The Underworld (17 page)

go, so we’re not weak from our hunger.”

I felt like banging my head on the wal . “Tel me what

you want to eat, and I’l go get it.”

“What I want…hmmm.” His golden eyes twinkled.

“What I want is to go out with you and eat

somewhere.”

“I can’t go anywhere,” I said.

He gave me a curious look. “Why not?”

Wel , for starters because I couldn’t leave the

house. And not just because I knew Alex would freak

out if I did. No. There were way more risks I would be

taking if I went out into public then just pissing off

Alex. For one thing, after what happened with the

vampires last night, I had a feeling that if I ran into any

of them, and they recognize me—which let’s face it

they would (hel o, my eyes are violet)—then I’d be in

some serious trouble. I also had to worry about

running into a Death Walker or Stephan. And those

were not risks I was wil ing to take just so I could leave

the house to get something to east with faerie boy.

“Because I just can’t, okay?” I got to my feet,

dusting off the back of my legs. “If you’re real y hungry,

I can go into the kitchen and get you something.”

“What I want is to go out with you.” His tone was

light, but his eyes were determined.

“Look,” I said, losing patience. “I real y want to get

this done because the longer it takes you to train me,

the longer my mom’s stuck in that godforsaken place.”

For a brief second, and I mean a very brief second,

I thought I saw the mischievous sparkle leave his

eyes, like he actual y understood my pain. But it

happened so swiftly, I wasn’t even sure it happened.

“Fine.” He leaned back on his elbows, looking at

me mischievously again. “We can eat here. Besides

its better that we eat here anyway. That way we get

more alone time. Just you and me and this quiet,

empty room.”

I shook my head and, without saying another word, I

left the room to go get him something to eat.

In the kitchen, I found Laylen standing at the

counter, chopping onions on a chopping board. When

he caught sight of me, he stopped, mid chop. “Wow.

You look real y annoyed.”

I went over beside him and dropped my head on

the counter. “Nicholas is driving me crazy. He just

keeps asking questions, and then when we final y get

to the part where we should start practicing, he says

he’s hungry, and we should go out and get something

to eat.”

Laylen gave a soft laugh and started chopping

onions again. “Yeah, that sounds like Nicholas. He’s

always been a little…”

I lifted my head up. “Annoying?”

Laylen laughed again. “I was going to say difficult,

but yeah, annoying works. When he was younger, he

went through this faze where he would answer every

question with a question.”

“That sounds fun,” I said sarcastical y.

Laylen shrugged, cutting the onion again. “He can’t

real y help it—it’s a faerie thing. They have this way

about them, where they can trick you into doing things

—or saying things that you shouldn’t. That’s why you

should be very careful around him.”

“Yeah, Alex warned me about that.” I fanned the

front of my nose as Laylen dumped the chopped

pieces of onions into a skil et, and the smel over took

me. “And he told me not to take my necklace off.”

Laylen scooted the onions around in the pan with a

spatula. “This is probably the only time where I’m

going to have to agree with Alex. You should be

careful around him.” He lowered his voice. “You can’t

let Nicholas know about the star.”

I nodded. “I won’t.”

The pan sizzled and it reminded me I was

supposed to be getting Nicholas something to eat.

“So…what do faeries eat?”

Laylen busted up laughing.

I gave him a mystified look. “What’s so funny?”

It took him a second to gather himself. “Sorry. But

it’s just so funny.” He laughed again. “What do faeries

eat?”

“Hey, I don’t know much about this stuff,” I said, half

joking and half defensive. “I mean for al I know they

could eat leaves or something.”

He cocked an eyebrow at me. “Leaves?”

I shrugged. “They live in forests, don’t they?” At

least in most of the faerie theme books I had read

they did.

Stil laughing, he wiped a few stray tears from his

eyes. “Leaves.”

“Oh, shut up.” I gave him a playful shove. He

continued to laugh, so I changed the subject. “How did

Aislin take it when you told her about Alex having to

go to the City of Crystal?”

That stopped his laughing. “I haven’t told her yet.” I

opened my mouth to say that he probably should—

that it would be worse the longer he kept it from her,

but before I could say anything, he said. “I’l tel her. I

promise, just as soon as she’s done helping Adessa

with her store. I think it’l be better if I tel her when no

one else is around.”

“Okay, wel , I guess I’l get back to my
training
.” I

turned to leave.

“Don’t forget your leaves,” Laylen cal ed out with a

chuckle.

I ended up making Nicholas and myself a

sandwich. We didn’t real y speak to each other while

we sat on the floor and ate, and I had a feeling

something was bothering him, but didn’t feel

comfortable enough to ask him. Besides even if I did,

he probably wouldn’t tel me. At least tel me the truth,

anyway.

When we were finished eating and had slid our

plates out of the way, Nicholas put the crystal bal

back between us.

“So, the first thing that’s going to happen is I’m

going to go into a vision with you,” Nicholas

explained, spinning the crystal bal like a top. I

wondered how he could touch it and not be pul ed in.

“What we want is for you to eventual y be able to go

into a control ed vision by yourself, graceful y and

without any bumps.”

What did he mean by graceful y—without any trips

or injuries? “Okay, so how do we get me to be able to

do that?”

“With practice.” he shrugged. “Seeing visions is like

riding a bike. The more you practice the better you

get.”

But I didn’t know how to ride a bike. At least I don’t

think I did. No resurfacing memories had contained

me riding a bike. “Okay, wel how much practice is it

going to take for me to be able to be graceful and

bump free?”

His mouth curved up into a smile. “Wel if I had my

way, it would take a very, very long time. But in al

actuality, with you being as powerful as you are, it

shouldn’t take that long.”

Thank God. “So where do we begin?”

He held out his hand. “First, give me your hand so

we can go in together.” With reluctance, I took his

hand, his skin clammy and cold against mine. “Now

we need a simple vision to go into. I think it would

probably be best if you just thought of a memory.

Maybe something from your childhood.”

That was not simple by any means. “Does it have to

be from my childhood?”

He shook his head. “As long as it’s simple, it

doesn’t real y matter.”

“Okay….” I searched for something simple to

picture, but al I could see was the madness that fil ed

up my life throughout the years.

“Gemma, place your hand on the crystal bal ,”

Nicholas instructed.

My heart raced as I tried to think of a memory—any

memory—that was simple.

“Gemma,” Nicholas repeated. “
Put your hand on

the crystal
.”

I was stil searching as I reached out and placed my

hand on top of the crystal bal . A brief glimpse of me

and my mother sitting in a field flashed through my

mind, and I thought I had it.

Then I was yanked in, fal ing down the tunnel,

toward the light, Nicholas stil holding my hand. When I

reached the bottom—and very ungraceful y I might

add—I realized I hadn’t had the memory like I’d

thought. In fact, if there was a complete opposite of

where I was supposed to be taking us, this would be

it.

The vision I was standing in was not of my past, but

of the future. And not my future, but the worlds future.

How did I know this? Because I was standing on the

main street of Vegas, beside the massive pirate ship

I remembered seeing during my first drive into the

busy city. But the busy city was no longer a busy city. It

was dead quiet. Not a single soul was in sight. Even

more disturbing was the layer of ice that covered

everything. Just as if a mil ion Death Walkers had

marched through here and breathed their Chil of

Death on everything in sight.

Just like they would if the portal opened up.

I stood there silent in the empty streets that had

once been packed with buzzing cars and people. The

air was as cold as death, my breath puffed out in a

cloud. I was shivering and shaking, but I wasn’t sure if

that was from the cold or from my nerves. My stomach

felt like it had been punched; the wind knocked out of

me. Shock was seeping in, and I’m pretty sure I would

have stood there in silence forever if Nicholas hadn’t

brought me back to reality.

“Gemma.” His voice was soft—cautious—as if he

could sense something was up.

I glanced down at his hand stil holding mine, and

then I looked up at him. “What?”

“Are you okay?” he asked. “You’ve been standing

there staring at whatever it is you’re seeing for over

five minutes now.”

I swal owed hard. “I…um…” I didn’t know what to

say to him.

“What is it?” Nicholas glanced around, even though

he couldn’t see anything. It is a rule of seeing visions:

only the seer can see the vision. To Nicholas

everything looked blank and empty.

Lucky him.

I wanted to erase what I was looking at from my

mind. Wipe it away forever.

Even though it was day, the sky was gray, and

blanketed by a frosty sheet of ice. A gust of wind

swept up, chil ing the back of my legs. I turned

around, staring at the frozen, vacant streets. There

were no cars. No people. No nothing. It was as if

everyone had known what was coming and had tried

to take cover somewhere.

“Gemma?” Nicholas said. I’d almost forgotten he

was there. “What’s going on?”

I shook my head, trying to pul myself together.

Nicholas could not know what I was seeing, that was

for sure. “It’s nothing.”

He raised his eyebrows at me. “If it’s nothing, then

why do you look like you just saw someone die?”

I swal owed the lump in my throat, taking my hand

out of his. “No. It’s nothing like that. It’s just that…,”

Think, Gemma, think,
“It’s just that there’s nothing

here. We’re just in the middle of the desert, so I don’t

get it.”

“Wel , I told you to think of something simple, didn’t

I? So I guess it worked”

I gave a shrug. “I guess, but I thought—”

A loud shriek shattered the air and cut me off. The

sound echoed through the empty streets, vibrating the

ice like an earthquake. Every limb in my body seized

up as I became aware of what that shriek belonged

to. And as the fog crept out from a nearby building,

swirling its way toward me, I started to panic, even

though I knew I couldn’t be seen by them.

“I-I think we should go,” I stuttered.

Nicholas frowned at me. “Gemma, where did you

take us?”

“I-I already told you,” I stammered, my eyes locked

on the fog crawling toward my feet, “we’re in the

middle of the desert.”

“No, we’re not,” he said, fol owing my gaze. “What

do you see?”

“Nothing.” I said as a cluster of Death Walkers

emerged from the glass doors of a nearby building.

Stay calm. Stay calm.
“Can we just go back to the

house?
Please
.”

Nicholas watched me, the weight of his sandy eyes

nearly burning into my skin. “You know whatever’s out

there can’t harm you, right?”

I looked at the Death Walkers, the glow of their

yel ow eyes reflecting across the ice like fireflies, their

black cloaks trailing along behind them with a

swoosh
. “Yeah…I know, but I…”

“You what?”

The Death Walkers were so close now that I could

make out their faces—the rotting flesh, the bits of and