Laylen gaped at him. “Yeah, there’s more. What did you think—that one single Death Walker showed up?”

Alex glared at Laylen and took a threatening step toward him.

“Guys,” Aislin stepped between them, “you can fight all you want later. Right now, we need to get out of here before the rest of them find us, or that thing decides to wake up.” She pointed at the unconscious Death Walker lying on the floor.

“That one isn’t ever going to wake up,” Alex said, yanking out the small knife I’d stabbed into its chest. He tossed the knife aside, the blade covered with a thick black goo. Then he raised the Sword of Immortality into the air and drove it deep into the Death Walkers chest.

Honestly, I was expecting this big ordeal. Like the Death’s eyes would shoot open, or it would jumped to its feet and let out one of those horrible screams I’d heard it do before. But nothing happened. There was no scream. No opening of the eyes. No movement at all. Perhaps because it was already unconscious?

Alex heaved the sword back out and wiped the black goo off on the Death Walkers cloak. “Can you transport us out of here?” he asked Aislin.

“I don’t know…Four people is a lot to do at once.” She paused, mulling it over. “But if I made two trips it might work.”

“Okay…” Alex’s gaze drifted over to Laylen, then me, before landing back on Aislin. “You should take Gemma and me first since she’s the most important one to get out of here. Then you can come back and get Laylen.” He turned to Laylen. “If that’s okay with you?”

Laylen shrugged. “Whatever. But you might want to hurry up. There were a bunch of them heading across the desert right for us. I’ve already taken care of two of them, but when the rest show up, even the Sword of Immortality isn’t going to help.”

Alex nodded and gathered up two duffel bags—one black, one grey—from off of the floor.

“Why does Laylen always have to be the one to stay behind?” I asked Alex as he swung the black duffel bag over his shoulder.

“Because I need to be the one watching you,” he answered simply. “I leave for only a couple of hours and all hell breaks loose.”

“That wasn’t Laylen’s fault, though,” I argued. “I was the one who came out of the hiding place that he told me to stay in.”

“He was the one responsible for you, therefore it’s his fault,” Alex said, loud enough for Laylen to hear.

Laylen didn’t say a word.

I opened my mouth to protest that it wasn’t his fault. It was my fault—I should’ve stayed in the stupid trapdoor. But Laylen gave me this look that told me not to even bother. I sighed. “Oh, fine. Whatever.”

Alex gave Laylen a dirty look—I had no idea why, though, since he was the one being rude—and tossed a grey duffel bag at me. Instead of catching it, I hopped to the side. Like I said, I’m not coordinated and know not to even try.

“We picked up some of your clothes while we were at your house,” he told me, his tone clipped.

Frowning, I swiped up the bag. The idea of Ailsin and him digging through my clothes made me squirm. “So did you find Marco and Sophia?”

He shook his head. “Nope.”

“What about Stephan?”

“Nope.”

He was being a total jerk so, whatever, I just stopped talking.

So Aislin and Alex hadn’t been able to find anyone back in Afton. I thought back to the conversation Laylen and I had about Stephan and my mom’s “disappearance,” and how Laylen had said Alex was brainwashed. Maybe Laylen was right. What if they’d really found Marco and Sophia? What if they’d really found Stephan? What if this was all a ruse to get me somewhere where they could force me to stop feeling.

“Gemma.” Alex’s voice ripped me out of my daze. He’d moved over beside Aislin and was motioning for me to come over.

I scurried over right as Aislin dipped the tip of the candle into the flame.

“Wait a sec.” She pulled the crystal back out. “Where are we going?”

“To the Hartfield Cabin,” Alex replied. “No one ever goes up there, so it should be safe for now.”

She nodded and started twisting the crystal in the flame. “Per is calyx EGO lox lucid via,” she whispered.

Red tinted smoke rose up from the candle.

I glanced back at Laylen, who was leaning against the bookshelf that was holding the door shut. I hated to leave him behind. I know I barely knew him, but out of everyone in my life, he was the only one who was truthful with me. And now, I had to go off with Alex, the Guru of Lie Twisting. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t afraid of Alex or anything. But trying to figure out which of the stuff he said was real, and which of the stuff he said was crap, was difficult. Especially with all the constant buzzing.

Laylen mouthed for me to be careful.

I nodded, letting him know I understood what he meant—watch your back.

“Per is calx EGO lux lucis via!” Aislin shouted. The crystal was glowing bright red. Smoke was rising wildly in the air.

Alex unexpectedly slipped his arm around my waist, shocking me, and my muscles tensed up.

“So you don’t fall on your face like the last time when we transported,” he explained to me with a small amount of amusement in his voice.

It was a good idea, I guess.

I closed my eyes and grasped on to the handle of my bag. I heard a loud bang and then…I was falling. Or flying?

I wasn’t exactly sure.

When I opened my eyes back up, I was in a different room that had dusty white sheets draped over all of the furniture. A grey and tan stone fireplace layered one of the walls, and the rest of them were made of logs.

Alex instantly let go of my waist. He’d been right. Holding on to me had kept me from falling.

Aislin relit the black candle. “I’ll be right back.”

Alex took me by the arm and guided me away from her. “Hurry, please,” he told her in an anxious voice.

She gave him a small smile and plunged the crystal into the flame. “Per is calx EGO lux lucis via,” she said. This time she disappeared quickly. Maybe because it was just her?

I dropped my bag on the floor and sat down on a marble step that extended out from the fireplace. Alex sat down too. Neither of us spoke as we waited for Aislin and Laylen to return. We waited. And waited.  About ten minutes ticked by, and Alex got to his feet and started pacing back and forth across room. I kept my eyes glued to the spot where Aislin had vanished from and chewed on my fingernails, which was so weird since it hadn't been a previous habit of mine.

An old grandfather clock towering in the corner struck the hour of ten, devastatingly announcing that way too much time had gone by. They should have been here by now.

Alex stopped pacing and stared vacantly at the clock.

I hated to say it—I hated to even think it—but I had to know. “They're not coming back, are they?”

With the most heart wrenching look on his face he said, “No, I don’t think they are.”

Chapter 25

I’d been sitting on the foot of the fireplace, watching Alex tug sheets off of the furniture, for about fifteen minutes now. I think it was his way of trying to distract himself from the fact that something terrible may have happened to Laylen and Aislin. He’d tried to call them but couldn’t get a signal on his phone from all the way up here. I wasn’t sure where “all the way up here” was, because he hadn’t established that yet.

I hadn’t said anything to him because I had no idea what to say. I could have tried to be positive and tell him reassuring things like, hey, maybe Aislin had just broken her crystal again. But who would I be trying to kid? We both knew there was a slim to none chance that was the case. We just weren’t that lucky. Obviously.

“So…” I began, still in the middle of deciding what to say. “What is this place, anyway?”

He yanked a sheet off of a forest green couch that had tiny moose embroider on it. “It’s a cabin I used to come to when I was little.” He drew a sheet off of a lamp and dust flew everywhere.