Checking that the coast is clear, I sidewalk to the front of the cage where the leaves are scarce. The sun and wind hit my back and if anyone walks by, they’ll see me. I observe the thick padlock and run my finger along the border of the cage door.
Nicholas drops down beside me.
“Do you know how to pick a lock by chance?” I yank on the door.
His hands snake around me so I’m trapped between his arms and his chest crowds my back. He grabs the lock and I notice he has a bobby pin in his hand.
Unable to help myself, I stifle a smile. “Did you have that in your hair?”
He sighs, his warm breath feathering my neck. “Ha, ha, your humor is hilarious.” He sticks the pin in the lock, nodding his chin at Aislin. “I took it out of her hair.”
Aislin always has pins in her hair. “Oh right, good thinking.”
His eyes convene with mine and his eyebrows arch. “Did you just give me a compliment?”
“I…” Glancing around, I shrug. Then I maneuver out of his arms and balance to the side of the cage.
Nicholas works the pin up and down, and gives it a twist. The lock clicks. “Sometimes I amaze myself,” Nicholas remarks admiring his handy work.
“I’m sure you do.” I scoot past him and into the cage. Holding the door open with one hand, I nudge Aislin in the foot with my shoe. “Aislin, get up. We gotta go.”
“I’m not going to shut the door on you,” Nicholas says. “You can go in.”
Still holding the door ajar, I give Aislin another nudge and raise my voice. “Aislin, come on. We have to go before Luna finds you.” I kick the bottom of her shoe, maybe a little too hard, but it does the job.
She blinks her eyes open, dumbfounded. “Where am I?” She rubs her eyes. “Oh. OH! We’re still here.”
I quickly motion at the door. “Yep, and we have to hurry before Luna discovers you’re here.”
“What about Aleesa? And Laylen?” Disoriented, she staggers to her feet. Her pupils are dilated and glossy. “And why’s he here?”
I glance over my shoulder at Nicholas, who’s leaning against the cage, watching us with a bored expression. “He’s helping us.”
She frowns skeptically. “Did you hear what you just said?”
I nod and tug her out of the cage and onto the branch. “Again, no time. We have to get out of here before Luna comes for you. Laylen’s not here and we’ll have to come back for Aleesa when we have a game plan and the Empress isn’t heading for us.”
Nicholas glances from left to right. “I think she’s already here.”
Tiny footsteps pitter-patter toward us. From below our feet, sprites giggle and clap their hands.
“Can you get us out of here?” I plead with Nicholas.
“I could,” he muses. “For a price.”
Before I can argue, he takes our hands. Just as the Empress presents herself through the branches, he blinks and foresees us away. The last thing I see is a smile on the Queen’s face. And a smile on a queen’s face is never a good thing.
***
Nicholas drops us near the lake, unable to enter the Keeper’s castle lined with praesidium. We make a beeline for the castle and settle in the library. Aislin slumps down on the leather couch, wiping the sweat and dirt from her forehead. “I feel weird, like I have a concussion.”
Nicholas makes himself at home on the velvet sofa in the living room. Outside, the sun is rising over the mountains, making the land glow a faint pink. “Maybe you do. Maybe a sprite knocked you over the head while you were passed out.”
I turn my jacket pockets inside out, dumping the remaining bits of Faerie Realm dirt. “Did anyone else notice that Luna looked a little too happy for someone who just lost her key to escaping the Faerie Realm?”
Nicholas glances at me impressively. “So you caught onto that, huh?”
“She was grinning from ear to ear,” I say. “How could I not notice it?”
He kicks his feet up on the table and drapes his arms across the back of the chair. “You’re getting smarter, Gemma Lucas. Now if only you could figure out why she was so happy.”
“I’m sure you probably already know, but aren’t going to share.” I unzip my jacket and toss it on the couch as he smiles. “God, our list of problems is beyond long. We need to figure something out—a way to narrow it down.”
“Saving Laylen and Alex come first. They’re more important than anything else.” Aislin watches me expectantly. “And I have to save Aleesa from…” She trails off, her eyes glossing over.
I snap my fingers in front of her face. “Aislin, are you alive in there?”
She blinks into focus. “Yeah, I’m good.”
Nicholas and I exchange a doubting a look.
“Maybe one of the sprites worked their way into her brain,” he muses.
I pull a repulsed face. “Can they do that?”
He shrugs with a twinkle in his eye. “Who knows.”
“Gemma!” Aislin shouts. “We need to save Alex and Laylen! Now!”
“Okay, okay, we will,” I sputter, observing Nicholas from the corner of my eye. “You don’t have to worry. I’ll always save them.”
Nicholas rolls his eyes. “Wow, you must really enjoy being hurt. Maybe I need to retract my earlier remark about your growing intelligence.”
Aislin leans forward in the chair. “Am I missing something?”
I shake my head. “No, everything’s good. We should get started. Do you want to try and do a Tracker Spell on both of them?”
She nods and limps to her feet. Her slippers are missing and her pajama bottoms are torn “Yeah, let me go grab my stuff.”
“Are you hurt?” I ask.
“I just rolled my ankle. That’s all.” She hobbles out of the room, leaving me alone with the faerie.
“Something’s wrong with her,” I note to myself.
“Yeah, she has Avery blood in her.” Nicholas chuckles.
“So what are your plans?” I ask derisively. “Are you sticking around to help? Or do you plan on bailing and telling everyone our secrets?”
He overlaps his hands, his gaze piercing. “You know, you and I have a lot in common.”
I snort a laugh, sinking into the couch. “The only thing we did have in common was our Foreseer power, but mine’s gone now so we don’t even have that.”
His gaze scorches my skin. “Don’t you ever wonder why I get under your skin so badly?”
“Because of your charming personality,” I express sarcastically.
He ignores my comment. “Although, the last few times I’ve seen you it’s been worse. I’m really starting to get to you.”
“That’s because I saved you from death and you still do things like sick invisible snakes on me.”
“That was for Dyvinius. I had no say in it.”
“You have a say in everything you do,” I tell him. “You just have to be strong enough to deal with the consequences.”
“You haven’t lived my life.” His golden eyes blaze. “And until you have, don’t tell me that I have a say in anything in my life.” A hidden meaning intermingles with his words.
“You know, you could always tell me,” I offer. “It might be nice to actually talk to someone for once, instead of trying to trick them.” I wait, but can tell right away it’s never going to happen. “I’m going to go help Aislin.”
I walk out of the room, feeling the strange pull towing me back, almost like when I left The Underworld. What scares me even more, is part of me likes that I feel this way.
***
“I found them,” Aislin announces from the doorway of my bedroom. While she was doing the Tracker Spell, I changed out of my pajamas and into a pair of jeans and blue and black tank top.
“Both of them?” I lace up my sneaker.
She nods and sits down on the bed beside me. “It’s bad, Gemma. Like really, really bad.”
I sigh, preparing myself. “Go ahead and lay it on me.”
“Well, Laylen’s in… The Afterlife.”
“What!” I shout, my breathing erratic. “How did that—why did that happen?”
She shrugs, picking a glob of mascara off her eyelash. “I’m guessing the Banshee wasn’t dead and took him. Or was dead and took him, since they’re already dead and can’t die and can go to The Afterlife if they’re dead.”
I stare blankly at her. “Are you okay? You’re sounding kind of… off.”
“I’m fine.” She laughs. “I’m just a little tired.”
“No, something else is wrong.” I fasten my other shoelace. “Where’s Alex?”
Biting her lip, she sucks back tears. “Alex, well, he’s… he’s with Stasha.”
Pain, pain, go away. “He’s with Stasha?” I pause. “Then why was there all that blood? And pain. I felt his pain, Aislin.”
“I know you did.” She side braids her hair and secures it with an elastic band. “Don’t worry. He can’t be there by choice. Something’s going on with Stasha. She might have him under some sort of spell or something.”
“She’s not a witch,” I utter softly.
“But she could have a witch helping her.”
“Maybe. Or maybe he just wants to be there.”
“Gemma,” Aislin says, tightening the band of her sliver watch. “Alex hates Stasha. And I mean, really hates her. In fact, I think that’s why he dated her for so long. Because he didn’t feel anything for her and he thought that’s how things were supposed to be.”
“So the story goes.” I walk to the closet and take out a hooded jacket. “So what do you think? You wanna go pay a visit to Stasha while I get Laylen out of The Afterlife?”
“You can’t go to The Afterlife.” She flicks a piece of lint from her shorts. “It’d be like handing over your soul to Helena.”