When I step inside that room, dust immediately surrounds me and I notice that the air smells stale and kind of rusty, like blood has been spilled somewhere.
“Laylen.” I take a tentative step inside the room and as soon as my foot crosses the threshold, I stop dead in my tracks.
Across from me, on the farthest wall, Laylen is chained to the wall. He’s lying on his back, with the chains pulled tight as his arms rest to his side, along with his head.
“No.” I rush quickly towards him. “Laylen… Laylen, are you okay?”
He doesn’t move. His eyes are open, blue like the sea, but he’s not blinking or moving. There’s nothing going on inside him. Nothing. He’s dead. Like really dead, not just Vampire dead.
Everyone’s dead.
My dad’s trapped in his mind, maybe forever, and my mom’s dead. Not to mention I haven’t seen Sophia in forever. I have no one left in my life.
Oh my God.
I’m alone.
“No,” I whisper, shaking my head. “This can’t be… You can’t be dead.” I start to hyperventilate, lungs shrinking, and my knees buckle from underneath me as I collapse onto the floor next to him. Clutching onto his lips, I lean down and kiss his cold lips. “I love you,” I say, knowing that it’s a different kind of love, but it’s still love. In a different world, we would have been perfect together, made each other whole. Because he makes me smile, laugh, be happy. He’s my best friend and always will be, even in death.
My entire world dissolves. Everyone I know is either dead or gone. “I really am alone.”
Alone.
Alone.
Alone.
The word echoes for miles.
***
I’m not sure how long I lay soundlessly beside him. I’d cry, but my eyes are too raw to summon any more tears. Finally, I pull myself together the best that I can and trudge down the stairway, uncertain where I am going. I need to get away from this place and the memories it’s carrying, along with their bodies. Bodies. I need to find a place where I can focus. I need a plan.
I hear the soft sound of a fire burning as I walk down the hall and when I pass Evan’s room, he’s standing with his back turned to me, staring at the fire with his head hung low. I don’t make a noise as I turn away and head for the stairs.
As I step from the stairway and into the foyer, I catch sight of something silver and heart-shaped on a curio table just across from the stairs. It’s shimmering from the sunlight streaming through the stain-glass window above the door. My locket. With my hand placed on the hollow of my neck, I walk over and pick it up. Running my finger along the violet stone pendant in the center, I remember when Alex gave it to me and how he kissed me right afterwards. Clasping it in my hand, I turn to leave, but notice another object on the curio. It’s the teardrop-shaped Cornu Lepore that Helena stole from Nalina, my Aunt who I just found out I had not too long ago. I pick it up also, and dangle the golden chain from my fingers as I hold it up in front of my face to examine it. The light reflects off the pendant as the chain spins. I wonder what kind of power it holds and why Helena wanted it. It has to be important to her, but how?
I unfasten the clamp on the chain of my locket and secure it around my neck, the icy metal hitting my neck and causing me to gasp. I take the Cornu Lepore and tuck it away into the pocket of my jeans, just in case I end up needing it for some reason or another.
I turn for the door, preparing to leave, when I catch sight of my reflection in the mirror above the curio. I look like crap; tearstained cheeks, bags under my violet eyes, and my hair's a tangled mess. My skin looks even paler than it normally does and my wrists are encrusted with blood. My eyes are also really wide, massive in fact, like I’m still possessed. And maybe I am. Possessed by hate.
Turning around, I pull a face at the serpent mark on my shoulder as I trace my fingers along its curving patter. Thanks to Helena, I’m now branded with the damn thing after she made Dyvinius put it on her—or her in my body. I’m remembering something about it though... something that might be important. With the Serpent’s mark, I can control thoughts, which gives me a lot of power. And I have the Cornu Lepore, which has a lot of power also. I have a lot of power. I just don’t know what for, but I need to find out.
What I need to do is talk to someone who can help me… someone like Nalina. The necklace was hers after all, so she would have to know something. Whether she’ll tell me or not is a whole other story.
I give one last glance at my reflection, noting the numbness sedating my limbs, expression, and veins, but not in my eyes; there’s rage there. Nalina will answer me because I’ll make her. Ripping my gaze from the mirror, I swing the front door open and step outside into the cool air. I disregard the Sprites frolicking in the grass and the haunting way the lake moves like it’s made of pieces of glass. None of that matters at the moment. I only need to focus on one thing.
Hate is a compelling emotion and it’s taken over most of my body and mind. I’m not even sure if I’m Gemma anymore. I’m not sure who I am. I really don’t care. All I care about is destroying Helena. Once that’s done, then maybe there will still be a piece of me left to find love.
Maybe not.
Chapter 6
Alex
There’s a battle going on inside of me. Helena and Annabella are pissed off at one another. Each of them is trying to win the battle over who owns me, who gets my soul—who gets to keep me. Helena wants it for sheer greedy reasons and Annabella wants it so she can gain back her freedom from Helena. I think the two of them will rip me apart if they don’t stop it, then neither one of them will have me.
“You need to go back to the Afterlife, Helena,” Annabella says. “You must obey, Helena. You were never supposed to be here to begin with.”
Helena fumes. “No, I don’t. The loophole is not complete—I’m still here and so are you. You are still my prisoner. Mine!” She hisses at Annabella. “You can’t make me go back!”
Their battle is freaking exhausting, even if I’m technically dead, well on the outside. On the inside, I’m still thriving; however, I’m growing weaker. I’m trying to fight the compulsion to surrender to one of them, but their bickering is smothering me. I feel like I’m dead on the inside, especially watching Gemma lying helplessly on the floor. I’m worried that she’s lost the desire to fight and survive. Then Evan puts his hand on Gemma’s head and tries to help her recover. Relief and happiness overpower me, knowing that she’ll be okay.
Then suddenly, Gemma is crawling towards me with tears pouring from her beautiful violet eyes. My heart breaks and I desperately wish there were a way I could tell her everything will be okay—that I’m still here.
When she reaches me, she rests her head on my chest and sobs hysterically for what seems like hours. I lie powerlessly, knowing there’s nothing I can do for her; that I am trapped on the brink of death.
After her tears stop, she leans over and kisses me through the remaining tears staining her face. Life sparks inside me, as if the electricity has returned, even though I know that’s not possible. We got rid of that when we stopped the portal and destroyed the power of the fallen star, but it feels like it’s back, pulling me to her, radiating through me. In fact, there was even a spark when Helena and Annabella transferred into me, and for a second, I’d thought Gemma had been placed inside me.
Helena and Annabella’s voices grow quiet and, as the spark of life inside my body accelerates, I start to feel alive again.
“You see that,” Annabella says. “It is just as I said. You can’t have me and you can’t have Alex or Gemma. You cannot cheat your way to get what you want, Helena, or things eventually fall apart.”
“It’s not true!” cries Helena. “I won’t let you win again, Annabella.”
“You have no choice.” Annabella replies sternly. “It’s the way things are. Why do you have to be so greedy? You’ve always been like this, ever since we were kids, and it’s always gotten you into trouble, yet you continue to make the same mistakes over and over again.”
“It’s not about winning,” Helena complains in a shrill voice. “It’s about power and revenge. The power to rule the world and to get my revenge on the humans and their useless love that I don’t see fit to exist.”
“You act as if love is powerless, yet without it I’d still be trapped inside,” Annabella replies. “But here I am free and ready to send you back to where you belong.”
“You really think you are capable of sending me back, my dear sister?” Helena sneers. “Even if you do manage to send me back to the Afterlife my Lost Souls will still be able to roam the earth.”
“Oh, I’m perfectly capable Helena,” Annabella says. “The loophole has been found and I’m free. Love has conquered over your hate and self-loathing. As for the Lost Souls, I just hope they realize what you really are and find a way to resist your control over them because, if they don’t, then they really are lost. Goodbye and good riddance, my sister.”
“I can come back you know,” she calls out in desperation. “I will change my vision—I will make things how I want them.”
There’s a loud snap, followed by a scream, and I feel Helena leave my body while Annabella stays behind. It feels like my limbs have been ripped off and then attached back to my body crookedly. I feel wrong, yet right. The spark from Gemma’s kiss still burns inside me and it gives me comfort in the darkness I’m still imprisoned in.
“Alex,” Annabella whispers. “Helena can’t take possession of you or Gemma again. She has been banished to the Afterlife… and you won’t die.” She pauses. “The bond that you and Gemma share is unbreakable. It’s because of this bond that I was set free.”
“But I don’t get how our bond sent Helena away,” I confess to her. “I know love can be powerful and everything—that Gemma and I are proof of that—but how can our love destroy Helena’s ability to possess us? It doesn’t make any sense.”