Synergy (40 page)

“Long enough to figure
out that you invoked mourning. T
o understand where all our new friends came from,” Drake answered,
glancing
around the room, then settling his eyes on Madison.

Their stare silenced every argument
. That is
until Madison broke away from his pull, stood, and left the room. I followed her,
leaving everyone else behind
. She walked briskly toward the room our things were in. I didn’t try to talk to her until we were all alone. Several people were in the hall, eager to see that this trial was ov
er, that the prince was awake. T
hat Landen was awake.

She reached the room a few seconds before me. I found her pacing the floor, rubbing her hand nervously over her wrist.

“Are you good
?” I asked gently.

“Am I good
?” she said as a sarcastic smile spread across her face and her determination to build a wall around her heart surfaced in her eyes. “We did it: they’re a
wake. Monroe is in a safe place.
Draven is balanced. Let’s go home. They don
’t need us. W
e don’t need them.”

“You know that’s not true. This has just begun. We have to help Monroe. We’re all she has.”

“Fine. Fine, we’ll take her
home then. She was fine there. W
e were fine there.”

“No, Madison,” I said, stepping closer to her. “
You can go home. I understand.
I really do. I’ll finish this, help
Monroe. You gave enough, but...
I know you’re strong enough not to
run
. To face this. H
im.”

She’d stopped her pacing, and just as she went to argue with me, her eyes soared past me. I turned to see Drake standing in the threshold.

His black shirt was missing all of the buttons from where they’d ripped it open in an effort to save him before they found us. His firm chest made him look even more powerful than his energy felt as it spilled into the room. His eyes were so dark, so mesmerizing. He didn’t even seem to notice me; he was holding Madison’s gaze. “May we have a moment?” he said in a tone that was laced in royalty.

Madison reached for my wrist, refusing to let me leave her side. Drake noticed the obvious “No” in her gesture. He walked slowly toward us, and with each step he took I felt his power intensify. His presence was literally intoxicating. It was go
ing to take every ounce of will
power Madison had to stand in this room with him, to have his undivided attention.

When he reached us, his eyes slowly moved over every part of Madison, then they rose to meet he
rs. “I owe you my life,” he murmured
.

Madison didn’t respond. I tried to pull my wrist away from her to give them a moment alone, but she dug her nails into my skin, making it clear that if I left her alone there would be hell to pay.

I felt a sharp edge in the clutch of her hand and glanced down, noticing the ring I’d put there, the one that shielded raging emotions from completely surfacing.
If she was struggling with her emotions with this ring in place then there was no telling what was going inside of her. I was terrified and excited all at once for her.

I moved my hands around the ring. I’m sure she thought I was agreeing to stay at her side, but I was plotting
to pull the ring from her skin. T
o do what she force
d me to do every
day: face the
emotions;
use them as a weapon, not a weakness.

“I don’t break my promises,” Madison said
emotionlessly
.

Drake’s eyes softened, and I could swear I saw him recognize something in her words.

“I’m not her,” Madison said quickly. At first I thought she was standing by her argument that she would never be anyone’s second choice, a substitute for another girl, but from the way Drake tilted his head, the way he smiled
fa
intly
with his angelic lips,
led me to believe that Madison’s words were a de
ad giveaway of a private moment. O
ne that must have occurred in her dreams, a place she’d shielded from all of us.

“A year
ago,” Drake said after a numbing moment of silence, “I was in my darkest hour. I was ready to become what my mentor needed me to be - then I had dream...”

Madison took in a jagged breath; it was clear she didn’t want him to say another word.

Drake’s eyes echoed pain as they moved slowly from her lips to her eyes. “I knew deep in my soul that it was wrong, evil - but I was hungry for power. That dream, that breathtaking green-eyed girl turned my life around.
She gave me hope. B
alance. She showed me I wasn’t evil, that I had a purpose that was meant for good, not darkness. I woke from that dream with a new sense of purpose, and I reached out to my father for the first time, listened to him tell me about how div
ine soul mates were. H
ow powerful love was. Because of that dream, I finally knew my father, my purpose for the first time.”

Drake’s eyes fell
to her lips. “It was her touch. Her soft lips. How they embraced mine. The love I felt. T
he passion I felt...that moment, that dream gives me reason to wake every
single
morning.”

“I’m not her,” Madison said again, sounding even less believable.

“I’ve kissed her, kissed Willow...I didn’t feel that.” He sighed slightly. “I thought it was because her heart was divided, that Landen had reached her first, that because of that her touch was altered.”

His eyes fell to her lips again, then rose to her eyes. “You’ve caused me to question everything
, and I can’t afford to do that. N
ot at this point in my life.”

“I’m not kissing you,” Madison said weakly.

Drake glanced at me, then back to her. At that moment, I pulled the ring from her skin and stepped away as fast as I could. I wasn’t going to let her shut him out before he had a chance to defend however she assumed he’d wronged her. I knew that without that ring, every emotion
would
soar to the
surface, and if I weren’t standing next to her she would kiss him and he would know once and for
all what girl was in his dream. W
hat girl had changed his life.
And she would know that no one can chose who or when they fall in love.

“Maybe not today, or even in this lifetime...but,” he said as he reached to let his thumb trace the bottom of her eye, “one day I will know if you’ve danced in my dreams...I will know if my heart has been truly fooled.”

“You were fooled,” Madison said as her cheeks blushed, “and because you were fooled, you’ve lost every chance you could have ever had with me. The man who has my heart will love my soul, not what I look like, not for what I can do...he will love every imperfection just as much, if not more than, my perfections -
-
and I’ll be damned if he ever mistakes me for someone else.”

Drake boldly stepped forward, reached for the back of her neck, and pulled her to his lips. Seeing that her emotions were in full play, that she was facing this, I quickly walked away - but when I reached the doorway, Aden and Draven were walking in. Their wide eyes dared me to look over my shoulder. I saw Madison raise her hand in defense but then fall weakly as Drake kissed her. A second later, she found her protest and pushed him back.

“You have your answer,” Madison said quietly, refusing to look him in his eyes, which were full of disbelief. “Now go stand at her side - and every time you look at her, you think of that dream,
you think of how blind you are. W
hat you’ll never have.”

I pushed against Aden and Draven to move, to leave them alone, but they were too protective of Madison to leave; they weren’t going anywhere until they knew she wanted them to.

“And will you think of me when you stand at Britain’s side?” Drake asked as his eyes moved rapidly across Madison’s furious face.

She looked up at him as guilt washed over her angry expression. “How do you know about him?” she asked.

He furrowed his eyebrows, which intensified the pull of his magnetic dark eyes. “Another life, Madison, another dream - and perhaps we’ll both exercise patience.” His eyes glanced over her once more. “You deserve everything you want in a lover. I can’t change anything. I can’t understand why fate is so cruel, why it chooses to toy with my heart.” He turned to leave but hesitated and glanced back at her. “Thank
you...for everything.” He glanced down before he
walked confidently toward us.

He hesitated as he passed Draven. “Why do I feel like I know you?” he asked him.

Draven carefully looked over him. Seeing them stand
side-by-side
was empowering. Even though they were the same age in this life, I could feel the age in Drake’s soul, the craving for a mentor in Draven’s. If I had one wish at that moment, it would be that Drake could see like we could, that Draven could open a door and show Drake all that he’d been through in his existence, every fall, every victory. I knew Drake would find understanding, or even compassion for Draven.

The first time I’d found Draven, he was a King of a dark dimension, one that was entirely too much like Esterious.

“Another life, another time,” Draven finally said.

Drake glanced at me, then to him. “If you need anything, anything at all, come to me. I’l
l teach you everything I know.
I’ll teach you control.”

Draven nodded once.

Drake stepp
ed forward, and as he looked
down the hall he said, “I’d really li
ke for you to teach me to see.
I think that would clear up a lot of misguided thoughts.”
Longingly he glanced at Madison.

Draven didn’t have a chance to respond. Drake walked away, holding his head high, holding the image of a powerful leader.

My attention turned to Madison. The second Drake was out of sight, she leaned forward and braced herself on her knees. I slowly walked toward her as Aden and Draven entered the room and closed the door behind them, giving us the privacy we needed to help our best friend, to reflect on what had happened to all of us.

“This is my fault,” I said to her.

She quickly looked up at me like I was crazy.

“This has nothing to do with you, Charlie,” Madison said
with a sigh
, standing up.

“It has e
verything to do with me,” I argued
as Draven and Aden came to our side. “I was an idiot. I thought I could handle Britain and Bianca on my own, that I could stop them. I admit, I thought I was protecting all of you,” I said as I glanced
at Draven. “But I was still an
idiot. I lost my
memory in that battle, Madison. A
nd even when all of you came together in my darkest hour and helped me find myself - I was still too close-minded to come here.”

“Coming here was a mistake,” Mad
ison bit out
, looking away from me. She was still blushing from Drake’s kiss. Who could blame her for that? I was surprised she was able to stand. I could still feel his energy in this room.

“No,” I said firmly. “This is
my
fault. Draven begged me to leave for Chara the night of my accident,” I said as I glanced at him, “but I refused. That was the first of June, Madison. Willow and Landen didn’t find each other until August. If we’d left when I was begged to, they would have known from day one that there were two green-eyed Scorpios. Drake wouldn’t have had the chance to be fooled.”

“He was, though -
-
and you can’t recover from that,” Madison said, crossing her arms.

“Listen,” Aden said. “I’m not taking sides here, but from what I’ve seen, I have no idea how Drake can think straight. Madison, they forced dreams on him, that Alamos guy did, that evil angel - when he was alive - was his mentor. I’m sorry to say this, but I think he should have a little slack. The fact that he hasn’t flipped his dark switch tells me that he wants to make
things right. F
or everyone.”

“How deep did you look
into him?!” Madison asked
coldly as her eyes pierced through Aden.

He raised his hands, telling her he’d said his peace.

“I looked deep,” Madison said. “I saw it all. I saw every
time he told her he
loved
her.
I saw every time he plot
ted to have her at his side.
I saw him give her his e
nergy - his energy; that’s
sacred
– that’s something that only soul mates share. It’
s
not the body. I
t’s the soul. No more than fifteen minutes ago, he told Willow it didn’t matter if she found someone who looked just like her, that he loved her - and then he walks in here and wants to br
ing up a dream that happened a year
ago? No thanks.
I’m done. He didn’t fail a test; he ripped it up and burned it -
-
just like Britain told me he would.”