Authors: Jessica Sorensen
was the reason why Foreseers used the ruby-fil ed
crystal bal to get in and out of the city, because it took
them there in the present time.
Although I was a bit skeptical that I could actual y
pul it off, it was al I had at the moment. So I started
practicing day and night. At first, I couldn’t even figure
out how to jumpstart whatever was sending me into
visions. But then I caught on that it was connected to
my emotions. Take for instances, when I was bitten by
Vladislav. There had been a ton of emotion running
through me then, which was why I think I ended up
slipping into a vision. And when I’d drifted away while
sitting on the couch with Laylen, I had been retrieving
some of my lost memories, which, like Alex had
pointed out once, were very deeply connected to my
emotions.
So, after a lot of practice, I figured out that nine out
of ten times experiencing an intense emotion equaled
vision access. Of course, this put a lot of pressure on
my newfound ability to experience emotion. And
experiencing one on demand didn’t always work out
the way that I wanted.
It was with Laylen’s help that I final y started to get
the hang of things.
It was my fifth practice day, and Laylen and I were in
the room he was staying in. I was sitting on the bed
with my legs crossed, facing him as he sat in a chair
he’d dragged over beside the bed.
“So what do you want to feel today?” he asked me.
“Happy, sad, scared, worried.”
“Not worried,” I said quickly. “That one is not fun at
al , and when we used that feeling last time, I ended
up getting stuck in the vision for awhile, like the feeling
wasn’t strong enough to last or something.”
“True,” Laylen agreed. “Besides, the scared one, I
think, was my favorite.”
I shook my head. “No it wasn’t—you almost gave
me a heart attack."
He smiled, this beautiful, pleased smile. “Yeah, but
it was fun.”
I shook my head, thinking how in no way, shape, or
form was Laylen jumping out from behind a closed
door to scare me fun. “Wel , let’s not do that one,
okay. Let’s do something else—something easier on
my heart.”
He gave me an intrigued look. “How about we try
happy? We haven’t done that one yet.”
My mouth instantly fel to a frown. “We haven’t done
that one yet, because I’m not sure I know how to feel
happy yet. Wel , I mean sometimes when I look at the
stars I think I might feel happy…but I don’t know. I think
it might be a different kind of happiness then what
you’re talking about. Maybe not, though…I don’t
know…”
He didn’t look at me with sympathy like I’d expected
him to do, but more with determination. “Wel , then I
think it’s about time you knew for sure if you have.”
Oh, Laylen. Sometimes he made my heart ache—
in a good way. “I wish it was that easy, but…I mean,
how—how do we do it—make me happy.”
“You can’t force happiness, it just comes.” He
leaned back in his chair, his face twisted in deep
thought. “I think you and I both could use a little bit of
fun…a little bit of relaxation.”
I stared at him like he was insane. “How are we
supposed to relax, when we’ve got so many non-
relaxing things to deal with?”
“We take a break,” he said as if it were that
uncomplicated.
“You say it as if it’s that simple, but it’s not. I mean,
we can’t go anywhere, since we have Stephan, the
Death Walkers, Demetrius, and a lot of vampires after
us,” I told him, counting out the list on my fingers.
“Besides, do you know how to have fun, because I
don’t?”
He got a look on his face that could only be
described as a look someone got when they were
about to do something they weren’t supposed to. “I
think I have an idea.”
“
This
is what you think wil make me have fun and
be happy,” I asked Laylen, staring up at the enormous
rol ercoaster, the tracks twisting and turning and
flipping in loops, like a giant death trap. And the busy
sidewalk we were standing on made me even more
uneasy. Al it would take was for one wrong person to
walk by us and we’d be screwed. But Laylen had
sworn that we would be fine, because almost
everything that was after at us, more than likely
wouldn’t come out during the daytime; and that the
bundles and bundles of people roaming around would
keep us inconspicuous.
However, I wasn’t as optimistic. Being around
people had never real y been my thing. And when I
had a crazy man with a scar, and his yel ow-eyed,
Chil of Death assailants after me, being around a
huge group of people was definitely not my thing.
“This is what you think wil make me feel happy?” I
asked again just to make sure I understood him right.
“A rol ercoaster?”
Laylen nodded, looking absolutely sure.
So we headed up.
I couldn’t believe I was doing this. Riding a
rol ercoaster—never in a mil ion years would I have
ever thought I would be doing such a thing; and doing
such a thing when we were being hunted.
But Laylen was persistent, guiding me along as we
weaved up the aisle, until we reached the ticket area,
where he purchased two tickets, and then the cashier
sent us on our way to the loading area.
It was there that I realized that my jittery nerves
weren’t just because I was worried we might run into
someone. I was also jittery about the idea of getting
on a rol ercoaster. So by the time I slid onto the
leather seat in the far back cart, I was trembling.
“You’l be fine,” Laylen assured me, pul ing down the
bars that would—hopeful y—hold him in the cart when
it whipped upside down.
I pul ed down my bars and secured them tightly
against my shoulders. I heard someone from the front
let out a scream as the cart started to creak forward. I
held as stil as a statue, my hands gripping the bars
tightly. The wheels clanked as the cart rose up the
tracks; the brightness of the sun glared in my eyes.
There was a pause, where the cart just hovered at the
top, and for a split second I thought we were stuck, but
then it lurched forward and dropped. Then we were
flying, wind blowing through my hair as the car went up
and down, flipping loops and taking sharp turns. In the
beginning I was terrified, but by the end I was
laughing. And I mean real y laughing. I wanted to hold
onto this moment with every ounce of strength I had in
me and never let it go.
By the time we stepped off of the cart and back
onto the ground, I had tears rol ing down my cheeks.
“Was I right or what?” Laylen asked, grinning from
ear to ear.
I nodded, wiping my tears from my cheeks. It was
the first time I’d ever had to wipe tears of happiness
away. Who would have thought riding a rol ercoaster
would have brought them out.
“So you’re happy?” Laylen asked, looking at me
with hopeful eyes.
“Yeah…I think I am.” I felt the back of my neck
where the prickle was poking and then I felt myself
starting to fal . “I think I…I …” I was slipping away and
before I crashed onto the floor, I grabbed a hold of
Laylen’s arm. But instead of catching me, I ended up
yanking him down with me.
Yanking us down, down, down as the City of Crystal
flashed through my mind.
My face smacked hard against the floor. And I
mean hard.
I pushed myself up to my feet, rubbing my sure-to-
have-a-goose-bump forehead. My jaw just about hit
the floor when I noticed that my feet were planted
firmly on top of a translucent crystal floor, a midnight
river flowing beneath it, bits and pieces of gold
twinkling in the water like stars. Dark red crystals hung
from the glittery charcoal ceiling above, and to the
side of me, rubies waved across the snow-white
crystal wal s.
The City of Crystal.
I can’t believe I’d pul ed it off. I felt like such a bad
ass.
I glanced to the side of me, praying that Laylen
would be standing there, but he wasn’t.
“Laylen,” I cal ed out quietly, my eyes searching the
cave. The sound of a light breeze was the only thing
that answered me back. “Laylen?” I started to walk
toward a bridge that was paved with broken pieces of
porcelain. “Are you here?
A soft bang came from behind me, and I spun
around, afraid of what I would find, but my racing heart
instantly settled when I saw Laylen.
I let out a breath of relief. “For a second, I thought I
didn’t bring you with me.”
“For a second, I thought I died.” He glanced around
at the cave made of glass and crystal. “This place
is…interesting.”
“Yeah, it is” I agreed. “Wait…You haven’t been here
before?”
He shook his head, his fingers tracing the rubies
curving along the crystal wal . “Not too many people
have.”
People? Neither of us were real y considered
people, were we? In fact, everyone I knew had a
mark of some sort. “So, which way do you think wil
take us to Alex?” I asked him.
“Your guess is as good as mine.” Laylen dropped
his hand from the wal and turned to me. “You’ve been
here before, though, so your guess is probably
better.”
“Wel , you know what Alex is doing down here,” I
pointed out. “So if you’d tel me…”
He considered this, and then said, “He’s doing
something with this big crystal bal that channels
energy to al the Foreseer’s crystal bal s…But
Gemma, I’m warning you that if we do find him, it’s not
going to be pretty.”
“How so?” I asked. “I mean, what’s he doing with
this big crystal that’s so bad?”
Laylen swept his bangs away from his face, looking
uncomfortable “Wel …that big crystal col ects its
energy from…people. And the way the energy is
col ected…it’s pretty bad from what I’ve been told.”
I nodded, trying to ignore the sickening feeling
building in my stomach. “Okay, I remember Nicholas
mentioning a big crystal bal . I think he said it was in
the heart of the City of Crystal, whatever that means.”
Laylen glanced from left to right. “So which way?”
Wow. It felt so weird to be the one in charge, but I
guess I’d give the position my best try.
“Wel …” I looked to my right, at the bridge paved of
porcelain, which I knew led to the Palace. Then I
looked to my left, where al I could see was the crystal
floor stretching down the cave. Having to pick
between the two choices, I decided that it would be
best to head away from the Palace because I figured
we’d more likely get caught by someone if we went
that way. “I say we go left.”
“Left it is,” Laylen said and we started off to our left.
“So, do you think Nicholas was up to something, or
do you think he was just hanging around?” I asked,
keeping my voice low.
“He could have been just hanging around,” Laylen
said. “He seems to have a deep fascination with you.”
“I don’t know why, though.” I shook my head. “No
one’s ever wanted to hang around me before.”
Laylen gave me a strange look. “Why do you think
that?”
I shrugged. “Because I never had any friends in
school, wel until Alex came along, but that was just
him trying to figure out why I started to feel again. He
wasn’t hanging around me because he wanted to.”
“Gemma.” Laylen’s voice was deep—pressing.
“The only reason you never had any friends was
because of how you
were
. But that’s not how you real y
are, and you need to realize that. And trust me, Alex
enjoys being around you more than he lets on.”
“If that’s true,” I said, dragging my fingers along the
wal as we walked, “then it’s because of the
electricity.”
“Trust me, it’s more than that.” He pondered
something for a good-long while before continuing.
“Alex puts on this huge front when it comes to how he
feels about things, but if you’ve known him for as long
as I have, then you’d know it’s mostly an act.”
I was just about to open my mouth and tel him that I
stil didn’t believe that Alex liked being around me, but
the sound of approaching footsteps made me stop.
Laylen and I froze, and we both shot a quick glance