The Vision (8 page)

“Do you know what this is?” Her dark eyes were locked on me.

I stayed silent.

“Do you know what this is!” she screamed, raising her wrist in front of her.

“Y-yes,” I stammered.

“Then you are the one.” She wasn’t asking a question, but stating a fact. She knew I was the star—well, half of it anyway.

I glanced fearfully at Aislin. Her eyes were wide with terror and her hands were trembling. She was just as scared at I was.

Medea walked toward me, her heavy black boots making loud thuds with each step. “The question is: why are you here?”

No, I think the question was: why did she have the mark?

“Why do you have that?” I pointed at her wrist.

She grazed her finger over the mark tattooing her wrist. “I was born with it.”

Aislin and I traded a baffled look.

“What?” I said. “I thought only a descendent of Malefiscus could be born with the mark.”

She smiled, showing us her decaying, yellow teeth. “The rise of his descendant has brought out all our marks. We are all foll owers of Stephan, our re-uniter of Malefiscus.”

“All
our
marks?” What was going on?

Aislin shot me a look, warning me to keep my mouth shut.

“Oh, yes,” Medea said. “Our marks. Witches, fey, and vampires, all waiting for Malefiscus, and his hundreds and hundreds of Death Walkers, to be free.”

I guess that part had gotten lost in translation. My mother was under the impression that the marks would not come until after the portal opened and Malefiscus was freed. She also made it sound like a controlled thing, like the vampires, fey, and witches would be forced to follow him.

Guess she was wrong.

I slowly stood to my feet and Aislin did too. She still had the gold-flamed box grasped in her hand. “But if you all have the Mark of Malefiscus already, then, why aren’t you out there, hurting people already.”

“All in good time,” Medea said. “First, we need the Mark of Immortality.”

Our jaws dropped.

“Oh, yes,” Medea’s face lit up with excitement. “Stephan is working to perfect the mark as we speak, and once he does, he’ll put it on himself, therefore marking us all immortal.”

I was struck speechless. Stephan was trying to mark himself with the Mark of Immortality. And if he did, every witch, fey, and vampire with the Mark of Malefiscus would become immortal too. So not a good thing.

Medea assessed me over, her gaze landing on my eyes.

“I need to take you to him.”

“No, you don’t,” I told her, taking a step back as I slipped the knife out of my pocket and flipped open the blade. “And I’m not going anywhere.”

She smiled, rising to the challenge. “We’ll see.”

“No we won’t!” Aislin screamed and threw the golden box at Medea.

It hit the floor in front of her feet and the lid flew off.

Medea’s dark eyes widened. There was a deafening roar and then she burst into flames.

“Run!” Aislin shouted, urging me to move.

And I did.

But Aislin didn’t follow. I stopped as she ran over to the counter and grabbed the box Medea had put the bags of herbs into.

She skittered around the flames. “Go! Go!” I sprinted past the burning Medea, with Aislin following at me heels. But when I tried to open the door, it was still locked.

“What do we do?” I cried over the crackle of the flames as I tugged on the door. “And why doesn’t this place have any freaking windows.”

The room was rapidly filling with smoke and the bright flames burned away at the floors and walls. Medea stood in the center of the fire, screaming at the top of her lungs, her hands thrown in the air.

Aislin ducked down to the floor. “follow me.” We crawled through the thick smoke, heading to who knows where—I couldn’t see a thing. Smoke filled my lungs and stung at my eyes. Finally, Aislin stopped crawling and pulled out her crystal and candle

“You’re doing that here?” I asked horrified as I glanced back at the flames crackling toward us.

She didn’t answer, fumbling with her lighter until she lit the wick of the black candle. Her had trembled as she dipped the red crystal into the flame. “
Per is calx EGO lux
lucis via
.”

The heat of the fire melted at my shoes.

“
Per is calx EGO lux lucis via
.”

My body was burning up.

“
Per is calx EGO lux lucis via
!”

I was flying, falling, suffocating.

I landed in the living room of the beach house and tripped into the coffee table, knocking Aislin down with me.

We both crashed onto the floor. The herb box Aislin had taken from Medea’s flew out of her hands, sending baggies of herbs all over the place.

Five seconds later, Laylen and Alex were running into the room. They were both struck speechless by the sight of us, lying on the floor, ash coating our skin and clothes.

Alex finally found his voice. “What—what happened?” He rubbed my arm with his finger, wiping away some ash. “Is this ash?”

“Yeah.” I coughed. “Well, it kind of turned out the store owner was this crazy witch with the Mark of Malefiscus.” Alex looked shocked. “Why do you have ash on you?”

“We burned her up.” Aislin stood up and swept the ash off her clothes, while Laylen brushed some out of her hair.

Alex blinked at her. “You burned the witch up?”

“It’s a long story.” I started to get to my feet, but Alex took my hand and pulled me up. My hand tingled and I quickly slipped my hand out of his. Why did he have to touch me like that? It was torturous.

Alex flexed his hand. “So what were you saying about the witch being crazy?”

“And that she had the Mark of Malefiscus.,” I reminded him, sinking down on one of the sofas.

Alex sank down on the sofa beside me. “I thought you were kidding about that part?”

I shook my head and started to explain. While I did, Aislin went back into the bedroom to do the Tracker Spell, which would hopefully tell me what was going on with my mom, and if I was going to have to go on a rescue mission to save her.

“So there are others with the mark?” Alex asked after I finished.

“From what it sounded like, yeah, there are.” I nodded.

“And they’re all just waiting around for Malefiscus to rise again or whatever.”

Laylen bit at his lip ring. “And they all might become immortal—Stephan might become immortal?”

“If he can figure out how to make the mark,” I explained, wiping some ash off the ugly olive-green lines on my arm.

“But it sounds like he hasn’t yet.”

“We need to hurry then.” Alex ran his fingers through his hair. “We need to figure out how to get you into that mapping ball to fix the vision.”

Man, I could feel the pressure. “I know.” A small wall clock ticked in the background as we all took in the severity of the situation. We needed to save the world, by using the mapping ball, yet we didn’t know how to use the mapping ball.

“But what if I change the vision back to whatever it was, and Stephan still lives,” I said, thinking out loud. “I mean I know Malefiscus won’t be freed, along with a bunch of Death Walkers, but if there are already people with the Mark of Malefiscus, couldn’t they still get together with Stephan and do some damage?”

Alex and Laylen both stared at me with stunned expression. Apparently, neither of them had been considering this.

Before we could go on discussing the possibility, Aislin came barreling into the room, breathless and flushed. “I found your mom,” she panted. “She’s at the castle.” I think part of me was holding onto the hope that maybe my mom hadn’t gone there; that she started to, but then decided against it when she realized it was probably a suicide mission.

“It’s bad too,” Aislin said. “She’s locked up in a room upstairs, and there are Death Walkers there, which means Stephan’s probably there.”

“Of course he is.” I sighed miserably. There was a time when Alex and I had both agreed nothing was ever easy.

And it always seemed to be the case, at least in this world.

“Are you ready to go?” I asked Laylen. “Or, if you don’t want to anymore, I can go by myself…I’ll understand.”

“Gemma,” Laylen said, all serious and intense. “Of course, I’m going to go.”

“Thank you.” I almost gave him a hug, but decided against it, figuring it would be weird with an audience.

“But you should change into some pants first.” Laylen pointed at the Levi shorts I was wearing. “It’s freezing up there at night.”

“Okay, give me a second.” I started for the hall.

“I still think I should go,” Alex said abruptly. “I don’t see why I have to stay here.”

I narrowed my eyes at him, not wanting to go down this road again. “We already went over this. It’s not wise for both of us to go because Stephan needs both of us in order to open the portal.”

He walked up to me and stood way to close for it to be in the safe-from-feelings boundary. “Then I should go and you should stay here.”

“We already talked about this too.” I inched myself back, smacking my elbow onto the wall. I rubbed my elbow.

“Ow…You have a sister you would be leaving behind. I don’t.”

Intensity burned in his bright green eyes. “You’re leaving me behind.”

I didn’t even know how to respond to that—I was too flustered and feeling things I knew I shouldn’t be feeling—so I turned away and headed off to my bedroom. Alex said something else, but when I shut the door it blocked out his words. And for a second, it blocked out all of the danger I was about to face. If only it were that easy. If only I could shut the door, lock myself in the room, and make my problems stay on the other side.

But like I said, nothing is ever easy

I pulled on a pair of jeans, changed my shirt, and rinsed the ashes off my skin. Then I flopped down on the bed, trying to mentally prepare myself for what I was about to do. But I was sure that was impossible. I was so terrified and deep down I wanted to run out of the room and tell Alex I changed my mind and he could go. But this was not his problem—it was mine.

Someone knocked at the door.

“Come in,” I called out, figuring it was Laylen ready to get the show on the road.

But it wasn’t Laylen. It was someone who I probably shouldn’t be alone in a room with.

“You about ready?” Alex walked in and shut the door behind him.

I sat up and frowned at him. “I’m not taking you with me.

You need to stay here with your sister.” I tensed up under his gaze. “I never realized your mom left.” still not speaking, he sat down on the bed, making me even tenser. Well, that and the fact that he was holding the Sword of Immortality.

“What are you doing?” I asked. “I mean in here…with me?”

He stared at the floor, his eyebrows dipping down. “My mom left when I was about five.” He said suddenly and looked up and met my eyes. “At least I think she left…I have to wonder now, after everything my father has done, if maybe he had something to do with it.”

There was so much agony burdening his expression that I wanted to lie and tell him that that probably wasn’t the case. But he would know it was a lie, and it would make things worse. I think in reality, we both knew Stephan probably had something to do with his mom disappearing.

“There’s this rock at the back of the castle that hides a secret entryway to the basement,” he said, still looking back at the floor. “Laylen should be able to lift the rock up so you guys can get in…no one knows it’s there but me.” He looked up and handed me the Sword of Immortality.

The jagged, silver blade glinted deathly in the light and the handle was cold against my skin. “What—why are you giving me this?”

“Because you might need it.” He shut his eyes tight, as if he was in pain. “I want you to be able to protect yourself.” My heart thumped in my chest. “Thanks.”

He paused and fear filled his eyes, which freaked me out even more because Alex rarely showed fear, especially such a powerful kind of fear.

“Can you promise me something?” He sounded breathless.

The word left my lips under no control of my own.

“Anything.”

I surprised both of us and seizing my rare moment of cooperativeness he quickly said, “Promise me if anything happens at all —if anything even remotely bad looks like it will happen, you’ll come right back.”

I swallowed hard. “Alex, I can’t—”

He placed his hand across my mouth. “I know you feel like you need to save her—and I completely understand that. But you also need to understand that you might be the one person who can save the world. So if it all comes down to it, you’re going to have to save yourself.” I was breathing loudly, so loud the sound filled up the room.

He moved his hand away and suddenly he was panicking, his foot tapping madly against the floor. “I should be going with you.”

“No, you shouldn’t.” I shook my head. “Aislin needs you. I

—I didn’t realize that about your mother.” I stared down at my feet. “No one should be alone in the world.” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “It hurts…a lot.”

It was quiet for a moment as my thoughts drifted back to my old life filled with loneliness. As dangerous as my new life was, I don’t think I would trade it back. I never wanted to go back to that.

“You need to let me start doing things on my own—let me make my own decisions.” I met his eyes. “No one ever has.” He nodded. “I know I do.”

Silence enclosed around us again.

“Gemma,” Alex whispered, and I knew what the softness of his voice meant.

I should have stopped him—I know I should have—but I found that my lips were incapable of forming a refusal. So I let him lean in. I let him brush his lips against mine. I let him kiss me.

I waited until my skin started to heat, and then I pulled away. He nodded, as if he understood. Then we got up, and left the room as if nothing happened.

Laylen was a little freaked when he saw me holding the Sword of Immortality. And that was okay—I was a little freaked out by it too. I could just see myself doing something stupid, like tripping and accidently stabbing him with it.

It made me nervous.

I stood in the living room, one hand holding Laylen’s hand and my other gripping the sword. My pulse pounded as I tried not to panic at the huge responsibility I had put on myself.

“Are you ready?” I asked, tilting my head up at the six foot four vampire.

“Are you ready?” he replied, his voice pressing me to make sure.

I nodded and shut my eyes. “I am…let’s go…”

“Wait. Wait.”

My eyes shot open as Aislin came running into the room.

She tripped over a small maroon rug and shot it a dirty look as she stopped in front of me. “I have something for you.” I furrowed my eyebrows. “You have something for me?”

“Yeah,” she said with an excited sparkle in her green eyes. “It’s to help you see in the dark.” I thought she was going to hand me a flashlight or something, which didn’t seem like such good idea. It would be like saying: ‘hey we’re right here, come and get us.’ But instead she whispered, “
iuvo vos animadverto
,” as she raised her hand and blew something in my face.

Instinctively, I dropped the sword and pressed my hands to my eyes. “Oh my God! What was that?”

“Oh, sorry,” Aislin apologized. “I was just so excited because I figured out how to do it, but I guess I should have warned you.”

I rubbed my eyes. “Thanks, but a warning would have been kind of nice.”

“Jesus Christ, Aislin,” Alex said sharply. “What were you thinking?”

“I was thinking I was giving her night vision,” Aislin retorted.

I dropped my hands and blinked a few times. Everything looked normal. “Night vision?”

She smiled, looking a bit like her old cheerful self again

—something I hadn’t seen in a few days. “Yep, night vision.

So you don’t have to stumble around in the dark basically blind.”

“What about Laylen?” I asked. “Can you blow your little dusty stuff in his eyes?”

“No need to.” She looked at Laylen in a way I had never seen her look at him before—with a look that I wondered if I sometimes gave Alex. “He already has night vision.” Laylen gave her the same look back, but quickly blinked it away. “Well, we should go.” He carefully picked up the sword and handed it to me. “Are you sure you’re going to be okay with this thing?

I gave Laylen an uncertain look, but Alex said, “She’ll be fine.”

Laylen had his own sword tucked away in the pocket of his black jeans; one that wouldn’t kill a Death Walker, but would temporarily immobilize it. It would, however, kill Stephan.

I took Laylen’s hand again and took a deep breath. My heart raced insanely as I casted one last glance at Alex, and a thought crossed my mind. Would I ever see him again? I shook the thought from my head—I would not go into this with such thoughts—and shut my eyes.

I saw the lake, the forest, the castle…Then I was falling.