The Underworld (35 page)

Alex rubbed his hands across his face, I think,

maybe to hide the fact that he thought the same thing I

did. When he dropped his hands, though, the look on

his face took me back.

“I don’t care what you think the star’s energy is

being used for.” His bright green-eyed gaze burned

into me. “We came down here to save your mom, so

we could try to piece this al together and come up

with a plan to stop it. And until we get al that done you

can’t give up. You can’t give up before we’ve real y

even tried, okay?”

Who was this guy sitting next to me, staring at me

with such an intense look of determination in his

eyes? Yeah, I knew it was Alex, but not the Alex who I

first met.

“Okay,” I said, forcing my strange “giving up feeling”

away for the moment. “I won’t give up until we’ve

tried.”

He nodded and we both sat there in the silence

again, staring at the cement wal in front of us. Alex

put his knife back in his pocket, slid his hand over,

and set it on top of mine. I shut my eyes and let the

buzzing take me away from this horrible place. I let in

deafen out the screams. I let it sweep me away.

Alex and I stayed the way we were until the door

to our cel swung open. When I opened my eyes, I saw

that a Water Faerie was hovering in the doorway. I

thought about running—knocking the Water Faerie

down and bolting for an exit. Although there wasn’t

anywhere for me to go…“Oh my God,” I breathed.

Alex looked from the Water Faerie to me. “It’l be

okay, Gemma. Just make sure you hold on.”

I grabbed his arm, my eyes widening as I

whispered, “I think I might know a way to get out of

here.”

“What?” he said loudly and I shushed him.

“It’s time.” The Queen appeared in the doorway.

“Both of you fol ow me.”

I got to my feet, but Alex just sat there staring at me,

stil shocked by what I said. He was probably

wondering how the heck I could know there was a way

out of here. The only reason I did know there might be

a way out was because of Laylen’s and my trip to see

Vladislav. See, during our visit, when we asked

Vladislav if anyone had ever escaped The

Underworld, he said yes, and then added that most of

the people who do try to escape drown during the

attempt. So there was another way out of here

besides through the Ira. There was a way by water.

But where was the water? The Underworld was

supposed to be below the lake so…I glanced up at

the ceiling, at the water dripping down from it.

“Hurry up!” The Queen roared.

Alex got to his feet, and we fol owed the Queen out

of the cel and into the tunnel, which was lined with jail

cel doors. We had gone a ways when Alex grabbed

my arm and pul ed me back.

“What do you mean, you know a way to escape?”

he whispered. “Where is it?”

“When Laylen and I went and saw Vladislav,” I said,

speaking so quickly I tripped over my words. “He said

people had escaped before. But most of them

drowned.”

He took in what I said. “So we need to find water.”

I pointed up at the ceiling, at the water seeping

through the cracks. “We need to go up.”

Alex reached up and touched the muddy ceiling

with his finger tips. “So there has got to be an exit

somewhere that takes us up.”

“What are you two doing back there!” The Queen’s

fuming voice boomed down the tunnel. “Get up here

now.”

We hurried and caught up with her. Alex stil had his

thinking face on, and I could tel he was trying to come

up with some sort of plan to get us out of here. I stil

felt a little skeptical, though, because we stil had to

find where the way out was, and we also needed to

figure out a way to get away from the Queen and her

Water Faeries.

But al thoughts of escaping left my mind, when we

reached where the Queen was taking us. In fact al of

my thoughts disappeared and were replaced by one

thing.

Fear.

They say torture is…wel , torture. But this was so

much worse than I’d expected. Water Faeries were

floating around everywhere. But that was the easiest

part to take in. The worst were the peoples’ screams

that fil ed up the room. I knew Alex told me that the

people who were sentenced here were bad, but it

didn’t mean that what was being done to them was

right. Each one of them was strapped down on a

wooden table, being tortured in various ways, but

each one looked equal y painful. My stomach rol ed at

the sight of one man in particular that had his arm

twisted in a way that an arm should not be twisted.

“Don’t look at them,” Alex said and I looked away

from the torture chamber.

But not looking at them couldn’t block out the

sounds…the cries…the pain.

The only thing I could be thankful for at the moment

was that the Queen took us to a different room that

had cement wal s thick enough to muffle out the

screams. In the room, there was a single chair that

had straps attached to the arms.

The Queen turned to face us. “Tel me Gemma.

What is it your most afraid of?”

I swal owed hard. She was so asking the wrong

person this question. Fear was such a new thing to

me, and the only thing I could think of that would

qualify as my most-afraid-of thing was Stephan and

the Death Walkers.

“I don’t know,” I said, sounding weak. I hated that I

sounded weak.

“You don’t know?” She looked at me intriguingly

and a toothless grin spread across her face. “Wel , I

think it’s time you found out.” She raised her hand in

the air and snapped her fingers. Two Water Faeries

flew up to me and grabbed me by the arms. I tried to

pul away from them, but their bony fingers had

freakishly strong grips.

“Stop!” Alex cal ed out. “I’l go first.”

“Oh no,” said the Queen with amusement in her

voice. “I have a feeling that you watching her get

tortured is probably going to bring out just as much

fear, as if it were you getting tortured yourself.”

Alex started to protest, but the Queen silenced him.

Then two Water Faeries came up behind Alex and

grabbed him by the arms, holding him where he

stood. He tried to fight and pul away, but like I already

mentioned the Water Faeries are freakishly strong.

Apparently, even stronger than a Keeper.

The two Water Faeries dragged me over to the

chair and one held down my arms, while the other

strapped me to the chair. Once they let go of me, I

tried to yank my arms free from the straps, but the only

thing that accomplished was my sore wrists aching

even more.

“Oh good. She’s already getting scared,” the

Queen said, pleased. There was this long gap that

passed before she said to the Water Faeries, “Wel ,

get on with it.”

They hovered beside me, and suddenly they were

in front of me, their eyeless eyes so close to my face

that I now realized they had actual eye sockets, just no

eyebal s. I almost threw up.

“Now, which way to go here?” the Queen dithered.

“Oh, I know. Since you guys were so kind to bring it

back to me.” She reached into the pocket of her white

dress and pul ed out the teardrop-shaped sapphire

diamond. “Let’s use this to torture her soul.”

Was she serious? Torture my soul. My soul. No

freaking way.

Panicking, I yanked at the straps, pul ing and

tugging as hard as I could. But it was useless. The

Queen handed the diamond to one of the Water

Faeries and it came face-to-face with me. As it

reached its bony fingers toward my mouth with the

diamond resting in its hand, I couldn’t help but let out

the most blood curdling scream.

And then….it dropped to the floor.

Okay, I should probably explain what happened a

little bit better. The Water Faerie dropped to the floor,

not my soul. It’s body hit the cement floor with a loud

thump, along with every other faerie in the room,

including the Queen herself.

There was this moment where Alex and I just

looked at each other with wide eyes, and then Alex

was running for me.

“What the heck happened?” I asked, as he worked

to get the straps unfastened.

“I have no idea,” he said, slipping the buckle loose.

“Let’s go.”

I jumped to my feet, and we ran passed the lifeless

bodies of the Water Faeries and out the door. To our

shock, the Water Faeries, who had been in that room,

had sank to the floor as wel .

I stood there gaping at the scene in sheer and utter

bewilderment.

One of the men strapped to a table begged me to

free him. “Come on little girl,” he said. “Just undo the

straps, okay. I promise I don’t bite.”

“Gemma.” Alex’s voice brought me back to reality.

“Come on.” His hand was extended out to me.

I glanced at the man, who was stil begging me to

let him go.

“They’re here for a reason,” Alex said. “Now come

on. We have to go, before they…” he glanced at the

faeries lifeless bodies scattered across the floor.

“Wake up, I guess?”

I nodded—he was right. I took his hand, and we

sprinted down the tunnel.

“We have to find water,” Alex said as we ran toward

where the cel doors were.

“Wait,” I said, pul ing back. “We have to find my

mom first?”

He shook his head, trying to drag me forward. “No,

we have to go. We don’t know how long they’l be out.”

“I’m not going without her,” I said sternly, refusing to

budge. “I came down here to rescue her, and I’m not

leaving until I do. Besides, this is our only chance to

free her—we’l never be able to come back.”

“We have no idea where she is,” he argued. “It

could take forever.”

“Fine.” I slipped my hand free from his and dodged

around him. “You go find water,” I cal ed over my

shoulder, heading for a cel door, “But I’m going to go

find my mom.”

Alex let out a frustrated breath, but he fol owed after

me. “Gemma, we need to go now.”

Ignoring him, I unlatched the first cel door I came

across and opened it up. The room was empty. “We’l

never get answers if we don’t find her…” I hurried to

the next cel door and opened it up. Empty again.

“Like you said, she knows things. That’s why she’s

down here.” I unlocked a third door, starting to wonder

if maybe I was on the wrong track with the cel doors.

“And if we don’t get some answers, the world’s going

to end. I’ve seen….” I opened the third door and

immediately trailed off, my jaw dropping at the sight of

a woman, sitting on the bed, wearing ratted old

clothes. Her brown hair trailed down her back, and her

bright blue irises were as blank as my eyes had been

before I experienced the prickle. But despite the blank

look, I knew…she was my mother.

Her head slowly turned and she looked at me, but

there was no recognition that she knew who I was.

“Mom,” I whispered. The word felt so strange

coming out of my mouth.

She blinked at me, but that was it. There was

nothing there—no life, no spark, no nothing.

“Jocelyn,” Alex said, from over my shoulder. “Are

you alright?”

Stil , my mother stared at us with nothing more than

a look of emptiness.

I felt like I might start crying, but knew I couldn’t.

Now was not the time to shed tears.

“What should we do?” I asked Alex.

He considered this careful y. “Go over and take her

hand, but move slowly—see if you can get her to

come with us.”

I looked at him with terrified eyes. “Maybe you

should do it?”

He shook his head. “No, this is something I think

you have to do.”

Whether he was right or not, I took a deep breath

and made my way cautiously into the room. My

mother made no reaction, just sitting there, her hands

resting on her lap.

“Mom,” I said, reaching my hand out toward her. “It’s

Gemma…your daughter.”

She looked at me, and then suddenly, she was

really
looking at me. She got to her feet and moved in

for a hug, but then pul ed back quickly, cradling her

arms across her chest.