The Underworld (21 page)

“She’s doesn’t know who I am,” I whispered

underneath my breath.

“Who doesn’t?” Nicholas asked from behind me.

I had been so caught up in watching the vision that I

completely forgotten he was there, and the sound of

his voice made me almost jump out of my skin.

“No one,” I replied quickly, my eyes glued to my

mother.

“That’s impossible,” The Queen roared. “No one

ever leaves The Underworld, at least not alive.

Something you probably should have considered

before you entered here.”

“We entered here in a way that you have no control

over if we get to leave,” Alex said in a somewhat

arrogant tone.

“You better watch your tone boy,” the Queen

warned, leaning forward in her throne. “I’ve cut off

tongues to those who dared show such disrespect to

me.”

That remark frightened the visions’ Gemma—I

could tel —but Alex acted unbothered, which wasn’t

surprising. Stil , he didn’t say anything, and the Queen

gave a satisfied grin.

But then her grin faded. “So which one of you is the

Foreseer?”

“What do you mean?” Alex asked.

Her face hardened. “Don’t play stupid with me boy.

The only way you could enter my world and stil get out

is by entering through the Ira, something that can only

be done by a Foreseer. So, is it you? Or is it her?”

The Queen looked at the visions’ Gemma, and I mean

really
looked at her; the Queen’s empty-eyed gaze

burning into her, as if she were trying to read her

mind. “Tel me girl, what is your name?”

“I…um…” the vision Gemma glanced around

nervously. “My name’s…”

I shook my head at my stuttering, visions’ self.

“And don’t you dare lie to me.” The Queen’s voice

held a secret warning.

“Gemma,” the visions’ Gemma stammered out.

“Gemma,” the Queen said. “Would you please

explain to me what your interest in this woman is?”

She gestured her hand at my mother.

“She’s…” The visions’ Gemma glanced at Alex for

help.

“We just know her,” Alex finished for me, shooting

me a play-it-cool glance.

Wow. Did we not plan this at al ? Because neither

one of us was doing a very good job.

“If that’s true—if you just know this woman, then why

on earth should I let you take her.” She glanced at my

mother. “Why would I let you take my best slave?”

Alex reached in his pocket and took out something

that, when it caught in the rays of light, sparkled blue.

I stepped forward, trying to see what Alex had in his

hand, wondering if it was the key to my mom’s

freedom, but before I could see what it was,

Nicholas’s fingers were suddenly pressing into the top

of my arm, and then he shoved me against the wal .

I started to freak out, not because of Nicholas, but

because I was worried I was going to miss what Alex

was offering to the Queen.

“Let me go.” I shoved my hands against Nicholas’s

chest. He stepped back, losing his balance for a split

second, but then he came at me again.

He grabbed a hold of my shoulders and held me

against the wal .

“Ow,” I cried. “Let me go.” I tried to push at him

again, but he was too strong.

“Take us back, now.” He spoke each syl able

slowly, and a dark look shadowed over his face. His

hands were pushing so hard against my shoulders

that I was almost sure my bones were going to crack.

He no longer looked like a tricky faerie, but a pissed

off guy about to beat the crap out of me. Whether or

not he would have actual y hurt me, I wasn’t sure. But

the lethal look in his eyes was enough for me to blink

us away.

As soon as my mind processed that I was

standing back in Adessa’s living room with my feet

planted firmly on the black and white tile floor, and that

Nicholas no longer had a hold of me, I took off in a

mad sprint for the doorway. But Nicholas grabbed on

to the back of my shirt and yanked me backward,

crashing me into him.

“Don’t even think about running off.” Nicholas

breathed hotly. “You’re not going anywhere until we

get something straight.”

I started to scream for help, but he slapped his

hand down on my mouth. I raised my arm up as far as

it would go and elbowed him in the ribs, but I think I

did more damage to my elbow than I did to him.

“Nice try,” Nicholas said. “But it’s going to take a lot

more effort than that.”

A lot more effort as in a kick in the shin. It worked

once for me, so why not give it a try. I brought my leg

up, and kicked him in the shin with my foot, but I swear

he’d gotten stronger since the last time I’d done it to

him, because it barely fazed him.

“I don’t know about you, but I could do this al day,”

he said in a tone that made my skin crawl. “In fact, I

think I might take you back with me—keep a hold of

you for awhile.”

Take me back? Take me back where? I flipped out

as the possibilities of where he was thinking of taking

me poured through my head. I did the only thing I

could think of to get away. I bit down on Nicholas’s

hand, sinking my teeth into his clammy skin. He let out

a scream that vibrated at my eardrums, and then I felt

his grip loosen, al owing me to squirm free.

“Laylen!” I shouted, sprinting for the doorway again.

Nicholas’s footsteps thumped against the tile floor

as he chased after me. I felt his fingers graze my back

right as I took a step up the stairs. Then he was pul ing

me back to him.

“Help!” I screamed, flinging my weight forward.

And then a miracle happened. Laylen was suddenly

there, prying Nicholas off of me, and I skittered away

from them as Laylen gave Nicholas a hard shove onto

the living room floor.

“If you ever touch her again,” Laylen said, standing

over Nicholas. “You won’t be able to walk out of here.”

At that moment, I could have hugged Laylen, but I’m

not sure it would have been very rewarding for him,

since I’ve never real y hugged any one and it would

probably just end up as a very awkward moment.

“Are you okay?” Laylen’s bright blue eyes

examined me over.

I nodded, rubbing my soon-to-be-bruised shoulder.

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Did he hurt you?” he asked.

I shook my head and dropped my hand from my

shoulder. “No, I’m okay.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.”

Al of a sudden, Nicholas was on his feet. He

swiped the Ira off of the apothecary table and ran

across the room, to the far corner, putting as much

distance as he could between himself and Laylen.

Laylen moved for him, but Nicholas winked at me,

and then he was gone. And so was the one thing that

could get me into The Underworld.

“So he’s been lying this whole time,” Laylen said,

stunned. “I can’t believe it.”

“I can,” I told him. “The first time I ever met Nicholas,

he pretended he was just a normal guy in the grocery

store, not some faerie/Foreseer there to make me go

to the City of Crystal with him.”

After Nicholas had disappeared with the Ira, Laylen

and I had sat down on the velvet purple sofa. The

house was silent. After Laylen had final y told Aislin

that Alex had gone away to the City of Crystal to fulfil

a promise to Dyvinius, she got super stressed out. So

Adessa had taken her out for the day, to get her mind

off of things.

I explained to Laylen in detail what had happened

between Nicholas and me, and what I saw in my

Underworld vision. But what we were going to do

about it, I didn’t have a clue. And neither did Laylen.

“I stil can’t believe it,” Laylen mumbled, shaking his

head. “Why would he go through al that trouble to

hang around here if he was never planning on taking

you there—if he couldn’t take you there?”

I shook my head, feeling more frustrated than I ever

had—the prickle had confirmed this just a few minutes

ago. “Who knows…But what I want to know is why I

saw myself down in The Underworld…and with Alex. If

I actual y saw us there, doesn’t that mean there’s a

good chance it wil actual y happen? We just have to

find a way to do it.”

Laylen contemplated this while fiddling with his lip

ring that looped his bottom lip. “You said Alex was

there…” He scratched his head. “Okay, wel I think that

might be where we need to start.”

“With Alex?” I gave him a quizzical look. “But he’s

not here…and we don’t know when he’l be back.”

“Here’s the thing, Gemma.” Laylen leaned in toward

me, his face holding such seriousness. “I think you’re

going to have to make a choice here on whether or

not you think we should go get him, because for one

thing, if you saw him in The Underworld with you,

you’re probably going to need him. Also, with as

pissed off as Nicholas probably is right now, Alex may

be in some serious trouble.”

“What kind of trouble?” I asked. “Alex never real y

explained what he was going to be doing there…Do

you know, though?”

Laylen’s Adam’s apple bobbed up and down as he

swal owed hard. “I think Alex didn’t tel you because

he thought it’d be better if you didn’t know.”

“It’s bad, though, right?” I shook my head. “Wel ,

obviously it has to be bad, otherwise someone would

have already told me what he was doing…Are they

like hurting him or something?”

Laylen didn’t answer, but his silence said it al .

Knowing that Alex was getting hurt…Wel , it was

making me hurt. Literal y. I could actual y feel this ache

in every part of my body. I think it was at this moment

that I realized that Alex’s and my electric connection

might be even deeper than I’d original y thought.

I remembered the vision where I saw him and me

as children, sitting on the floor of the little hide out,

with our hands pressed together whispering secret

words in Latin. Such a strange moment, considering

how we were now. What had changed? Me losing my

soul? Or was it something else—something more?

As I sat there next to Laylen, thinking about al of

this, I suddenly became extremely aware that whether

I wanted to save Alex or not, I had to. It real y wasn’t

my decision to make. It was my connection with him

that was going to make the decision, and the

connection was tel ing me I had to go save him. It was

a weird feeling.

“So how do we do it?” I took a shaky breath. “How

do we get Alex out of the City of Crystal?”

“So then you want to do it?” Laylen asked. “You

want to go get him?”

I nodded. “I think I have to. I mean, if I saw him in

The Underworld with me, it probably means he has to

be with me when I go there. Although I don’t have the

slightest clue how we’re going to get there, since

Nicholas took the Ira with him.”

“Okay…Wel , do you have any ideas about on how

to get us into the City of Crystal?” Laylen rubbed the

back of his neck tensely. “Because it might take some

time to find a Foreseer who wil lend us their little ruby

crystal bal that they use to travel to and from the city.

Besides, we kind of need to do this on our own so no

one knows we’re there.”

“I completely agree.” I told him. “And I think I know a

way.”

Those few days I’d spent with Nicholas ended up

not being a total waste of my time. He’d covered a lot

about Foreseers and the way that the use the crystals

energy to go in and out of visions. He also explained

to me that the crystals energy wasn’t just for going into

visions. It was also used every time Nicholas entered

the City of Crystal. And apparently,
all
of the individual

crystal bal s ran off of the energy belonging to a

massive crystal bal that stood in the center of the city.

Al the crystals bal s were connected. Because of this,

I had an idea that if I real y tried, I just might be able to

get us into the City of Crystal without a ruby-fil ed bal ,

thanks to my unique gift of being able to use the

crystals energy without actual y having to have a

crystal bal present.

But it was going to be tricky. I not only had to get us

into the city, but I also had to get us into the city in

present time, otherwise we wouldn’t be able to

communicate with anyone, or touch anything. This