He considers what I said then leans down and covers his lips over mine. He kisses me until I’m desperately gasping for air, until my heart’s pumping blood at an unhealthy rate.
“Do you feel that?” he whispers against my lips. “Do you feel how I make you feel inside?”
I blink dazedly through emotions of yearning, elation, and contentment. “Yeah.”
“Well that’s exactly how you make me feel inside.” He looks me in the eyes and I can almost see my reflection in his overly large pupils.
He could be lying, but he might not be. Maybe I do make him feel the same as I do inside. Maybe he’s just as confused as me. Maybe he’s erratic on the inside, unstable. Perhaps it’s the hardest thing in the world not to be close to me. I choose to believe that he’s being genuinely honest because it’d be the perfect ending to my sad story. The one where the guy falls in love with the girl and the girl falls equally in love with the guy. The flaw to this story, however, is that at the moment, there’s no prickle on the back of my neck confirming I’ve felt love before, so in the end it’s only a story.
Nothing more.
Chapter 28
“You know it’s going to happen,” Stephan says, propping a hand on each side of my head.
Alex is gone and I don’t know where he is. He left me. No he wouldn’t do that.
“You’ve already felt the evil and you’re going to change,” Stephan says, his black eyes glinting wickedly.
I try to sit up, but I’m glued to the mattress by an unseen force, my arms kinked to the side and my legs stuck together like melting wax. “I’m not evil! I’m good! I know I am!”
“You about beat Nicholas to death,” he reminds. “How does it feel to have blood on your hands?”
“Terrible,” I say, but the red and black triangle singes onto my upper arm, revealing the lie. I can smell the scent of burning flesh and feel the good in me dissolving “I hated every second of it.”
He leans back and sits down on the mattress, “Now we know that’s a lie. You loved it and we both know it.”
I shake my head, denying what lies deep inside me; darkness, a shadow opposing the good. “No, I didn’t.”
He grins as he elevates his hand and a razor-sharp knife appears in it. “If that’s true, then I guess I have no use for you.” He moves to swing the knife down.
I scream as it dives for my heart. As it plummets closer, I shut my eyes and picture the blue beach house while I channel my Foreseer power. As the blade grazes my skin, almost splitting my heart open, I blink myself away from this place.
***
My eyelids spring open. “Holy shit!” I gasp. “I know how to get us out of here.”
Alex is lying on his side, watching me with his arm draped across my stomach. “How?” he asks and we both sit up on the bed. “Gemma, what are you talking about?”
I catch my breath, wiping the sweat from my forehead. “I can use my power to get us out of here.”
He shakes his head, looking lost. “But you don’t have a crystal ball.”
“But I’ve gone into visions without them before.”
“Yeah, but those are visions, not present time.”
“I know that,” I say, sitting up. “But I can try. It pretty much works the same way. I just need to feel enough emotion and try to remember things… memories seem to get it going pretty well.”
He opens his mouth to protest as he sits up. “I don’t—” His eyes dodge do the door and he quickly stands to his feet, grabbing my hand and pulling me behind him.
A Water Fey watches us from the open doorway, interweaving through the ceiling vines as it heads toward us. It stops when it’s about to reach the bed and seconds later the Queen appears behind it. She’s changed into a black, mermaid-shaped dress that has red roses growing on vines, which trim the bottom half. Her frosty hair has been braided up on the top of her head and is woven with black ribbons and her lips are tinted purple.
“It’s time,” she says and snaps her fingers. “Both of you, follow me.”
Alex and I trade a look and then we follow the Queen out of the cell. We quietly walk just behind her as she struts down the tunnel lined with jail doors. Water Fey enclose us, floating in curving paths. I consider shutting my eyes and seeing if I can really pull it off—take us out of this place in the blink of an eye—but I can’t just yet, not until I find my mom. As I glance over at Alex, however, guilt begins to rot in my stomach. I drag him into this mess and look where it gets him. Now what’s going to happen to us? Will we get tortured until we go insane?
All thoughts of what’s right and wrong leave my mind when we reach the end of the tunnel. As I take in the square space only one thought remains inside my mind.
Fear.
It’s worse than I’d expected. Water Faeries are everywhere along with what look like ordinary humans, but I’m guessing not all of them are. Each one of the humans is strapped to a wooden plank perched on a steel stand. They’re being tortured in different ways, some with knives inserted into their arms, others getting their bodies stretched with ropes attached to a large wooden wheel. Some have Water Fey hovering over them and it looks like they’re trying to kiss them, but I think they might be doing something worse.
“Don’t look at them,” Alex whispers in my ear and I jump, startled. “Focus on turning it off.”
I try my best, but it’s hard to block out the sounds…the cries…the anguish and suffering. It’s pretty much impossible and I end up being overwhelmed by it.
The Queen leads us to a back room that has dirt walls and a stone floor. The ceiling arches up toward what looks like a skylight, but the glass is frosted so I can’t see what’s on the other side. A single wooden chair that has straps attached to the arms and legs is perched in the center of the room.
The Queen shuts the door and then turns to face us. “Tell me, Gemma. What are you most afraid of in this world?”
Love. I blink at my mind’s declaration. “I don’t know,” I say, shifting my weight uneasily.
“You don’t know?” She taps her lips and a toothless grin spreads across her face. “Well, I think it’s time we found out. Don’t you agree?" She raises her arms in the air and claps her hands together. “Think about it. Finally discovering the one thing that will make you lose your sanity. Isn’t it exciting?”
Two Water Faeries zoom up behind me and wrap their boney fingers around my arms. Alex grabs my hand and holds onto me as tightly as he can, attempting to pull me away from them.
“Let me go first,” he says, tugging on my arm. He reaches up and tries to punch one of the Water Fey.
It swerves out of his reach, opens its mouth, and screams so loudly the room rattles and dirt crumbles from the walls.
The Queen shakes her head as she ambles around the chair, tracing her finger along the back. “I have a feeling that forcing you to watch her get tortured is going to provide a very great amount of fear in you.”
Two more Water Faeries come flying up behind us and wrap their fingers around Alex’s arms. He tries to shove them off, but Water Fey are impressively strong for such boney creatures.
The Water Faeries drag me over to the chair, separating Alex and I from each other. I sink into their hold, and challenged their strength against my dead weight as I plant the heels of my shoes into the ground. But it’s a worthless effort.
Once we reach the chair, they shove me down into it and the Queen stands behind me as she snakes an arm around my neck. The Fey secure my legs and wrists to the chair with the straps before the Queen leans over my shoulder, putting her lips near my ear.
“Fear is the most powerful emotion,” she whispers, her foul breath startling icy against my cheek. “And the most painful.”
That’s where she’s wrong. Fear is just fear in my eyes and I’ve experienced it many times. There are so many more emotions that can be so much more painful; sadness, anger, caring for someone that in return can split your heart open and stomp on it.
“Now, which way to go here?” the Queen dithers as she struts around the chair and stands in front of me. “Oh, I know.” She sticks out her hand and one of the Water Fey swoops down from the ceiling and drops a sapphire in her hand. “Since you guys were so kind to bring it back to me, I’ll let you be the first person I use it on again.” She slams her hands down on the armrests and hunches her back as she leans down into my face. “What do you say, Gemma. Shall we torture your soul?”
Laughter slips though my lips. “Torture my soul,” I say, inching closer so our foreheads almost touch. “Been there. Done that.”
She snarls and forcefully shakes the chair, letting me feel her wrath. “Are you mocking me? Me? The Queen of the Underworld?”
No. I’m just trying to stay calm, but the irony of what she’s going to do is kind of amusing.
“Have you lost your sanity already?” she snaps, the tight grip of her fingers rupturing the wooden armrest of the chair. “Are you worthless?”
“Maybe,” I say dryly.
She gapes at me, but then all shock and rage erase from her expression as she holds the sapphire up in front of my face. “How about I take that smirk off your face?”
I try to turn off anything that I’m feeling as the sapphire begins to shimmer and vibrantly glow, but then an image of Alex lying in a pool of his own blood beside the lake presses into my head and fear starts to surface. I shove it down, yet then I see my mom rotting away in this awful place. The Queen’s laughter echoes inside my head as I see myself in a room alone, secluded, and detached. Then it shifts to a different room, one where I’m with Alex and he tells me he loves me and I can’t say it back.
Fear floods through me as I see myself killing Nicholas, slitting his throat, and liking it. I see the mark on my arm. I see myself standing by Stephan and the Death Walkers. It’s too much and I let out a scream wanting to rip my heart out of my chest so I don’t have to feel the pain anymore.