“Want my help?” A playful grin played at his lips.

I shot him a dirty look. “No. I got it.” The last time he had “helped me,” we ended up kissing. And that was the last thing I wanted right now…I think.

It took me awhile, but I finally got the clamp on the necklace hooked, the chain now secured around my neck. It was then that a sudden thought occurred to me. “Alex.”

“Hmm…?” He had been watching me struggle to put the necklace on and seemed a little distracted.

“What happened to the memoria extraho?”

“Aislin and Adessa destroyed it,” he told me. “After we got back, they used some kind of spell on it that took its magic out of it.”

“So now it’s just a rock?”

He nodded.

Well, I guess that meant there was one less thing I had

to

worry

about. Although,

how

many

mind/memory/emotional erasing things were out there, I had no clue. But with everything I’d seen lately, I was guessing there might be more.

Alex suddenly shifted the subject. “Why don’t we go get you something to eat? You’ve been out for almost two days. You’ve got to be starving.”

“I’ve been out for two days?” I asked with astonishment.

He stood up. “Yeah, it was the longest nap ever.” I got to my feet. Even though I still had a ton of other questions, I was also very hungry. Besides, I wasn’t sure I wanted him to be the one to answer all of my questions. Although, there was one thing I was dying to know—I had to know right now, even though thinking about it made me sick to my stomach.

“Okay, but I have one more question.” I paused, taking a nervous deep breath. “With my emotions…I mean, am I…is it okay for me to have emotions?”

“I don’t know. I really don’t anything right now.” He looked at me funny, and I had the urge to bolt for the door as the fear raced through me that he might suddenly whip out the memoria extraho and wipe away my mind. “For now,” he said, “we’re not going to do anything. Not until we know what’s going on.” I was in no way, shape, or form relieved by what he said. “For now?” I asked.

He didn’t say anything else. He just turned away, calling over his shoulder. “Let’s go get you something to eat."

I glared a fiery glare at the back of his head, suddenly wishing I possessed pyrokinetic powers. I refused to go through this again. Get left out of the loop. Be given vague answers. I’d find out what I wanted to know, before it was too late. I’d get to the truth, whatever the cost.

Before going into the kitchen to get something to eat, I decided to go upstairs to change out of the pajamas I was wearing. Alex had told me, when I’d asked him if there was something else I could wear besides pajamas, that there were some clothes Aislin had picked out for me up in the room I’d woken up in.

As I dragged myself up the stairs, I thought about everything I’d just been told. It felt like I hadn’t been told anything really. Like always, I had a huge list of unanswered questions roaming around in my head.

And I was worried. Worried about whether or not Alex had told me anything truthful. Worried about why the Death Walkers had just up and left. Worried that Alex would suddenly decide I wasn’t supposed to feel anymore and try to take my emotions away from me.

I reached the top of the staircase and let out a heavy sigh. Lost. Was lost considered an emotion?

Because that’s how I felt.

I was half out of it, consumed by my thoughts, as I opened the door to the room. But right as I went to pull the door open, it swung open on its own, and someone grabbed me by the arm and yanked me inside.

I opened my mouth to scream, but another hand came down over my mouth, and all I could do was think, great. Now what?

Chapter 3

“Gemma,” a voice whispered in my ear.

I frantically tried to wriggle my way free from whoever had a hold of me. My heart pounded inside my chest as thoughts of who it could be blasted through my mind. Stephan? A Death Walker? Some other kind of monster?

Whoever it was had ice-cold skin, so I was leaning toward a Death Walker or another kind of similar monster.

“Jesus Christ, Gemma. Calm down.”

This time my brain registered who the voice belonged to and, feeling kind of stupid, I stopped my pathetic fight to get away. Laylen let go of me, and I let my breathing slow down to a normal pace.

“What are you doing?” I asked, breathing heavily.

“You scared the heck out of me.” Again.

“Shhh…” Laylen put his finger up to his deep red lips, glanced around the room, and then shut the door.

“Keep your voice down.”

“Why?” My voice came out way too loud so I lowered it. “Sorry. But why do I have to keep my voice down?”

He glanced around the room again, seeming nervous, and then locked the door. “So what do you think about what Alex told you?”

Hmm…so had I been wrong about Laylen trusting Alex? “I don’t know…What do you think about it?” He tilted his head from side to side, wavering. “I’m not sure…it just seems a little too…”

“Simple,” I finished for him.

He nodded. “Exactly. Aislin and I show up there and Stephan and the Death Walkers are conveniently gone. It just doesn’t make any sense.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought too.” I paused, considering what it could mean. But in my typical confused style, I felt as lost as ever. “So what do you think really happened?”

He shrugged. “I have no idea. But I know the chance of the Death Walkers just leaving when they know you have the star’s energy in you, is slim to none. And I think it’s really suspicious that Stephan just passed out like that.”

“Well, Alex told me that Stephan passed out because of this.” I lifted up my locket, the purple stone reflecting sharply in the lighting of the room. “That this little stone is sugilite and that because I was wearing it, and Stephan tried to use harmful magic on me, it made him black out.”

Laylen took the locket in his hand, rubbing the purple stone with his thumb. The necklace was still attached to my neck, so I had to crank my head forward, putting my neck in an awkward position.

“That’s interesting….” he murmured and let the locket go, releasing my neck from its uncomfortable position. “It’s sugilite, but still …” His expression twisted with confusion.

“What? Does sugilite not protect people from certain kinds of magic like Alex said?” I mean, really, the odds were pretty high that Alex had been lying.

“No, it does.” He paused. “But I don’t get it. Alex gives you this necklace that has sugilite, knowing if someone uses magic on you, to let’s say take your emotions or mind away, that it won’t work. And that it’ll end up doing harm to whoever is using the magic on you. Yet, supposedly, at least according to the Keepers, you’re not supposed to have any emotions.

So what would be the point of Alex protecting you from the thing he’s been telling you has to be done?” I frowned, not at Laylen, but at the mention of my emotions. “So Alex told you everything then?”

“Yeah, but it doesn’t mean I believe every part of what he said.”

“Me neither,” I agreed. My leg was killing me, so I went over and sat down on the bed, and Laylen followed, sitting down next to me. “So what else did Alex tell you?”

He gave me a sort of amused look. “Well, he told me that you guys took a little trip to the City of Crystal, where you found out that you’re a Foreseer.” I swallowed hard. “Did he tell about the vision I had to go into while I was at the City of Crystal?”

“He did.” Laylen answered with hesitance.

I hated to be reminded of that vision, and just talking about it shoved the memory of it into my mind; Stephan forcing my mom to go into lake—the entrance to The Underworld—where she’d been tortured to insanity by Water Faeries.