“But you were only able to see his face in one of them,” Alex pointed out. “So there’s a possibility that you might be mistaking him for someone else. I know my father would never do anything like that. Ever.”
Tell that to Laylen. “How can you be so sure?”
He stared at me, dumbfounded. “Because he’s my father.”
I chewed on my lip, mulling over my options here. Should I tell him about my dreams? If I did, I ran the risk of giving away too much information, and I still wasn’t sure if I trusted Alex. Even after we’d kissed. “You were there, you know? In the vision. There was a little boy with the same bright green eyes as you.” I wasn’t sure if I was right or not, it was just a guess. It made sense, though, when I thought about it. His bright green eyes and how he’d called Stephan his father.
“No. There’s no way,” he said firmly. “I’d be able to remember it happening if I was.”
I raised my eyebrows at him. “Perhaps your mind has been tampered with too.”
“No. There’s no way,” he repeated, but the firmness from his voice had slightly faded. He ran his fingers restlessly through his hair. “Look Gemma, maybe you saw it wrong. Maybe it was someone else who forced your mom to go into the lake. I mean Dyvinius said that you didn’t see the vision correctly the first time. Who’s to say you didn’t see correctly the second time either.”
I bit back my irritation the best I could. “I saw it correctly both times. The only problem with the first one was that I couldn’t see the peoples’ faces.” He still looked unconvinced, and it made me so angry that I kept going. “Besides, the vision isn’t the only time I’ve seen him.”
He blinked, looking lost. “What do you mean?”
“Well…” There was no backing out now. I’d already opened Pandora’s Box. “Before I learned anything about who I was, I was having these nightmares where I was being chased through the forest by the Death Walkers.”
“Yeah, I remember you mentioning that.” He sat down on the couch and rested his arms on his knees. “But what does that have to do with my father?”
“Because at the end of every dream, the Death Walkers capture me and a man appears and orders them to finish me off.” I sighed and sank down into the couch beside him. “The man in my nightmares had the same scar as your father.” His eyes widened as I continued, “And back at Laylen’s, when I was lying on the floor freezing to death, something happened to me—something similar to what happened to me back at the fieldtrip. I went into this vision, and there was a man and Demetrius chatting it up about how they’d gotten rid of some poor woman that was a Keeper.”
He gaped at me. “Hold on. So what you’re telling me is that you went into a vision without a crystal ball not once, but twice. Why didn’t you tell me this before?”
“I did. At least, I did with the first one.”
“Yeah, but I just assumed that was some resurfacing memory or something. But if you’re seeing something that has Demetrius in it…” He let out a loud breath. “There’s no way that could be a memory. You’ve never seen him before.” Silence choked the air as he considered all of this. “How is it even possible for you to do that?” he muttered to himself. “How can you see a vision without a crystal ball? It’s just not possible.”
“When I asked you about it before, you said you weren’t sure if it was possible or not for someone to see a vision without a crystal ball,” I reminded him. “You even said that you may have heard of someone who could.”
He stared down at the floor, seriously contemplating what I’d said.
“Alex,” I said a little too loudly and he jumped. “That’s not important right now. What’s important is that this other man chatting it up with Demetrius had a scar on his cheek.”
He swallowed hard, looking…well, really, really vulnerable. I had to admit, I didn’t like how it looked on him. It made me feel anxious and had me questioning whether he was going to fall apart. He couldn’t fall apart. Not if his father was secretly working with Demetrius. And was the one who’d gotten rid of my mother. And was heading here right now.
“Look, I know this has to be hard to hear,” I said.
“Has to be hard to hear?” He laughed an unsettlingly kind of laugh. “What you’re telling me is that not only did my father send Jocelyn to The Underworld, but that he’s working with Demetrius.”
“I understand that it’s hard to hear, but do you think it wasn’t hard for me to watch my mother get sent to The Underworld?”
“Yeah, but you don’t even know her,” he mumbled.
“Hey.” I sprang from the couch and threw my hands on my hips. “That’s not fair. The only reason I don’t know her is because of you.”
“You can’t be right about my father,” he muttered, ignoring me. “There’s just no way.”
“If that were true, then how would I know all of this? What? Do you think I just made it all up or something?”
He shrugged. “How do I know? Maybe you did?”
I was fuming. “I’m not the one who’s a liar.”
He glared at me angrily.
I glared back just as angry.
I’m not sure how long our argument would’ve gone on—probably awhile—but I never got to find out because the air suddenly froze over with a deathly chill, and we both stopped talking.
Great. Not again.
Chapter 33
“How did they find us here?!” I was standing in the dining room, watching Alex dig frantically around in a secret cabinet that had been hidden behind a massive china cabinet. I hadn’t realized just how strong Alex was until he’d slid the enormous thing out of the way like it was made of air. “And what the heck are you looking for in there.”
I was still pissed off about his refusal to accept that his father was responsible for my mom being trapped down in The Underworld, but my fear that the Death Walkers were heading here was overriding my anger. After we’d felt the air freeze over, Alex had run over to the window, and yep, sure enough, a flock of them were headed right for the cabin. We wouldn’t have been able to see them, since it was dark outside, but their eyes lit up the night like a swarm of fireflies.
“This is what I’m looking for.” Alex held up the Sword of Immortality. “And this.” He held up another sword, a much smaller one with a less jagged blade, which he shoved the handle of it at me. “Here, take it.”
“Why?” I backed away. “It wouldn’t do me any good.”
“You’ve stabbed one before.”
“Yeah, but that was a freak accident.”
He nudged the small sword toward me. “Take it.”
I sighed and took it. “What are we going to do now?”
“We’re going to make a run for it,” he said and rushed out of the room.
I chased after him. “How, though? They're practically here already.”
Heading for the door that led to the garage, he shot me a look over his shoulder that told me to quit being difficult. “So what? You’d rather stay and wait for them to get here?”
“No,” I said dumbly. “That’s not what I meant. It’s just that how are we supposed to get out of here?”
He opened the door. “In the Jeep.”
“Will we be able to outrun them?”
He shrugged as he headed for the Jeep. “Hurry up and get inside.”
I ran over and jumped in, my nerves bubbling so badly that my hands were trembling. I was so afraid that just on the other side of the garage door the Death Walkers would be waiting for us, all yellow-eyed and hungry to kill. I quickly buckled my seatbelt and started chewing on my nails—I guess the nail biting habit was sticking for now—as the Jeeps engine roared to life
With one hand gripping tightly on the steering wheel, and the other grasping onto the shifter, Alex sucked in a deep breath. “Ready?”
“No.” My voice shook.
“Okay, hold on.” He pushed the open button on the garage door opener that was clipped to the visor, and the door slowly inched open. It seemed like it took forever for it to rise up all the way.
Alex threw the shifter into reverse and started to back out. He only made it a few feet, though, before he hit the brakes.
“What’s wrong?” I followed his gaze to the rear window, and I had my answer. Tons and tons of glowing yellow eyes—they were everywhere—bursting through the darkness.
A moment later, someone emerged from around the corner of the garage. When the light hit the persons face, it felt like someone had punched me in the stomach. A man with black hair, dark eyes, and a scar on his left cheek.
We were so screwed.
Chapter 34
“Stephan.” Alex grabbed hold of the door handle, about to climb out.
“Alex,” I hissed. “Please don’t. We still need to get out of here. There are Death Walkers everywhere.”
“Alex,” Stephan called out in the commanding voice I’d heard him use so many times in my nightmares, but never in real life. Asleep or awake, the sound still sent a slimy chill down my spine.
The door handle made a click as Alex started to push the door open. Panicking, I reached out and clutched on to his arm. He glanced down at my hand clutching his arm, and then looked up and gave me this strange look.
“Please,” I begged and released his arm. “If this isn’t proof that you’re dad’s working with Demetrius,” I did a gesture back at the driveway where dozens of yellow eyes glinted at us through the darkness, “then I don’t know what is. We have to—”
He pressed a finger to my lips, shushing me. Then he slid his fingers around the necklace hanging around my neck and tucked it down in my shirt. My mouth dropped open. Huh? “Whatever you do, keep that hidden. Don’t let anyone know you have it.”
“Why?” I asked, but he’d already turned away and was climbing out of the car, the Sword of Immortality clutched in his hand.
I sat there for a second, confused about why I had to keep the necklace hidden? It was just a necklace, wasn’t it? Then it hit me. Because I probably wasn’t supposed to have the necklace to begin with, and Alex didn’t want to get in trouble for giving it to me. Nice. Really nice Alex. And now I had to climb out of the car and not only face the monsters that wanted to kill me, but also face the man who was responsible for my mother’s disappearance and the whole crappiness of my life.
I mean, I guess I could have just sat in Jeep until Alex and Stephan came and forced me to get out. Or I could have scooted over to the driver’s seat and peeled out into the night on my own, but Alex had taken the keys with him. Most likely so I wouldn’t do just that.
He knew me all too well.
So with wobbly legs, I dragged my butt out of the car, tucked the small knife Alex had given me into the back pocket of my jeans, and made my way over to where Alex and Stephan stood. I stayed several feet away from them, because seeing Stephan in real life was about a million times more frightening then seeing him in my dreams.