chapter 27
Gemma
In the blink of an eye, in a breath of air, in the time it takes for a heart to beat, Aleesa is gone. It’s a sight I’ll never be able to get out of my mind. It’s branded there, like marks on my body. Another death. Another haunting memory. Over and over again, and a part of me wonders if Helena is right. Maybe it’ll never end. Maybe this is how life will always be; death, heartbreak, endings. I wonder if it’s worth it. Is it worth it?
Aislin screams out Aleesa’s name and we both run over to her, knowing what we’re heading for, but not yet accepting it. We find her body at the bottom, mangled and broken, her eyes open.
Aislin rushes to her side, tears running down her cheeks. “No, you can’t die… We just found you.” She clutches onto her as tears roll down her eyes.
I don’t cry. All I can think is, why. Why does it always happen? Death, pain, terror. The four of us constantly work to save the world, only for the world to become endangered again. Aleesa is dead, Alex is turning into the Lord of the Afterlife, Fey and Lost Souls are torching the world.
I put my hand on Aislin’s shoulder and stand there, closing my eyes as she sobs and sobs, wishing that I could erase her pain somehow. Not just her pain. All of this. I wish I could go back and shift something so that the Star never fell and our lives were ordinary, even boring.
I hear footsteps coming around the rocks towards us and I lift my hand from her shoulder, reaching for the knife in my back pocket, but it’s gone. I begin to panic, patting my pockets. “Where did it go?”
One of the guards from earlier—Tiny—weaves around the largest boulder. Shock is written on his face as he takes in the scene, but what’s surprising is that there’s sympathy in his eyes as he stares at Aleesa’s body.
“I’ll go get help,” he tells us and turns to leave with his spear to his side, but unexpectedly, he stops and looks back at us. “I’m sorry for your loss,” he says and then weaves around the rock quickly.
I gape unfathomably at him. “Was he just nice?” I shake my head because it’s beside the point right now.
“It’s my fault,” Aislin whispers through her tears and sniffles. She lets go of Aleesa and stands up, wiping the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand.
“It’s not your fault,” I say. “You didn’t make her climb the cliff.
“Yes, it is.” Tears stain her cheeks and drip down to her pink t-shirt. “I should have made her stay… but she wanted to try it... try to escape… or at least go somewhere else. I told her I didn’t think it would be safe, but I didn’t make her stay.” Her voice lowers. “I should have made her.” She starts crying again, her shoulders heaving, and I don’t know what to do. I’m not very good in these kinds of situations and I can’t seem to stop staring at Aleesa, like if I stare long enough, she’ll wake up.
Aislin quiets down when the guard returns, carrying a white blanket in his hand instead of the spear. There are three other guards with him, all similar in looks and holding spears along with a stretcher. They lower the stretcher to the ground next to Aleesa, and then they each place a hand underneath her body. Lifting together, they slide her over onto the stretcher. The guard carrying the blanket carefully drapes it over her body, covering it up.
I’m surprised by the respect they’re showing her and I wonder if Luna knows. They each take a corner and then inhaling, they lift the stretcher together, carrying her body away, winding around the rocks and disappearing wherever they entered. At the last second, Tiny glances back and his eyes scan over me and there’s a sparkle in them, like he knows one of my secrets. I’d try to narrow it down to which one, but I’m full of them, so there’s no point. Tiny nods his head once before hurrying away with the others and then, seconds later, they vanish into the air.
One of them has left their spear on the ground and I bend over to pick it up, figuring I can use it as a weapon.
Aislin gasps. “Where did you get the Cornu Lepore, and why are you wearing it?” she asks with a sniffle, wiping her nose.
Clutching the spear, I stand upright. “Huh?”
She points at my neck and I glance down at the teardrop pendant showing on the outside of my shirt. “Wait. How long has that been hanging out?” I touch my neck, remembering how Tiny looked at me before he disappeared, and my jaw falls. “Oh no, he saw it.”
Aislin looks confused as she blows her nose onto the sleeve of her shirt. “Who saw it?”
I unwrap my fingers from the pendant and tuck it back inside my shirt. “The guard saw the pendant.”
She shrugs at me, trying to look casual, but it looks awkward because she’s still kind of crying. “So what if he saw you wearing the Cornu Lepore. What are they going to do, lock you up for wearing it?” She gestures around the cliffs. “Because I hate to break it to you, but you’re already kind of there.”
“I stole it from Nalina,” I explain, heading for the bench. “Nalina is Luna’s granddaughter.”
“Wait a minute. Didn’t Nalina say she was your aunt?” she questions as she lowers herself down onto the bench. Her eyes are a little wide and glossy as she stares at the cliff where Aleesa fell, but then she gasps as she puts the pieces together. “So you’re Luna’s great-granddaughter?” It comes out loud and I throw my hand over her mouth.
“Shh…” I put my finger to my lip, shaking my head as I sit down on the bench beside her. “No one can know.”
She nods her head at me and I lower my hand to my lap. “Sorry, but seriously,” she hisses. “That means you have Fey blood in you.”
“I know,” I whisper. “And I can’t let Luna know about it or about this.” I touch the spot on my shirt where the pendant is hidden.
“But I thought,” she nods at the pendant, keeping her voice low, “that was just supposed to be some powerless necklace thingy.”
Shaking my head, I lean in. “Turns out, it can control the Fey.”
“What?!” she exclaims and then quickly slaps her hand over her mouth. “Sorry, but I don’t get it. How did I not know about this?”
I shrug, shaking my head. “I’m beginning to think there’s a crap load of stuff out there that we don’t know about.”
She nods in agreement, tears starting to pool in the corners of her green eyes, but she sucks them back. “So what are you planning on doing with it?”
“Well, I was planning on taking over the Fey to get you out of here, but since they pretty much led me right to you, I guess nothing.”
She presses her lips together. “I wouldn’t quite settle on that just yet.”
“Why?”
“Because… because I did something.”
Whenever Aislin says she did something, it’s usually something bad. “What?”
She blows out a breath. “Luna made me put an irreversible charm on the land. No one can leave without walking out of the exit.”
“Wait, you can’t lift it?”
“Irreversible means irreversible, unless I have the power of a coven, which I don’t.”
My gaze sweeps the cliffs and the spot where the guards seemed to materialize out of thin air. I could look around, try to find cracks in the hideout, waiting for someone to come save us, but I’m tired of waiting. I just want it over.
“I’m going to use the pendant to control the Fey,” I decide. “I’m going to get us home.”
“Do you think that’s a good idea? I mean, do you really know anything about how the pendant works?”
I get to my feet. “No, but I don’t care. All I care about is getting us out of here and getting us back to the castle.” And saving Alex, but I don’t tell her that part. Not yet. Not after she just lost her half-sister.
“I want to argue with you,” she says. “But I really want to get out of here, too.”
I nod my head in agreement. “Now I just need to figure out how to work this thing… I mean, do I just show it to them? And what about Luna?”
Aislin stands up and I notice a slight shake to her body, the aftermath of shock probably. “What about Luna?”
“I never expected her to be here.” I pause, mulling it over. “I mean, what if there’s a problem with the Fey responding because she’s here. Crap.” I start pacing, beginning to panic as I think of Alex, back with Draven, shifting and changing into a soul snatcher. “I have to come up with something. Quickly.”
Aislin watches me pace in front of her. “Gemma, stop pacing. You’re making me nervous.”
I keep pacing, shaking my head, and my pulse starts to rise. “What do I do? I can’t… I can’t deal with this anymore.” It’s like every single thing hits me at once. All the feelings I’ve ever felt—along with new ones—and it sends me to my knees as something slams inside my skull—an image.
Alex is kissing the Banshee, tongues tangled as they hold onto one another in the middle of a group of headstones. The moon, an orb against the night sky, and a light fog covers the damp grass. They keep kissing each other fiercely and when they finally pull away, Alex grins.
“That was fun,” he says, staring at the spot on the ground in front of his feet where a body rests.
The blond Banshee steps beside him, running her lips together. “It really was.”
They both laugh as they stare at the body, and then walk around it, heading to the gate. They pass body after body and I recognize four out of six of them, one blond-haired vampire, a golden-haired witch, a tattooed Omnia, and a violet-eyed girl, whose heart has been broken.
When Alex passes my body, he pauses. “I really do kind of feel bad about this one.”
The Banshee grabs his arm and tugs him towards the gate. “Don’t worry, you’ll forget soon enough.”
He nods, walking away, leaving our bodies in the fog, in the dark, soulless.
I suck in a sharp breath as my body trembles. “We have to get out of here.” I push to my knees. “Now.”
Aislin chases after me. “Gemma, calm down. You have to think rationally.” She seizes my elbow, but I jerk it away. “Gemma, you’re acting insane.”
“I know.” I pause at the boulders, shoulders slumping as the pressure builds. “Aislin, there’s something I need to tell you—something bad.”
She stops beside me, swallowing hard. “Okay.”
“It’s about Alex,” I say softly, staring at my feet. “H-he made a deal with Draven—the Lord of the Afterlife.” I take a deep breath and turn to look at her. “He made it back when we were trying to stop the portal. He said that he’d be in debt to him in exchange for some information.”
She starts shaking her head, over and over again. “That idiot. For how long?”
“A year,” I say quietly.
“A year!” She starts cursing as she turns in a circle. “That jackass. How could he do this to me… leave me here all alone?”
I frown. “You’re not alone… you have Laylen… and you have me.” And I guess if I look at it that way I’m not really alone, either. “Besides, we’ll save him.”
She keeps shaking her head, like she doesn’t believe it. I know exactly how she feels because, deep down in the bottom of my soul, I can feel something breaking off, like his soul is trying to disconnect from me.