Текст книги "Broken Visions"
Автор книги: Jessica Sorensen
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Текущая страница: 6 (всего у книги 14 страниц)
Chapter 10
My face slams into the sand. I quickly scramble to my feet and sprint into the ocean to dunk my arm into the water, expecting relief from the fiery pain, but only receiving more pain. I let out a jaw-clenched scream as I run for the beach house just up the shore. The pain is unbearable, but what hurts even worse is what it represents. Stasha touched me with her bare hands. Am I going to drop dead at any moment?
By the time I reach the back door of the house, I’m about to vomit from the sensation of death in my arm. I fling open the back door and fumble around in the dark until I find the light switch. The lights flip on and I stumble over to the sink, turn on the faucet, and submerge my arm underneath the cold, salt-free water.
It feels a little bit better and I stand let the water flow over it, catching my breath as I wait for the pain to subside. It begins to dwindle, but olive-green marks start to appear on my veins, forming vinery.
I touch the lines with my fingertip and cringe. “Is this permanent?”
I wait a little longer with my arm in the water, hoping they’ll fade, but they don’t. Finally I give up and put my locket on right as I hear a soft poof from inside the living room. Not sure what it’s from, I tiptoe to the doorway and peer around the corner. A purple haze fills the room and Alex, Laylen, and Aislin are in the center it. As soon as they all see me, they’re worried expressions relax.
Aislin drops the crystal and candle on the table, but keeps hold of her spell book. “Thank God,” she says as she flops tiredly. “I thought she killed you.”
“What happened?” Alex crosses the room with his arms open, as if he’s going to hug me, but by the time he reaches me, he’s changed his mind and lowered them to his side.
I extend my arm out to him, showing him the lines mapping my veins. “Her plants attacked me and then she touched me….you know, you could have warned me about the plants.”
He curses under his breath then examines my arm, running his thumb up and down the lines. “Dammit, she’s fucking crazy.”
“Yes, she is,” I agree. “It’s not permanent, is it? Please, please, tell me it’s going to go away.”
Alex looks up at me, remorseful. “I’m sorry, Gemma. I never should have taken you there.”
I sigh, removing my arm from his grasp. “Great. Now I’m always going to have a reminder of when your ex-girlfriend tried to kill me.”
I don’t know who laughs first, but suddenly we are all laughing as if I’ve just said the best joke in the world. Sleep deprivation is a funny thing, I guess, and makes everyone kind of loopy.
After the laughter settles down, we gather around the coffee table, putting the mapping ball on it, the light in the center illuminating a ghostly glow. I start to get up to look for my mother but Aislin tells me that right before they transported here she got a call from my mom, saying that she ran to the gas station to pick up some food, because no one had really been stocking the cupboards. So I sit back down and we quickly explain to Laylen what’s been going on and then we start discussing how Stasha got the book.
“So Stasha took the book, but it took place in a time that was erased, yet it still happened,” Alex states as he kicks his foot up on his knee and rests his arm on the back of the sofa, just behind me.
“It sounds so confusing when you put it like that,” I say. “But yeah, I think that’s what happened.”
“But how?” Aislin wonders as she flips through her spell book. She’s been doing it since we sat down, I think looking for some sort of signs Stasha did something to it.
“I have no idea.” I pause. “Nicholas would have, but unfortunately he’s… gone.”
We all grow quiet for a moment, thinking about what happened. I wonder if he’ll get a funeral, if the fey mourn like humans, or if they do something else.
“We need to make a plan.” Aislin changes the subject as she closes her spell book.
“Thanks for clarifying the obvious, Aislin,” Alex says sarcastically.
Aislin rolls her eyes. “Don’t be an ass.”
“What we need to do is go to the City of Crystal.” I pick up the mapping ball and rotate it in my hands. “So I can get inside this thing and fix the vision and hopefully all this other stuff that’s gotten out of place will be fixed too.”
“Why do you think your father would reset time, if it was going to mess it up?” Laylen asks with a pucker at his brow. “It doesn’t make any sense.”
It gets quiet again, but a different kind of quiet, one where I know they’re all thinking the same thing, but too afraid to say it.
Finally, Alex gets the balls to put it out there. “Gemma, you don’t think he’s setting you up, do you? To maybe finish whatever it is he started with my father.”
“Who said he was doing something with your father,” I say coldly. “He never said anything about that.”
“He never said much about anything,” Alex points out, his knuckles grazing the back of my neck, as if he’s attempting to keep me calm with his touch. “But I’m guessing that he probably erased the vision and recreated things so the world would end for my father.”
“Stop saying that,” I snap defensively.
He gives me a look of empathy. “Gemma, I get defending your father, trust me, I really do. But sometimes what we want them to be isn’t what they are.”
“Shut up,” I snap, surprising everyone in the room. “You don’t know anything about him, but you’re making judgments based on one thing.”
“No one knows anything about him.” Alex’s hand drifts to my shoulder.
But I shrug it off and get to my feet. “I need some air.” I hurry for the door and burst outside. I hear Aislin say something about let her go as I shut the door behind me. Then I sink down on the front steps, bring my knees to my chest, rest my chin on them and stare at the stars.
“Are you evil?” I wonder aloud, wishing to hear his voice again, but the only answer I get is silence and that leaves me wondering if maybe Alex is right. Perhaps my dad is working with Stephan to end the world and using me to help him.
Chapter 11
After staring at the stars for an eternity, I come to the conclusion that what I need to do is see the vision my father changed and make the decision for myself whether he’s working for the evil side or the good one. If what he’s told me is true, it should be clear in the vision. If not, then I won’t change it. However, that still leaves the problems of getting into the mapping ball.
I march into the house and pick it up from the coffee table, all three of them staring at me as if they think I’m having a meltdown. “I’m going to do this—I have to. If anything looks suspicious then I won’t change the vision, but I need to see it for myself.”
Alex is already shaking his head before I even finish. He stands up, reaching to take the crystal ball from my hand, but I put it behind my back. “You don’t even know how to use it,” he says. “Nicholas never explained anything to you other than how to get enough power to use it.”
“Well, I can start by getting the power from the City of Crystal,” I tell him. “And then go from there.”
“It’s too risky,” Alex says. “Hell, sneaking into the City of Crystal is risky enough not to mention stealing some of the power, bringing it back—which I might add we don’t know how to do—and then you’ve got to figure out how to use the power to get inside that thing.”
“Maybe there’s another Foreseer we can ask,” Aislin suggests, glancing at her phone as it vibrates. “There has to be one that might help us, right? Nicholas couldn’t be the only one.”
“Involving another Foreseer would mean involving another person, which is risky,” Alex says. “Besides, we don’t even know what side the Foreseers are on?
“Maybe you could ask your father,” Laylen says to me. “I mean, you’ve been there once, so why can’t you go there again? You could also maybe get more of a feel if he’s…” He stops talking, offering me an apologetic look.
“I don’t know if I can... when I went there the first time it was entirely by accident and he wouldn’t tell me anything no matter how much I asked him,” I say, sitting down on the coffee table and studying the crystal ball, still illuminating from the center star. “I think I need to talk to my mom. She might know something that could help.” I check the clock on the wall, realizing it’s nearing morning. “I’m starting to get worried about her… Shouldn’t she be back by now?” I look at Aislin for an explanation.
“I don’t know…maybe she had to go somewhere else besides the store.” She shrugs, but it’s a blasé shrug, like she doesn’t care, or knows something else she’s not telling me.
“What’s going on?” I ask. “You’ve been acting weird every time I bring up my mother.”
Aislin presses her lips together, looking everywhere but at me. “She’s fine.”
“I didn’t ask if she was fine,” I tell her sternly. “I asked what’s going on.”
Again she refuses to speak, so Alex intervenes, “What exactly did she say on the phone?” he asks his sister.
Aislin shakes her head, her lips starting to quiver. “I don’t know. I don’t remember.”
“Aislin,” Alex warns, stepping toward her. “What did she say?”
“I don’t want to tell you!” Aislin cries, dropping her head into her hands to hide her tears. “If I do then you’ll just go and try to save her, and I can’t take any more of it!”
“Any more of what?” Alex’s voice softens a smidgeon.
“You risking your life all the time.” She lifts her head back up and her eyes are red from the tears. “Dad’s crazy, mom left, and you’re all I have left. I mean, I get that it’s our job and everything to protect the world but seriously I need a god damn break... You’ve already died once.”
“You can remember that?” Alex and I say simultaneously.
She nods, her face contorted with confusion as she dabs tears from her cheeks and eyes with her fingertips. “Yeah… I actually can as of now.”
Alex and I trade a look. “Something strange is going on,” he says.
“It has to be from me altering the vision,” I utter quietly, knowing it makes my father look even guiltier.
“Then we need to either fix it,” he says firmly. “Or find out what’s going on.”
I hold the crystal ball up. “That’s what I’m trying to do, but Aislin needs to tell me where my mom is. She might be the only one who can help us at the moment.”
Alex gives me a tolerant look, like he doesn’t want to do what he does next. Still he sits down beside Aislin and puts his arm around her shoulder. “Look, I get where you’re coming from, but this is what I—we do. You’ve known that since we were three years old and father explained to us that we were Keepers. We risk our lives and that’s how things are. So please, just tell Gemma where her mother is.”
She shakes her head again. “I’m not going to, so you can stop pretending to be nice.”
“You can tell me,” I offer to Aislin. “I’ll go get her by myself.”
“He won’t let you.” She scowls in her brother’s direction. “He’s too stubborn and cares for you too much.”
“I won’t tell him,” I say and in return get the nastiest look from Alex. “I’ll keep it a secret and use my Foreseer power to go there by myself.”
Rage flares in Alex’s eyes as he rises to his feet, tall and sturdy, intimidating, but I refuse to back down. “Like hell I’m going to—”
I stand up and put my hand over his mouth, ignoring the warmth of his lips against my flesh. “If I foresee there, he doesn’t have a choice. You can have a tantrum but in the end, you can’t make me take you.” I lower my hand and wait for him to argue, because by the expression on his face, I can tell that he’s going to.
His eyes darken and his voice drops to a firm, husky tone. “I can always tie you to the bed and make it so you can’t go anywhere.”
He’s right. There’s Praesidium all over this place, making it impossible for me to use my Foreseer power inside it. And he’s strong enough that all he’d have to do is pick me up and carry be to the bed—he could tie me down with one hand. And by the amount of intensity in his eyes, I can tell that he wants to do it and by the way my blood is heating beneath my skin, I think part of me wants him to do it too.
Laylen finally clears his throat, alleviating the tension. “I can go with her.”
“That doesn’t make me feel any better,” Alex says, displeased. “I need to be the one to go with her.”
“Laylen can protect me just as much as you can,” I tell him, which is clearly the wrong thing to say.
“Like fucking hell he can.” He leans in and puts his lips beside my ear. “Would he die for you?”
I squeeze my eyes shut as my heart starts to pound. This is not good. Emotions. They’re surfacing, so many of them, and he can feel it too because his lips graze my neck. “Alex, I think it might be good if Laylen goes with me,” I say, breathless. “Not just for Aislin’s sake, but for you and me as well.”
“Gemma… I—”
“It’s for the best,” I cut him off.
He stiffens. When he pulls back, he gives me a look of indifference. “Fine, if that’s what you want.”
“It’s what I want.” But it isn’t really. I want him, but I can’t have him. Not anymore.
As he steps away from me, I breathe freely again and then turn to Aislin. “Okay, tell me where she is.”
She sniffs back more tears. “She went to the Keepers’ castle to try and kill my father.”
Chapter 12
At first I think I didn’t hear her right because why would my mom do such a crazy, erratic, impulsive, dangerous thing? It’s crazy—she would have to be crazy.
“Oh my God. She’s fucking crazy,” I whisper in shock. “She’s completely lost her mind... It has to be because she spent all those years in The Underworld, right?”
“She’s not crazy,” Alex reassures me, putting a hand on my arm as I slowly lower myself onto the sofa. “She just wants to protect you and she probably thought this was the best way not to get you involved, which I completely understand.”
“She’s going to get herself killed,” I state in disbelief. After all these years without a mother, I finally get her back only for her to run straight into danger two days later.
Alex massages my shoulder. “We’ll go get her.”
“No we won’t,” I say to him, leaning out of his touch. “I will. Stephan doesn’t need both of us showing up there so we end up right in his hands where he can lock us up and let the events of the world play out just like he wants them to. It would be like handing him the end of the world on a golden platter. And besides, I made a promise to Aislin that you wouldn’t go.”
He shakes his head, dumbfounded. “You actually think I’m going to let you go to the Keepers’ castle by yourself? Have you seriously learned nothing about me?”
“I’ve learned you’re a stubborn asshole who gets his way all the time,” I dare say.
He gives me that dark, lustful look again. “Should we go back to the plan where I tie you up to the bed.”
As his gaze sweeps across my body, my skin tingles. “I’ll never forgive you if you don’t let me go. Like we planned, Laylen will go with me and protect me.” I look at Laylen, feeling Alex’s demanding gaze burning a hole in the back of my head. “Are you ready to go?” I ask Laylen. “Or, if you don’t want to anymore, I understand. I know you offered before you knew where we were going.”
Laylen looks at me like I’m acting ridiculous. The he gets to his feet, coming over to me. “Of course, I’m going to go with you.”
“Thank you.” I almost give him a hug, but decide against it, considering how Alex is acting right now.
“But you should change into some pants first.” Laylen points at the shorts I have on. “It’s freezing up there at night.”
I glance at the window where sunlight sparkles across the land. “But it’s morning.”
“It’s night at the castle,” he says. “Trust me.”
“Okay, give me a second.” I start for the hallway and go into the bedroom. I put on a pair of jeans, change my shirt, and rinse my face off, trying to fight my nerves. I’m going to the castle, where Stephan could potentially be and I’m not a Keeper or a ninja warrior. I’m kind of klutzy and uncoordinated. I wonder what the odds of me walking away unscratched from this are.
As I’m telling myself to suck it up and think of my mom, someone knocks on the door.
“Come in,” I call out as I pull my long, brown hair up in a ponytail.
Alex walks in and stuffs his hands into his pockets, glancing around at the room and then the bed where we’ve had hot, steamy. “You about ready to go?”
“Yeah, I think so,” I say, reaching for my jacket on the bedpost, my hand noticeably shaking from my nerves.
“Hey.” He catches my trembling fingers in his hand. “Come here.” He guides me with him as he sits down on the bed.
I notice that he’s carrying the Sword of Immortality, the jagged blade glinting in the light. I’m about to ask him why he has it when he starts talking.
“My mom left when I was about five,” he says, stroking the back of my hand. “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 and if maybe she’s dead.”
There was so much suffering in his voice and I want to tell him that that probably isn’t the case, that I’m sure his mother is okay and that his father had nothing to do with it. But we’d both know I was lying because there’s a good chance that might be the case, considering all the horrible things Stephan has done.
“There’s this rock at the back of the castle that hides a secret entryway to the basement,” he tells me in a state of self-torture. “Laylen should be able to lift the rock up so you guys can get in… no one knows it’s there but me.” He hands me the Sword of Immortality. “And this will hopefully protect you if you run into my father.”
I take the sword from him, feeling the heavy weight of it. “You’re giving me something that might kill your father?”
He shrugs, his eyes swimming in a sea of pain. “I want you to be able to protect yourself—you’re what’s most important.” He pauses. “But can you promise me something? That if anything happens at all, if anything even remotely bad looks like it will happen, you’ll come right back.”
I place the sword on the floor beside my feet. “Alex, I can’t—”
He places a hand over my mouth like I did to him earlier. “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 know there is more to it than that, but he isn’t going to say it.
So I nod, giving him what he wants, even though it’s not the truth. “Okay, I promise.”
He lowers his hand from my lips and starts tapping his foot against the floor. “I should be the one going with you.”
“No, you shouldn’t. Aislin needs you. I—I didn’t know that about your mother. No one should be alone in the world.”
It gets quiet and my thoughts drift back to my old life filled with loneliness and desolation. All those years with no one. All those years feeling empty. All those years where I didn’t know there was so much more to life. Heartache. Longing. Happiness. Sadness. God, there’s so much more. And as dangerous as my new life is, I would never trade it back. I never want to go back to that ever. I just hope I get the chance to live life without the star.
“Gemma,” Alex says almost as if he’s in pain as he slants toward me. “I can’t help myself… when it comes to you and putting you in harm’s way it’s like I have to fight this desperate compulsion to save you. It’s why I gave you the locket, why I tried to run from my father, why I intercepted the memoria extracto, why I stabbed myself with a needle and killed myself to bring you back. I know you erased the last part, but I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”
I want to point out that now he’s remembering things that never technically happened again, but he silences me with a brush of his lips. It starts out innocent, but when my hands slide up the front of his lean chest, he grabs onto my hips as his tongue slides deep into my mouth and he lays me back on the bed. He tastes like mint and smells like cologne, his body bringing me warmth as it covers mine. My back arches into him as my insides quiver with need. I feel out of control in a forbidden way.
“Alex,” I say breathlessly as his hand travels up my shirt toward my breast. “We have to stop… it’s becoming too… too…” I groan as his hand wanders under my bra and he pinches my nipple. “Much…”
“I know.” He groans against my mouth as he cups my breast. “But it’s so fucking hard.” His body falls between my legs and I grind up against him.
“But we’re going to end up killing each other…” Another grind of my hips and then another. God, I’d almost take being dead just to feel this one more time. “If we don’t stop…” I know what I am putting out there, that we were heading toward feelings of love. It is a blunt move on my part, but it gets him to stop.
He pushes back, looking down at me, an arm on each side of my head. “I know.” His brow’s furrow at his own words. Then he gets up and leaves the room as if nothing happened.
* * *
Everyone decides it’s best to clear out the Praesidium for the moment, so that I can foresee in the privacy of the house. Alex takes care of it while I head for the living room. Laylen gives me a wary look when I walk out into the living room, carrying the Sword of Immortality, as if I might do something stupid like trip over my feet and stab him.
“You sure you should be carrying that?” he questions with amusement and a bit of fear. He’s changed his clothes, but is still wearing his typical black jeans and shirt, studded belt and leather wrist band, and boots.
“I promise I’ll be super careful,” I say with as much humor as I can muster up. “And try not to stab you.”
“Gee thanks,” he teases, nudging me with his shoulder, seeming more at ease then he did at Stasha’s house.
I smile at him and start to shut my eyes, telling my heart to calm down as I get ready to foresee us out of here
“Wait!”
My eyes open as Aislin comes running into the room and stops in front of me. “I have something for you to help you see in the dark.”
I think she’s going to give me a flashlight or a lantern, but instead she whispers, “Iuvo vos animadverto,” under her breath, then she puts her hand in front of her mouth and blows something sparkly in my face.
I drop the sword on the ground in reaction and press my hands against my eyes. “Oh my God! What the hell was that?”
“Oh shit, I’m sorry. I probably should have warned you first,” Aislin apologizes. “I was just so excited that I finally figured out how to do the spell correctly.”
I rub my eyes and blink against the burning sensation. “Okay, what spell was it though?”
She beams. “Night vision.” She dusts her hands off. “So you don’t have to stumble around in the dark blindly when you get to the castle.”
“What about Laylen?” I ask, picking up the sword from off the floor.
“He doesn’t need it,” she tells me, giving Laylen a once over, looking at him in a way that I look at Alex sometimes and I remember how she told me they use to date. I wonder if she still has feelings for him? “He already has night vision.”
Laylen doesn’t reciprocate the look, I think still carrying around too much pain from her abandoning him in his time of need. “We should go,” he says and Aislin looks hurt. “Are you sure you’re going to be okay with this thing?” he asks, nodding at the sword. “It just about landed on my foot.”
I thread my fingers through Laylen’s and take a deep breath. “I’ve got this. Trust me.” I actually sound confident, although I don’t feel that way.
I don’t bother looking at Alex, knowing it’ll make it harder to leave. But I can feel him watching me from across the room, arms folded, as he sinks into the shadows. Then I shut my eyes and do what I need to do. I picture the lake, the forest circling it, the grey-stone castle in the background. And then suddenly I’m falling with Laylen by my side.
