Authors: Jessica Sorensen
I sped up too, the fabric of my clothes scratching
against my skin with my every movement. Also, since I
had been wearing flip flops when I fel into the lake,
they fel off of my feet, and now I was walking around
barefoot. The leaves, twigs, and rocks rubbed sharply
against the soles of my feet as I practical y ran to
keep up with Alex. But that was okay. Alex was
barefoot too, and if he was tough enough to do it, then
so was I. Besides, I’d felt worse pain in my life, both
physical y and emotional y.
Laylen trailed off a little ways behind us. He’d taken
off his shirt while he walked and was ringing out the
water. I didn’t mean to stare at him for so long—I
mean it wasn’t like I never saw a guy without his shirt
off before. And real y, I wasn’t staring at him because
he had his shirt off, so much as what I saw on his
shoulder. (Wel , that was stretching it a little, but I was
stil partial y staring at his shoulder). Cupping his
shoulder was the Keepers mark—fiery-gold flames
bordering a black circle. So there it was; the mark that
had branded him a Keeper. And right along his
forearm was his other mark; the one that had branded
him not good enough to be a Keeper anymore.
Laylen shook out his shirt and then noticed me
gawking at him like a stalker. He gave me a funny
look and I turned around, rol ing my eyes at myself.
We walked through the forest for awhile, with Alex
stopping every so often to glance around. He looked
lost, and final y, with his forehead scrunched over, he
muttered, “Where the heck is it?”
“Wel , if you tel us what you’re looking for, then
maybe Laylen and I can help you,” I pointed out as I
shooed a bug away from my face.
“I don’t know…” He was hesitant, which meant there
was something he didn’t want to say. “There’s this
little hideout I use to hang out at when I was little…
there’s a hil somewhere with a bush covered by violet
flowers.”
Wel , there you go. I actual y knew the solution to
this problem. Go figure.
I turned in a circle, scanning through the trees and
bushes, until I picked up on the direction I’d wandered
in when I was in the vision and found the little hideout.
“It’s over there,” I pointed in the direction where I
was ninety-nine percent sure the hideout was.
Alex gave me a funny look. “What is?”
“The hiding spot
we
use to go to when we were
kids,” I told him, adding emphasis on the “we” to
make a point that I remembered.
“You remember that?” he asked, taken aback.
I watched him as I started to explain, wondering
how he was going to react to the fact that I knew about
our little promise we made when we were kids. “While
Nicholas was taking you to the City of Crystal, I
unintentional y went into a vision here.”
He raised an eyebrow at me. “Anything important
happen?”
I shook my head, trying not to think about how I had
to watch my own soul get detached before I could
leave the vision.
“Nothing important at al ?”
Now I gave him a funny look. “What does
forem
mean?”
For a brief second, his bright green eyes widened
in surprised, but then the look quickly disappeared
and was replaced by Alex’s lying poker face, as I was
going to cal the straight-faced look he got whenever
he was going to tel me a lie.
“I have no idea what
forem
means,” he said, acting
al whatever.
My gaze drifted down to his hands and I looked for
a very faint, very smal scar.
He clenched his hands into fist and started off in the
direction I had pointed toward.
I didn’t fol ow him. Instead, I turned around and
cal ed out to Laylen, “Do you know what
forem
means?”
I heard Alex mumble curse words under his breath,
but I ignored him.
“What?”Laylen came to a stop in front of me, his
eyebrows dipping down.
“Forem. Do you know what it means?”
He gave me a puzzled look. “Yeah, it means—”
“Found it!” Alex yel ed louder than was necessary.
Laylen and I headed off in the direction his voice
came from and found him standing on the side of the
hil , holding back the branches of the blooming violet
bush. I climbed up the hil , my bare feet sliding in the
rocks and mud, and Alex gave me his hand and
helped my over the bush. I dropped my feet down into
the hole and onto the first step of the ladder. Then I
climbed down into my old childhood hideout.
Laylen, not even bothering to use the ladder,
dropped in right behind me. It was pitch black, except
for the soft sunlight trickling through the hole.
“Anyone have night vision?” I asked, and Laylen let
out a laugh.
Alex pushed past us and vanished into the
darkness. There was a lot of banging around, and
then he struck a match. The pale orange glow orbed
around the room as Alex hurried and lit a candle. Then
he placed the candle down on top of a table, sat down
on the floor, and began digging in the dirt floor.
“It’s buried in the floor?” I asked, squatting down
next to him.
He nodded, digging quicker until there was a fairly
good size hole. Then he stopped and pul ed out a
smal wooden box. On the top of the box, written in
child-like handwriting was the names Gemma and
Alex.
“We had a secret box?” I asked him in awe as he
pried the lid open.
He shrugged, like it wasn’t a big deal, but the glow
of the candles showed a twinkle in his bright green
eyes. He lifted the lid off, and al three of us leaned
over the box, like we had just opened a trunk of buried
treasure.
I had to wonder what was going to be inside a box
that was made by two kids—two very strange kids I
might add. There was nothing too strange in it,
though: a rock, a bracelet, a photo of me and my
mom, which I immediately snatched up. In the photo,
my mother and I stood out in a field dusted with violet
flowers. The sun shined brightly in the background,
and we were both smiling—happy.
I glanced at Laylen, remembering our sil y little
rol ercoaster ride, and wondered if it was the same
kind of happiness as what I felt when this photo was
taken.
Alex removed everything from the box, and piled al
of it onto the floor, except for one thing: a sapphire-
blue teardrop diamond.
“Thank God,” he said, clutching the diamond in his
hand.
“That’s it? That’s what’s going to get the Queen to
agree to free my mom?” I slipped the photo of my
mother and me into the back pocket of my shorts,
which were almost dry now, and leaned toward Alex
to get a better look at the blue diamond resting in the
palm of his hand.
“Is that the
Cruciatus
diamond?” Laylen’s eyes
were huge as he stared down at the teardrop
diamond.
“Yeah, it is,” Alex replied, his voice wavering.
“Is it—does it do anything?” I asked nervously,
worried that maybe my energy would set it off or
something.
Alex closed his hand around the diamond. “The
Queen use to use it to suck the fear out of people
before one of the Keepers took it from her.”
“But if no one can enter The Underworld, then how
did they take it from her?” I asked.
“A long time ago things use to work differently,”
Alex explained drowsily. “The Queen used to be able
to come up to the castle to discuss matters of
business and to make truces with the Keepers. That’s
how the Keepers ended up sending people down
there as a punishment. This,” he held up the diamond
between his fingers, “was once used during a
bargain.”
“Wel , how did you end up with it?” I wondered.
He almost smiled. “You and I stole it.”
“Stole it,” I said, stunned. “Why would we do that?”
“For fun,” he replied with a shrug. “We used to do a
lot of things like that.”
Interesting, I guess, and it was kind of nice that he
was giving me a little insight into our past.
Alex closed his eyes, the blue diamond stil
clutched in his hand. He looked like he was sleeping.
“So what do we do now—just take the diamond
with us when we go to The Underworld, and offer it to
the Queen in exchange for my mother.” Wel , that’s if
we even get to The Underworld. We stil needed the
Ira, which Nicholas had, and after what happened at
the City of Crystal it appeared that Nicholas just might
be working with Stephan.
Alex didn’t answer, his eyes stil shut.
“Alex,” I said softly. “Are you okay?”
He stil didn’t answer me.
I looked at Laylen worriedly, and he shook Alex
gently by the shoulder. “Hey, you okay man?” he
asked.
But stil , Alex remained silent and motionless with
the diamond resting loosely in the palm of his hand.
“Maybe the diamonds doing something to him,” I
said, reaching for Alex’s hand that held the diamond.
When I touched his skin, I noticed how dul the flow of
electricity was, and I immediately panicked, worried
he might me dying.
“Alex.” My voice came out loud and panic-stricken. I
grabbed his arm.”Wake up.”
His eyelids lifted, and a rush of relief swept through
me like a breath of fresh air on a warm summer day. I
started to pul my hand back, but he caught hold of it
and grasped onto my fingers.
I stared at his hand grasping mine. “What are you
doing?”
“Shhh…” He shut his eyes again. “I just need a
minute, okay?”
Like a light bulb clicking on, it suddenly occurred to
me what he was doing. He was feeling weak and our
little electric connection was…wel , it was recharging
him. I could feel it too, ascending and boosting my
energy.
Laylen got to his feet and dusted the dirt off of his
jeans. “I’m going to go check and make sure no one’s
coming. I’l be right back.”
“You think someone would show up here?” I asked,
glancing up at the hole.
He looked at Alex and then shrugged. “You never
know.”
I almost told him to stay. Something inside me felt
afraid—a strange kind of afraid. One I couldn’t quite
explain and had never felt before.
Confused about my feelings, I sat there on the
ground as Laylen climbed up the ladder and
disappeared into the daylight. Alex was stil holding
onto my hand, the electricity growing hotter and hotter
with each beat that went by. In al actuality, its heat
was making me feel a little better too. I wasn’t even
aware I had closed my eyes, until I heard Alex say my
name. I cracked open my eyes and found him
watching me with this intense look on his face.
I started to ask him what was wrong, but something
in his eyes made me pause. I don’t even know what
the look was, maybe a mix between tired and…
vulnerable. Or maybe it was just that he was real y
looking at me. And I mean
really
looking at me.
Then he was leaning in toward me, and I felt my
body tense up. Half of my brain was begging for me to
rip my hand out of his and run. But the other half was
tel ing me to stay put. He had done so many bad
things to me—terrible things that maybe I should have
ran. But he also had gone to the City of Crystal,
knowing he would be chained up to the energy
sucking crystal bal , al so I could try to get my mother
out of The Underworld. There were stil smal wounds
in his skin where the tubes had been inserted. It
wasn’t pretty, and he had done it to help me.
So I didn’t move away, watching, waiting, knowing I
was going to let him kiss me.
“Gemma.” His voice was soft and shaky. A moment
later his lips brushed mine, and electricity spun
through me.
But the kiss lasted only a split second, because
right as our lips touch, someone shrieked from
outside. Alex and I both pul ed away, and both our
gazes shot toward the ladder.
Alex’s eyes scanned the room. “Where’s Laylen?”
“He said he was going to go check to make sure no
one was outside.” My heart raced as I stood up.
“Don’t you remember?”
He shook his head and slowly got to his feet. “How
longs he been gone?” he asked as he walked over to