Emanate: Insight Series ((Insight) Web of Hearts and Souls) by Jamie Magee Page A

slammed into the wall.
    I heard a few catcalls and whistles come from the other side of the wall as Justus pulled me down to his side.
    “Drake, Donalt, Alamos, Xavier—they are all the same in their minds. Power-hungry control freaks. They do not want the illusive green-eyed girl to be found any more than they want Drake to rise up. They plan to orchestrate any and all means to discredit the palace. They took credit for building the wall, knocking down the wall, and every other insane thing you have done over the last few months.”
    “You know an awful lot about what I’ve been up to for a man that was in the grave hours ago,” I said with a sigh.
    “You slept for nearly an hour. I’ve been listening.”
    “They’re talking about this now?”
    “They were. They are more focused on how they all plan to breach the dimension next to them and discredi t Drake at the same time. They’re being spoon-fed information, though.”
    “Why do you say that?”
    “Because their timeline is matching too perfectly to Chara’s end of days. Someone wants them to make a little noise, enough noise, generate enough power to rip a hole in this dimension, in effect bringing down their king and seizing a new world all at once.”
    “They’ re attacking Chara from within?”
    “They don’t know that they’ re doing that. They think they are breaching an unclaimed wilderness. A gift from above, as they called it.”
    Justus fell silent, and as he did I heard the slide of metal and people taking their seat in the booth that must have backed up to ours. The man was obviously drunk, and he was promising the woman with him how he was going to whisk her away, how he was going to build her a house, how he already had his carriage packed. She just giggled.
    “I want out of here ,” I whispered harshly to Justus.
    I could easily tell from the look in his eye s that I wasn’t leaving here anytime soon.

Chapter Five
    ~ Landen ~
     
    The Veil, much like the dimensions I travel to, along with The Realm, never ceases to amaze me. They’re always changing. Or at least I see something new each time I return.
    I came here for a reason. This stretch of the Veil lingered between Esterious and Chara. It was an area that Chara had guarded well with our stealth Rampart Warriors, whose goal is to defend The Radiance, the area of Chara that held an immense amount of energy. It is said that it holds as much power as it does because that is the place Guardian and Aliyanna first appeared in our world.
    T he energy in this part of the Veil was rich, so exquisite that souls were well aware that their beings could pass from one world to the other without having to end their lives, meaning if Esterious sent spies or armies our way, this is the path they would use. In most cases, they tried to hide among the true dead, those souls that lived in denial that their lives were over and built worlds around them that mocked the time they lived.
    The conspirators were easy to recognize, at least they were to me; their intent was nothing less than vile. Those souls were sent by none other than Donalt himself to do a host of tasks to bring our world to its knees. This was one of the lesser known tricks of Donalt. Others from my world were well aware of the false soul mates Donalt would put before us, or even the helpless act that he pulled on travelers’ heartstrings—souls begging that we take them anywhere but the hell they were in.
    The rest of Chara didn’t know about this place. They didn’t know because it would invoke fear. It would allow them to believe that evil could find them , even in the midst of bliss.
    Truth is , evil can find you anywhere if you open that door in your mind. The strongest army in the world could stand before you, the most positive souls in the universe could endow you with words that harbor nothing but bliss and promise, but if you opened that door—no one beyond the Creator himself could help you close that door.
    Fear. I