Stuck in between one?

I kept walking, trying to stay calm, but it was hard to do because I couldn’t tell where I was. In fact, everything was so out of whack, including my senses, that for all I knew I could have been flying.

I called out a few more times, but each time I got no response.

“Okay,” I told myself, “calm down and focus.” I took a deep breath and tried to focus on my surroundings. I let me eyes relax and tried not to think of anything else. Gradually, bit by bit, things started to shift into focus…the trees around me…the sky above me…the lake below me.

The lake!

A spilt second later I was submerged in the cold water. I kicked and paddled, trying to tear my way back to the surface, but not knowing how to swim was making it difficult. Water was seeping into my mouth.

My oxygen was diminishing.

I was going to drown.

And then something remarkable occurred. I felt someone fold their arms around me and before I knew it I was breaking through the surface of the water. The sunlight, trees, and sky had never looked so lovely in my entire life. Along with Laylen’s bright blue eyes, which were watching me, as he kept us both afloat.

“One of these days,” he said breathlessly. “I’m going to have to teach you how to swim.” I didn’t say anything because I was too busy hacking my guts out.

Laylen swam us to shore, and we both collapsed onto the muddy grass, where we laid on our backs and stared up at the bright blue sky, the sunlight stinging at my eyes. After I finished catching my breath, I rolled over and looked at the Keepers grey stone castle soaring off in the distance. My gaze wandered over to Laylen, lying there on the ground, his damp hair glistening in the sunlight, beads of water glittering on his pale skin. If it wouldn’t have been for him, I might be dead right now—he’d saved me from drowning.

“Where’s Alex?” I asked him. “Did he make it here with us?”

“Yeah, he made it.” Laylen squinted against the sunlight with his arm flopped across his forehead. “I left him back there,” he pointed behind us, “when I saw you drowning in the lake. He’s still a little weak.” He gave a short pause. “Gemma, what happened back there? Why did we end up here…were you thinking about taking us to The Underworld?”

“No,” I said, a little offended he’d think that. “I was trying to take us back to Adessa’s, but the Death Walker grabbed hold of my arm,” I raised my arm up to show him the faint bluish-purple fingerprints that still marked my skin. “I kept trying to get us away, but then there was this snap…and I don’t know, a bunch of different images started flashing through my mind.

Then the next thing I knew I was here, but everything was all blurry, and I couldn’t see I was on the lake until it was too late.”

“You were lucky no one had just recently dumped any summoning ash in there,” Laylen said, glancing at the lake.

“Summoning ash?” I asked. “What is that?”

“In order for the Water Faeries to come up to the surface, summoning ash has to be put into the water first,” he explained.

I nodded as I remembered how I’d seen Stephan dumping some black ash into the lake before my mom was dragged away to The Underworld.

“Wait a minute,” I said. “How can you see any of this? I thought only the vision seer was supposed to be able to see the surroundings?”

“I have no idea,” Laylen said. “All I can think of is that maybe we’re not in a vision, like when we traveled into the City of Crystal only we just traveled to somewhere else.”

Strange. “So why do you think I screwed up getting us back to Adessa’s?” I asked, picking at the grass.

“Do you think it was because of the Death Walker?” Before he could answer a shadow cast over us.

Alex stood unsteadily in front of us. “That and probably because you’ve been using your Foreseer power too much.”

I squinted up at him, standing there, the sunlight gleaming behind him. There were shadows under his eyes, and he still didn’t have a shirt on. Rounding his left rib cage was a circle traced by a set of fiery-gold flames—the Keepers mark.

So that’s where it was.

“I haven’t been using it that much,” I lied, trying hard not to stare at his shirtless chest. “I think it might have had something to do with the Death Walker getting a hold of me…which why were they even there? And with Nicholas?”

Alex shook his head and sank down on the muddy grass. “Your guess is as good as mine. I honestly have no clue what the heck is going on,” he gestured around us, “with any of this.”

“Well, it might have something do to with the fact that Nicholas was tricking us when he said he could get me into The Underworld.” I sat up and shielded my eyes from the sun with my hand. “He never even intended to help me get to The Underworld. In fact, according to him, he can’t even go there.” Alex cocked an eyebrow at me. “What do you mean?”

I sighed and began explaining what had been going on for the last week while he was trapped in the City of Crystal, strapped to that awful crystal ball.

One good thing about Alex is that he’s a somewhat calm person…well, at least when it comes to stressful situations. With me…hmm…not so much.

Things that would freak out a normal person barely upset him. And as I told him about the visions I’d been going into, he stayed fairly calm. The only thing that got a rise out of him was when I told him about his father and the mark—the Mark of Malefiscus.

However, it wasn’t the rise I was expecting. I assumed he’d get pissed off and insist that there was no way that his father could have such a mark, but he didn’t.

Instead, he stared out at the water, looking lost. He was quiet for so long that I began to worry he was going into a catatonic state.

I gave Laylen a what-should-I-do look.

He shrugged, like he had no idea.

“Alex,” I said, keeping my voice low. “Are you okay?”

He didn’t answer.

I tried again. “Alex?”

“So this blue sparkling thing you said I was giving to the Queen,” he said suddenly. “Do you know what shape it was?”

“All I could see was that it sparkled,” I told him.

“Then Nicholas pulled me away and made me take us back to Adessa’s.”

Alex popped his knuckles, his jaw set tight. “Okay, well we need to find out what this blue shiny thing is before we even try to head down to The Underworld.”

“And we need to get the Ira,” I added.

The waves of the lake rolled up and back as we sat on the shore trying to figure out what to do.

“What would the Queen want that’s blue and sparkly,” I thought aloud.

Unexpectedly, Alex jumped to his feet, a little too quickly, and he tipped forward. Laylen leapt up and caught him before he dove head first into the water.

Alex swayed a little before regaining his balance, and Laylen let him go. It was weird, because before Alex had left, the two had been fighting.

“I think I might know what it is,” Alex said, gazing over at the forest.

“You do?” I perked up and got to my feet.

“Yeah, and it’s not too far from us.” He nodded over at the trees. “It’s over there.”

I looked over at the tall green trees that encircled the lake. “It’s in the forest?”

He nodded, stumbling as he took a step forward.

“Okay…” I was starting to grow concerned over Alex’s balancing problem. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Don’t worry about me,” he said, his tone sharp. “I’ll be fine.”

Well, if he was going to be rude about it, then fine. I wouldn’t worry about it. Okay, fine, technically that wasn’t true.

“Well, what is this thing?” I asked him as I wiped the mud off of the back of my legs. “And why do you think it’s in the trees?”

“It’s something that holds sentimental value to the Queen.” He staggered off toward the forest like he was under the influence.

Laylen and I both exchanged a questioning look, and then we jogged after Alex.