The Underworld (24 page)

and white checkerboard floor.

“Gemma,” Laylen voice was ful of fear. “Please

hurry.”

I opened my eyes and saw that the Death Walkers

were close. The air was slowly descending to a frosty

chil , dotting my skin with goose bumps. I squeezed

my eyes shut.
Concentrate
.

But nothing happened.

Focus
.

Stil nothing.

Fog laced the air as the temperature continued to

plunge. I was in ful panic mode, trying to force us to

leave this awful place. But I just couldn’t do it.

“Gemma.” Alex’s soft voice made me open my

eyes.

His eyes were locked on mine; some of the

brightness had returned to them. “Don’t focus on

them. In fact, pretend they’re not even there.”

I gave him an are-you-crazy look. Pretend that three

ice-death machines weren’t running straight at us.

Alex slid his arm off Laylen and placed a hand on

each side of my face, so I couldn’t turn my head.

“Pretend they’re not there.”

As I stared into his eyes; my heart rate began to

slow, and my nervousness and fear floated away. I felt

a delicate spark, and then I felt myself being yanked.

I thought I’d done it. I thought I’d managed to get us

out of there unharmed, but a set of sub-zero fingers

seized hold of my arm, thrusting a crackle of cold

through my body. I screamed, suspended somewhere

between being in the City of Crystal and traveling

back to Adessa’s. My limbs acted as a tug-a-war

rope, the Death Walker pul ing me one way, and my

Foreseer ability trying to pul me the other. I wasn’t

even sure if I was stil holding onto Laylen and Alex—

my body was too numb from the cold to feel anything.

I let out another scream as the Death Walker jerked

me toward it, and I could see its glowing-yel ow eyes

only inches away from me.

“No!” I yel ed. “No!” It was not going to end up this

way. I would get us out of here. I forced myself to

breath...relax…focus. I tried to ignore the monster that

had a hold of me and mental y pictured Adessa’s

living room. There was a loud
snap
, and then a burst

of images flipped through my mind…the Wyoming

mountains…Adessa’s…desert…snow…lake.

And then…nothing.

The next thing I knew I was laying face first on the

ground, my body sore from head-to-toe. I wondered if

that
snap
I’d heard was my bones breaking from the

Death Walker’s death-grip pul . But as I pushed

myself up, al my limbs seemed to be intact. The only

thing wrong with me was that my arm was tinged a

purplish-blue from where the Death Walker had

grabbed me.

I knew right away I wasn’t in the City of Crystal. It

was too warm for Death Walkers to be nearby. So

that was good, I guess. But I couldn’t see my

surroundings. Everything was al hazy, just like back

when I first started going into visions and the peoples’

faces would be blurred over. But this wasn’t faces; it

was everything. I had no clue where I was.

Somewhere bright…and by the greenish shade the

haze held, I wondered if I could be outside. I could

also make out the faintest orange glow up above me

that had to belong to the sun.

But why couldn’t I see anything? And where were

Alex and Laylen?

I shook my head and blinked my eyes, as if that

might help. But it didn’t.

“Hel o,” I shouted, starting to move through the

haziness, feeling a little bit dizzy and queasy. “Alex!

Laylen!”

Nothing.

“Dammit,” I cursed. What was happening to me?

First I’d gotten stuck in a vision, and now I was, what?

Stuck in between one?

I kept walking, trying to stay calm, but it was hard to

do because I couldn’t tel where I was. In fact,

everything was so out of whack, including my senses,

that for al I knew I could have been flying.

I cal ed out a few more times, but each time I got no

response.

“Okay,” I told myself, “calm down and focus.” I took

a deep breath and tried to focus on my surroundings. I

let me eyes relax and tried not to think of anything

else. Gradual y, bit by bit, things started to shift into

focus…the trees around me…the sky above me…the

lake below me.

The lake!

A spilt second later I was submerged in the cold

water. I kicked and paddled, trying to tear my way

back to the surface, but not knowing how to swim was

making it difficult. Water was seeping into my mouth.

My oxygen was diminishing.

I was going to drown.

And then something remarkable occurred. I felt

someone fold their arms around me and before I

knew it I was breaking through the surface of the

water. The sunlight, trees, and sky had never looked

so lovely in my entire life. Along with Laylen’s bright

blue eyes, which were watching me, as he kept us

both afloat.

“One of these days,” he said breathlessly. “I’m

going to have to teach you how to swim.”

I didn’t say anything because I was too busy

hacking my guts out.

Laylen swam us to shore, and we both col apsed

onto the muddy grass, where we laid on our backs

and stared up at the bright blue sky, the sunlight

stinging at my eyes. After I finished catching my

breath, I rol ed over and looked at the Keepers grey

stone castle soaring off in the distance. My gaze

wandered over to Laylen, lying there on the ground,

his damp hair glistening in the sunlight, beads of

water glittering on his pale skin. If it wouldn’t have

been for him, I might be dead right now—he’d saved

me from drowning.

“Where’s Alex?” I asked him. “Did he make it here

with us?”

“Yeah, he made it.” Laylen squinted against the

sunlight with his arm flopped across his forehead. “I

left him back there,” he pointed behind us, “when I

saw you drowning in the lake. He’s stil a little weak.”

He gave a short pause. “Gemma, what happened

back there? Why did we end up here…were you

thinking about taking us to The Underworld?”

“No,” I said, a little offended he’d think that. “I was

trying to take us back to Adessa’s, but the Death

Walker grabbed hold of my arm,” I raised my arm up

to show him the faint bluish-purple fingerprints that stil

marked my skin. “I kept trying to get us away, but then

there was this
snap
…and I don’t know, a bunch of

different images started flashing through my mind.

Then the next thing I knew I was here, but everything

was al blurry, and I couldn’t see I was on the lake until

it was too late.”

“You were lucky no one had just recently dumped

any summoning ash in there,” Laylen said, glancing at

the lake.

“Summoning ash?” I asked. “What is that?”

“In order for the Water Faeries to come up to the

surface, summoning ash has to be put into the water

first,” he explained.

I nodded as I remembered how I’d seen Stephan

dumping some black ash into the lake before my

mom was dragged away to The Underworld.

“Wait a minute,” I said. “How can you see any of

this? I thought only the vision seer was supposed to

be able to see the surroundings?”

“I have no idea,” Laylen said. “Al I can think of is

that maybe we’re not in a vision, like when we

traveled into the City of Crystal only we just traveled to

somewhere else.”

Strange
. “So why do you think I screwed up getting

us back to Adessa’s?” I asked, picking at the grass.

“Do you think it was because of the Death Walker?”

Before he could answer a shadow cast over us.

Alex stood unsteadily in front of us. “That and

probably because you’ve been using your Foreseer

power too much.”

I squinted up at him, standing there, the sunlight

gleaming behind him. There were shadows under his

eyes, and he stil didn’t have a shirt on. Rounding his

left rib cage was a circle traced by a set of fiery-gold

flames—the Keepers mark.

So that’s where it was.

“I haven’t been using it that much,” I lied, trying hard

not to stare at his shirtless chest. “I think it might have

had something to do with the Death Walker getting a

hold of me…which why were they even there? And

with Nicholas?”

Alex shook his head and sank down on the muddy

grass. “Your guess is as good as mine. I honestly

have no clue what the heck is going on,” he gestured

around us, “with any of this.”

“Wel , it might have something do to with the fact

that Nicholas was tricking us when he said he could

get me into The Underworld.” I sat up and shielded my

eyes from the sun with my hand. “He never even

intended to help me get to The Underworld. In fact,

according to him, he can’t even go there.”

Alex cocked an eyebrow at me. “What do you

mean?”

I sighed and began explaining what had been going

on for the last week while he was trapped in the City

of Crystal, strapped to that awful crystal bal .

One good thing about Alex is that he’s a

somewhat calm person…wel , at least when it comes

to stressful situations. With me…hmm…not so much.

Things that would freak out a normal person barely

upset him. And as I told him about the visions I’d been

going into, he stayed fairly calm. The only thing that

got a rise out of him was when I told him about his

father and the mark—the Mark of Malefiscus.

However, it wasn’t the rise I was expecting. I assumed

he’d get pissed off and insist that there was no way

that his father could have such a mark, but he didn’t.

Instead, he stared out at the water, looking lost. He

was quiet for so long that I began to worry he was

going into a catatonic state.

I gave Laylen a what-should-I-do look.

He shrugged, like he had no idea.

“Alex,” I said, keeping my voice low. “Are you

okay?”

He didn’t answer.

I tried again. “Alex?”

“So this blue sparkling thing you said I was giving to

the Queen,” he said suddenly. “Do you know what

shape it was?”

“Al I could see was that it sparkled,” I told him.

“Then Nicholas pul ed me away and made me take us

back to Adessa’s.”

Alex popped his knuckles, his jaw set tight. “Okay,

wel we need to find out what this blue shiny thing is

before we even try to head down to The Underworld.”

“And we need to get the Ira,” I added.

The waves of the lake rol ed up and back as we sat

on the shore trying to figure out what to do.

“What would the Queen want that’s blue and

sparkly,” I thought aloud.

Unexpectedly, Alex jumped to his feet, a little too

quickly, and he tipped forward. Laylen leapt up and

caught him before he dove head first into the water.

Alex swayed a little before regaining his balance, and

Laylen let him go. It was weird, because before Alex

had left, the two had been fighting.

“I think I might know what it is,” Alex said, gazing

over at the forest.

“You do?” I perked up and got to my feet.

“Yeah, and it’s not too far from us.” He nodded over

at the trees. “It’s over there.”

I looked over at the tal green trees that encircled

the lake. “It’s in the forest?”

He nodded, stumbling as he took a step forward.

“Okay…” I was starting to grow concerned over

Alex’s balancing problem. “Are you sure you’re

okay?”

“Don’t worry about me,” he said, his tone sharp. “I’l

be fine.”

Wel , if he was going to be rude about it, then fine. I

wouldn’t worry about it. Okay, fine, technical y that

wasn’t true.

“Wel , what is this thing?” I asked him as I wiped the

mud off of the back of my legs. “And why do you think

it’s in the trees?”

“It’s something that holds sentimental value to the

Queen.” He staggered off toward the forest like he

was under the influence.

Laylen and I both exchanged a questioning look,

and then we jogged after Alex.

“I stil don’t understand why something that’s

important to the Queen would be out in a forest,” I said

breathlessly to Alex.

“But yet it is,” he said, and sped up. Apparently,

he’d gotten over his weakened state.