The Underworld (38 page)

when he said that my mother probably knew things,

but I’d never expected her to say there was a lot more

to Stephan’s plan than just opening the portal, or that

she would say al of us played a part in whatever

Stephan was planning to do. I’d always assumed it

was just me.

Me and the star.

I guess I was wrong.

Laylen got to his feet and told us he would go wake

up Aislin and Alex. Then, he left my mother and I

sitting out on the deck alone. For awhile, neither of us

spoke. We just sat there, listening to people laughing

out on the beach.

“So, how have you been real y?” she final y asked.

“And don’t say okay, because I know it’s not true.”

“I don’t know…” I said, searching my mind for a way

to change the subject. “I don’t get something. Why

was I able to undo what Sophia did to me…when she

detached my soul, I mean.”

“That’s a question I can’t answer just yet,” she said,

tilting her head up toward the sun. “I wil , though, just

as soon as everyone gets here.”

“Okay.” Not the answer I was expecting, but it

worked.

Laylen returned seconds later with a very sleepy-

eyed Aislin and Alex. Alex and Ailsin each grabbed a

chair and dragged it to where my mother and I sat,

and Laylen hopped up and took a seat on the railing.

Aislin was the first to speak, seeming kind of

nervous. “Jocelyn, I can’t believe you’re here…It’s just

so…” She looked like she was going to burst into

tears

My mom, despite the fact she had been locked

away in The Underworld, stil possessed motherly

instincts and reached over and placed a hand on

Aislin’s hand. “It’s okay. I’m alright. Everything’s

alright.”

I highly doubted that was true. In fact, I was fairly

sure my mom was about to drop a not-al -right bomb

on us here pretty soon.

Alex seemed less tolerant toward Aislin’s

emotional behavior, and I even caught him rol ing his

eyes.

“So, Laylen said there was something you wanted

to tel us?” he asked impatiently.

My mother nodded. “There is. But I need you to tel

me what you know first. Gemma’s already told me

what she knows, but I think you might know a little

more.”

Shocker? I think not.

He pressed his lips together, his arms crossed

over his chest as his eyes wandered around to al of

us.

“Alex.” My mom’s voice was persuasive. “I

understand your initial reaction is to keep things a

secret—it’s what you’ve been taught to do. But it’s

important that you tel me what you know, so we can

stop the end of the world from happening.”

He stil seemed hesitant. “Where do you want me to

start?”

My mother considered this. “Why don’t you start

from the beginning?”

“But, what is the beginning?” Alex asked, like he

was asking a riddle.

My mother was patient, though. “Why don’t you start

with the day that Gemma’s soul was detached. Do

you remember what happened that day?”

He glanced at me, and I raised my eyebrows at

him, implying to go ahead, because boy was I dying

to hear this.

“The day Gemma’s soul was taken away…” He

shut his eyes for a moment and then opened them

back up. “She and I were hiding out in that little fort in

the side of the hil , because earlier my father had told

us Gemma had to go away.”

I touched the palm of my hand where the faintest of

scars resided, remembering the vision I saw. How he

had cut my hand and his, saying the words
forem
as

he pressed them together. It was a word I stil didn’t

know the meaning of. One of these days, I think, I was

going to have to invest in buying a Latin Translator

Pocket Dictionary, if such a thing existed.

Alex must have noticed me touching my hand,

because he clenched his own. “But he ended up

finding us and took Gemma away. I never saw her

again...Wel , until my dad made me enrol in school to

see if I could get to the bottom of why she started to

feel.”

“And what happened between al those years when

you didn’t see Gemma,” my mother asked, urging him

for more details.

He was holding back—I could tel , but my mom

asked him again, and he gave in. “Basical y, my father

trained me and Aislin to be Keepers, but he focused

more on me because Aislin was busy getting taught

how to use her witch power.”

My mom nodded. “And what happened while your

father was training you to be a Keeper? Did he teach

you to be emotional y closed off?”

“Emotional y closed off,” I gaped at my mother,

wondering if she was losing it again. “No mom that

was me.”

My mom kept her eyes on Alex, and he swal owed

hard.

“Not so much emotional y detached,” he said, real y

struggling to keep his voice under control. “He would

always tel me emotions are overrated, and that to be

a good Keeper, I had to keep my emotions under

control and only show them on the outside, but not feel

them on the inside…something that’s not always

possible for me to do….at least sometimes.” Alex

looked more confused than I had ever seen him look,

as if he was trying to figure something out, but just

couldn’t get there. Then, he glared at my mother. “I

real y don’t get what any of this has to do with the

star’s power and the end of the world.”

“It has everything to do with it,” my mother told him

and rol ed up the sleeves of the ratty old shirt she was

wearing. “I just have one more question before I

explain what
I
know. The day Gemma started to feel,

were you there at her house?”

I’m pretty sure that everyone’s eyes, including my

own, widened in shock.

“Why the heck would you think that?” Alex asked,

baffled. “I wasn’t al owed to be near her.”

“I understand that,” my mom’s voice was calm. “But

I need to know if, by some chance, you decided to

break the rule your father set of not being al owed to

go near her.”

Everyone waited for him to answer, but I’m sure I

was the one most eager to hear what he was going to

say.

Alex gazed out at the ocean, his bright green eyes

twinkling in the sun like emeralds. “It was something I

couldn’t help…going there.”

“I understand that,” my mom said. “More than I think

even you do.”

I didn’t get what was going on here. Why hadn’t

Alex told me this? Then again, why was I getting

surprised over this? This was Alex. But, I don’t know, I

thought he’d been a little better about not keeping

secrets. I guess I was wrong.

“So, you were at Marco and Sophia’s the day my

emotions returned,” I asked Alex, angrily. “And you

never told me.”

He avoided looking at me as he shrugged. ‘It

wasn’t that big of a deal. I mean, so what if I went

there.”

“Alex, I’m fairly sure you’re the one who brought

Gemma’s emotions back to her,” my mom said as

patiently as ever. “See there’s a connection between

you two, which is where the electricity comes from.”

“What’s the connection?” My words rushed out.

She took a deep breath, and said two simple

words. But they were two words that would change

everything.

“The star.”

“The star,” I repeated my mother’s words. “How

does that connect us? I mean, it’s only in me so I…” I

trialed off as a thought occurred to me. Electricity that

flowed between two people—it was something that

always seemed so impossible, yet every time I was

around Alex, there it was. I could feel it buzzing right

now, hot and shimmering. But, I only felt it with Alex

and never anyone else, which meant what…oh. “Does

Alex have a star’s power in him too?”

“Are you crazy?” Alex practical y yel ed at me. “Why

would you even think that?”

I glared at him. “Why would someone ever think I

was carrying around a star’s energy inside me? They

wouldn’t. But yet I am.”

“I don’t know…” He had this look on his face like he

was trying to cause trouble. “They might, considering

how you are.”

“What
unemotional
,” I said furiously.

“Okay, you two,” my mother interrupted, which was

a good thing because I could feel the electricity on the

rise, so things were about to get real y heated. “Alex,

Gemma’s right. You do have a star’s energy in you.

Not a separate star, but the same one.”

Alex was shaking his head. “No. There’s no way.

How could a star’s power accidently get transferred

into Gemma and me?”

“Because it wasn’t an accident,” my mother said

and motioned her hand around at al of us. “None of it

was. Al of this—al of you happened for a reason.

Gemma having the star in her—you having the star in

you. Aislin being a witch, and Laylen being a vampire.

None of this was an accident.”

My heart was beating a mil ion miles a minute, like

an insane humming bird was in my chest. I glanced at

Laylen, remembering how Nicholas said Stephan had

created him, and how Laylen had told me he couldn’t

recol ect how he had been changed. Memory loss,

just like me.

“So what you’re saying,” Laylen said, speaking

slowly as if he’d forgotten how to form words. “Is that I

was bitten on purpose—that Stephan had a vampire

bite me?”

My mother nodded and then looked at al of us

gravely. “Stephan has been planning this out for years

—ever since he found out the portal could be

opened.” She sighed, looking drowsy. “Stephan’s

been looking for a way to free Malefiscus since the

mark first appeared on his face. No one knew about

his mark, though, because his parents cut it off and

tried to keep it hidden. I didn’t even know he had it

until it was too late.” She swal owed hard. “Stephan is

a descendent of Malefiscus, but I’m not sure how. I

don’t think either of his parents bore the mark.”

“I stil don’t get it, though.” Alex said. “You say al of

us play a part. But play a part in what?”

“Wel , for starters, in freeing Malefiscus” my mom

explained. “Stephan’s been trying to free him even

before he was told he could by a Foreseer. It was

through visions that he final y figured out the exact

details of what he had to do to pul it off—a sort of

step-by-step guide.”

“But I thought Malefiscus being immortal was just a

myth?” Laylen asked, putting his feet up on the bottom

railing.

My mother shook her head. “He could create

marks, just like Stephan can. Although, I’m pretty sure

Stephan himself hasn’t been able to create the Mark

of Immortality…yet.”

“Yet?” I asked. “Does that mean he wil ?”

“It’s only a matter of time,” my mom said, nodding.

“He’l find a way eventual y.”

I thought about the Death Walkers and how difficult

they were to kil and how the Sword of Immortality was

one of the few things that could kil them. And how, in

the end of the world vision I saw, Stephan had had the

sword. As of now, we stil had the sword, but did this

mean we would end up losing it?

Aislin, who had been sitting silently in her chair,

looking very much freaked out, suddenly sputtered

out, “But why does he need a witch…and a vampire.

And why did he have to create them?”

My mother took a shaking breath, grasping her

hands together. “Not a lot of people know this, but

during Malefiscus’s reign of time, it wasn’t just the

Death Walkers who were terrorizing people. There

were some witches, vampires, fey, and even a couple

of Foreseers who had joined him.” My mom took

another sip of her water and when she placed it back

on the railing it tipped over and tumbled off the side of

the deck. She shook her head. “When Hektor final y

captured Malefiscus, the Keepers had to come up

with a way to make his fol owers surrender. So they

put Malefiscus in a portal and sealed it with the blood

of three individuals; a Keeper who also was a

vampire, a Keeper who was also a witch, and a

Keeper who was also a faerie. That way the fey,

witches, and vampires who fol owed Malefiscus would

be bound to the portal as wel , without the Keepers