The field was vibrant, full of daisies as far as the eye could see. An aroma of freshness filled the air. Everything vibrated here—the grass, the mountains, the trees—humming in unison to a frequency all its own.
Addison breathed it all in, and then turned toward Aryanna. “Where are we?”
“We’re inside your mind,” Aryanna said.
“My mind? How?”
“If you are to defeat Aamon, you must learn to think differently, learn to make the impossible possible, and you don’t have long. The time to face him is nigh at hand. I felt it the moment I saw you.”
“I’m not sure I’m ready.”
Aryanna nodded. “That’s why we’re here. You believe in yourself, and yet you hesitate at times. There can be no hesitation. In this war, you must lead. You alone will be responsible for defeating him because you are the only one who can.”
“I’ll do whatever it takes.”
“When the time comes, when you meet face to face, I want you to think of what you would do to him if he had your daughter in his grasp, if he’d found a way to take her from you. Would you hesitate then?”
“I would not.”
“This mentality is the most important lesson I can teach you. If you wish to save all mankind, you must be fearless.”
“Sounds like something my grandmother would have said to me,” Addison said. “It’s hard to believe it’s been four years since her death.”
“Marjorie was one of the best women I’ve ever known. She was a force. She didn’t fear anyone or anything.”
“I miss her.”
“And she misses you.”
Addison raised a brow. “How do you know she misses me?”
Aryanna patted Addison’s hand and grinned but didn’t utter a word.
“The impossible is possible,” Addison said. “I get it.”
“Good. Ready for your final lesson of the day?”
Addison nodded.
Aryanna flattened her palm over Addison’s forehead. “Right now, at this moment, what’s the one thing you wish to see?”
“My brother, Corbin. I wish to know where Aamon has taken him. Where Corbin is, I expect Aamon is too, waiting for me.”
“See him then. Close your eyes and tell yourself to find him.”
Addison resisted the urge to hesitate, to overthink, to wonder how such a thing was possible, and did as Aryanna suggested. Soon she found herself soaring through the sky, over oceans, forests, and plains. Then she saw something she didn’t expect—Crawley Manor.
There must be some mistake.
He’s not here.
He can’t be.
Can he?
And yet, she was there, which meant she must have missed something during her previous visits, something she still needed to see or find. Hovering several feet above the manor, she chanted:
In this place where I have been
Show me what I haven’t seen
Addison looked again, this time seeing not only the manor itself, but what was beneath it, another structure, a manor beneath a manor, with hidden rooms and corridors—the perfect place to hide someone.
“Show me Corbin,” Addison said.
A room in one of the hidden rooms illuminated—in the form of a man. Corbin.
Addison wanted to go to him, to free him, to bring him back with her to Gaia. She started to descend and felt a hand on her arm.
“I’m here,” Addison said. “Why can’t I rescue him?”
“You are not here. The essence of you is. You have seen your battleground, and you have found your brother. But you must resist the urge to go to him. When the time is right, you will know.”