to do this on our own so no one knows we’re there.”
“I completely agree.” I told him. “And I think I know a way.”
Chapter 18
Those few days I’d spent with Nicholas ended up not being a total waste of my time. He’d covered a lot about Foreseers and the way that the use the crystals energy to go in and out of visions. He also explained to me that the crystals energy wasn’t just for going into visions. It was also used every time Nicholas entered the City of Crystal. And apparently, all of the individual crystal balls ran off of the energy belonging to a massive crystal ball that stood in the center of the city. All the crystals balls were connected. Because of this, I had an idea that if I really tried, I just might be able to get us into the City of Crystal without a ruby-filled ball, thanks to my unique gift of being able to use the crystals energy without actually having to have a crystal ball present.
But it was going to be tricky. I not only had to get us into the city, but I also had to get us into the city in present time, otherwise we wouldn’t be able to communicate with anyone, or touch anything. This was the reason why Foreseers used the ruby-filled crystal ball to get in and out of the city, because it took them there in the present time.
Although I was a bit skeptical that I could actually pull it off, it was all I had at the moment. So I started practicing day and night. At first, I couldn’t even figure out how to jumpstart whatever was sending me into visions. But then I caught on that it was connected to my emotions. Take for instances, when I was bitten by Vladislav. There had been a ton of emotion running through me then, which was why I think I ended up slipping into a vision. And when I’d drifted away while sitting on the couch with Laylen, I had been retrieving some of my lost memories, which, like Alex had pointed out once, were very deeply connected to my emotions.
So, after a lot of practice, I figured out that nine out of ten times experiencing an intense emotion equaled vision access. Of course, this put a lot of pressure on my newfound ability to experience emotion. And experiencing one on demand didn’t always work out the way that I wanted.
It was with Laylen’s help that I finally started to get the hang of things.
It was my fifth practice day, and Laylen and I were in the room he was staying in. I was sitting on the bed with my legs crossed, facing him as he sat in a chair he’d dragged over beside the bed.
“So what do you want to feel today?” he asked me. “Happy, sad, scared, worried.”
“Not worried,” I said quickly. “That one is not fun at all, and when we used that feeling last time, I ended up getting stuck in the vision for awhile, like the feeling wasn’t strong enough to last or something.”
“True,” Laylen agreed. “Besides, the scared one, I think, was my favorite.”
I shook my head. “No it wasn’t—you almost gave me a heart attack."
He smiled, this beautiful, pleased smile. “Yeah, but it was fun.”
I shook my head, thinking how in no way, shape, or form was Laylen jumping out from behind a closed door to scare me fun. “Well, let’s not do that one, okay. Let’s do something else—something easier on my heart.”
He gave me an intrigued look. “How about we try happy? We haven’t done that one yet.”
My mouth instantly fell to a frown. “We haven’t done that one yet, because I’m not sure I know how to feel happy yet. Well, I mean sometimes when I look at the stars I think I might feel happy…but I don’t know. I think it might be a different kind of happiness then what you’re talking about. Maybe not, though…I don’t know…”
He didn’t look at me with sympathy like I’d expected him to do, but more with determination. “Well, then I think it’s about time you knew for sure if you have.”
Oh, Laylen. Sometimes he made my heart ache—in a good way. “I wish it was that easy, but…I mean, how—how do we do it—make me happy.”
“You can’t force happiness, it just comes.” He leaned back in his chair, his face twisted in deep thought. “I think you and