The Underworld (11 page)

haven’t seen since I was four, and who just might have

some answers to what Stephan is planning to do with

the star’s energy, could stil be alive. And not just

alive, but she could be trapped down in The

Underworld,
and
has been trapped down there for

fourteen years now, working as the Queen’s slave.”

Something I said made his expression change.

“Why do you think she’s the Queen’s slave?”

“That’s the reason why Vladislav said she was stil

alive,” I told him, my fingers stil wrapped around his

arm, his bare skin pressed against my own, causing

lots and lots of static to flow through me.

“The Queens slave,” he said, shaking his head. “I

can’t believe it.”

“Why?” I asked. “Is it…bad?”

He shook his head. “No…wel , it’s better than being

the Water Faerie’s torture victim…but the Queen

usual y doesn’t use humans for slaves...”

“But that’s the reason she’s stil alive, right?” I

asked.

Silence.

“Even if she is alive,” he said, looking at me

gravely. “She probably wouldn’t be the same Jocelyn

—being there for that long, it most likely wil have

changed her.”

I swal owed hard, my voice barely audible as I said,

“Okay...I understand.”

“Do you?” He raised an eyebrow at me. “Because

just imagine being stuck in a place like that—a place

of death, where fear and torture is common—for over

fourteen years.” He lowered his voice. “Even if

Vladislav was tel ing the truth—even if she’s stil alive,

she’s probably not your mother anymore.”

“She’s probably not my mother anymore,” I

repeated in outrage as I let go of his arm. “She’l

always be my mother no matter what.”

He shook his head. “”Gemma, you don’t

understand. The torture that goes on…the way the

Water Faeries instil the fear in people…her mind is

probably gone.”

I touched my locket with my hand, thinking of how

my mother had given it to me when I was little, even

though I couldn’t remember her doing so. “It doesn’t

matter what she’s like now because I don’t have

anything to compare her to before.”

There was pity in his bright green eyes. “Gemma,

stil —”

I cut him off. “Do you know a way to get her out of

there or not?”

“I don’t,” he said simply.

I held his gaze. “Is that the truth?”

He paused and I felt my heart skip a beat.
He

knows something.
Oh yes he did. I could feel it. I could

see it on his face and how he avoided looking at me.

“Please just tel me the truth,” I practical y begged.

He sighed, leaning back against the arm of the

chair. “Even if I did…know something…I wouldn’t

actual y do it. It’s way too dangerous.”

“So what if it’s dangerous,” I said. “Everything’s

dangerous—I’m dangerous, and yet you’re stil here

helping me.”
I hope.
“She’s my mom, Alex. And

besides, she might know something. Your dad didn’t

just send her there for no reason.”

“Even if she does know something, and she is

actual y mental y there enough to tel us what she

knows, it doesn’t mean I think it’s a good idea to go

there. We can get our answers somewhere else.”

I told myself to keep my cool—
breathe in, breathe

out
—but it was hard when it came to Alex. Especial y

when it came to getting answers from him. It was like

a freaking mind game of who could outwit who.

“Where else can we get answers?”

He didn’t answer me, and I started to wonder if he

wasn’t going to answer me because he real y didn’t

have an answer to give me. And honestly, at that

moment, I questioned whether he knew anything at al .

Maybe he was just as lost as everyone else, and

perhaps deep down inside, he wanted to save my

mother, if for no other reason, so then maybe he could

figure al of this out. Of course, even if this were true, it

didn’t mean he was going to help me out.

I got to my feet, giving up on him. I had other people

I could go to.

He jumped to his feet as I tried to scoot by him.

“Where are you going?”

“To find Laylen—see if he and I can figure out a way

to save my mom.” I started for the doorway.

He caught me by the arm and pul ed me back down

on the sofa. “Hang on just a sec, before you go

freaking out.”

I wiggled my arm free. “I wasn’t freaking out. I just

don’t want to hear what you have to say unless it’s

going to help me get my mom out of that awful place.”

He massaged the sides of his temples with his

fingers and let out a stressed breath. “If we were to do

this—if we were to go to The Underworld and try to

save your mother, you’d have to promise me that

you’d do everything I told you to do.” He looked up at

me. “If I tel you something’s too dangerous for you,

you’d have to listen.”

I considered this. I know I might sound like a brat

here, but the idea of doing
everything
he told me to

do was making my insides burn. I’d done that too

much already. And besides, what if he was playing

me? “I don’t know….”

He shrugged. “Then no deal.”

No deal. His words echoed in my head, and I felt

torn. In the end, though, I think I knew that I would

make the deal. I just hoped that his side of the deal

was genuine—that Alex would final y come through for

me. “Okay, it’s a deal. Now how do we do it?”

He sighed, got to his feet, and looked down at me

with a very unhappy expression. “The first thing we do

is bring Nicholas here.”

“Bring Nicholas here?” I frowned at him. “Like the

faerie/Foreseer/likes-to-invade-my-personal-space

Nicholas?”

He nodded, trying hard not to smile as he slipped

his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “That would be

the one.”

I sat there for a second, processing this. “But why

do we need him?”

“Because we need a Foreseer.”

I pointed at myself. “You have one right here.”
Hello.

He pressed back a grin as if I’d just told him a joke

or something. “I understand that, but it’s not just the

power of a Foreseer that we need. We also need a

special kind of crystal bal cal ed an
Ira
.”

“Okay, but…Does Nicholas have to be the one to

give us this Ira?”

“I think he’l be our best bet.” When I kept frowning

he continued, “None of this is going to be easy,

Gemma. Nothing ever is. You should know that by

now.”

“I do know that,” I said, thinking about my mom, me,

my soul, and my emotions. None of them were easy. “I

know that way too wel .”

We stared at each other, having this weird moment

of understanding, like our thoughts had momentarily

connected. Sometimes I real y wished our thoughts

could connect, that way I’d be able to read his mind

and know if he was tel ing the truth.

“So…what do we have to do, then?” I asked,

breaking our weird connection moment. “I mean, how

do we get Nicholas here? Or do we have to go get

him.” God, I hoped we didn’t have to go get him

because I real y didn’t want to go back to the City of

Crystal again.

“No, we can’t go get him.” He sighed. “We have to

bring him here.”

“Okay…wel …Are you sure there isn’t another way

to get this Ira crystal bal ?” I asked. “Maybe Adessa

has one.”

“It’s not the kind of a crystal bal she’d have,” Alex

explained. “It’s one of a kind—the one Foreseers use

to travel to and from places that no one is al owed to

travel to.”

“Of course it is,” I said, feeling frustrated. “Because,

if it wasn’t, then it would make things easy. And I think

we both already agreed that nothing is ever easy.”

He gave me a smal smile. “Yeah. I think we did.”

“So what do we do then—to get this Ira traveling

crystal bal thingy?”

He shifted his weight uneasily. “We get Nicholas

here and see if we can persuade him to give it to us.”

I thought about the half-faerie, and how being

around him had creeped me out. And asking him for a

favor…Nicholas was so the last person I ever wanted

to
persuade
for a favor. Wel , besides Stephan.

“Are you sure there’s not someone else we can go

and get it from?” I asked again just to make sure.

He shook his head. “Only another Foreseer—

they’re the only ones who know of its existence.”

“Wel , then how do
you
know it exists?” I wondered.

He didn’t look at me. He was staring off into space

as he answered, “My father told me about it once.”

“Oh.” Was al I could think of to say.

Next to my feet lay a clock that had been knocked

on the floor during Laylen and Alex’s fight. The glass

had been shattered and it was letting off an unsteady

tick tock, which was the only sound fil ing in the

silence. Tick tock. Tick Tock. Just like a ticking time

bomb. It was like a warning that we were running out

of time. We needed to find answers, before Stephan

found us—or should I say found me. The world was

depending on it.

“Okay, so we get Nicholas and then what? We just

ask him to give us the Ira crystal bal ?” I asked,

doubting that it would be that easy.

“Something like that,” Alex spoke through gritted

teeth.

“Are you okay?” I asked, picking up on some

uneasiness flowing off of him.

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know…you tel me.”

He didn’t answer as he picked up the broken clock

and flipped it over to the back, fiddling with the knob.

Tick Tock. Tick tock. The ticking and tocking was

slowing down to a gurgle.

“So we get the Ira crystal bal , and we use it to go to

The Underworld?” I asked, making sure that was the

plan.

Stil no answer as he twisted the knob on the soon-

to-be-dead clock.

I stood up. “Alex…if I use this Ira crystal bal , what

does that mean for the promise you made to

Dyvinius?”

Tick…tock…tick…The clock stopped.

Times up.

Alex set the clock down on the floor. “That’s not for

you to worry about.”

“Just tel me what happens if I use the crystal?” I

asked, taking a step back as he walked by me.

“I already told you that was my problem,” he said,

his voice tight. “I made the promise. Not you.”

“But that doesn’t—” I started.

“Look,” he turned around to face me, “”I’l figure

something out, okay? Do you want to get your mother

out or not?”

I nodded. “I do, but I—”

“Okay, then let’s go summon Nicholas.”

Before we set out to bring Nicholas here, we first

went to go find Laylen and Aislin and let them in on

our little plan. I felt kind of proud of myself that I’d

gotten Alex to cooperate, but I also had a ping in my

gut when I thought about how he was going to have to

fulfil the promise he’d made to Dyvinius. Although I

wasn’t sure what that promise was exactly, I figured it

had to be bad. The dark look that had passed over

Dyvinius’s eyes when he gotten Alex to make the

promise had proved that it was bad.

As we searched the downstairs for Laylen and

Aislin, I casual y mentioned to Alex that maybe he

should apologize to Laylen for accusing him of biting

me, because I figured it would make things easier if

the two of them weren’t fighting. He ignored my casual

suggestion, though, so I decided I would drop it….For

now, anyway.

We found Laylen and Aislin in one of the bedrooms

upstairs. Aislin was sitting cross-legged on the bed,

stil wearing her plaid pajamas. Laylen was sitting in a

corner chair, and I could tel he was stil al worked up

over the fight. But I also got the impression that Alex

and I might have interrupted a very serious

conversation going on between the two of them, like

we might have shattered a private moment they had

been having.

Alex gave both of them a quick rundown of our plan.

After he had finished, Aislin sat on the bed, a shocked

look frozen on her face. Laylen secretly gave me an I-

told-you-so look because he had guessed that Alex

would know how to get into to The Underworld.

Something occurred to me as I stood there staring

at the maroon wal s of the bedroom, with my hand

pressed to my bitten neck. Had it real y been