The Underworld (37 page)

She’d been staring at the broken glass, but blinked

up at me when I said her name. Any acknowledgment

she had of me was gone, and I could see it in her

bright blue eyes that she, again, did not know who I

was. She grabbed a vase from off a nearby desk and

threw it at the floor.

“Jocelyn,” Alex said, and she looked at him, tears

dripping down her cheeks. Alex took a slow step

toward her, but froze when she screamed.

Then her eyes slipped shut and she col apsed to

the floor.

This was not how I pictured my reunion with my

mom. Maybe I had been delusional, but I always

pictured it as much more welcoming and fil ed with

hugs, despite the fact that Alex had warned me that

the Jocelyn everyone knew might be no more.

Instead of giving me hugs, she’d lost it and had

passed out on the floor in the middle of the broken

glass.

“Is she going to be okay?” I asked Alex, who was

leaning over my mother, checking her wrist for a

pulse.

“She’s alive…” he said, setting her arm down

gently. “I don’t know what’s wrong with her, though.”

“She didn’t just pass out.”

“I don’t know, she could have, but…”

“But what?” I hated it when he trailed off like that,

leaving his sentences hanging in the air.

“But with where she’s been, and how long she’s

been there, I can’t say for sure what’s wrong. She

could be in shock or something.”

I felt so frustrated I could have screamed. I kicked at

some broken glass. “So what do we do now?”

He shrugged. “I guess we go back to Maryland—to

Laylen and Aislin and wait until your mom wakes up.”

“And, what if she doesn’t?”

He didn’t answer.

Thank goodness my Foreseer gift was working

again. Otherwise we would have had a very long drive

back to Maryland. I managed to get us back to the

beach house without any problems. My mom was stil

out when we arrived, and Alex carried her back to an

empty room, leaving me to explain what had

happened to Aislin and Laylen.

Al three of us sat in the living room, and they

listened to me ramble on and on about our journey to

The Underworld. By the time I finished giving them the

details, Alex had returned. He looked tired. There

were bags under his eyes, his hair was messy, and

the lake’s water had crinkled his clothes. It had

crinkled mine as wel and the fabric felt dry and rough

against my skin.

“So, al the Water Faeries just passed out?” Aislin

asked, her bright green eyes wide.

I nodded. "Yeah, one moment they were trying to do

some kind of torture thing on my soul with that

diamond we took down there, and the next moment

they were on the ground.”

“Was it because they were trying to do something

to your…soul?” Aislin asked worriedly.

“I don’t know what happened exactly.” But I wouldn’t

be surprised if my soul had done it, seeing as how it

was broken.

“I don’t think it was your soul that did it,” Alex

interrupted, sitting down beside me. “I think it was

because of the overload of fear you shot at them.”

“What overload of fear?” I looked at him funny. “Al I

did was scream.”

He looked as though he was choosing his next

words very careful y. “I think because your emotions

are so new to you that sometimes they come off a

little….strong. And with the excessive amount of fear

you shot at the Water Faeries, I think it sent them into

shock.”

“
Strong
,” I said, insulted.

He pressed his lips together, doing that thing that

he hadn’t done in awhile. You know the one where he

is trying to hide the fact that he finds my irritation

amusing.

The look—which used to make me angry—was

having a different effect on me. It was making my skin

tingle, and I was pretty sure it wasn’t from the

electricity. But I refused to let him know this, or he

would probably do it to me al the time, which honestly,

wasn’t sounding that bad to me at the moment.

“So how are we going to get my mom to wake up?”

I asked, changing the subject.

The looked Alex was giving me was quickly erased.

“Gemma…I don’t know for sure that she wil .”

“But you don’t know for sure that she won’t,” I

pointed out.

Everyone looked at me, and I could see it on their

faces. They felt sorry for me. Even Laylen looked at

me this way. But why? Because they al thought my

mom wasn’t going to ever wake up.

“Gemma,” Alex started to say.

“I don’t want to hear it,” I told him. “She’l wake up. I

know she wil .” Then I stood up and headed back to

my mom.

She looked dead. I wasn’t even going to try and

sugarcoat it because that’s how she looked. She lay

in a bed with her eyes shut. Her veins were a dark

purplish-blue against her pale skin. The rise and fal of

her chest was the only thing that let me know she was

stil alive.

“Mom,” I whispered, staring down at her. The

prickle traced down my neck, and suddenly the word

“mom” didn’t seem so awkward. “Mom,” I said louder,

tears soaking my eyes “Mom.”

And then I was fal ing down on the bed next to her,

crying. And I cried until I fel asleep.

When I woke up, dawn was hitting the windows.

The ocean’s waves were swishing outside, and the

house was silent. My eyes felt puffy and swol en, and I

wondered how long I had been crying before I fel

asleep. I sat up and rubbed my eyes.

“Gemma.”

Her voice scared the crap out of me, and I fel out of

the bed.

“Ow,” I said, rubbing my elbow as I got back to my

feet.

My mom was sitting up in the bed, staring at me in

alarm. “Are you alright?”

I nodded at her, giving her the same look of alarm.

“Are you alright?”

She swal owed hard and then started coughing. “I

think I need some water.”

“Okay, I’l go get you some,” I told her.

I quickly went into the kitchen, took a glass out of

the cupboard, and flipped on the faucet. While I was

fil ing up a cup of water, I thought I heard someone

move up behind me, and I nearly screamed at the top

of my lungs when I turned and came face to face with

a very tal , blue-eyed, blond-haired vampire/Keeper.

“Holy crap.” I pressed my hand to my racing heart.

“You just about scared me to death.”

“Sorry,” he apologized like it was his fault I was so

jumpy. He had on a pair of jeans and a dark red t-

shirt, so I was guessing he had been awake for awhile

“I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“It’s okay…” I glanced around the kitchen. “What are

you doing?”

He shrugged, looking so sad it made my heart hurt.

“I don’t know…I heard someone get up, so I came to

check who it was.”

“Oh.” I shut off the faucet. “I didn’t wake you up, did

I?”

He shook his head. “I was already awake.”

“So is my mom,” I told him, excitedly.

“Is she…okay?”

“I don’t know. But I’m going to go find out.” I headed

to leave, but stopped at the doorway. “You want to

come with me?”

“Wouldn’t you rather go wake up Alex,” Laylen said,

stil standing over by the sink. “I’m sure he has a ton of

questions for her.”

I had a ton of questions for her, but I needed to

make sure she was alright before I started

bombarding her with them, which was exactly why I

wasn’t going to go wake up Alex. “I’d rather you

come.”

“Okay.” He nodded and fol owed me out of the

kitchen.

During our thirty second walk to my mom, I asked

Laylen how things had been while Alex and I were

gone. He told me they had been fine—that everything

was fine—but I could tel that they weren’t. He seemed

real y unfocused. I decided that a little later I would ask

Aislin how he had been while we were gone. But first,

I needed to check on my mother.

She wasn’t in the bed when we entered the room.

She was out on the deck, staring out at the ocean. I

careful y approached her, the floorboards creaking

underneath my weight, but she didn’t turn around.

I came to a stop beside her and handed her the cup

of water. She took a few swal ows and set the glass

on the railing. I waited for her to say something, but al

she did was look out at the ocean with a lost

expression on her face.

“Mom,” I said, concerned she might have slipped

into a state of shock again.

My mother turned and looked at me. Then her eyes

moved to Laylen. “Laylen…is that you?”

He stepped up beside me. “Yeah, it’s me.”

She smiled, but it looked wrong, like she had to

work real y hard to make the corners of her mouth

curve upward. “You’ve grown up so much.” She

looked at me, and in the brightness of the rising sun, I

could see her eyes held a deep sorrow in them. “And

you…” she burst into tears, alarming me. “You’re—

You’re stil …” she trailed off, thinking about something

as tears continued to stream down her cheeks. Then

she let out a sigh. “You’re stil you.”

I wasn’t sure what to tel her—that I wasn’t stil me,

but someone trying to figure out how to be me. But I

was afraid saying this might break her heart, and she

already looked real y broken.

“So what’s been going on,” she asked and took

another sip of water, “while I’ve been gone.”

What happened? That was the mil ion dol ar

question, wasn’t it? I took a deep breath and started

to explain.

***

on everything that had happened. There was so much

though, and truthful y, I real y didn’t know much. But I

told her everything I knew. I told her about my lifeless

years and how the prickle came and freed me. I told

her about the Death Walkers and how Stephan was

working with them. How he had the Mark of

Malefiscus and how he put the mark on Nicholas. I

explained to her my special Foreseer gift and the

visions I saw. And even though I didn’t want to, I gave

her the details of how Stephan had tried to take it al

away from me again. And how the locket—the locket

she gave me—had saved me.

She took it al in, processing my every word. When I

struggled with certain details, Laylen jumped in and

aided me through them. We also had to explain to her

what Laylen was, even though it real y didn’t have

anything to do with any of this. But I felt like she should

know everything—after being trapped in a place of

death and fear for as long as she had.

When I was done, she sat there in silence. We were

stil out on the deck. The sun was beaming down. The

ocean was roaring and people were out on the beach,

splashing and playing in the salty water without a care

in the world.

They were lucky—not having to know the dangers

that were out there.

“Gemma,” my mom said after I finished talking. “I’m

so sorry.” She reached over and tentatively took my

hand. I could feel her pulse racing through her touch.

“I’m so sorry you had to go through this.”

I swal owed hard, feeling my insides lurch. “It’s not

your fault…I—I know you tried to protect me.”

She shook her head. “I should have tried harder.”

I didn’t want her to feel responsible. She did what

she could—I watched her do it. Before I could try to

convince her, it wasn’t her fault, though, she said, “I

need to talk to Alex.”

“Alex,” I gave her a quizzical look. “Why do you

need to talk to him?”

“Because,” she looked at Laylen then back at me. “I

need al of you here—including Aislin—before I can

explain what I know about what’s going on.” When I

stil looked at her strangely, she added, “I need al of

you here, because what I’m about to tel you involves

al of you. Each of you plays a part in it.”

“Plays a part in what?” I asked. “Stephan trying to

open the portal.”

“Oh, Gemma.” My mom shook her head

exhaustedly. “There is so much more to Stephan’s

plan than just opening a portal and releasing the

Death Walkers.”

You know those moments where time seems to

stop? Wel , I was having one of those moments right

now. Laylen, my mom, and I sat there as the words my

mother had just said sunk in. Laylen had been right