The Underworld (18 page)

pieces of bone showing through their skin like a

corpse. The sight almost made me gag.

I blinked my eyes a few times, trying to blink us

away, but it didn’t work. “Nicholas
please
,” I begged.

“Take us back.”

Nicholas tapped his finger on his lip, glancing in the

direction of the Death Walkers. “I don’t think so.

Whatever’s scaring you, I think you should face it. It’l

be good practice for when we go to The Underworld.”

I glared at him, my heart thumping in my chest,

which seemed to match the thumping of the Death

Walkers march. The closer they got, the more the fog

twisted around us, spinning in circles, clouding my

vision in a menacing way. Closer, closer, closer they

marched. I held my breath as they went by me, one by

one, glaciating the air with their chil . My breath rose

out in a puff, as my teeth chattered. I held as stil as a

statue, my muscles tensing up when one of the Death

Walker’s shoulders went through mine.

“Gemma,” Nicholas said, oblivious to what was

going on. “What are you doing?”

“Be quiet.” I breathed through my teeth, and then

tried not to freak out when one of the Death Walker’s

glowing eyes landed right on me.

I held my breath until they al had passed and

disappeared around the corner of the street. I didn’t

relax, though. I wouldn’t relax until we got the heck out

of here.

I let out my breath, about to ask if we could go, but I

stopped when I caught sight of someone else

emerging from the building. Stephan. And beside him

was Demetrius. Without even thinking, I jumped

toward Nicholas, bumping my shoulder into his.

He grabbed his shoulder. “What are you—”

“Shhh,” I hissed.

Standing out in the middle of the icy street, I felt

vulnerable with Stephan and Demetrius walking

toward me. Demetrius’s Death-Walker-like cloak

swished behind him, and Stephan, dressed al in

black, held something shiny and silver in his hand…

The Sword of Immortality.

“I wish you wouldn’t carry that around,” Demetrius

said to Stephan. “It makes me nervous.”

“It makes me nervous when I’m not carrying it

around,” Stephan replied. “It’s the one thing that could

end al of this.” He gestured around at the frozen,

desolate street.

“Yes, but who is left to get a hold of it?” Demetrius

asked with a laugh. “The ice kil ed everyone off who

was stil left around.”

“There are a few Keepers around who might try.”

Stephan held up the sword, twisting it in his hand as

he examined it, the jagged blade hitting the light

sharply. “Do you remember when Octavian made this

after the vision was first seen?”

Demetrius laughed. “He was so convinced that if he

created it, I would never be able to pul of what he’d

saw. Too bad for him, he didn’t see you.”

“Wel , that was the doing of my parents.” Stephan

touched the jagged scar on his left cheek. “Thinking if

they cut off the mark, it would change things—change

who I was. But they couldn’t change the blood that

runs through my veins, could they?”

The scar on Stephan cheek was a mark that had

been cut off by his parents? I cringed at the idea, and

then cringed again at the idea of what kind of mark

would make a parent cut their child’s face just to get

rid of it.

Stephan and Demetrius were close to Nicholas and

me now, their footsteps hitting the ice with a dul thud.

“The Mark of Malefiscus is a gift,” Demetrius told

Stephan. “My parents seemed to understand this.”

“Yes, but your parents weren’t Keepers,” Stephan

replied bitterly. “Mine were. And to have a child who

bore the Mark of Malefiscus was a disgrace in their

eyes.”

“Malefiscus’s mark is not a disgrace.” Demetrius

said to Stephan as they walked by us, and I had to

turn so that I could keep my eyes on them. “It’s a gift.

We have been chosen since birth—since before birth

to free him and everyone else who was bound by his

sentencing.”

“And now we have,” Stephan said thoughtful y as he

lightly traced his finger down his scar.

“Yes, and now we have,” Demetrius agreed.

“Gemma,” Nicholas said so abruptly that he scared

the crap out of me and I screamed.

I flung my hand over my mouth, breathing heavily.

And that’s when it happened. Stephan stopped, his

head tilting to the side as he glance over his shoulder.

“Nicholas,” I whispered. “You need to get us out of

here. Right now.”

Nicholas gave me a look, and I could tel

immediately that it was going to be a pain in the butt

to get him to cooperate. “I don’t know about that,” he

said “I think before I do, you should explain to me

what’s got you freaked out.”

I looked at Stephan who seemed to be looking right

at me. Fear pulsated through my body. “I wil , okay,

just as soon as we get back.”

Nicholas dithered, and I wanted to smack him right

across his pretty-boy faerie face. “I don’t know. I kind

of like being out here alone with you.”

“Nicholas,” I shouted. “Get us out of here. Now!”

Glancing over at Stephan, I saw he was walking

toward us, swiftly moving across the ice.

“What are you doing?” Demetrius cal ed out.

Stephan didn’t reply, stil heading at us, as if he knew

we were there. But how could he? It wasn’t how

visions worked.

I grabbed Nicholas by the arm, my eyes pleading.

“There is someone in this vision that I’m pretty sure

can either see or sense that we’re here. And if he can,

then it’s very, very bad.”

I thought he’d argue with me and say that no one in

visions could see the vision seer, but instead, to my

surprise, he grabbed my hand, looking rather anxious.

“Okay, let’s go.”

I casted one last glance at Stephan, who was now

charging at us ful speed with the Sword of Immortality

clutched in his hand. He was so close that I could see

the darkness in his eyes and the roughness of his

scar.

“Nicholas…” I said as Stephan reached out for me.

I opened my mouth to scream and then everything

went black.

“Holy…crap!” I was standing back in Adessa’s

living room, but the fear of what had just happened stil

lingered in my body, and had me gasping for air.

“Who was it?” Nicholas asked quickly and with very

little patience. “Who was in the vision?”He stil had

hold of my hand and I tried to pul it out of his grip, but

he tightened, refusing to let go. “Gemma.” His tone

was a warning as he put a hand on each of my

shoulders and looked me directly in the eyes. “Tel me

who it was that could sense our presence. It’s

important.”

“Why?” I asked. “Why would anyone be able to

sense we were there?”

“Because…” He paused, eyeing me over.

“Because it means the vision has already been seen

or told to the person who is in the vision.”

For some reason this did not surprise me. I knew

Stephan had been told visions of the future and the

world at its end. It was what had started the whole star

thing. A simple vision of the end of the world and how

one star’s energy could save it. Although, that

particular story was probably not accurate, but at one

point I thought it was.

“So…How does that make it so they can sense

me?”

“Because they’ve been told by another Foreseer

that a Foreseer wil be present at that moment. It

wasn’t like he could see you or anything, just that he

could sense you were there.”

“So is it bad?” I asked, my shoulders sliding out

from under his hands as I took a step back. “That he

knew I was there.”

Nicholas shook his head in puzzlement. “What is it

with you…There must be something extraordinary

about you.” He shook his head again, watching me

with intense eyes. “First you can go into visions

without a crystal bal and now you’re going into other

peoples visions…It’s amazing.”

I tried to play cool. “It’s not that amazing.”

“Yes, it is.”

I searched my mind for a way to move off this

subject since my being “extraordinary” or whatever

had to do with the star, which I was supposed to be

keeping a secret from Nicholas.

“I’ve got to go ask Laylen something,” I announced

and started for the doorway.

He caught me by the arm and the smel of lilacs and

rain blasted my nostrils “You didn’t tel me who it

was?”

“Who what was?” I played dumb.

“The person who could sense you in the vision?”

“I…um, don’t know who he was. He was just some

guy” Man, sometimes I could be a real mastermind at

lying.

Not.

Nicholas gave me a doubting look. “You don’t know

who he was?”

I shook my head, and then tugged my arm away

from him. “I have to talk to Laylen,” I said, then bolted

out of the room.

Nicholas didn’t fol ow me, which I thought was

kind of weird. I mean, I had left suspiciously, but for

some reason he stayed in the living room. This was a

good thing, though, because I needed to talk to Laylen

about what had happened. And not just about

Stephan sensing me. No, I was more interested in the

mark Demetrius and Stephan were talking about. And

the name…Malefiscus…I think that’s what they had

said.

I found Laylen alone in his bedroom, lying on the

bed, reading a book. He had his head down; his eyes

glued to the pages.

“Hey,” I said, sounding breathless because I had

run al the way up the stairs.

He looked up from his book. “Hey, what’s….” His

bright blue eyes went huge when he caught sight of

me. “What happened? You look upset.”

I nodded. “Something bad happened when we went

into a vision. And Nicholas is getting suspicious that

there might be something wrong with me?”

“You think he knows about the star’s power?”

Laylen said, setting his book down, and then climbing

off of the bed.

I shook my head. “I don’t think he knows what

exactly it is, just that there’s something…different

about me.” I almost choked on the word “different.”

“Okay, wel , as long as he doesn’t know exactly

what it is, then I think we’re okay.” Laylen paused.

“Although, I’m not real y sure it’s so great that he

knows about your special Foreseer thing.”

I nodded in agreement, but then shook my head,

remembering I had bigger problems to discuss then

Nicholas. “There’s something else I need to tel you

about. It’s what I just saw in the vision.”

Laylen walked over and stood in front of me. “Which

is what?”

I shivered as I remembered the sight of what the

Death Walkers cold had done to a once bright and

sunshine-fil ed city. “The end of the world.”

It got so quiet, I swear, I could hear our hearts

beating. Or at least mine, anyway. I wasn’t sure if

Laylen had a beating heart or not.

“The end of the world,” Laylen said, aghast.

“Covered in ice,” I added with another shiver.

His blue eyes went wider than they already were.

“Then the portal opens up.”

I nervously glanced out into the hal , and then shut

the door. “At least from what I saw, it does”

Laylen went over and sank down on the bed. “So

that’s it then. The portal opens and the world ends.”

I sat down on the bed beside him. “I guess…unless

we change it…somehow.”

“How, though?” Laylen’s eyes were stil wide,

staring off into nothingness. “How are we supposed to

stop something that’s already been seen? It’s not

supposed to work that way.”

“It’s not?” I questioned. “Because I’ve been told for

the last few days that my whole life has been centered

on trying to do just that.”

“Yeah, but are we even sure about that anymore. I

mean, no one knows for sure why Stephan real y

wants the stars power? Or maybe,” Laylen turned to

me, “he doesn’t want it at al . Maybe he’s trying to get

rid of it.”

I tapped my fingers on my knee, thinking. “If he

didn’t want it, though, wouldn’t he of just kil ed me or

something to get rid of it, instead of sending me away

to live with Marco and Sophia? Why keep me alive?

And put al that effort into keeping me unemotional?

What’d be the point?”