“Laylen can I talk to you for just a second.” I backed away toward the tunnel, motioning him to follow me.
“What’s up?” Laylen asked when we reached the edge of the tunnel.
“What are we going to do with her?” I said in a low voice
He glanced over his shoulder at Aleesa, who was fiddling with a hole in the hem of her worn-out blue dress. “I guess take her with us.”
His answer didn’t really surprise me. That was the kind of guy Laylen was. “But is she…I don’t know…” I tucked a piece of my long brown hair behind my ear. “She seems a little off. What if she flips out on us or something?”
His eyes filled with anguish. “I could flip out on you and yet you’re still with me.”
“Yeah, but you’re…you. I trust you more than I trust anyone.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t.”
I sighed. “We’ll take her with us, then. But just keep an eye on her.” I started for Aleesa, but stopped. “And I’ll always trust you, Laylen. I’ll trust you forever.”
Getting Aleesa to leave with us proved to be a difficult task. First off, she kept saying over and over and over again that she wasn’t allowed to go anywhere. But after some persuading, she finally agreed. That just left the task of trying to keep her quiet while we snuck upstairs to get my mom. I was worried she might snap and start screaming again or something. This was a concern of Laylen’s too, and I suggested that maybe we should leave her here and pick her up on our way out. But after some deliberation, we decided we should take her just in case we had to make an emergency exit.
We crept up the spiral staircase, Laylen in front of me, Aleesa trailing along behind me. My palm sweated profusely against the handle of the Sword of Immortality and suddenly, I started to panic about having it in my hand. Why did Alex give me the sword? I wasn’t a Keeper. I hated to think it—considering who the leader of the Keepers is—but being a Keeper right now would have been real handy. I’ve seen Alex, Aislin, and even Laylen in motion; they were fast, strong, and graceful, and I really could have used these things at the moment.
“Okay,” Laylen whispered when we reached the top of the stairs. “I have no idea what’s on the other side of this door, so get ready.”
I nodded, but my legs were shaking like a new born fawn learning how to walk. Laylen took a deep breath and creaked open the door, sticking the knife out in front of him like a master sword fighter, which he probably was.
He lowered the sword. “Coast is clear and it seems the secret entrance has led us to another secret entrance.”
“What?” I asked as we cautiously stepped out into a hallway. “Why is this a secret entrance?”
Laylen brushed his fingers against the wall. “We’re inside the wall.”
I gaped at him. “How do you know?”
He winked at me. “Because I know all.”
I shook my head as we started down the hall, making sure to glance behind me every few steps to check if Aleesa was still following.
She hummed quietly as she walked, glancing up at the ceiling and over at the walls, which were decorated with child-like art. I traced my fingers on the pictures, getting a sense of familiarity.Why did I know this?
Then it all came rushing back to me.
Alex and I as children, running up and down the hall, drawing on the walls, laughing, playing. I could almost hear the giggles still haunting the hallway.
“You okay?” Laylen’s voice pulled me back.
I realized I had stopped. “Yeah,” I shook my head. “Sorry.”
We crept down the rest of the hall, until we reached a door.
“What’s on the other side?” I whispered.
“A spare bedroom,” Laylen said, clutching onto the doorknob.“I wonder if it’s emp…”
A muffled cry came from the other side of the door.
“Oh my God, it’s my mom.” I reached for the doorknob, but Laylen pushed my hand back.
“Just calm down,” he said softly and squatted down. “Jocelyn,” he whispered through the door. “Is that you?”
The crying stopped.
“Open the door,” I hurried Laylen.
“Make sure to keep calm,” he said and then creaked open the door.
The room was empty except for my mom, chained to the wall, like a prisoner. She had just escaped from being one a few days ago and it tore at me heart to see her like this. She looked like she was sleeping, her head hung down, her shoulders slumped. There was a piece of duct-tape over her mouth and I carefully pulled it off.
“Mom,” I said. “Can you hear me?”
Her head wobbled as she looked up and blinked at me, tears streaming down her face. “Gemma,” she croaked.
“It’s okay, mom,” I said softly. “We’re going to get you out of here.”
She blinked again, still a little dazed. Then suddenly she was going crazy.“You have to go. You have to go now.” She was tugging at the chains. “It’s a trap. Gemma, go! GO!”
A canopy of gloom covered the room as a chill slithered into the air.I turned around, my heart pounding like a jack hammer as a thick fog crawled across the stone floor and swirled around my ankles. Cold crackled across the maroon walls and ceiling, coating them with icicles.
Do not panic, I told myself. To Laylen I said, “Can you get the chains off her?”
He nodded and grabbed the chains binding my mom’s wrist to the walls. He bent them and flexed them, trying to get the heavy metal to snap. But the chains were thick and covered with the Death Walker’s ice, and I could tell it was going to take him a moment.
I needed to prepare myself. I stood in the middle of the room, sword in hand, with no clue as to what I was going to do.
Aleesa let out a high-pitched scream, covered her ears, and backed into the corner of the room like a terrified little mouse.
Well, if they didn’t know we were here before, they sure do now.
The footsteps came, like a marching army, one by one, marching right for us. I glanced back at Laylen, still struggling to get the chains undone.
“I’m hurrying, I’m hurrying,” he said, bending at the metal links. “The damn things are thick and the ice is making it worse.”
I blocked him out—I blocked everything out. Something was taking over my body. A power I had never felt before.
And suddenly I knew what to do.
I held the Sword of Immortality in front of me, steadied in the perfect position that I knew any sword master would appreciate.My heart-rate slowed, my nerves calmed, and as the first black-cloaked figure entered the room, I swung the sword, stabbing it straight into its heart. Its yellow eyes lit up as its corpse-like body dropped to the floor.
I didn’t have time to prepare myself as another one walked into the room. I did this weird twirling thing that should have resulted with me landing on my face but instead, the sword jabbed into the Death Walker’s heart. I swung the sword again and again, the tip sinking through each of their rotting chests. The bodies were piling up as I moved like a pro, swinging the sword gracefully, my feet moving harmoniously along with it.
But more and more came charging in and before I knew it, the room was filled with Death Walkers. They circled me, the yellow-glowing-eyed monsters, and my body temperature started to descend. I glanced down at my hands, but they hadn’t turned blue yet.
And then Stephan walked in.
He was dressed head-to-toe in black, and he gazed at the Death Walkers’ bodies piled all over the floor, looking both annoyed and impressed.
“Well, I see that you’ve changed since the last time I met you,” he said unhappily.
He walked toward me, his boots cracking the ice covering the floors.
I stayed where I was, not stepping back, waiting until he was in swords reach, and then took a swing at him. But he flicked the sword away as if my new inner strength was nothing but a minor glitch to him.
“You know, you are a very hard girl to track down,” he said. “I send a faerie to find you, but he up and disappears. I try to find you myself, but I never can seem to find you. So, finally, I thought to myself, what can I do? How can I get a hold of my star?” He traced the scar grazing his left cheek, where his Mark of Malefiscus once existed, until his parents cut it off. “Then, an idea hit me. If I can’t find you, why don’t I have you find me?” He walked in a circle around me with his hands behind his back.“See the thing is Gemma, there’s something you don’t understand.” He gave a dramatic pause. “I always win.”
I dared a quick glance over my shoulder, relieved to find that Laylen had gotten the chains freed from around my mother’s wrists. Now, if I could just get all three of us out…I glanced over at Aleesa, curled in the corner…all four of us.
“I wouldn’t put so much trust in people, Gemma,” Stephan’s voice ripped me back to him. “You never know what secrets they could be hiding.”
“And you would be the expert on that, wouldn’t you?” I asked, looking him straight in the eye.
He smiled, but my confidence seemed to take him back a little. “I’m not the only one in this room who is an expert at lying.” His gaze flickered behind me and I turned to find he was looking at my mother, sitting on the floor, her blue eyes saddened. “Should I tell her? Or would you like to Jocelyn?”
I stared at my mom, waiting for her to explain what was going on. But she hung her head, refusing to look at me.
Laylen gave me an uneasy glance and I nodded my head Aleesa, signaling for him to get her and bring her closer.
“Ask her what’s on her wrist,” Stephan said. “Go ahead.”
I think I already knew. “No…I—”
Laylen rolled up the sleeve of my mother’s faded grey shirt and there it was. A triangle outlining a red symbol.
“No,” I whispered, horrified. “How…”
“She’s had it forever, you know. Sophia, Marco…Didn’t you ever wonder how I got everyone to do what I asked. The only ones I didn’t mark were the ones who couldn’t be marked.” He frowned disappointedly.