. Our borders between here and Esterious had thinned, but I lost no soldiers. I knew from the emotions of my people that thus far, no couples had parted ways. In fact, no other Flames had risen, even though it had been nearly a week since Willow and I both vanished into the sacred water.

From what I could see, our people stood by and watched a hurricane but felt no wind. They never grieved or felt anxious, for they trusted our love, more than we trusted it. The palace appeared hours later when the wind settled, but we never emerged. Still, they worried not. They trusted us to rise and lead them.

I knew that we had prevailed past another trial, but more awaited. And in those trials, I would be tested, just as Willow. But I also knew that through dark and bright times, we would prevail one way or the other. We were too stubborn to fail.

I knew the woman I loved was restored. Her insights were back and in balance. I knew that she completed me. Always had, and always would. I loved her.

“I love you,”
she thought as she lifted her arms to pull me closer. I smiled against her lips, knowing she was in my mind then. She knew what I thought was ahead, and she showed no fear. I let her take my breath away once again before the dimension that we created with this love right
here.

~ The End, for now… ~

Where To Find Jamie Online:

http://authorjamiemagee.blogspot.com

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Other Books by Jamie Magee

“Web of Hearts and Souls”

Insight (Book 1)

Embody (Book 2)

Image (Book 3)

Vital (Book 4)

Vindicate (Book 5)

Enflame (Book 6)

Blakeshire

See (Book 1)

Witness (Book 2)

Synergy (Book 3)

Redefined (Book 4)

Rivulet (Book 1)

Imperial (Book 1)

Impulsion – Contemporary New Adult Love Story

I am still eternally grateful for every soul that encouraged me to write/ publish my debut novel Insight.... thank you once again.

I also want to thank my husband, Lem, for listening to my random thoughts and ideas as each of these stories came to life, he is not only the love of my life but the man who keeps me sane on this insane adventure. I want thank my children who inspire me to become more than I am today with a simple glance, and the echo of laughter and joy that surrounds me constantly.

I want to thank
my wonderful beta readers: Sabrina Wells, Alysia Kurtz, and Steffini Walker.

GWE along with Todd Barselow for editing my daydreams.

Most of all I want to thank every-single reader for sharing this adventure with me! I love you all and I am eternally grateful for your time and support :)!