Chapter 18
Sunlight overflows the forest, which is as quiet as a graveyard. Nicholas breathes gently and my heart drums in my chest.
“I have to kill someone?” Spinning with dizziness, I brace my hand against the trunk of a thick tree. “To get my Foreseer’s power back, I actually have to kill someone?”
“No, but it’s just as bad as death.” He steps away from the tree, his hair hanging in his eyes. “You know the large crystal ball in the center of the city?”
The coarse bark scrapes my hand. “You’re saying I have to put someone there? Are you joking?”
“Not put them there,” he says. “But basically yeah. In exchange for returning the power of the Divination Crystal, you have to give the crystal power.”
“How do I do that?” I gape. “How am I supposed to just get someone to go down there and feed their energy to the crystal?”
“How does anyone get someone to do something they don’t want to do?” he replies. “You make a bargain you know they’ll break.”
My hand falls from the tree. “Like Dyvinius did with Alex? Because that makes no sense. The promise would have to be made in the City of Crystal for it to be binding.”
“I never said it was going to be easy.” He sketches the Foreseer’s mark on his wrist. “Getting you into the City of Crystal unnoticed is going to be the hardest part. Humans are suckers and I’m sure you can get one to hand over their life pretty easy.”
“I thought I was expelled from the City of Crystal? That’s what the voice said when it was reading me my punishment, which, by the way, thanks for bailing out on that.”
He stares at me, emotionless. “I’d watch your snotty tone, since I’m the one bailing you out now.” He departs through the forest, dry leaves crumbling under his shoes.
I zip up my jacket and follow him. “Why are you helping me? What’s in it for you?”
“Nothing but the pleasure of your company,” he jokes, tucking his hands into the pocket of his jeans.
I whirl in front of him and he runs into me. “I’m going to tell you right now, that I don’t want your help unless it’s genuine.” I put space between us. “If it’s not, then I’ll hurt you with no hesitation. I can’t deal with your tricks right now.” A barrel of emotions shove through my body. I suck in a breath and bottle them back up. I will not feel them.
His eyes flood with honesty. “It’s genuine. I promise.”
The faerie shocks me more than he ever has. “Well, okay then. Just as long as we’re on the same page.”
He rolls his eyes at me. “We’ve always been on the same page. You just refused to believe it.”
Not true, but I don’t argue. He takes my hands, ready to foresee us away.
“Where are we going first?” I ask. “Back to the Faerie Realm, I hope. I need to get Aislin out of there.”
He shakes his head. “There’s no point. You can’t save her from freeing Luna.”
“Wanna bet?” I challenge. “I saved the world from Stephan, so a little faerie should be easy.”
His eyes narrow, offended. “She’s more powerful than her size, Gemma. You shouldn’t be so judgmental.”
I smile, but it hurts. “I’m not being judgmental. I have you on my side now and she’s your grandmother. That’s gotta have some weight.”
He stares at the ground, lost in thought. “Less than you’d think.”
“But more than going in solo.” I shake his hands encouragingly. “Now, come on. We need to hurry.”
He internally struggles with whether to help me or not. The good ends up winning, and I wonder if the faerie might be changing. But I’m not counting on it. I’ll never count on anything again.
Nicholas squeezes my hand and floats us away, leaving the hideout and the painful memory in a trail of dust.
“We need a game plan,” I say from up in a tree. We’re watching the cages though a space in the leaves. “How does one bargain with a faerie?”
“Well, if you were bargaining with me, I could think of a few ways.” He pinches my side and I elbow him in the gut. He smiles, amused. “But with Luna, it’s not going to be that easy. In fact, it’s not going to happen because you have nothing she wants. Aislin does.”
“Then we might have to do it the good old fashion way.” I hop to the branch below.
He matches my move, shaking leaves to the ground. “And what’s that?”
“We escape.” I leap to the next branch, a thinner one that bows under my weight. I grasp onto the side branches. “We free Aislin and run.”
“It sounds like something I’d do.” He grapples the branch above my head, his floral scent potent. “Bailing out.”
“No, you’d just bail on your own and leave Aislin,” I say, then feel bad. “Sorry.”
The cages rock in the wind. I creep down the branches, slowly, head tucked in, knees bent. When I reach the cage, I spot Aislin sleeping inside. Her hands are tucked under her cheek and leaves tangle her curls. I mount the branch above the cage.
“Aislin, wake up,” I whisper, tapping on the bars.
She snores loudly and mumbles under her breathe words that sound like a chant.
Checking that the coast is clear, I sidewalk to the front of the cage where the leaves are scarce. The sun and wind hit my back and if anyone walks by, they’ll see me. I observe the thick padlock and run my finger along the border of the cage door.
Nicholas drops down beside me.
“Do you know how to pick a lock by chance?” I yank on the door.
His hands snake around me so I’m trapped between his arms and his chest crowds my back. He grabs the lock and I notice he has a bobby pin in his hand.
Unable to help myself, I stifle a smile. “Did you have that in your hair?”
He sighs, his warm breath feathering my neck. “Ha, ha, your humor is hilarious.” He sticks the pin in the lock, nodding his chin at Aislin. “I took it out of her hair.”
Aislin always has pins in her hair. “Oh right, good thinking.”
His eyes convene with mine and his eyebrows arch. “Did you just give me a compliment?”
“I…” Glancing around, I shrug. Then I maneuver out of his arms and balance to the side of the cage.
Nicholas works the pin up and down, and gives it a twist. The lock clicks. “Sometimes I amaze myself,” Nicholas remarks admiring his handy work.
“I’m sure you do.” I scoot past him and into the cage. Holding the door open with one hand, I nudge Aislin in the foot with my shoe. “Aislin, get up. We gotta go.”
“I’m not going to shut the door on you,” Nicholas says. “You can go in.”
Still holding the door ajar, I give Aislin another nudge and raise my voice. “Aislin, come on. We have to go before Luna finds you.” I kick the bottom of her shoe, maybe a little too hard, but it does the job.
She blinks her eyes open, dumbfounded. “Where am I?” She rubs her eyes. “Oh. OH! We’re still here.”
I quickly motion at the door. “Yep, and we have to hurry before Luna discovers you’re here.”
“What about Aleesa? And Laylen?” Disoriented, she staggers to her feet. Her pupils are dilated and glossy. “And why’s he here?”
I glance over my shoulder at Nicholas, who’s leaning against the cage, watching us with a bored expression. “He’s helping us.”
She frowns skeptically. “Did you hear what you just said?”
I nod and tug her out of the cage and onto the branch. “Again, no time. We have to get out of here before Luna comes for you. Laylen’s not here and we’ll have to come back for Aleesa when we have a game plan and the Empress isn’t heading for us.”
Nicholas glances from left to right. “I think she’s already here.”
Tiny footsteps pitter-patter toward us. From below our feet, sprites giggle and clap their hands.
“Can you get us out of here?” I plead with Nicholas.
“I could,” he muses. “For a price.”
Before I can argue, he takes our hands. Just as the Empress presents herself through the branches, he blinks and foresees us away. The last thing I see is a smile on the Queen’s face. And a smile on a queen’s face is never a good thing.
***
Nicholas drops us near the lake, unable to enter the Keeper’s castle lined with praesidium. We make a beeline for the castle and settle in the library. Aislin slumps down on the leather couch, wiping the sweat and dirt from her forehead. “I feel weird, like I have a concussion.”
Nicholas makes himself at home on the velvet sofa in the living room. Outside, the sun is rising over the mountains, making the land glow a faint pink. “Maybe you do. Maybe a sprite knocked you over the head while you were passed out.”
I turn my jacket pockets inside out, dumping the remaining bits of Faerie Realm dirt. “Did anyone else notice that Luna looked a little too happy for someone who just lost her key to escaping the Faerie Realm?”
Nicholas glances at me impressively. “So you caught onto that, huh?”
“She was grinning from ear to ear,” I say. “How could I not notice it?”
He kicks his feet up on the table and drapes his arms across the back of the chair. “You’re getting smarter, Gemma Lucas. Now if only you could figure out why she was so happy.”
“I’m sure you probably already know, but aren’t going to share.” I unzip my jacket and toss it on the couch as he smiles. “God, our list of problems is beyond long. We need to figure something out—a way to narrow it down.”
“Saving Laylen and Alex come first. They’re more important than anything else.” Aislin watches me expectantly. “And I have to save Aleesa from…” She trails off, her eyes glossing over.
I snap my fingers in front of her face. “Aislin, are you alive in there?”
She blinks into focus. “Yeah, I’m good.”
Nicholas and I exchange a doubting a look.
“Maybe one of the sprites worked their way into her brain,” he muses.
I pull a repulsed face. “Can they do that?”
He shrugs with a twinkle in his eye. “Who knows.”
“Gemma!” Aislin shouts. “We need to save Alex and Laylen! Now!”
“Okay, okay, we will,” I sputter, observing Nicholas from the corner of my eye. “You don’t have to worry. I’ll always save them.”
Nicholas rolls his eyes. “Wow, you must really enjoy being hurt. Maybe I need to retract my earlier remark about your growing intelligence.”
Aislin leans forward in the chair. “Am I missing something?”
I shake my head. “No, everything’s good. We should get started. Do you want to try and do a Tracker Spell on both of them?”
She nods and limps to her feet. Her slippers are missing and her pajama bottoms are torn “Yeah, let me go grab my stuff.”
“Are you hurt?” I ask.
“I just rolled my ankle. That’s all.” She hobbles out of the room, leaving me alone with the faerie.
“Something’s wrong with her,” I note to myself.
“Yeah, she has Avery blood in her.” Nicholas chuckles.
“So what are your plans?” I ask derisively. “Are you sticking around to help? Or do you plan on bailing and telling everyone our secrets?”
He overlaps his hands, his gaze piercing. “You know, you and I have a lot in common.”
I snort a laugh, sinking into the couch. “The only thing we did have in common was our Foreseer power, but mine’s gone now so we don’t even have that.”
His gaze scorches my skin. “Don’t you ever wonder why I get under your skin so badly?”
“Because of your charming personality,” I express sarcastically.
He ignores my comment. “Although, the last few times I’ve seen you it’s been worse. I’m really starting to get to you.”
“That’s because I saved you from death and you still do things like sick invisible snakes on me.”
“That was for Dyvinius. I had no say in it.”
“You have a say in everything you do,” I tell him. “You just have to be strong enough to deal with the consequences.”
“You haven’t lived my life.” His golden eyes blaze. “And until you have, don’t tell me that I have a say in anything in my life.” A hidden meaning intermingles with his words.
“You know, you could always tell me,” I offer. “It might be nice to actually talk to someone for once, instead of trying to trick them.” I wait, but can tell right away it’s never going to happen. “I’m going to go help Aislin.”
I walk out of the room, feeling the strange pull towing me back, almost like when I left The Underworld. What scares me even more, is part of me likes that I feel this way.
***
“I found them,” Aislin announces from the doorway of my bedroom. While she was doing the Tracker Spell, I changed out of my pajamas and into a pair of jeans and blue and black tank top.
“Both of them?” I lace up my sneaker.
She nods and sits down on the bed beside me. “It’s bad, Gemma. Like really, really bad.”
I sigh, preparing myself. “Go ahead and lay it on me.”
“Well, Laylen’s in… The Afterlife.”
“What!” I shout, my breathing erratic. “How did that—why did that happen?”
She shrugs, picking a glob of mascara off her eyelash. “I’m guessing the Banshee wasn’t dead and took him. Or was dead and took him, since they’re already dead and can’t die and can go to The Afterlife if they’re dead.”
I stare blankly at her. “Are you okay? You’re sounding kind of… off.”
“I’m fine.” She laughs. “I’m just a little tired.”
“No, something else is wrong.” I fasten my other shoelace. “Where’s Alex?”
Biting her lip, she sucks back tears. “Alex, well, he’s… he’s with Stasha.”
Pain, pain, go away. “He’s with Stasha?” I pause. “Then why was there all that blood? And pain. I felt his pain, Aislin.”
“I know you did.” She side braids her hair and secures it with an elastic band. “Don’t worry. He can’t be there by choice. Something’s going on with Stasha. She might have him under some sort of spell or something.”
“She’s not a witch,” I utter softly.
“But she could have a witch helping her.”
“Maybe. Or maybe he just wants to be there.”
“Gemma,” Aislin says, tightening the band of her sliver watch. “Alex hates Stasha. And I mean, really hates her. In fact, I think that’s why he dated her for so long. Because he didn’t feel anything for her and he thought that’s how things were supposed to be.”
“So the story goes.” I walk to the closet and take out a hooded jacket. “So what do you think? You wanna go pay a visit to Stasha while I get Laylen out of The Afterlife?”
“You can’t go to The Afterlife.” She flicks a piece of lint from her shorts. “It’d be like handing over your soul to Helena.”
“Not unless I actually hand it over myself. And you can’t get to The Afterlife without dying.” I zip up my jacket, pull up the hood, and retreat for the door. “I’m going to have to find a way in without being detected. It’s the only way.”
She hurries across the room and blocks the doorway. “Yeah, you make an excellent point.” Her eyebrows furrow at her own words. “I think you need to call Alex first.”
“Why? So he’ll answer and it will prove he’s over at Stasha’s on his own freewill.” I shove past her. “You go ahead and bring him back. I’m going after Laylen, who’s actually in trouble.”
But as I reach the threshold, an unknown force draws me back, like a dog on a leash. “Never mind, I’ll go get Alex with you.”
Aislin’s green eyes shadow. “Now there’s a plan I like.”
“Are you possessed?” I corner her, examining her eyes. “Did a Lost Soul take you over? You’re acting strange.”
She shakes her head and her eyes water. “No. I just feel so sick, like my brain’s fuzzy.”
“Does it feel like a sprite’s in there?” I peek at her ear.
She waves me away. “What kind of insane question is that?”
“One that fits your insane behavior.” I watch her closely. “Are you sure you don’t mind Laylen waiting around in The Afterlife for a little bit longer while I go save Alex?”
She bobs her head up and down. “Of course I don’t mind. Laylen can be there as long as he has to. He’ll be fine.”
“Good.” I exhale, feeling bad, but knowing it’s got to be done. “Let me go get Nicholas and then we’ll go.”
She intercepts my path. “Why does he have to go? He’s a weirdo.”
“I need his moral support.” I pat her arm and scoot by, leaving her perplexed. I trot down the stairs and to the library. Nicholas is waiting from me with his shoes kicked up on the table. “There’s a situation going on upstairs.”
“What? You have more faeries frolicking in your bedroom?” He smirks. “You know that portal’s still open.”
I rub my temples. “I forgot about the portal… that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m pretty sure Aislin’s possessed by a Lost Soul.”
He lowers his feet and shakes his head. “That’s not possible. Nothing’s wrong with Aislin’s soul. And Helena and her Lost Souls aren’t free yet, so the chance of her being possessed is low.”
“Alex was possessed,” I point out.
“Yeah, but his soul’s connected to yours. So he’s more susceptible.”
“Well, she’s possessed by something.” I sigh. “Or she’s lost her mind. She wants me to leave Laylen in The Afterlife. In fact, she almost seems happy about it.”
He scratches his head. “So what do you want me to do about it?”
“I don’t know… we can’t just let her wander around though. She’s a very powerful witch. Mix that with evil and we’re in a lot of trouble.”
He stands. “Just because she could be evil, doesn’t mean she’ll hurt us.”
“Well she’s never liked you.” I turn for the door. “So an evil Aislin just might want to hurt you.”
I climb up the stairs. Seconds later, he chases after me.
“Fine, I can drop her off in the Foreseer’s holding cell.” He guides his hand on the banister as he steps up the stairway. “But if she’s not possessed, she’s going to be super pissed when I bring her back.”
“Well, you shouldn’t care about that,” I say. “You don’t care about anything, remember?”
“Who doesn’t care about what?” Aislin appears at the top of the stairs, her hands on her hips, a giant smile on her face. “This is a great day, isn’t it?”
“She isn’t possessed by a Lost Soul.” Nicholas laughs, shaking his head. “But something definitely has hold of her.”
“I know.” I gesture at Aislin. “Be careful with her, okay?”
Nicholas presses back a smirk, stepping toward Aislin. “I’ll be as careful as I always am.”
I jerk on the hem of his shirt and glare at him. “I mean it. Don’t hurt her. She’s my friend.”
His eyes soften. “I won’t.” He smiles at Aislin and touches her hand. “You want to go somewhere really cool?”
“Like an amusement park?” She jumps up and down, her sanity fading.
“Sure.” Nicholas loops his arm with hers and takes the ruby-filled crystal ball out of his pocket. “Now hold on real tight.” Clutching the traveling crystal ball, he blinks them away.
Moving on to my secret plan, I dash up the stairs and recover my cellphone out of my dresser. I highlight Alex’s number and hit dial.
He answers after three rings. Laughing. “What’s up?”
I bite down on my tongue until blood floods my taste buds. “It’s me. Gemma.”
Silence.
“Why are you calling me?” He sounds annoyed.
“Why are you at Stasha’s?” I reply, equally annoyed. He doesn’t answer. “I thought you were dead. I thought Helena had you or maybe a Lost Soul possessed you again. Is that what happened? Are you some freaky Lost Soul with no control over your actions?”
A pause. “Look Gemma, I’m really busy right now, so I’ll call you back later, okay?”
I begin to object, but he hangs up on me. I toss the phone against the wall and it shatters. I scream into a pillow until my throat burns. Then I turn off my emotions, regain my composure, and proceed with my plan. Unlatching the window, I step onto the sill. Morning is arriving and the sky is a shade of pastel watercolors. My knees knock together as I stare horrified at the grass two-stories down. Just how bad of a death is a fall from this height?
“If Alex wants to be with Stasha,” I mutter. “Then let him be with Stasha. Laylen needs my help more than him.” I just hope my mom’s right and I have a free pass to and from The Afterlife. And that I’m still immune to death.
Bailing on Alex is like cutting my arm off—the Blood Promises that bind us are so strong. But forcing my feet forward, I take a breath and willingly leap for my death, hoping I’ll die long enough to make to the Afterlife.