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“Olivia, this isn’t dangerous; I’m just going to talk to him,” I said, trying to understand her determination - and fearing the worst.

She took a deep breath. “It’s
my
place at your side -
not
Dane’s,” she said calmly.

The truth echoed in every word she spoke, and her certainty was terrifying. I looked at Landen for help, and he looked sorrowfully over Olivia. He felt guilty for not trusting her before, for asking Chrispin to stay behind. Landen’s emotion was uncalled for, though, because we thought we were protecting them. I reached my hand out for his and let an emotion of peace flow through him.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered to her. “I’d take you with us, but I know Chrispin wouldn’t want you in Esterious without him.”

“He knows I’m going with you; I told him this time I wouldn’t take no for an answer, that one way or another, I’d be with you tonight,” Olivia said

I looked back at Landen. “
What do you think?”
I thought.

“
We’ll take her; I just hope Chrispin doesn’t kill me for it,”
he thought.

“
According to her, he already knows she’ll be there,”
I thought.

“Alright, I have no reason to doubt you. Come,” Landen said, stepping halfway into the string.

A smile spread across Olivia’s face, and I felt hope rise in her soul. She stepped past Landen confidently, and he let his hand rest on her back and guided her through. I followed, prepared to lead her through the darkness she’d see. When the glow of string had surrounded me and I felt the gentle current of energy, I focused my eyes on Olivia; she was staring back at me.

“You see me?” I said in an astonished tone.

As confidence consumed her, a grin grew across her beautiful face. Brady, Clarissa, and Dane surrounded us, and Dane stepped between me and Olivia. “What is this? Why is she here?” he asked in an appalled tone.

Brady raised his hand to silence Dane, then pushed him back. His eyes then raced between Olivia, Landen, and me. “You can see in here?” he asked.

Olivia breathed in and smiled. “Chrispin has managed to bring sight to me once again,” she said.

A small smile spread across my face as I remembered that it was Crispin’s love for Olivia that brought her sight back when she was taken by Drake. We’d never really acknowledged how powerful the love between Chrispin and Olivia had to be; we were too focused on saving the lives of my other friends, trying to figure out who we were.

“How?” Landen asked.

“Over the past three days, we stood in the string just in front of Pelhan’s dimension. I meditated and listened to Chrispin’s words as they created what I should see. It took time, but slowly I began to see the glow, to see him smiling proudly at me,” Olivia explained.

“You were told to stay in Pelhen’s world,” Dane said shortly.

Clarissa stepped in front of Dane with an angry scowl. “Is that where you kept disappearing to? Aora told us you were meditating – you lied to me,” she said in a tone that expressed the betrayal she was feeling.

“I didn’t lie; I just didn’t tell you where,” Olivia said shortly.

“Wait a minute,” Brady said with wide eyes. “Why do you care if she didn’t tell you? That’s not the point.” His face showed the utter amazement he felt. “The point is, she can see; that’s absolutely remarkable – do you have any idea how incredible it would be if we could teach our family to see in here?”

Clarissa rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. Olivia smiled as she took in the overwhelming sense of accomplishment she felt. She looked at me. “I told you that one way or another, Chrispin knew I’d be in Esterious,” she said.

I looked up at Landen. He raised his eyebrows and smiled slightly.
“She reminds me of you sometimes,”
he thought.

He wasn’t the first person to come to that conclusion. Throughout our childhood, Olivia and I had been mistaken for one another. Not only did we have the same disconnected feeling for the world around us, we were both petite with olive skin, long dark hair, and unique green eyes. My idea of having a twin somewhere in the world was fading; I feared that Olivia just may be her - and that she, without a doubt, belonged to Chrispin. A grief that I’d never find the one who belonged to Drake began to seep into my soul. Landen’s smile fell, then he reached his arms around me and pulled me to him; I felt hope come through him.

We slowly began to lead the others to Esterious. Olivia came to my side and followed silently. I felt the disdain inside of Dane, but I couldn’t understand it.

I took in Landen’s emotion and made myself focus on a beautiful outcome. He tightened his arm around me.
“You may be the one that has to talk to Drake - alone,”
he thought.

I felt my stomach begin to turn. I wasn’t afraid of Drake, but I didn’t trust myself alone with him - not after everything I knew now. Landen sensed it, and through his touch I felt a calm. “
You’re the only one he trusts, Willow; he’ll do as you ask if it’s in his power,”
he thought.

I looked up at him. “
What do you want me to do – play with his emotions so we can have our way?”
I thought as resentment began to surface in me.

“No,” Landen said. I looked over my shoulder to find the others staring at us, and my cheeks flushed with the anger I was starting to feel.

“
Listen to me,”
Landen said, pressing his lips against the side of my head. “
He is the path to what we need: the path to the safety of Delen, the path to his soulmate, the path to defeating that demon. You know I believe there’s a reason for everything – so there has to be a reason that we’re both in this life. I don’t want you to toy with him; I want you to be honest with him, tell him what we need.”

“
I just don’t like being in the middle,
” I thought.

“
I don’t want you in the middle either. Beyond this truce, you need to let that anger out. I don’t want you to mull over why he didn’t tell you he was Oba. Ask him, fight it out; there’s a very good chance that his dreams are the only reliable source we have for the next trails. The scroll didn’t do us much good this time,”
Landen thought.

“
The scrolls had everything right except who the knife would go through,”
I thought, trying to find a way around talking to Drake alone.

A spark of grief and horror raced through Landen’s emotion, and I immediately felt guilty for bringing that moment to his memory.

“
I don’t know if Drake knew that part or not, and I doubt he’d tell me - but I’m sure he’d tell you. He’s a part of this, Willow, and August is right: we can’t afford to be divided when we’re faced with a demon like this,”
Landen thought.

As I reached my hand out and let it rest on his chest, images of the darkness pushing through him raced through my memory. I wanted to forget it all, to push it down.

“
The only way to move past it – is to face it,”
Landen thought, reading my intent.

I nodded.
“Can we try to talk to him together first? Then, if that doesn’t work, I’ll talk to him alone,”
I thought.

“
That’s what I was planning on doing; I just wanted you to be prepared to be alone with him,”
Landen thought.

“
I am as ready as I’m going to be,”
I thought, leaning into him.

We stopped at the passage that led to Patrick’s home; we wanted the people in Delen to see us, to know that we hadn’t abandoned them. As the haze moved past us, we smelled the fresh flowers that they’d laid on the staircase. For once, we were happy to see them leading our path, happy that they still had faith in us.

I led us up the stairs. When I opened the door, I saw Patrick staring out his window at the streets; he felt solemn. He turned as we entered the room, and a smile filled his face - but his mood didn’t shift as I expected it to.

“Did something happen?” Landen asked, reading his emotion.

Patrick’s eyes filled with sorrow. “A mass of people tried to escape over the wall last night; they didn’t make it,” he said in a low tone.

The solemn mood Patrick had spread into all of us; I tried not to think of the lives that were lost while I rested contently in my own world.

As we stepped out on the street, people stopped what they were doing and watched us pass. I felt their joy and hope. Landen and I reached our hands out to touch them and returned what we felt as we walked by. I could see the wall and hear the builders in the distance. It had grown another foot since we’d left; I wondered how high they were going to take it.

The palace looked beautiful at sunset. It was almost completely painted white now, and flowers were on every balcony. My willow tree, the one that had grown in the center court after my first trail, swayed in the Autumn breeze. I smiled as I watched the energy of light dance around it. It was my first mark on this world, and that night I was determined to make another.

As we approached, the doors opened. The woman who’d shadowed Perdoine during our stay was waiting on us. She still wore a solid black dress, but she’d pinned a red rose to her chest; the color gave me hope that even those most loyal to the court could find a way to change.

As we followed her up the stairs to Perodine’s study, I looked back at Brady and Clarissa to see their take on the palace. Clarissa was eyeing all the paintings along the walls, and Brady was more focused on where we were going.

“I wouldn’t have thought you’d have wanted to come back to this place,” Dane said to Olivia.

Olivia hesitated. I glared at Dane; I couldn’t believe he would have wanted her to remember the time she was held here, the time she lost her sight. Olivia turned on the step where she stood; Dane was just behind her, and her eyes moved slowly across his face. A content smile then spread across her face. “This palace was a doorway I walked through. I don’t fear it; it was simply a small stepping stone on my path to Chrispin,” she said.

She turned and looked at me, and I reached my hand out for her to come to my side. Dane looked up at me, and I felt his emotion of disdain grow. It bothered me that they were being distant with each other. They’d never been close. Growing up, I was the one friend that linked them. At times, I’d feel pulled between them – and right now, that was last thing I needed on my plate.

Landen reached his arm around me.
“I’ll talk to him when I get a chance. He’s only acting that way because his pride is hurt; he sees her as a threat,”
he thought.

“
He always has; I just don’t know why he’s putting me through this right now,”
I thought as I began to climb the steps again.

When we reached the study, we found Perodine staring out the window at the wall that was growing taller by the moment. Brady and Landen went to her side, and I made my way to the table to see if she’d made any more notes on what she’d found in the scroll. The others followed me there. The books that Alamos and August had brought were stacked neatly at one end of the table. The scroll was in the center, and a note pad with a mathematic equation was sitting just below it. When she saw Brady and Landen at her side, Perodine turned and reached her arm around Landen. He pulled her close to him, and I could feel the calm he was giving her. I smiled, wondering how close they were in my first life.