“What’s wrong?” Nicholas followed my gaze, even though he couldn’t see anything. “Is it a Water Faerie?”

I squinted through the blackness of the tunnel, trying to see what was at the end of it—something white, but I couldn’t make out precisely what it was.

“I don’t know…” I moved forward, straining my vision. “Something…”

“Something what?” Nicholas demanded with urgency.

“White and wavy and…” Oh no. I’d seen this thing before, once in a dream, when I had heard my mother call out my name. It was the thing that had sent a new level of fear charging through me. “Ghostly and boney.”

Nicholas tugged on the back of my shirt and pulled me to the side of the tunnel, pressing us up against the wall. “It’s a Water Faerie,” he hissed.

“Yeah…but it can’t see us,” I pointed out.

He shook his head and whispered, “It’ll be able to sense I’m here.”

I stared at him, shocked. “How?”

“Water Faeries are fey so it’ll be able to sense I’m here because I’m part fey.” His tone singed with anger. He pushed himself closer against the dirt wall.

“And if it does….” He didn’t finish, taking a shuddering breath.

I leaned toward him, keeping my voice low. “So what do you want me to do then?”

“Keep me away from it.” He held out his hand for me to take. “I can’t see it—you know that—so you’ll have to guide me away from it. Once we get far enough away from it, take us back to Adessa’s. But don’t do it while the Water Faeries are close—it’ll more likely be able to sense I’m here, and that’ll make things even worse for me.”

I looked up and down the tunnel, trying to decide which way to head. The only difference between the two ends was that one had a Water Faerie floating toward us and one didn’t.

“Come on.” I grabbed his hand and led him toward the unoccupied side of the tunnel, moving fast, the air swelling damper with each step we took. At one pointed I shot a quick glance over my shoulder and saw the Water Faerie a little ways behind us, gliding through the air, all pale and mirage-like, and close enough that I could see its eyes were hollowed out like a skeleton.

We ran faster.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Nicholas and I were stepping out of the tunnel and out into a large, open cave. Rays of white light glittered from all over, hitting the rocky floors and walls like tiny laser beams. In the center of the cave stood a throne-shaped graphite rock, the back of it snaking up to the domed quartz ceiling.

“Where are we?” Nicholas asked, giving a quick glance over his shoulder, even though he couldn’t see anything. “And where’s the Water Faerie? Is it gone?

Can you get us out of here?”

Looking back over my own shoulder, I saw that the Water Faerie had vanished. “It’s gone.” I turned back around. “And we’re in some sort of cave with a throne.”

“It’s the Queen’s quarters.” Panic laced his voice and he jerked on my arm. “We need to go. Now.” I didn’t budge. “Just a second…I just need to see something first.”

Nicholas kept pulling on my arm, but I refused to move, digging my feet into the dirt as I waited for something to happen. I could feel that something would, I just hoped it was the Queen entering, along with a future me and future Nicholas as we tried to strike up a deal to get my mother out of this creepy place.

“Gemma!” Nicholas holl ered. “We have to get out of here!”

I looked at him, his expression petrified with fear, and a realization clicked. “If it’s so bad that a Water Faerie can sense you’re down here, then how are you supposed to come down here with me to save my mom? And…if you want to leave so badly, why don’t you just take us out of here yourself?”

“Because...” He let out a breath. “Look, I can’t give you the details, but I can say that there are certain reasons—rules that won’t allow me down here…And I can’t take us out of here, because I can’t—my Foreseer power is no use down here.”

I gaped at him. “So, if all that’s true then how did you ever plan on helping me save my mom?” His silence told me what I needed to know. “You weren’t ever planning on it, were you?”

More silence and I wanted to smack him.

“I can’t believe this. These last few days have been nothing but a bunch of lies and games, haven’t they?” I balled up my fist, infuriated. “This whole training thing was just a charade, wasn’t it?”

He shrugged, being super obnoxious.

“Why would you do that?!” I cried.

He shrugged again, his scared expression now replaced by a deceitful smile. “To spend time with you, of course.”

I opened my mouth, ready to scream a few choice words at him, but then snapped it shut when I saw her out of the corner of my eye—a woman with long brown hair and bright blue irises. My mother.

She had entered the cave and walked up to the throne, where she started to dust it off with a white cloth, as if she were a cleaning maid. After she had finished, she stood there for a moment staring at the throne. Even from where I stood, I could see the emptiness in her eyes; an emptiness that hadn’t been there when I had seen her in the previous visions.

Another scream shook at the air, like the one I heard earlier, and moments later another woman came into the cave. She was dressed in white; her eyes were two sunken in holes, and her snow-white hair trailed down her back like a wedding veil. I knew she had to be the Queen by how she carried herself; with utter confidence as if she owned the place. And also by the way my mom’s eyes lit up with fear when she saw her.

Unlike the Water Faeries, the Queen didn’t float, and she looked mostly normal except for that fact that her skin was nearly translucent and she didn’t have any eyeballs.

My mom bowed as the Queen walked by her, and then backed away as if she was terrified out of her mind.

The Queen sat down on the throne and her voice echoed out, “Where are they?”

“I think Sarabel a is bringing them in,” my mom answered with a quivering voice.

The Queen watched the cave entryway with her eyeless eyes. “Does anyone know why they’re here?” My mother shook her head. “They haven’t said anything yet.”

Nicholas tapped me on the shoulder, and demanded for me to take us away, but I disregarded him, my eyes fixed on my mother and the Queen of The Underworld—the Queen known for torturing people to insanity.

Another scream rang, this time sounding much closer. But I didn’t move, watching as a tall and thin figure, with the same snow-white hair and pale skin as the Queen, strode into the cave, accompanied by no other than yours truly and…Alex?

What? Why was Alex here with me? And better yet, how had we even gotten here if Nicholas supposedly wasn’t able to help me?

Alex remained close to me as we followed the woman across the room and to the throne. I could see in my expression that I must have been really struggling to keep my fear under control.

“Thank you Sarabel a,” The Queen said to the woman after we all reached the throne.

Sarabel a smiled, revealing that her mouth was nothing more than a toothless hole. “You’re welcome,” she breathed, and swept the tail of her white dress across the floor as she turned around and headed out of the cave.

The Queen tapped her fingers together the way evil vill ains do in movies, her bare eyes locked on Alex and me; her mouth set firmly in a straight line. “So you two are the humans who dared enter my world without my permission.” Alex started to speak, but the Queen held up her hand. “Silence. I do not want to hear your excuses. All that is important is there are going to be consequences for you coming here.” She glanced us over, like she was contemplating our death in her head.

“You look familiar,” the Queen remarked to Alex.

“Have you been here before?”

Alex shook his head. “I haven’t.”

“Are you sure?” The Queen’s empty gaze bore into Alex. “There’s something about you that’s so…