The Underworld (4 page)

taking a nervous deep breath. “With my emotions…I

mean, am I…is it okay for me to have emotions?”

“I don’t know. I real y don’t anything right now.” He

looked at me funny, and I had the urge to bolt for the

door as the fear raced through me that he might

suddenly whip out the
memoria
extraho
and wipe

away my mind. “For now,” he said, “we’re not going to

do anything. Not until we know what’s going on.”

I was in no way, shape, or form relieved by what he

said. “For now?” I asked.

He didn’t say anything else. He just turned away,

cal ing over his shoulder. “Let’s go get you something

to eat."

I glared a fiery glare at the back of his head,

suddenly wishing I possessed pyrokinetic powers. I

refused to go through this again. Get left out of the

loop. Be given vague answers. I’d find out what I

wanted to know, before it was too late. I’d get to the

truth, whatever the cost.

Before going into the kitchen to get something to

eat, I decided to go upstairs to change out of the

pajamas I was wearing. Alex had told me, when I’d

asked him if there was something else I could wear

besides pajamas, that there were some clothes Aislin

had picked out for me up in the room I’d woken up in.

As I dragged myself up the stairs, I thought about

everything I’d just been told. It felt like I hadn’t been

told anything real y. Like always, I had a huge list of

unanswered questions roaming around in my head.

And I was worried. Worried about whether or not Alex

had told me anything truthful. Worried about why the

Death Walkers had just up and left. Worried that Alex

would suddenly decide I wasn’t supposed to feel

anymore and try to take my emotions away from me.

I reached the top of the staircase and let out a

heavy sigh. Lost. Was lost considered an emotion?

Because that’s how I felt.

I was half out of it, consumed by my thoughts, as I

opened the door to the room. But right as I went to pul

the door open, it swung open on its own, and

someone grabbed me by the arm and yanked me

inside.

I opened my mouth to scream, but another hand

came down over my mouth, and al I could do was

think,
great. Now what?

“Gemma,” a voice whispered in my ear.

I frantical y tried to wriggle my way free from

whoever had a hold of me. My heart pounded inside

my chest as thoughts of who it could be blasted

through my mind. Stephan? A Death Walker? Some

other kind of monster?

Whoever it was had ice-cold skin, so I was leaning

toward a Death Walker or another kind of similar

monster.

“Jesus Christ, Gemma. Calm down.”

This time my brain registered who the voice

belonged to and, feeling kind of stupid, I stopped my

pathetic fight to get away. Laylen let go of me, and I let

my breathing slow down to a normal pace.

“
What
are you doing?” I asked, breathing heavily.

“You scared the heck out of me.”
Again
.

“Shhh…” Laylen put his finger up to his deep red

lips, glanced around the room, and then shut the door.

“Keep your voice down.”

“Why?” My voice came out way too loud so I

lowered it. “Sorry. But why do I have to keep my voice

down?”

He glanced around the room again, seeming

nervous, and then locked the door. “So what do you

think about what Alex told you?”

Hmm…so had I been wrong about Laylen trusting

Alex? “I don’t know…What do you think about it?”

He tilted his head from side to side, wavering. “I’m

not sure…it just seems a little too…”

“Simple,” I finished for him.

He nodded. “Exactly. Aislin and I show up there and

Stephan and the Death Walkers are conveniently

gone. It just doesn’t make any sense.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought too.” I paused,

considering what it could mean. But in my typical

confused style, I felt as lost as ever. “So what do you

think real y happened?”

He shrugged. “I have no idea. But I know the

chance of the Death Walkers just leaving when they

know you have the star’s energy in you, is slim to

none. And I think it’s real y suspicious that Stephan

just passed out like that.”

“Wel , Alex told me that Stephan passed out

because of this.” I lifted up my locket, the purple stone

reflecting sharply in the lighting of the room. “That this

little stone is sugilite and that because I was wearing

it, and Stephan tried to use harmful magic on me, it

made him black out.”

Laylen took the locket in his hand, rubbing the

purple stone with his thumb. The necklace was stil

attached to my neck, so I had to crank my head

forward, putting my neck in an awkward position.

“That’s interesting….” he murmured and let the

locket go, releasing my neck from its uncomfortable

position. “It’s sugilite, but stil …” His expression

twisted with confusion.

“What? Does sugilite not protect people from

certain kinds of magic like Alex said?” I mean, real y,

the odds were pretty high that Alex had been lying.

“No, it does.” He paused. “But I don’t get it. Alex

gives you this necklace that has sugilite, knowing if

someone uses magic on you, to let’s say take your

emotions or mind away, that it won’t work. And that it’l

end up doing harm to whoever is using the magic on

you. Yet, supposedly, at least according to the

Keepers, you’re not supposed to have any emotions.

So what would be the point of Alex protecting you

from the thing he’s been tel ing you has to be done?”

I frowned, not at Laylen, but at the mention of my

emotions. “So Alex told you everything then?”

“Yeah, but it doesn’t mean I believe every part of

what he said.”

“Me neither,” I agreed. My leg was kil ing me, so I

went over and sat down on the bed, and Laylen

fol owed, sitting down next to me. “So what else did

Alex tel you?”

He gave me a sort of amused look. “Wel , he told

me that you guys took a little trip to the City of Crystal,

where you found out that you’re a Foreseer.”

I swal owed hard. “Did he tel about the vision I had

to go into while I was at the City of Crystal?”

“He did.” Laylen answered with hesitance.

I hated to be reminded of that vision, and just

talking about it shoved the memory of it into my mind;

Stephan forcing my mom to go into lake—the

entrance to The Underworld—where she’d been

tortured to insanity by Water Faeries.

“You okay?” Laylen asked.

“I’m fine.” My voice sounded choked. There was a

gap of silence before I asked, “Do you think there’s a

way she can stil be alive? My mom, I mean.”

Laylen sat there, looking at me, not in a feeling-

sorry-for-me kind of way, but more as if he was

seriously contemplating what I’d asked him. Part of

me grew eager that he might say yes; that there was a

possibility that my mother, who I hadn’t seen since I

was four years-old, and could barely remember a

thing about—thanks to the detachment of my soul

from my emotions causing my memories to be

erased away as wel —might stil be alive.

“I don’t know, Gemma,” he said softly. “She’s been

down there for a
really
long time.”

My eagerness dropped to the floor and shattered

like glass. “Oh. Okay.”

“Now hold on one second before you go getting that

sad look on your face. Al I said was that she’s been

down there for awhile, not that there was no way she

could be alive.”

I tried to keep my excitement to a bare minimum.

“So, are you saying that there might be a chance she

stil is?”

He twisted his lip ring from side to side. “Maybe…

There’ve been some people that have survived the

Water Faeries tortured for a long amount of time

without going too insane. And there have even been a

few people that have escaped The Underworld

before.”

“There have!” I shouted, and then made an oh-crap

face at the loudness of my voice. We both stayed

silent for a moment, making sure no one had heard

and had decided to head upstairs to check on me.

The house was quiet, as stil as the hot desert air, the

only noise coming from the humming of engines from

the cars passing by. “Sorry,” I whispered. “But I’m just

real y confused. The way Alex made it sound, it

seemed like there was hardly any way that anyone

could ever escape The Underworld. That once they

were sent down there, they were basical y trapped

there until they died from the torture.”

Laylen’s bright blue eyes twinkled mischievously.

“Yeah, but Alex doesn’t hang around with the same

kind of crowd as I do, does he? You learn a lot of stuff

when you’re not just limited to the Keepers circle.”

Now I was letting myself get a little excited over

what Laylen was saying. Wel , except for the fact that

he said “crowd.” What kind of crowd were we talking

about here? Vampire crowd? Witch crowd? Black

Angel crowd? Al were possibilities, and there were

probably other possibilities that I didn’t even know

about.

“Is there any way we could find someone who wil

maybe help us find out if she’s alive? And help us find

out if there’s a way we could get her out of The

Underworld if she is?” I held my breath as I waited for

him to answer.

It took him a second, but he nodded. “It won’t be

easy, though…And it’l be dangerous.”

I should have been scared. But after you’ve faced a

swarm of murderous Death Walkers, been hit by their

Chil of Death, and stared into the eyes of a man who

is trying to wipe your mind away, “dangerous”

becomes a little easier to deal with. “So you’re saying

that maybe we could go and talk to someone about

her?”

He mul ed over my question for so long that I was

sure he was going to say no. “Yeah, I think we might

be able to do that.”

“Real y,” I was practical y bouncing. “Are you

serious?”

He nodded. “I think your mom may know more

about what’s going on than anyone does. I think that

might be part of the reason why Stephan sent her

there—so she couldn’t tel anyone what she knew.”

“I think so too,” I agreed. “In fact, in the vision, she

told Stephan that one day he’d get caught and that he

didn’t have everyone wrapped around his finger.”

“Then I think the sooner we can find out if she’s

alive the better. And maybe we can put al this

madness together and get some real answers.” He

paused. “But I don’t want you to get too excited, just in

case things don’t turn out the way…the way you want

them to.”

“I won’t,” I assured him, but I stil couldn’t help but

get a little excited. Wel , okay, I was beyond excited. In

fact, I think I’d hit a whole new level of excitement

and…yep, there it was. The prickle.

I know. I know. I was total y setting myself up for

some serious heart-ache here. But I couldn’t control

myself at the moment. Just seeing my mother…it

would be amazing. Especial y after being raised by

Marco and Sophia, who were two of the most cold-

hearted people I knew. Wel , besides Stephan.

Wait. Hold on. “Laylen, what happened to Marco

and Sophia?”

“I have no idea,” he said with a shrug. “No one

does. They just up and disappeared.”

Hmmm…very strange. So did that mean they were

playing on the good side or the bad side?

I opened my mouth to ask Laylen this, but a knock

at the door caused Laylen and I to jump to our feet.

“Gemma,” Alex’s voice floated through the door.

“Are you in there?”

“Uh…Yeah,” I cal ed out. “Just a second.” I turned to

Laylen and whispered. “Great. What am I supposed to

tel him when he asked why you’re in here?”

“You’re not going to tel him,” Laylen whispered,

searching for a place to hide. “If he knows I am in

here, he’l know something’s up. And if he knows what

we’re planning to do, he'l go out of his way to make

sure it doesn’t happen.”

Excel ent point. Alex would say it was too

dangerous, at least for me anyway. Because that’s