My mother glanced between Alex and I. “And you two. I have no idea why he needed to separate the star. Or why he detached Gemma’s soul and raised you to be emotionally shut off. It’s the one thing we really need to find out because I have a feeling it might be the key to stopping it all.”

“But why did he create Aislin and Laylen?” I asked.

“I mean, I understand why he needs them, but why did he create them? Why not just find a vampire and witch who are also Keepers?”

“Because their kind are not easy to find,” my mother answered. “And I think it was also so he could keep an eye on them and make sure everything turned out the way that he wanted.”

Suddenly, the electricity started to surge even more than it had, almost to the point that it was suffocating me.

“Alex, are you…okay?” I asked.

He looked at me; there was a fire in his bright green eyes. Then he stood to his feet, threw the chair over the deck, and stormed inside. I almost followed, but then thought better of it.

I turned my attention back to my mother. “So, that’s it, then? Stephan will open up the portal and the world will end, just like I saw it?”

My mom leaned toward me and placed her hand on top of mine. “There are always loopholes, Gemma.

You just have to find them.”

I took her words in. There were always loopholes; you just have to find them. But what if we couldn’t find them?

Then what?

Chapter 41

After my mom had dropped the bombshel on us, everyone scattered around the house. Aislin and Laylen were in their rooms and Alex had gone outside. My mom said she needed to lie down and rest—she was still recovering from being in The Underworld for so long—but had made a request first.

She asked me to go check on Alex.

Yeah, I’m not sure she understood how terrible of an idea that was, and I tried to explain to her that he and I tended to argue a lot and with as upset as he was, I would probably just make him mad. But my mom was very insistent that I do so.

So I did, but with zero confidence that I would be able to make him feel better.

I found Alex sitting out on the front steps, the sun shining down on his messy brown hair. He didn’t look up at me when I walked out, but I knew that he knew I was there, thanks to the electricity. The electric connection felt so different now that I knew why it was there. In fact, it was kind of like a painful reminder of what Stephan had done to us, and what he was planning to do to the world.

The salty air kissed my skin as I sat down on the cement steps beside Alex. I told myself that I could do this—I could make him feel a little better. I had done it for Laylen after all, when he bit the woman. But, with Alex, it was different.

“How are you?” I asked him, which seemed like a really stupid question once it left my mouth. How are you? I shook my head at myself.

Alex looked at me with the same look I would have given myself if that were possible.

I kicked a rock with my toes. “Sorry, dumb question.”

He took a few deep breathes and the expression on his face softened. “No, it’s not a dumb question…I just…I don’t know how I am.” He ran his fingers through his hair so hard he yanked at the roots. “I feel like I don’t know anything anymore. I mean, my whole life has been a lie.”

I nodded, understanding how he felt completely.

“Gemma,” his voice held such uncertainty. He watched me with his bright green eyes, which were filled with the same uncertainty his voice held. “I’m sorry…for everything.”

How was I supposed to respond to this because it no longer seemed like I should be putting the blame on Alex for what had happened to me?

“It’s okay,” I told him. “It’s really not your fault.”

“It is, though,” he said, his voice cracking a little. “I didn’t have to do what my father told me to do. I had a choice…unlike you.”

“It’s okay,” I told him again, leaning back on my hands. “But, can I ask you something?” He hesitated, before nodding.

“Why did you come to my house that day? The day my emotions were released? Was it because of the star? Or was it something else?”

He sat there for what seemed like an eternity, just looking at me, and I could almost see the internal struggle he was having with whether or not he should tell me the truth. I now knew that this was because he had been taught to be this way, and I figured it was going to be a hard habit for him to break. So he startled me when he reached behind me and took my hand in his.

“You remember how Nicholas told you about the Blood Promise the fey made to Malefiscus, right?” He asked, tracing his fingers across the top of my hand.

I tried not to shiver. “Yeah…I remember.” He turned my hand over, and moved his finger across the tiny scar on the palm of my hand. And, as crazy as this is going to sound, I swear the faint scar was becoming more noticeable as he touched it.

“And you remember the vision you saw when you and me were kids, and I cut both of our hands.” Forem. “Yeah…but what does that have to do...” It clicked. “Did we make a Blood Promise?” He nodded. “We did.”

Forem. “What kind of promise?”

“The forever kind.”

“The forever kind?” I asked. “What does that mean?”

He cocked and eyebrow at me. “You remember the word we said when we pressed our hands together, right?”

I nodded. “Forem. But what does it mean?” Forever,” he said, his breath shaky. “It means we’re bonded together forever.”

Chapter 42

I wasn’t sure what to say. I felt strange and slightly lightheaded and a little bit breathless. I mean, he just told me that when we were little, we made an unbreakable promise to be together.

Forever.

It took a minute, but I finally found my voice again. “It seems like a really weird promise for two kids to make,” I told him, lightly tracing my finger across the scar on the palm of my hand.

He pressed his lips together, holding back a smile.

“That’s all you have to say after I just told you that we made an unbreakable promise to be together forever.”

I shrugged. “I don’t know…It just seems really strange to me.”

He closed his hand and then stretched it open again. “Well, we were strange kids.” He paused, a small amount of bitterness creeping into his expression. “And now I know why.”

I chewed on my bottom lip thinking about my childhood, and how, thanks to Stephan and Sophia’s lovely gift of being able to detach souls from their emotions, I could barely remember anything about it.

“Did we ever feel it?” I asked.

He gave me a funny look. “Did we ever feel what?”

“The electricity—when we were little did we ever feel it?”

“I’m not sure…” He stared off at the quiet street in front of us, the sun shining brightly in his eyes. “I don’t really think that we felt what we do now, but there was always a connection there.”

I remembered the first time I ever laid eyes on him, and how my gaze had found him all on its own. There was definitely a connection—one deeper than even the electricity went.

Alex looked at me and he had such intensity in his bright green eyes that it made me squirm around uncomfortably. A strange feeling passed through me then, and I waited for the prickle to show up and tell me what I was feeling, because whatever was going on right now had to be something new. But the prickle never came and as I continued to grow more uncomfortable, I changed the subject.

“So, do you think we’ll be able to fix everything?” I asked, struggling to keep my voice even. “Do you think we’ll be able to stop the world from ending—

stop what I saw in my vision from actually happening?

My mom said there are always loop holes? But what loop holes would there be? I mean it doesn’t make any… ” I trailed off because of the astonished look Alex was giving me.