The Underworld (36 page)

“Gemma,” she said, not looking happy, but

horrified. “What are you two doing down here.” Her

voice was sharp and it made me cower back. “You

shouldn’t be down here.”

“We came here to save you.” My voice wobbled.

“Wel , you shouldn’t have,” she said sternly. “How

did you even get down here?”

“With an…Ira.”

Her eyes didn’t widen in surprise. In fact, she acted

as if she predicted me to say that. “Wel you have to

leave now.”

Easier said than done. “We would, but…my

Foreseer power isn’t working at the moment.”

She shook her head. “I was hoping that would skip

you.”

What the heck was she talking about? “Huh?”

She started to say something else, but a loud cry,

like an angry cat, screeched from somewhere.

“We have to go.” She rubbed her forehead. “But

how am I supposed to get you out of here?”

“We need to get to water,” Alex told her as he

entered the room. “There’s supposed to be a place

somewhere down here that wil take us up through the

lake. A water route, maybe? Do you know where it

is?”

“We can’t go anywhere.” She frowned. “The Fey wil

make us suffer if we try.”

“The Water Faeries are out for the moment,” Alex

told her in a gentle voice. “So they can’t make you

suffer. But we have to hurry before they wake up.”

She stared at us in confusion, and then suddenly

her eyes lit up. “Oh my God, I completely forgot about

that.” She brushed past Alex and I and ran out into the

tunnel.

Alex and I gave each other a look, and then we

chased after her.

“Mom,” I yel ed. “Where are you going?”

She kept running down the tunnel, her bare feet

thumping against the dirt floor. Another cat-like

screech rang out from somewhere, and Alex and I

sped up our pace and caught up with my mother.

“You forget things sometimes!” she shouted at us

as we ran. “Being down here, it messes with your

mind and sometimes you just forget.”

Forget what? Where the exit was? “But do you

remember where it is now?” I asked.

She nodded, and a burst of adrenaline soared

through me. We ran deeper into the darkness,

weaving and turning through the tunnel. I crossed my

fingers that my mom real y knew where she was

going. The cries and screams seemed to be fil ing the

air more and more, and I worried that the Water

Faeries were waking up. My mother seemed

unbothered by the screams. She just kept running,

and didn’t stop until we entered into the cave with the

rocked-shaped throne that twisted up to the quartz

ceiling.

My mom sprinted over to the throne and circled

around it as she stared up at the ceiling. “When I first

came here, I was told that if you climbed up the back

of the throne it would take you to a place where you

could escape. The problem was, I never had a chance

to get away. And after awhile, I just sort of forgot about

trying.” She stepped up onto the throne and climbed

up the back of it. The twisting shape was like a slide,

which made it hard to climb. But, even though it was

tricky, she managed to make it al the way up with only

a few slips, and then she disappeared through a smal

hole in the ceiling.

I looked at Alex, stunned.

“Alright,” he said, hopping up onto the throne. “Let’s

go.” He reached up and pul ed himself onto the back

of the throne. I fol owed him, but I moved less

graceful y than he did. I even managed to scrape my

knee of the rock more than once. But final y, I was

pul ing myself up into the hole where my mom had

disappeared.

It was dark up there, but there was a faint light

streaming from someplace. A narrow tunnel stretched

out on each side. The floor was muddy and water ran

from the ceiling in sporadic bursts that had already

soaked into my clothes and hair.

“Which way do we go now?” Alex asked my mom.

She glanced to the left, and then to the right. “I think

this way,” she said and stumbled off to the right.

Alex and I ran after her. She seemed sort of dizzy,

weaving from side to side as we sprinted down the

tunnel. The further we went, the brighter the light

became, until final y we were blinded by it.

A second later we stepped out onto a rocky ledge,

and my heart stopped. At the edge of the ledge was a

drop off. The height alone was astonishing, but the

waterfal spewing over the side of the drop off was

what sent my pulse racing the most. Wel that, and the

pool of water with a severe looking undercurrent that

the waterfal poured down into.

Never did it occur to me, during our talk of our water

escape that I would have to dive off a ledge into water

that was probably going to suck me under. Oh and

let’s not forget to mention the most important part. I

couldn’t swim.

“So, what are we supposed to do?” I asked, my

eyes locked on the waterfal . “Just jump. Because I’m

not sure if I can make it.”

“Yeah…” he stared down at the water and then

back at me. “I think—”

A shriek blared down the tunnel and I could now

see them—the Water Faeries. They were stil a ways

away, gliding down the shadowy tunnel like ghosts.

“Crap,” Alex said, grabbing my hand. “Jocelyn, we

need to—”

Before he could finish, my mother, who had been

standing on the ledge, suddenly jumped.

I gasped and ran for the ledge. “Mom!” I couldn’t

see her, only the violent water whirling. “Mom…” I

whispered.

“Gemma.” Alex’s voices yanked me back to him.

“Grab on to me.”

“What?” I shook my head. “No.”

Alex looked my straight in the eyes. “Wrap your

arms around my neck and hang on.”

I wasn’t sure I could do this—jump into the midst of

raging water, when I couldn’t swim.

“I don’t think…” I glanced at the Water Faeries, who

were so close now I could see the bareness in their

eyes. I took a deep breath, summoning every ounce

of strength I had in me, and wrapped my arms around

Alex’s neck, linking my fingers together tightly.

Alex put his arms around my waist and pushed me

so far into him I swear the electricity was going to

weld us together. “Close your eyes,” he said, and I

did, but not before I caught a glimpse of the Water

Faeries about to emerge from the tunnel.

Another loud shriek, and then we dove.

The water tore at me at me from every angle,

cold and rough, violently trying to steal my oxygen. I

tried to hold onto Alex, but the water was making my

hands slip loose. Alex was kicking, trying to break us

free from the undertow. But we just kept getting pul ed

in al different directions.

Eventual y, the water started to settle, and our

bodies became less tangled. He swam us upward,

and final y we broke through. I gasped for air, and so

did Alex. He opened his mouth to say something, but I

was tugged downward by a set of bony fingers that

had snatched hold of my ankle. My hands slipped

from around Alex’s neck, and I was submerged by the

dark water again. I tried to kick the Water Faerie off of

me, but al it did was tighten it’s grip.

And then Alex had my arm. I knew it was him

because of the buzzing. He was pul ing on me, but the

Water Faerie was too. My body felt like it was going

to tear apart. Then, Alex was beside me, underneath

the water. Our bodies tangled together, along with the

Water Faeries. There was a lot of tugging and

spinning, and then suddenly I was no longer being

pul ed down, but whooshing upward and bursting out

of the water.

Alex swam faster than I ever thought was humanly

possible. Especial y while hauling me along with him.

And before I knew it, we were lying on the shore, out

of breath and panting loudly.

“Are you okay?” Alex asked, out of breath.

I coughed up some of the water I swal owed. “Yeah,

I…Wait. Where’s my mom?”

In the snap-of-a-finger, we were both on our feet

and searching. But I couldn’t see her anywhere; the

only thing in sight was the grey stone castle, the tal -

treed forest, and the haunting…Water Faerie fil ed

lake.

“Oh my word,” I breathed.

Alex fol owed my gaze and his jaw nearly hit the

ground.

Across the dark water, the Water Faeries floated.

The sight would have been al uring—they looked like

bal erinas dancing. But knowing what they real y were,

and what they could do, the sight only made a chil

slither down my back.

“They can’t come up here?” I asked. “Right?”

He nodded, but his bright green eyes were stil

locked on the water. “I’ve never seen so many of them

up here before, especial y when no one has

summoned them.”

As I watched the Water Faeries swim around, a

thought abruptly smacked me in the head. “Wait.

What if my mom’s stil in there?” And then I was

running toward the lake, my brain too irrational to

process the consequences if I stepped in.

Luckily Alex grabbed me, and pul ed me back.

“Are you freaking crazy!” he exclaimed, shaking me

by the shoulders, with a look of what could only be

described as terrified. “You can’t go in there.”

It took my brain a second to grasp the severity of

the situation I had just about gotten myself into. “I’m

sorry, but what if she’s in there?”

His harsh expression slipped to a semi-

sympathetic one. “If she is, then there’s nothing we

can do about it.”

“We can go back,” I said, my tone razor sharp. “We

have to save her.”

He shook his head. “There’s no way we’re going

back there after what happened. Now that they know

something’s different about you, they’re going to be al

over you if you even step foot in their world again.”

“So what.” I was trying with al my might to wiggle

my arm free from his grasp. “I don’t care. How do

expect me to just let her stay down there after I saw

how horrible of a place it is.” I could feel the tears

stinging at my eyes. “Let me go!”

“No,” he told me, just standing there, holding on to

my arm, my yanking not even fazing him the slightest

bit.

“Let me go,” I growled.

He shook his head, tightening his grip. “You’re not

thinking clearly right now.”

I stared him down with a determined look. “You

have to let me go. You don’t need to protect me

anymore now that the star’s power is probably not

going to save the world.”

He stared at me with this strangest look. “I think you

—”

Then we heard it. An earsplitting bang that rocketed

through air.

“What the heck was that?” I asked, glancing around

at the trees.

Alex looked over at the castle, and then at the

ground. I fol owed his gaze and saw what he was

looking at. Footprints, printed across the mud, leading

toward the castle.

We took off, tromping through the muddy grass,

and running up the hil , until we reached the door to

the castle. Alex seemed a little uneasy as he turned

the doorknob and creaked the door open. The stale

air immediately surrounded us.

“Does anyone live here?” I whispered as we

stepped inside.

He shook his head and dropped his hand from the

doorknob.

It looked as if no one had been inside the castle for

ages. The banister that guided the stairs had a thick

layer of dust on it and cobwebs ornamented the

ceiling like a haunted house on Hal oween.

Alex went to the bottom of the stairs and glanced

up. Another bang shattered the air and his gaze

darted down the hal , where the noise had come from.

“What if it’s not my mom?” I whispered.

He held up a finger and then crept down the hal . I

stayed behind him, keeping my footsteps light. There

was another loud noise that sounding like glass being

shattered, and then I saw her.

She was in the room where my soul had been

detached; the room with the stone fireplace and tiled

floor. She was standing in the midst of a pile of

broken glass, her bare feet, I’m sure, getting cut by

the sharp edges.

“Mom,” I said softly as I stepped cautiously into the

room.