All thoughts of what’s right and wrong leave my mind when we reach the end of the tunnel. As I take in the square space only one thought remains inside my mind.
Fear.
It’s worse than I’d expected. Water Faeries are everywhere along with what look like ordinary humans, but I’m guessing not all of them are. Each one of the humans is strapped to a wooden plank perched on a steel stand. They’re being tortured in different ways, some with knives inserted into their arms, others getting their bodies stretched with ropes attached to a large wooden wheel. Some have Water Fey hovering over them and it looks like they’re trying to kiss them, but I think they might be doing something worse.
“Don’t look at them,” Alex whispers in my ear and I jump, startled. “Focus on turning it off.”
I try my best, but it’s hard to block out the sounds…the cries…the anguish and suffering. It’s pretty much impossible and I end up being overwhelmed by it.
The Queen leads us to a back room that has dirt walls and a stone floor. The ceiling arches up toward what looks like a skylight, but the glass is frosted so I can’t see what’s on the other side. A single wooden chair that has straps attached to the arms and legs is perched in the center of the room.
The Queen shuts the door and then turns to face us. “Tell me, Gemma. What are you most afraid of in this world?”
Love. I blink at my mind’s declaration. “I don’t know,” I say, shifting my weight uneasily.
“You don’t know?” She taps her lips and a toothless grin spreads across her face. “Well, I think it’s time we found out. Don’t you agree?" She raises her arms in the air and claps her hands together. “Think about it. Finally discovering the one thing that will make you lose your sanity. Isn’t it exciting?”
Two Water Faeries zoom up behind me and wrap their boney fingers around my arms. Alex grabs my hand and holds onto me as tightly as he can, attempting to pull me away from them.
“Let me go first,” he says, tugging on my arm. He reaches up and tries to punch one of the Water Fey.
It swerves out of his reach, opens its mouth, and screams so loudly the room rattles and dirt crumbles from the walls.
The Queen shakes her head as she ambles around the chair, tracing her finger along the back. “I have a feeling that forcing you to watch her get tortured is going to provide a very great amount of fear in you.”
Two more Water Faeries come flying up behind us and wrap their fingers around Alex’s arms. He tries to shove them off, but Water Fey are impressively strong for such boney creatures.
The Water Faeries drag me over to the chair, separating Alex and I from each other. I sink into their hold, and challenged their strength against my dead weight as I plant the heels of my shoes into the ground. But it’s a worthless effort.
Once we reach the chair, they shove me down into it and the Queen stands behind me as she snakes an arm around my neck. The Fey secure my legs and wrists to the chair with the straps before the Queen leans over my shoulder, putting her lips near my ear.
“Fear is the most powerful emotion,” she whispers, her foul breath startling icy against my cheek. “And the most painful.”
That’s where she’s wrong. Fear is just fear in my eyes and I’ve experienced it many times. There are so many more emotions that can be so much more painful; sadness, anger, caring for someone that in return can split your heart open and stomp on it.
“Now, which way to go here?” the Queen dithers as she struts around the chair and stands in front of me. “Oh, I know.” She sticks out her hand and one of the Water Fey swoops down from the ceiling and drops a sapphire in her hand. “Since you guys were so kind to bring it back to me, I’ll let you be the first person I use it on again.” She slams her hands down on the armrests and hunches her back as she leans down into my face. “What do you say, Gemma. Shall we torture your soul?”
Laughter slips though my lips. “Torture my soul,” I say, inching closer so our foreheads almost touch. “Been there. Done that.”
She snarls and forcefully shakes the chair, letting me feel her wrath. “Are you mocking me? Me? The Queen of the Underworld?”
No. I’m just trying to stay calm, but the irony of what she’s going to do is kind of amusing.
“Have you lost your sanity already?” she snaps, the tight grip of her fingers rupturing the wooden armrest of the chair. “Are you worthless?”
“Maybe,” I say dryly.
She gapes at me, but then all shock and rage erase from her expression as she holds the sapphire up in front of my face. “How about I take that smirk off your face?”
I try to turn off anything that I’m feeling as the sapphire begins to shimmer and vibrantly glow, but then an image of Alex lying in a pool of his own blood beside the lake presses into my head and fear starts to surface. I shove it down, yet then I see my mom rotting away in this awful place. The Queen’s laughter echoes inside my head as I see myself in a room alone, secluded, and detached. Then it shifts to a different room, one where I’m with Alex and he tells me he loves me and I can’t say it back.
Fear floods through me as I see myself killing Nicholas, slitting his throat, and liking it. I see the mark on my arm. I see myself standing by Stephan and the Death Walkers. It’s too much and I let out a scream wanting to rip my heart out of my chest so I don’t have to feel the pain anymore.
The Queen laughs as I scream again when I picture myself burning into ash. The speed of the images only quickens the more time goes by, flipping at such a swift rate they start to muddle together.
Then suddenly it stops; the noise in my head and the ache in my heart. When I open my eyes, the Queen and the sapphire have dropped to the floor.
Seconds later, the Water Fey also drop to the floor in piles that encompass the Queen’s slackened body. Time freezes for a moment as Alex and I take in what happened.
We both stare at the heaps of boney bodies and then Alex rushes toward me.