“You okay?” Laylen asked.

“I’m fine.” My voice sounded choked. There was a gap of silence before I asked, “Do you think there’s a way she can still be alive? My mom, I mean.” Laylen sat there, looking at me, not in a feeling-sorry-for-me kind of way, but more as if he was seriously contemplating what I’d asked him. Part of me grew eager that he might say yes; that there was a possibility that my mother, who I hadn’t seen since I was four years-old, and could barely remember a thing about—thanks to the detachment of my soul from my emotions causing my memories to be erased away as well —might still be alive.

“I don’t know, Gemma,” he said softly. “She’s been down there for a really long time.” My eagerness dropped to the floor and shattered like glass. “Oh. Okay.”

“Now hold on one second before you go getting that sad look on your face. All I said was that she’s been down there for awhile, not that there was no way she could be alive.”

I tried to keep my excitement to a bare minimum.

“So, are you saying that there might be a chance she still is?”

He twisted his lip ring from side to side. “Maybe…

There’ve been some people that have survived the Water Faeries tortured for a long amount of time without going too insane. And there have even been a few people that have escaped The Underworld before.”

“There have!” I shouted, and then made an oh-crap face at the loudness of my voice. We both stayed silent for a moment, making sure no one had heard and had decided to head upstairs to check on me.

The house was quiet, as still as the hot desert air, the only noise coming from the humming of engines from the cars passing by. “Sorry,” I whispered. “But I’m just really confused. The way Alex made it sound, it seemed like there was hardly any way that anyone could ever escape The Underworld. That once they were sent down there, they were basically trapped there until they died from the torture.” Laylen’s bright blue eyes twinkled mischievously.

“Yeah, but Alex doesn’t hang around with the same kind of crowd as I do, does he? You learn a lot of stuff when you’re not just limited to the Keepers circle.” Now I was letting myself get a little excited over what Laylen was saying. Well, except for the fact that he said “crowd.” What kind of crowd were we talking about here? Vampire crowd? Witch crowd? Black Angel crowd? All were possibilities, and there were probably other possibilities that I didn’t even know about.

“Is there any way we could find someone who will maybe help us find out if she’s alive? And help us find out if there’s a way we could get her out of The Underworld if she is?” I held my breath as I waited for him to answer.

It took him a second, but he nodded. “It won’t be easy, though…And it’ll be dangerous.”

I should have been scared. But after you’ve faced a swarm of murderous Death Walkers, been hit by their Chil of Death, and stared into the eyes of a man who is trying to wipe your mind away, “dangerous” becomes a little easier to deal with. “So you’re saying that maybe we could go and talk to someone about her?”

He mulled over my question for so long that I was sure he was going to say no. “Yeah, I think we might be able to do that.”

“Really,” I was practically bouncing. “Are you serious?”

He nodded. “I think your mom may know more about what’s going on than anyone does. I think that might be part of the reason why Stephan sent her there—so she couldn’t tell anyone what she knew.”

“I think so too,” I agreed. “In fact, in the vision, she told Stephan that one day he’d get caught and that he didn’t have everyone wrapped around his finger.”

“Then I think the sooner we can find out if she’s alive the better. And maybe we can put all this madness together and get some real answers.” He paused. “But I don’t want you to get too excited, just in case things don’t turn out the way…the way you want them to.”

“I won’t,” I assured him, but I still couldn’t help but get a little excited. Well, okay, I was beyond excited. In fact, I think I’d hit a whole new level of excitement and…yep, there it was. The prickle.

I know. I know. I was totally setting myself up for some serious heart-ache here. But I couldn’t control myself at the moment. Just seeing my mother…it would be amazing. Especially after being raised by Marco and Sophia, who were two of the most cold-hearted people I knew. Well, besides Stephan.

Wait. Hold on. “Laylen, what happened to Marco and Sophia?”

“I have no idea,” he said with a shrug. “No one does. They just up and disappeared.”

Hmmm…very strange. So did that mean they were playing on the good side or the bad side?

I opened my mouth to ask Laylen this, but a knock at the door caused Laylen and I to jump to our feet.

“Gemma,” Alex’s voice floated through the door.

“Are you in there?”

“Uh…Yeah,” I called out. “Just a second.” I turned to Laylen and whispered. “Great. What am I supposed to tell him when he asked why you’re in here?”

“You’re not going to tell him,” Laylen whispered, searching for a place to hide. “If he knows I am in here, he’ll know something’s up. And if he knows what we’re planning to do, he'll go out of his way to make sure it doesn’t happen.”

excellent point. Alex would say it was too dangerous, at least for me anyway. Because that’s what he always says. Besides, the question of whether or not Alex was lying about what had happened back at the cabin was still a big giant question mark. So for now, at least until we knew for sure what was going on, it was probably best to keep our plan a secret from Alex.

Laylen got down on the floor. “Just pretend I’m not here,” he whispered. And with that, he slid underneath the bed.

I waited until he was completely under before unlocking the door and opening it. “Hey, what’s up?” Real cool Gemma. I sounded way too casual.

He gave me a suspicious look. “You’ve been up here forever. What are you doing?”

“Um…changing?” It sounded like a question, and I wanted to slap myself on the head for sucking so badly at playing it cool.

He looked down at the pajamas I was still wearing, and I realized my answer had been even more idiotic than I’d originally thought. I needed to think of something to tell him. And quick.

“Well …I was going to change, but I couldn’t…um…

figure out where the clothes are.” Not my best lie, but hopefully it would do.

He looked unconvinced as he walked into the room and over to a dresser. He pulled open the top drawer and pointed inside it. “The clothes are in here.” Ignoring the heat the electricity caused by him being in the room, I made my way over to the dresser.

“Oh. Okay. Thanks.”

He gave me a strange look and then glanced around the room, as if he were looking for something that shouldn’t be there. Like maybe a six foot four Keeper/Vampire hiding underneath the bed.

Finally, Alex gave up on looking for whatever it was he was looking for and stuffed his hands into the pockets. “Well, come downstairs when you’re done.

Adessa made dinner.”

“Alright, I will,” I told him, again sounding way too laid-back.

“Okay…” He raised his eyebrows at me, before heading to the door, shooting one last look over his shoulder, before stepping out of the room.

I let out a breath of relief, shut the door, and spun around as Laylen army crawled from underneath the bed.

He stood up and dusted off his jeans “That was close.”

“I know. It was like he knew you were here or something.”

Laylen laughed, and I felt like I was missing out on a joke.

“What’s so funny?” I asked.

He shook his head. “Nothing…so yeah, I think we should sneak out tonight and talk to a few people I know. See if anyone has heard anything about your mom. You up for it?”

“I…uh…yeah?” Why did I suddenly feel hesitant?

This was my mother we were talking about. But for some reason, it felt wrong—keeping what we were doing from Alex.