"Don't speak to me that way," he growled. "I am your mentor!"
"And I am your Visionary! You have to let me do what I'm supposed to. I'll go mad if you don't!"
He reared back as if to hit her and even Caleb leaned forward as if to stop him, but the man stopped himself. He instead nodded his head at someone and they took her down the hall, careful not to touch her skin. "No! Please," she begged. "The only time you let me come out is the reunification. Please!"
"Maybe you should have thought about that before you misbehaved."
They dragged her back to her room in the library and left her there, sobbing on the floor.
More visions came. The man, Richard, tried to visit her several times. When they started to understand that they would imprint if they could just touch, they began to sneak. But every time they almost touched, someone was there to stop them and eventually they threw Richard in the cells to keep him from trying. So she began to try to reach him instead.
Then Caleb and I were standing in her room again. The library walls were full of words now, just like they were when I was there the other day. She had her back to us and she was writing on a clean piece of wall. The bed was unmade and down from the wall. There were several trays of food and drink by the door, untouched. Her feet were almost black from dirt and soot, and when she turned around, we understood. She'd gone mad, exactly like she said.
She was a little older and I saw in her mind that Richard was still in the cells, even after all those years. All the things she was supposed to do and teach her people and she'd been denied the right. The Watson council member kept her locked up and away from everyone. The other council members had their suspicions, but no one wanted to be the one to accuse him of such a thing, to ruin his reputation if it were true.
Ashlyn had scratched her hands and arms until they bled and scabbed over and over. Her hair was pulled out and missing in some spots. Her neck, where her Visionary mark was supposed to be, was burned and had a nasty wound. When I saw in her mind how she'd burned it off with a cast iron spoon she'd made hot by the fire, I lost it. I began to cry and turned into Caleb's shoulder.
It was too much. This was what I was? This was what was inside of me? She was a broken shell of a woman who'd lived through something no one should have to, but she didn't believe in herself. She didn't even try to use her power against them when they came at her. She could have easily fought them off, she could have made them listen, but she was weak in her fear.
And because of that, she went mad from being away from her significant, though they never got to touch, and from the fact that her ability was useless without an audience to see it.
The first thing that came to my mind was Bish and Jen. They'd go mad just like her if they didn't touch and imprint. I ached for them. I ached for Ashlyn and Richard. It wasn’t right. The imprints were a beautiful and joyous thing and for it to be made into something closer to a burden and a curse by the Watsons, even as far back as then, was unforgiveable.
It didn't escape my notice how the situations of my circumstances mirrored hers, except for details that were ironically opposite. We both met our significant, but I met mine at seventeen and imprinted whereas she met hers at a normal imprint age of twenty three. I was a human and she was not. I imprinted before anyone else any knew so no one could have stopped us. Even my Visionary ability didn't work without Caleb's touch. And it all made sense now.
Whatever is was that controls the Visionary knew the mistakes that were made the first time, they just misjudged the evils' determination to stop it. So it fixed all those issues with me.
I looked up at Caleb, who was as sick as I was about what he'd seen. I vowed right them to myself, to Caleb, to Ashlyn and whoever else who gave a darn to listen to my thoughts, that I would not be weak. I would not let them control me and make me some novelty instead of doing what I came here to do. I would never, ever, ever let them keep my significant away from me. I would make the hard decisions and sacrifices and I would figure out a way for Bish and Jen to be together in the beautiful way they deserved instead of waiting for disaster.And the Watsons? There was nothing else to do. They had to go.
Twenty Two
We found ourselves standing in the Visionary's library and we were back in reality.
"This is the library?" Caleb asked and looked around. "I've never been up here."
I nodded. "Rodney brought me here the night I went and broke you out of the cell." I smiled sadly before crumpling with a sob again.
He came and wrapped me up. "Baby, she showed you that so you wouldn't make her mistakes," he said gently. "She wasn't trying to scare you."
"I know. I just can’t get over what they did to her. I mean, they literally kept them from touching each other. Can you imagine…" Caleb grunted and pulled me tighter.
"No," he breathed. "I can't."
"And I feel so cold and strange when I have my visions. I can't imagine not being able to have someone see. It really would make me crazy."
I sniffed and took a deep breath before blowing it out. Caleb wiped under my eyes with his thumbs. "Let's get out of here," he ordered gruffly. "I don't want you in this prison."
I followed him as he led us all the way back to the main hallway. I wanted to go to Bish and Jen. I wanted to tell them both to stop being idiots and just be happy that they found each other in a palace where hundreds of people were waiting to find just what they had. I wanted to tell them to have faith in me and don't doubt. But I couldn't. I knew they had to see if for themselves. To be pushed into it was the same as being pushed not to do it. I wouldn't take their choice, as stupid as I thought their aversion was.
Caleb took me back to the roof, but neither of us slept. We just stayed there until morning and when the sun crested over the rooftop, we decided it was time to face the day. We both looked awful. Caleb was dragging and I saw in his mind that I looked droopy and tired.
Oh, well. I followed Caleb to his room and he gathered all of his stuff. He took it down to my room, whether we were going to use my room or not, he wanted all of our stuff together. After what we saw last night, he no longer worried about my safety from some stupid Watson prank, he feared for my life.
We entered my room slowly, so as not to disturb Bish and Jen, but they were up. They were sitting next to each other on the bed, their arms and legs touching. Jen was laughing at something he was saying, but they stopped when they saw us.
"What happened?" Bish barked and came to me, gripping my shoulders in his hands. "What's the matter?"
"Nothing," I answered sarcastically. "What?" I asked when he just continued to stare at me.
"You just look terrible."
"Thanks."
"No, I mean it. What's the matter?" he said in his big brother voice.
"I can't tell you," I said through a sigh, but when I saw his face I went on. "I mean, I can't as in I won't. We’ve had…quite a night and I'm tired and I just can't rehash it all right now, ok?"
"Ok," he answered carefully. I remembered the one good part of the night. "There is something I'll tell you though." I smiled a little. "Dad," I shook my head, "Dad imprinted."
"What?" Jen breathed, but it was loud and telling in the room.
I nodded to her. Caleb explained further. "He imprinted with Fiona, in the ball room…in front of the entire room."
"No," she gasped and covered her chest with her hand. "Oh, my." She came to stand next to Bish in front of us. "I wonder what it means."
"It means that the imprints are coming back," I said. "But we have a lot of work to do. Caleb and I learned a lot last night. This is going to be so hard."
"What do you mean?"
"Later," Caleb told her and took my hand, bringing it up to his chest. "And we have to talk with both of you. We learned something about you two, too."
"About us?" Jen said and stepped back.
"Yeah."
"But, there is no us…outside of this room," she said and looked at Bish. "You understood that, right?"
"Yes," he answered and the hope there died. He'd understood, but still hoped. "I know." He walked to her and held her face gently as he kissed her once. "I'm going to go find Dad."
"Probably not a good idea to walk around by yourself," Caleb supplied.
"I can handle it, I think," he said and just as he opened the door, he was grabbed by a little determined fist. She pulled him out of the room and slammed him to the wall. We all ran out to see what was going on. Jacquelyn, the girl who had been so upset about Caleb and I imprinting, was planting a kiss on Bish that would make red roses blush.
"What the hell are you doing, Jacquelyn!" Jen yelled and grabbed the girls' arm. She stumbled back a little and looked at Bish, who was stunned into silence.
She cursed loudly and stomped her foot. "He's the only human left! I thought if I touched him, he'd imprint with me since imprinting humans seemed to be the running theme."
"Well," I tried to explain, "you have to be a little attracted to the person beforehand. He'd never even met you before you kissed him."
"And I think a simple touch on his arm would have sufficed," Jen grumbled.
"What do you know?" Jacquelyn yelled and then her eyes remembered who I was by the mark on my neck. "I mean, Visionary, you have your significant so I don't see how you can judge someone who's just trying to find hers."