“What happened to you, Gemma? You have become quite ruthless.” Her eyes are full of animosity. “If I didn’t know better, I would think that Helena might still be inside of you.”
“She’s not,” I tell her, crossing my legs and studying the window across from us. It’s getting dark, the stars are out. The day’s coming to an end. The day everything came to an end. “This is just who I am now, I guess.” Shaking my head, I clear the thoughts and shoot her an impatient look. “Start talking.”
She sits up straight and, covering her mouth with her hand, she clears her throat. “I was telling the truth when I said the Cornu Lepore was given to me by Luna when I was a child, I just left out a few of the details. I promise that my intent with all this has always been to protect you, even though it may not seem like it.”
I roll my eyes at her. “Sure, whatever you say.”
She glares at me. “My mother taking me to see Luna was a one-time event. It was the only time I was allowed to go to the Fairie Realm. My mother told me I was never supposed to go back—that it was too much of a risk and that the Empress could end up being discovered.
“Even though our meeting was short, Luna managed to pull me aside while my mother was distracted by some Sprites. Luna told me that I was special and I deserved something special. She told me to hide the pendant from my mother and that she was never supposed to find out I had it. I did what I was told and I don’t even know why. Luna didn’t know I’d never be allowed to return to the Fey Realm and she became bitter toward Nalini. Honestly, she just became bitter towards everything.” She crosses her legs and adjusts her skirt, smoothing out the wrinkles. “I think it’s one of the reasons why she wants to conquer the world… because the Cornu Lepore proves that I’m from royal blood and, if I were to go to the Faerie Realm, the Fey would have to respect that I could rule over them, even though I’m not full Fey.”
Reaching into my pocket, I take out the Cornu Lepore. I thread it through my fingers and hold it up in front of my face, letting it spin. Nalina watches it spin, her eyes hungry and full of lust. She wants it. Badly. And it makes me wonder if she wants to control the Fey.
“But, why do you want it back?” I ask, letting it spin from my fingers.
She’s mesmerized by it. “I already told you why… because I’m not supposed to have it.”
I shake my head and enclose my hand around the necklace. “No, I don’t think that’s the only reason.” I lean forward, getting close to her, and her eyes darken as they shift to my hand and then back to my face. “I think that you want to have it for the same reason Helena does. I think that you both want to rule the Fey and their realm. Because if you do, you’ll have more power than any other Fey—maybe even more than anyone else in the world.” I tip my head to the side, thoughtfully. “When you told me, during my first visit, that there was a battle breaking out in the Fey Realm and that Lucinda, Helena, and Annabella all wanted something…” I unfold my fingers and let the chain hang around them, dangling the pendant down at eye level, “you meant this, didn’t you?”
It makes sense. Helena already rules the Lost Souls, but if she has the ability to rule the Fairie Realm, too, she’d have a lot of control and power, which is her favorite thing. Also, if there really is a war about to break out amongst the Fey, her chances of winning would be even greater with the ability to control both sides.
I slip the pendant off my fingers and tuck it back inside my pocket. “I think I might have just gotten what I came here for.”
“You know that belongs to me,” she snaps, sticking out her hand. “Give it back.”
“Right now, it belongs in my pocket.” I get up from the sofa, feeling liberated—feeling powerful—but also very tired.
I walk towards the door. “Well, Nalina, it’s been a real pleasure, but it’s time for me to—” Her arms wrap around me, and she tackles me to the floor with a surprising force for someone her age. My head bangs against the floor and she lands on my back, grabbing my hair as I try to flip over. I elbow her in the side, trying to shove her off me. I manage to get on my back, twisting my body, but she shifts her weight and sits down on top of me, pinning me down by the shoulders with her weight. She reaches into her pocket and whips out a knife, flipping it open, she places it against my throat as she smiles down at me.
“The necklace is mine, give it back!” She yanks back my head and tips the blade of the knife so it grazes my skin.
I gradually reach inside my pocket, inching my hand in as I glance around, looking for something that can help me. What I need is to get out from underneath her. What I need is the knife.
Suddenly, someone pounds on the front door and it distracts Nalina long enough that I kick her in the gut. She huffs as she slumps forward, dropping the knife to clutch her stomach. I shove at her and she loses her balance and falls to the side, then I quickly leap to my feet and make a mad dash towards the door.
“You’re not going anywhere!” Nalina cries, running towards me with the knife in her hand.
The door swings open and hits the wall with a lot of force and I whirl around ready for anything because, at this point, anything could walk through that door. What I see, though, is nothing I could have prepared myself for. I stumble back, tripping over my own feet and fall to my ass.
My body bounces back and my head hits the hardwood floor, hard. I blink up at the ceiling, watching it spin insanely.
“Gemma,” I hear his voice, but I tell myself it’s a hallucination because he’s dead. I saw that he was dead, touched his cold skin, saw his funeral and the missing mark. Alex is dead.
Except he can’t be since he’s leaning over me, his bright green eyes fierce, and his jawline is taut like it almost always is.
“Are you okay?” He bends down and touches the side of my head, right at my temple where my pulse is racing. Or maybe it’s his.
I nod my head up and down, afraid to blink, afraid to breath. “Are you?”
His lips quirk and then he’s reaching for my arms, lifting me to my feet like I’m air. Steadying me by the shoulders, he smoothes down my hair, and traces a line down my cheek as he pulls away. I watch him, unable to take my eyes off him because he’s here, alive, when I thought he was dead. Suddenly I feel alive again. The numbness is gone. My heart has stopped bleeding.
He smiles softly, shifting his weight, and looking a little uncomfortable. “Gemma, if you don’t stop staring at me like that, I’m going to lose it and have to take you back to the castle.” He sucks in a deep breath, his chest expanding as he lets it out and his eyes scroll down my body. “And as much as I want to, we have a bunch of other stuff to fix at the moment.”
“I don’t care,” I say with honesty, still staring at him. “I don’t care about any of that. I want you to take me back to the castle. I want you.”
I’m not even sure what compels me to say it. I’ve always been afraid of intimacy and how it makes me feel, but right now, standing here with him when I thought he was dead—it’s scarier if I don’t say it. I almost missed my chance.
Alex’s neck muscles work as he swallows hard, then he wraps his lean arms around me and warm air flows freely though my lungs again as I bury my face into his strong chest. “I’ve missed you,” he whispers in my hair, his heart beating against my cheek and the sound is the most amazing, beautiful noise that’s ever touched my ears. “I hated seeing you like that… seeing her inside you.”
“I missed you, too.” Encircling my arms around his waist, I breathe him in, his earthy scent. I feel safe. Then I hear a grunt and a loud bang and I quickly pull away, looking over my shoulder.
“I think we should go back to the castle,” Laylen says rather awkwardly, removing his fingers from Nalina’s neck. She’s passed out on the floor with her eyes shut, her body is motionless, and her arms are sprawled out. “Don’t worry,” Laylen quickly says, climbing off her. “She’s not dead.”
Nodding, I take him in, his pale skin, bright blue eyes that match the tips of his blond bangs, the silver lip ring that loops his bottom lip, and his tall body. “You’re alive,” I declare stupidly, but I don’t care. It’s a moment where acting stupid is fitting.
I release Alex and run over to Laylen, wrapping my arms around him. “I thought you were dead.” I hug him tightly, trying to stifle the feelings rising up in me, the ones that belong to Helena; the ones she felt for Alexander when he was in Laylen’s body.
He pats my back and kisses the top of my head. “So did I.”
We hug forever and eventually I start to cry, but I don’t hold back, and no one says anything. Finally, Evan breaks the moment up.
He clears his throat as he picks up a broken lamp and puts it back on a stand next to the sofa. “I hate to break up this lovely, heart-warming moment and everything, but we’ve still got a few things to take care of—like the Fey roaming the streets and the Lost Souls—and I can’t use my Foreseer power in here.”
Nodding, I wipe the tears from my eyes. “He’s right…” I glance at Nalina, and then place my hand on the pocket where the pendant rests. “We should go.”
I turn towards Alex, who’s leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed and his muscles flexing. He looks unhappy, which makes me sad because he’s alive and he should be smiling. I walk over to him and pull on his arm, lacing my fingers through his.
“Are you okay?” I ask. “You look sad.”
He fakes a smile, which hurts my heart. “Yeah, I’m fine.” He squeezes my hand, and then glances at Evan and Laylen before returning his gaze to me. “But Evan’s right. We should get going. We also need to get Aislin out of the Fey Realm.”
My eyes widen. “Oh my God. I forgot… oh…” I forgot I’d talked her into it. Culpability pierces through me like shards of jagged porcelain. “I can’t believe I did that.”