His mouth curved up into a smile. “Well if I had my way, it would take a very, very long time. But in all actuality, with you being as powerful as you are, it shouldn’t take that long.”

Thank God. “So where do we begin?”

He held out his hand. “First, give me your hand so we can go in together.” With reluctance, I took his hand, his skin clammy and cold against mine. “Now we need a simple vision to go into. I think it would probably be best if you just thought of a memory.

Maybe something from your childhood.”

That was not simple by any means. “Does it have to be from my childhood?”

He shook his head. “As long as it’s simple, it doesn’t really matter.”

“Okay….” I searched for something simple to picture, but all I could see was the madness that filled up my life throughout the years.

“Gemma, place your hand on the crystal ball,” Nicholas instructed.

My heart raced as I tried to think of a memory—any memory—that was simple.

“Gemma,” Nicholas repeated. “Put your hand on the crystal.”

I was still searching as I reached out and placed my hand on top of the crystal ball. A brief glimpse of me and my mother sitting in a field flashed through my mind, and I thought I had it.

Then I was yanked in, falling down the tunnel, toward the light, Nicholas still holding my hand. When I reached the bottom—and very ungracefully I might add—I realized I hadn’t had the memory like I’d thought. In fact, if there was a complete opposite of where I was supposed to be taking us, this would be it.

The vision I was standing in was not of my past, but of the future. And not my future, but the worlds future.

How did I know this? Because I was standing on the main street of Vegas, beside the massive pirate ship I remembered seeing during my first drive into the busy city. But the busy city was no longer a busy city. It was dead quiet. Not a single soul was in sight. Even more disturbing was the layer of ice that covered everything. Just as if a million Death Walkers had marched through here and breathed their Chil of Death on everything in sight.

Just like they would if the portal opened up.

Chapter 13

I stood there silent in the empty streets that had once been packed with buzzing cars and people. The air was as cold as death, my breath puffed out in a cloud. I was shivering and shaking, but I wasn’t sure if that was from the cold or from my nerves. My stomach felt like it had been punched; the wind knocked out of me. Shock was seeping in, and I’m pretty sure I would have stood there in silence forever if Nicholas hadn’t brought me back to reality.

“Gemma.” His voice was soft—cautious—as if he could sense something was up.

I glanced down at his hand still holding mine, and then I looked up at him. “What?”

“Are you okay?” he asked. “You’ve been standing there staring at whatever it is you’re seeing for over five minutes now.”

I swallowed hard. “I…um…” I didn’t know what to say to him.

“What is it?” Nicholas glanced around, even though he couldn’t see anything. It is a rule of seeing visions: only the seer can see the vision. To Nicholas everything looked blank and empty.

Lucky him.

I wanted to erase what I was looking at from my mind. Wipe it away forever.

Even though it was day, the sky was gray, and blanketed by a frosty sheet of ice. A gust of wind swept up, chilling the back of my legs. I turned around, staring at the frozen, vacant streets. There were no cars. No people. No nothing. It was as if everyone had known what was coming and had tried to take cover somewhere.

“Gemma?” Nicholas said. I’d almost forgotten he was there. “What’s going on?”

I shook my head, trying to pull myself together.

Nicholas could not know what I was seeing, that was for sure. “It’s nothing.”

He raised his eyebrows at me. “If it’s nothing, then why do you look like you just saw someone die?” I swallowed the lump in my throat, taking my hand out of his. “No. It’s nothing like that. It’s just that…,” Think, Gemma, think, “It’s just that there’s nothing here. We’re just in the middle of the desert, so I don’t get it.”

“Well, I told you to think of something simple, didn’t I? So I guess it worked”

I gave a shrug. “I guess, but I thought—” A loud shriek shattered the air and cut me off. The sound echoed through the empty streets, vibrating the ice like an earthquake. Every limb in my body seized up as I became aware of what that shriek belonged to. And as the fog crept out from a nearby building, swirling its way toward me, I started to panic, even though I knew I couldn’t be seen by them.

“I-I think we should go,” I stuttered.

Nicholas frowned at me. “Gemma, where did you take us?”

“I-I already told you,” I stammered, my eyes locked on the fog crawling toward my feet, “we’re in the middle of the desert.”

“No, we’re not,” he said, following my gaze. “What do you see?”

“Nothing.” I said as a cluster of Death Walkers emerged from the glass doors of a nearby building.

Stay calm. Stay calm. “Can we just go back to the house? Please.”

Nicholas watched me, the weight of his sandy eyes nearly burning into my skin. “You know whatever’s out there can’t harm you, right?”

I looked at the Death Walkers, the glow of their yellow eyes reflecting across the ice like fireflies, their black cloaks trailing along behind them with a swoosh. “Yeah…I know, but I…”

“You what?”

The Death Walkers were so close now that I could make out their faces—the rotting flesh, the bits of and pieces of bone showing through their skin like a corpse. The sight almost made me gag.

I blinked my eyes a few times, trying to blink us away, but it didn’t work. “Nicholas please,” I begged.

“Take us back.”

Nicholas tapped his finger on his lip, glancing in the direction of the Death Walkers. “I don’t think so.

Whatever’s scaring you, I think you should face it. It’ll be good practice for when we go to The Underworld.” I glared at him, my heart thumping in my chest, which seemed to match the thumping of the Death Walkers march. The closer they got, the more the fog twisted around us, spinning in circles, clouding my vision in a menacing way. Closer, closer, closer they marched. I held my breath as they went by me, one by one, glaciating the air with their chill. My breath rose out in a puff, as my teeth chattered. I held as still as a statue, my muscles tensing up when one of the Death Walker’s shoulders went through mine.

“Gemma,” Nicholas said, oblivious to what was going on. “What are you doing?”

“Be quiet.” I breathed through my teeth, and then tried not to freak out when one of the Death Walker’s glowing eyes landed right on me.

I held my breath until they all had passed and disappeared around the corner of the street. I didn’t relax, though. I wouldn’t relax until we got the heck out of here.

I let out my breath, about to ask if we could go, but I stopped when I caught sight of someone else emerging from the building. Stephan. And beside him was Demetrius. Without even thinking, I jumped toward Nicholas, bumping my shoulder into his.

He grabbed his shoulder. “What are you—”

“Shhh,” I hissed.

Standing out in the middle of the icy street, I felt vulnerable with Stephan and Demetrius walking toward me. Demetrius’s Death-Walker-like cloak swished behind him, and Stephan, dressed all in black, held something shiny and silver in his hand…

The Sword of Immortality.

“I wish you wouldn’t carry that around,” Demetrius said to Stephan. “It makes me nervous.”

“It makes me nervous when I’m not carrying it around,” Stephan replied. “It’s the one thing that could end all of this.” He gestured around at the frozen, desolate street.

“Yes, but who is left to get a hold of it?” Demetrius asked with a laugh. “The ice killed everyone off who was still left around.”