The Underworld (22 page)

was the reason why Foreseers used the ruby-fil ed

crystal bal to get in and out of the city, because it took

them there in the present time.

Although I was a bit skeptical that I could actual y

pul it off, it was al I had at the moment. So I started

practicing day and night. At first, I couldn’t even figure

out how to jumpstart whatever was sending me into

visions. But then I caught on that it was connected to

my emotions. Take for instances, when I was bitten by

Vladislav. There had been a ton of emotion running

through me then, which was why I think I ended up

slipping into a vision. And when I’d drifted away while

sitting on the couch with Laylen, I had been retrieving

some of my lost memories, which, like Alex had

pointed out once, were very deeply connected to my

emotions.

So, after a lot of practice, I figured out that nine out

of ten times experiencing an intense emotion equaled

vision access. Of course, this put a lot of pressure on

my newfound ability to experience emotion. And

experiencing one on demand didn’t always work out

the way that I wanted.

It was with Laylen’s help that I final y started to get

the hang of things.

It was my fifth practice day, and Laylen and I were in

the room he was staying in. I was sitting on the bed

with my legs crossed, facing him as he sat in a chair

he’d dragged over beside the bed.

“So what do you want to feel today?” he asked me.

“Happy, sad, scared, worried.”

“Not worried,” I said quickly. “That one is not fun at

al , and when we used that feeling last time, I ended

up getting stuck in the vision for awhile, like the feeling

wasn’t strong enough to last or something.”

“True,” Laylen agreed. “Besides, the scared one, I

think, was my favorite.”

I shook my head. “No it wasn’t—you almost gave

me a heart attack."

He smiled, this beautiful, pleased smile. “Yeah, but

it was fun.”

I shook my head, thinking how in no way, shape, or

form was Laylen jumping out from behind a closed

door to scare me fun. “Wel , let’s not do that one,

okay. Let’s do something else—something easier on

my heart.”

He gave me an intrigued look. “How about we try

happy? We haven’t done that one yet.”

My mouth instantly fel to a frown. “We haven’t done

that one yet, because I’m not sure I know how to feel

happy yet. Wel , I mean sometimes when I look at the

stars I think I might feel happy…but I don’t know. I think

it might be a different kind of happiness then what

you’re talking about. Maybe not, though…I don’t

know…”

He didn’t look at me with sympathy like I’d expected

him to do, but more with determination. “Wel , then I

think it’s about time you knew for sure if you have.”

Oh, Laylen. Sometimes he made my heart ache—

in a good way. “I wish it was that easy, but…I mean,

how—how do we do it—make me happy.”

“You can’t force happiness, it just comes.” He

leaned back in his chair, his face twisted in deep

thought. “I think you and I both could use a little bit of

fun…a little bit of relaxation.”

I stared at him like he was insane. “How are we

supposed to relax, when we’ve got so many non-

relaxing things to deal with?”

“We take a break,” he said as if it were that

uncomplicated.

“You say it as if it’s that simple, but it’s not. I mean,

we can’t go anywhere, since we have Stephan, the

Death Walkers, Demetrius, and a lot of vampires after

us,” I told him, counting out the list on my fingers.

“Besides, do you know how to have fun, because I

don’t?”

He got a look on his face that could only be

described as a look someone got when they were

about to do something they weren’t supposed to. “I

think I have an idea.”

“
This
is what you think wil make me have fun and

be happy,” I asked Laylen, staring up at the enormous

rol ercoaster, the tracks twisting and turning and

flipping in loops, like a giant death trap. And the busy

sidewalk we were standing on made me even more

uneasy. Al it would take was for one wrong person to

walk by us and we’d be screwed. But Laylen had

sworn that we would be fine, because almost

everything that was after at us, more than likely

wouldn’t come out during the daytime; and that the

bundles and bundles of people roaming around would

keep us inconspicuous.

However, I wasn’t as optimistic. Being around

people had never real y been my thing. And when I

had a crazy man with a scar, and his yel ow-eyed,

Chil of Death assailants after me, being around a

huge group of people was definitely not my thing.

“This is what you think wil make me feel happy?” I

asked again just to make sure I understood him right.

“A rol ercoaster?”

Laylen nodded, looking absolutely sure.

So we headed up.

I couldn’t believe I was doing this. Riding a

rol ercoaster—never in a mil ion years would I have

ever thought I would be doing such a thing; and doing

such a thing when we were being hunted.

But Laylen was persistent, guiding me along as we

weaved up the aisle, until we reached the ticket area,

where he purchased two tickets, and then the cashier

sent us on our way to the loading area.

It was there that I realized that my jittery nerves

weren’t just because I was worried we might run into

someone. I was also jittery about the idea of getting

on a rol ercoaster. So by the time I slid onto the

leather seat in the far back cart, I was trembling.

“You’l be fine,” Laylen assured me, pul ing down the

bars that would—hopeful y—hold him in the cart when

it whipped upside down.

I pul ed down my bars and secured them tightly

against my shoulders. I heard someone from the front

let out a scream as the cart started to creak forward. I

held as stil as a statue, my hands gripping the bars

tightly. The wheels clanked as the cart rose up the

tracks; the brightness of the sun glared in my eyes.

There was a pause, where the cart just hovered at the

top, and for a split second I thought we were stuck, but

then it lurched forward and dropped. Then we were

flying, wind blowing through my hair as the car went up

and down, flipping loops and taking sharp turns. In the

beginning I was terrified, but by the end I was

laughing. And I mean real y laughing. I wanted to hold

onto this moment with every ounce of strength I had in

me and never let it go.

By the time we stepped off of the cart and back

onto the ground, I had tears rol ing down my cheeks.

“Was I right or what?” Laylen asked, grinning from

ear to ear.

I nodded, wiping my tears from my cheeks. It was

the first time I’d ever had to wipe tears of happiness

away. Who would have thought riding a rol ercoaster

would have brought them out.

“So you’re happy?” Laylen asked, looking at me

with hopeful eyes.

“Yeah…I think I am.” I felt the back of my neck

where the prickle was poking and then I felt myself

starting to fal . “I think I…I …” I was slipping away and

before I crashed onto the floor, I grabbed a hold of

Laylen’s arm. But instead of catching me, I ended up

yanking him down with me.

Yanking us down, down, down as the City of Crystal

flashed through my mind.

My face smacked hard against the floor. And I

mean hard.

I pushed myself up to my feet, rubbing my sure-to-

have-a-goose-bump forehead. My jaw just about hit

the floor when I noticed that my feet were planted

firmly on top of a translucent crystal floor, a midnight

river flowing beneath it, bits and pieces of gold

twinkling in the water like stars. Dark red crystals hung

from the glittery charcoal ceiling above, and to the

side of me, rubies waved across the snow-white

crystal wal s.

The City of Crystal.

I can’t believe I’d pul ed it off. I felt like such a bad

ass.

I glanced to the side of me, praying that Laylen

would be standing there, but he wasn’t.

“Laylen,” I cal ed out quietly, my eyes searching the

cave. The sound of a light breeze was the only thing

that answered me back. “Laylen?” I started to walk

toward a bridge that was paved with broken pieces of

porcelain. “Are you here?

A soft bang came from behind me, and I spun

around, afraid of what I would find, but my racing heart

instantly settled when I saw Laylen.

I let out a breath of relief. “For a second, I thought I

didn’t bring you with me.”

“For a second, I thought I died.” He glanced around

at the cave made of glass and crystal. “This place

is…interesting.”

“Yeah, it is” I agreed. “Wait…You haven’t been here

before?”

He shook his head, his fingers tracing the rubies

curving along the crystal wal . “Not too many people

have.”

People? Neither of us were real y considered

people, were we? In fact, everyone I knew had a

mark of some sort. “So, which way do you think wil

take us to Alex?” I asked him.

“Your guess is as good as mine.” Laylen dropped

his hand from the wal and turned to me. “You’ve been

here before, though, so your guess is probably

better.”

“Wel , you know what Alex is doing down here,” I

pointed out. “So if you’d tel me…”

He considered this, and then said, “He’s doing

something with this big crystal bal that channels

energy to al the Foreseer’s crystal bal s…But

Gemma, I’m warning you that if we do find him, it’s not

going to be pretty.”

“How so?” I asked. “I mean, what’s he doing with

this big crystal that’s so bad?”

Laylen swept his bangs away from his face, looking

uncomfortable “Wel …that big crystal col ects its

energy from…people. And the way the energy is

col ected…it’s pretty bad from what I’ve been told.”

I nodded, trying to ignore the sickening feeling

building in my stomach. “Okay, I remember Nicholas

mentioning a big crystal bal . I think he said it was in

the heart of the City of Crystal, whatever that means.”

Laylen glanced from left to right. “So which way?”

Wow. It felt so weird to be the one in charge, but I

guess I’d give the position my best try.

“Wel …” I looked to my right, at the bridge paved of

porcelain, which I knew led to the Palace. Then I

looked to my left, where al I could see was the crystal

floor stretching down the cave. Having to pick

between the two choices, I decided that it would be

best to head away from the Palace because I figured

we’d more likely get caught by someone if we went

that way. “I say we go left.”

“Left it is,” Laylen said and we started off to our left.

“So, do you think Nicholas was up to something, or

do you think he was just hanging around?” I asked,

keeping my voice low.

“He could have been just hanging around,” Laylen

said. “He seems to have a deep fascination with you.”

“I don’t know why, though.” I shook my head. “No

one’s ever wanted to hang around me before.”

Laylen gave me a strange look. “Why do you think

that?”

I shrugged. “Because I never had any friends in

school, wel until Alex came along, but that was just

him trying to figure out why I started to feel again. He

wasn’t hanging around me because he wanted to.”

“Gemma.” Laylen’s voice was deep—pressing.

“The only reason you never had any friends was

because of how you
were
. But that’s not how you real y

are, and you need to realize that. And trust me, Alex

enjoys being around you more than he lets on.”

“If that’s true,” I said, dragging my fingers along the

wal as we walked, “then it’s because of the

electricity.”

“Trust me, it’s more than that.” He pondered

something for a good-long while before continuing.

“Alex puts on this huge front when it comes to how he

feels about things, but if you’ve known him for as long

as I have, then you’d know it’s mostly an act.”

I was just about to open my mouth and tel him that I

stil didn’t believe that Alex liked being around me, but

the sound of approaching footsteps made me stop.

Laylen and I froze, and we both shot a quick glance