The Underworld

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Underworld

Jessica Sorensen

Al rights reserved.

Copyright © 2011 by Jessica Sorensen.

First Paperback Edition: July 2011

This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of

characters to actual persons, living or dead, is purely

coincidental. The Author holds exclusive rights to this

work. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited.

No part of this book can be reproduced in any form

or by electronic or mechanical means including

information storage and retrieval systems, without the

permission in writing from author. The only exception

is by a reviewer who may quote short excerpts in a

review.

For information:

http://jessicasorensensblog.blogspot.com/

Cover Photo by Shutterstock

Cover Design Jeanie Malone

The Underworld—Book 2 of Fallen Star Series

I wasn’t sure whether I was dead or alive.

Perhaps alive in the sense that I was stil breathing,

but was I even breathing? I wasn’t sure. I wasn’t sure

of anything.

Blackness swal owed me whole, and not the kind of

blackness that comes from being in a dark room. No,

this darkness was heavy and thick, and it wove into

my body making my skin damp, and my limbs heavy.

Where this dark place was, or how long I’d been

here, I didn’t know. I might have been here for years,

month, days, or even just a few seconds. Time felt

nonexistent.

After awhile, I started to convince myself that I must

be dead. That the memoria extracto—or whatever the

heck that memory removing rock Stephan had used

on me was cal ed—had taken my life, instead of

wiping away my mind. But how could I tel for sure if I’d

died, or if I was stil thriving? I mean was there real y a

difference between death and losing every ounce of

who you are?

The only problem with my “I was dead theory” was

that if I was dead, then why could I feel pain blazing in

my leg—the exact leg Stephan had stabbed me in?

Was feeling pain possible after you died? But if I

wasn’t dead, and instead my memory had been

erased, along with my emotions, then why did my

heart ache from Alex’s betrayal?

The ache hurt so bad that I thought my heart was

going to actual y stop beating. How could Alex do this

to me? Yes, I knew what the circumstances were, and

I knew what I was—a girl who had gotten stuck

harboring a world-saving star’s energy inside her. But

this wasn’t just about the energy; it was also about

Stephan, the leader of the Keepers, col aborating with

the Death Walkers and quite possibly with Demetrius,

a man who wants to let a portal open on December

21, 2012. A portal that, if opened, would release

hundreds and hundreds of Death Walkers, causing

the world to end in a sheet of ice. And yet, despite al

of the previously mentioned facts, Alex stil let

Stephan attempt to wipe my memory away. No

questions asked.

Betrayal.

I knew al too wel how much the feeling hurt.

But how could I feel the hurt?

How could I stil feel?

It didn’t matter how many questions I asked myself,

because no answers ever came to me. Al I had to

pass the time was the blackness that suffocated me.

Nothing but me and the darkness.

I was alone.

The pain in my leg shot up a notch, taking a tol on

my ability to stand. So as careful y as I could, I

lowered myself toward the ground, but a sharp pain

fired up in my neck, and I froze. I let out a whimper as

my fingers brushed the back of my neck, reminding

me of when my Foreseer mark had appeared, and

how Alex had kissed me. Then right after the kiss,

he’d betrayed me.

I sighed as I sank down on the ground, wondering if

this was how it was always going to be. If I’d always

be trapped in the dark, alone, just like when I couldn’t

feel. Although I may not have been surrounded by

darkness back then, I was as lonely as I was now. The

only difference now was that I could feel emotion.

Scared, nervousness, pain—these were just a few

things pouring through me at the moment.

And then, suddenly, my head began to hum, and my

skin felt as if it were sparkling. I gasped as I was

yanked backward. Something was dragging me

through the blackness, leading me to…I had no idea. I

kicked and tried to throw my weight forward, but it

was useless. My heart raced as I squeezed my eyes

shut and waited for whatever was coming next. The

disappearance of my mind? My death?

And then I felt it; a faint, electric spark kissing at my

fingertip. But wait. No. There was

no way I could be feeling
that
.

There was no way I’d feel that again.

Was there?

Buzz….buzz….buzz
. My eyes flew open, and I

was instantly blinded by a bright light. Light

everywhere. Radiating throughout the room.

Room…Huh?

My head was buzzing as I shot upright in the bed. A

bed? I was now in a bed, with a blanket draped over

me. Pale purple wal s surrounded me, and there was

a smal window next to the bed where I could see

colorful lights flashing al over and strange shaped

buildings that stretched up toward the sky. Wait…I

know this place…it was….Vegas?

“What the…?” I squinted my eyes toward the

outside window, not believing what I was seeing.

Vegas? How could I be in Vegas? I’d been in

Colorado when I’d…wel , I wasn’t sure what had

happened to me yet. Maybe I was dreaming or

something. Perhaps my mind was creating this room

as a sort of comfort from being trapped in the dark.

I did my classic pinch-myself-to-see-if-I’m-awake

thing and, yep, it hurt.

So I was awake.

The buzzing in my head dropped down a notch,

now only as loud as a faint whisper. Hmmm…so what

was I supposed to do? There was a door on the wal

right in front of the bed. Should I get up and go see

what was out there? If there was one thing I’d learned,

it was that there was no such thing as being too

careful. For al I knew I’d opened the door and a

thousand Death Walkers’ would come swarming in,

their yel ow eyes glowing with the hunger to kil me. Or

even worse than Death Walkers, what if Stephan

came in?

On my “Things That Terrify Me List,” Stephan now

held top rank—one step above the Death Walkers.

Shows you how scary he is.

I decided the best way to approach the situation

was to get up and go over to the door. Perhaps when I

got close enough, I’d be able to hear something that

would give me a clue as to what was out there. And if I

did hear anything that sounded threatening or

dangerous, like say a deep voice belonging to a man

with a very distinctive scar grazing down his left

cheek, then I’d move on to my next plan. And that was

to escape out the window. It was going to be a little

tricky, though, since it looked like I was up on the

second floor of the building. But I could always try the

whole

tying-the-sheets-together-and-making-a-rope

trick.

Sucking in a deep breath, I tossed the blanket off of

me and slid my legs off the edge of the bed. I was no

longer dressed in the clothes I’d been wearing back in

Colorado. I had on a pair of plaid pajama shorts and

a tank top. Both had pink on them so there was no

way they belonged to me. Across the top of my leg—

right in the spot where Stephan had stabbed—a

bandaged was wrapped. Someone had fixed me up.

Who, though?

Good question.

My leg throbbed as I stood up, the grey carpet

feeling warm against my bare feet. I limped over to

the door. So far, I hadn’t heard a single noise.

Wherever I was, was quiet.

Dead quiet.

I stood hesitantly in front of the closed door. Did I

dare open it?

My heart knocked in my chest, and with a trembling

hand, I reached for the doorknob. But before I could

get my hand around it, it started to turn on its own, and

at the very same time electricity whipped through me.

I jumped back, but instantly regretted it because

my legs gave out on me and I toppled to the floor.

I grabbed hold of my injured leg. “Dam—”

The door swung open.

Ignoring the scorching pain in my leg, I scrambled

to my feet and searched frantical y for another way out

of the room, other than trying to jump out the window.

“Gemma,” Alex said, in a guarded tone, as he

walked through the doorway. He inched himself

toward me, taking each step careful y, as though he

thought walking too fast would spook me. But him just

being here was spooking me.

He was wearing a black t-shirt and a pair of jeans,

and his hair was scattered messily in its intentional y-

done-perfect-yet-messy kind of way. He looked like a

normal guy—completely harmless. Yet, I knew he

wasn’t.

“Stay-y away f-from me?” I stammered, my heart

pounding insanely in my chest as I backed away from

him. “Don’t come any closer.”

“I’m not going to hurt you.” His voice was as soft as

a feather. He continued to step toward me, his bright

green eyes locked on me, just like when he watched

Stephan try to take my emotions away. “I promise I

won’t hurt you.”

“You promise!” I cried, anger raging through me like

a boiling kettle of water. “Your promises are worth

nothing.” I mean, he’d promised me how many times

that he wouldn’t let anything happened to me and yet,

in the end, he’d let his father attempt to erase my

mind and take my emotions away.

Alex stopped dead in his tracks, his expression

fil ing with annoyance. “What the heck is that

supposed to mean?”

My back brushed the wal . I was cornered. “It means