“Thank you,” I tell him, choking back an emotion fighting to be revealed. “Not just for telling me the truth, but for giving me back my soul and emotions.”

The corners of his lips tug upward, but it’s barely a smile. “Don’t thank me. They never should have been stolen to begin with.”

I try not to think about what Alex showed me, but it’s difficult. All this time, he’d been the one that freed me. It was amazing and yet at the same time, heartbreaking.

After we leave the vision, we go back to the house, landing in the living room quietly. I refuse to let go of his hand, even when he walks over to the sofa and flops down. He doesn’t seem to mind though, sketching his fingers lightly across my knuckles as he stares out fingers entangled together.

“I want you to be careful when you do this,” he says. “When you go into the mapping ball. And prepare yourself for the worst case scenario.”

“I will,” I promise him. “And I promise I won’t alter any visions unless I think it’s the right thing to do.” I pause. “I’m hoping, though, if I do, it’ll realign everything else and maybe things won’t be so out of whack.”

He looks up at me. “You mean with the section of time your father reset?” he asks and I nod. He contemplates something. “Maybe you should put that one back too, just so everything is back to the way it was.”

I shake my head swiftly, my hand tightening on his. “No way.”

“Gemma, I—”

“I won’t do it,” I cut him off, maintaining his gaze. “I won’t do anything where you die. And besides, if I change my father’s vision that stuff might never happen anyway.”

We both grow silent, realizing that if I change it, what we have right now might be lost.

“Be careful,” he says in a hoarse whisper, cupping the back of my head. “Please, just don’t do anything that’ll hurt yourself.”

I nod and then he kisses me, in a way he’s never kissed me before. Slow and sensual, with meaning behind it, flooding me with tingles and butterflies and causing my pulse to throb under my flesh. It’s like he’s saying good-bye to whatever we have now, in case it disappears. I wish the kiss could go on forever, life would be so easy if it could, but it ends, way too soon in my opinion.

“Should we wake everyone up?” I ask Alex as I lean forward and collect the mapping ball from the coffee table.

“That’s up to you,” he says, drawing a line up and down the back of my neck.

It sounds like a simple question, yet it’s not. To say good-bye is painful and will probably upset everyone, but what I might end up doing in the mapping ball could potentially erase everything we have and I might not even know who they are in the end.

“I’m going to be an optimist for once.” I cup the crystal ball in my hand and it illuminates vibrantly. “And not say good-bye so I can tell myself that this is all going to work out…. This will all be fine.”

It has to be. I have a mom upstairs, branded by the mark of evil, a beautiful vampire friend, who is so sad my heart breaks for him, a witch friend who is afraid to show who she really is, and a gorgeous guy I feel so much for yet if those emotions get too strong, we could die. But hopefully, I have the power to remove the pain and give them a future without death, loneliness, and despair.

So squaring my shoulders, I walk to the middle of the living room. I open my hand and let the Purple Flame erupt from my palm. Alex’s eyes light up with worry and I can sense a panicked protest coming.

“Don’t worry.” I give him a small smile. “This is what I was made to do.”

And with those last words, I place the mapping ball in my hand into the Purple Flame. It flashes, shaking the walls and the floor as the light ripples around the room. My whole body flares up into flames and then I’m being tugged inside the ball.

When I open my eyes, I’m still in the living room, the Purple Flame burning from my hand as the mapping ball sparkles in it, hissing and crackling as if it’s a hollow log.

“It didn’t work.” Alex frowns disappointed, yet relieved.

I frown, too. “But I felt it work.”

Alex leans closer to inspect the mapping ball without touching it. “Maybe the Purple Flame wasn’t what we needed. You did get the idea from a random note left on your bed. And we don’t even know who left the note.”

Someone who smells an awful lot like Nicholas, I want to say, but don’t want to look insane. “Yeah, but, the Purple Flame existed like the note said.” I glance at the flame in my hand, dancing and swaying, fueling my body with power I can’t figure out how to use. “It’s got to be used for it.”

We stare at the flame, trying to put the missing pieces together. Finally, I sigh, remove the mapping ball from my hand, and smother the Purple Flame out. “Dammit, I thought I had it.”

“Maybe that’s the problem,” Alex states as I put the mapping ball down on the coffee table, frustrated. “Maybe you’re trying too hard. Sometimes your power doesn’t work when you drain yourself.” He delicately grazes his finger across my jawline and I shiver. “Maybe you should go lie down and try to sleep for a bit, and then try again when you wake up.”

I want to protest because sleeping feels like the last thing I need to do, but I nod, deciding I’m going to try something else, something I’m not ready to share with him. “Okay, give me like a few hours.”

He turns to me as I’m walking out, his lips quirking with amusement, something I haven’t seen in a few days. “You want some company?”

I shake my head and make myself disregard the hurt that flashes across his face at my rejection. “Sorry, but I won’t sleep if you’re in there.” I force a smile and he relaxes slightly.

I dash up the stairs and into my room, locking the door behind me, not believing what I’m about to do because it makes it seem like I might be losing my mind.

“Nicholas,” I whisper as I trail around my room, glancing in all the nooks and corners. “Are you in here?” I anticipate a response, but all I can hear is the wind howling outside. “If you can hear me, please say something… I have questions about the note I think you left on my bed.”

Nothing. I surrender from talking to the dead, flopping down onto the bed on my back and staring up at the ceiling, just like I used to do when I was emotionally numb, only this time my mind is racing. “I must really be getting desperate,” I mutter.

“The answers to your problems aren’t in your ceiling,” a low pitch voice suddenly says.

My eyes widen as I hastily sit up, skimming my room for whoever spoke to me, but I don’t see anyone. “Who’s there… Nicholas, is that you?” It doesn’t sound like him, but I’m not discounting the idea just yet.

“That’s not the question you should be asking.” The voice tsks. “You’re not focusing on the problem.”

I lower my feet to the floor, looking everywhere when I speak because I’m not sure where to focus—the voice seems like it’s encompassing me. “Are you the one who left the note?”

They make this buzzer sound. “Wrong question again.”

I climb off my bed, on guard. “Why does it sound like you’re disguising your voice like a game show host?”

“Gemma.” They sound so disheartened. “You need to stop focusing on other things and start focusing on saving the world.”

“That’s kind of what I’ve been doing.” I move over to my closet and threw it open, but it’s vacant.

“Come on, Gemma, ask me the right question.”

“Okay.” I shut the closet door, turn around, and lean against it. “How can I get into the mapping ball?”

“Ding. Ding. We have a winner.” A pause. “With the Purple Flame.”

“I already have the Purple Flame.” I draw back the curtain and peer out the window. It’s raining outside, puddles and mud covering the grass, sidewalks, and streets. “It didn’t work.”