I felt around in the dark until I found the kitchen light and flipped it on. I stumbled over to the sink, turned the faucet on, and submerged my arm underneath the cold water. It helped…a little.

I don’t know how long I stood there, gasping for air, letting the water drench the skin on my arm, as I waited for the pain to subside, but I was guessing it was quite a while.

Finally, the fiery pain dwindled down, but it left in its place a few olive-green lines that traced across my veins on the lower half of my arm.

I touched the lines with my finger, pulling a face. I sure hoped it wasn’t permanent.

I put my locket on and headed for the front door, to go look for a phone so I could call Aislin and tell her I was at the house. But as I went to shut the door behind me, I heard a soft poof.

I whirled around. A cloud of purple haze swirled through the room, and Alex, Laylen, and Aislin were standing in the center of it. They were all freaked out, eyes wide, mouths agape. Alex was the first to come running up to me, his bright green eyes wide with panic.

“Are you—are you okay?” he asked, rushing for me. He opened his arms, as if to hug me, but them stop and pulled back.

I didn’t take it personally. It was a good thing—we had been too touchy-feely already. But my insides tightened with the desire for his arms to be wrapped around me. I wanted him to hug me so badly I could barely stand it.

“I’m fine.” My voice shook, giving away what I was feeling.

His eyes were all over me. “What did she do to you?” I held out my arm, showing him the olive-green lines tracing my veins. “Her plants attacked me and then she touched me….you know, you could have warned me about the plants.”

He cursed under his breath and examined my arm over without actually touching my skin. His gaze was enough, though, to dust a murmur of sparks across my skin. To make them stop, I moved my hand away and took a step back.

“It’s not permanent, is it?” I asked worriedly.

Alex bit at his bottom lip. “It is.”

I shook my head. “Great. Now I’m always going to have a reminder of when your ex-girlfriend tried to kill me.” Something about what I said set something off between the four of us. I don’t know who laughed first, but suddenly we were all laughing hysterically. Maybe it was because we were all tired, or maybe it was because the idea that Alex’s ex-girlfriend would try to kill me sounded so ridiculous; yet it was true.

So we all stood there and had our little laughing moment, until the darkness settled over us again and we had to move on.

In the living room, we all gathered around the mapping ball, the star-shaped light in the center ill uminating a purple glow across each of our faces as Alex and Aislin and I explained to Laylen what had been going on while he was gone.

“So what do we do now?” I choked. “Now that…Nicholas is gone.”

After I had gone to get the mapping ball out of its hiding place, I had asked Alex what exactly happened to Nicholas

—he didn’t just leave him on the side of the road, did he?

Alex told me no, and that when one of the fey die, the fey themselves take care of them.

I wondered if fey had funerals? I wondered how they would mourn Nicholas? Did fey shed tears over death?

Would they gather and tell stories of Nicholas?

“We need to make a plan?” Aislin said, twirling her hair around her finger as she thought.

Alex gave her a duh look. “Thanks for clarifying the obvious, Aislin.”

Aislin fired a glare at him. “Don’t be rude.”

“We need to go to the City of Crystal,” I picked up the mapping ball from off the coffee table and turned it around in my hands, “so I can get inside this thing.”

“You don’t even know how to use it.” Alex said. “Nicholas never explained it to you.”

“I know.” I gave Alex the same duh look he shot at Aislin.

“But I do know I need to get the power from that big crystal ball inside the City of Crystal. I just need to figure out how to bring the power back.”

“Gemma, you need to know exactly what you’re doing before you even try to go to the City of Crystal,” Alex told me, leaning over the coffee table, his eyes stressing the danger. “It’s quite the risk sneaking in there when you aren’t sure how to get the power.” He reached over and took the mapping ball from me, with his thinking face on.

“Maybe there’s another Foreseer we can ask,” Aislin suggested.

If only it were that easy. Involving another Foreseer would mean involving another person in what was going on, which was extremely risky. Besides, I was beginning to question what side the Foreseers played on. I mean, look at my father.

“Maybe you could ask your father,” Laylen said, twisting at his lip ring. “I mean, you’ve been there once, so why can’t you go there again.”

Alex opened his mouth to argue, but then he looked at me. “Could you go back there? Do you know how?” I considered this. When I had gone there, it was totally by accident. I mean, I didn’t even know exactly what or where the place was.

“I don’t know....” I chewed on my fingernails. “I’m not sure what my father would even do if I was able to get back to wherever he was. He wouldn’t tell me hardly anything the last time I was there.”

“Well, you’ll just have to make him,” Alex looked me straight in the eye. “Tell him you can’t fix his mistakes, unless he tells you how and what they are.” I was still hesitant. “I think I need to talk to my mom. I mean, she might know something about all this.” I glanced at the seashel clock hanging on the tan wall. Wow. It was late. I gave Aislin a funny look. “Shouldn’t my mom be here by now?”

Aislin twisted her golden-blonde hair around her finger, looking on edge. “I don’t know…maybe she had to go somewhere else besides the store.”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “Nothing’s open this late.” Alex and Laylen gave Aislin a quizzical glance—I’m glad I wasn’t the only one noticing her weird behavior.

“What exactly did she say on the phone?” Alex asked.

Aislin quickly shook her head. “I don’t know…I don’t remember.”

“Aislin,” Alex warned. “What did she say?”

“I don’t want to tell you!” Aislin cried, throwing her head down into her hands. “Then you two will just go and try to save her, and I can’t take any more of it.”

“Any more of what?” Alex asked, his voice softening a little.

“You risking your life all the time.” She raised her head and tears were dripping down her cheeks. “Dad’s crazy, mom left, and you’re all I have left.”

“Aislin,” Alex’s voice was cautious. “I understand where you’re coming from, but this is what I—we do. We’re Keepers. We risk our lives and that’s how things are.” I swallowed hard. I never knew their mom had run off, leaving them with a madman for a father.

“Well, you can tell me,” I said to Aislin. “I’ll go get her by myself.”

“He won’t let you.” Her voice cracked.

“Yeah, he will,” I assured. “Wherever she is, I’ll go by myself.”

Alex opened his mouth. “Like hell I’m going to—” I covered his mouth with my hand, ignoring the heat of his lips on my palm. “If I foresee there, he doesn’t have a choice.”

“I’ll go with her,” Laylen chimed in, meeting my eyes. “You and I can go, and they can stay here.”

I dropped my hand from Alex’s mouth and he gave me a dirty look. Surprisingly, though, he said nothing.

Aislin burst into tears, sobbing so hysterically, I could barely hear her when she said, “she went to the Keeper’s castle to try and kill my father.”

Chapter 11

At first I thought I didn’t hear her right. I mean, why would my mom do such an insane thing? It was crazy—she would have to be crazy…

Oh my God. “She’s crazy,” I whispered.

“She’s not crazy,” Alex said. “She just wants to protect you.”

“And get herself killed in the process,” I said. “To me, that seems like a pretty crazy thing to do.”