Now wasn’t the time for sleeping.
I opened the door, only to find Alex standing there on the other side. He scared the crap out of me, and I almost bolted off in a mad sprint.
“Holy crap,” I said, catching my breath.
“You scared the heck out of me.”
“Yeah, I can tell,” he said, his voice cautious, but I didn’t know why.
He’d put on the tan hooded jacket and a black baseball hat. He looked perfect. He always looked perfect. There was no use trying to deny it.
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He scaled me over from head to toe. “We need to get you some kind of disguise in case we run into trouble.”
I fidgeted with the edge of my shirt.
“What kind of trouble?”
“The same kind we’ve been running in-to.” He sighed tiredly. “The Death Walkers are going to be all over the place now that they’ve discovered you.”
I sighed. “Okay, so what do you want me to do?” I pointed at my bag of clothes. “Because there’s not a whole lot in there.”
“Yeah, I think Aislin basically just dumped a drawer of your clothes in it.”
“And then added one boot?” He scrunched his forehead. “Huh?” I shook my head. “Nothing. Never mind….So yeah, I don’t think I have anything very disguise-like.” I paused and pulled my hood over my head. “Does this work?” He gave me a doubtful look.
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Oh, don’t you give me that look too. I wasn’t some secret agent/master of disguise who could create a new identity out of some string and tape, so cut me some slack, would you?
He ran his hand over his face and sighed.
“Well, I guess it’ll have to work. Do you at least have some sunglasses to cover those up?” He pointed at my eyes.
“No, I don’t have any—hey, I thought you said you liked the color of my eyes. You said it was a nice different.”
“I wasn’t saying that to be mean. There just aren’t a whole lot of people walking around with violet eyes. It’ll give you away.” He zipped up his jacket. “And I do like the color of your eyes. They reminded me of these flowers you used to pick and bring back home when you were….” He trailed off, his bright green eyes widening.
“When I what?” I pressed.
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He cleared his throat. “Nothing. It wasn’t important. Let’s go.” He turned his back on me and started down the hall.
“What? Were you going to tell me some story about when I was four years old and not living with Marco and Sophia?” I called out, chasing after him.
His froze. “Who told you that?”
“Laylen.”
He said nothing and went into the living room.
I followed after him. “What? You don’t have anything to say?”
“Gemma, I don’t have time for this right now.” He opened up the door that led out to the garage. “We need to get to town.” He was right, but this was sooo not over.
Chapter 26
We drove to town in a black Jeep Wran-gler, which by the layer of dust on the dash-board, had most likely been sitting out in the garage for quite awhile. The snow on the road was deep, and Alex had to drive incred-ibly slow, otherwise we’d probably end up sliding off the road and crashing down the hill.
I’d come up with this brilliant plan to try and catch some zzz’s during the drive, but the second my eyelids close, Alex decided it was chat time.
“So what else did Laylen tell you?” he asked.
I slowly opened my eyes. “What do you mean?”
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“Well, he told you about how you weren’t really one when you moved in with Marco and Sophia.” He practically bit at the words, which made me feel bad…for Laylen. If and when Laylen returned, Alex was probably going to rip into him for telling me. “I’m just curious what else he told you.”
“Nothing really,” I lied. I wasn’t going to get Laylen into anymore trouble. My lips were sealed.
Alex slipped me a sideways glance. “He told you nothing else at all?” I shook my head, acting as cool as the snow on the roads. “Nope.” He shot me a skeptical look. “Yeah, I’m not buying it.”
I shrugged. “Well, it’s the truth.”
“So then what did you two talk about while Aislin and I were gone?” he asked. “I mean, we were gone for at least an hour. So what did you two do?”
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“I don’t know.” It felt like I was walking into a trap or something, so I had to make sure I chose my words very carefully. “Sat around. Ate. Almost got frozen to death by a bunch of murderous Death Walkers. You know the usual.”
“And you didn’t talk at all?”
“Not really…I mean, we did a little, but it was mostly about him.”
He shook his head, his knuckles whiten-ing as his grip tightened on the steering wheel. “Fine, Gemma. Don’t tell me.” Okay, I won’t.Why would I? Laylen had been very specific about Alex’s lack of understanding, so what good would it do to tell him what I’d learned about my mother—about me. It would do no good. That’s what it would do. Alex would just end up getting mad and taking it out on Laylen and me.
Alex rounded a sharp corner and a town rose into view. Log cabins dotted the snowy hills. Trees canopied the yards. I frowned, 539/695
thinking of Nevada’s golden desert sand and delicious warm air, which also made me think of Aislin and Laylen. Were they alright? Or had something bad happened to them? Had the Death Walkers gotten them?
After all, the Death Walkers had come close to killing me on more than one occasion. I shuddered, remembering how it felt when the cold was sucking the life from my body; the helplessness I’d felt lying paralyzed on the floor; the vision thingy I’d been pulled into right afterwards. The vision. Through all of the chaos, I’d completely forgotten about it. How could I forget about something so important? I mean, this man with the scar—the Keeper—I had to know him somehow, otherwise why would I have dreamt about him. From what I’d picked up on in the vision, he might have had something to do with my mother’s disappearance, and why I’d spent most of my life emotionless. I had to find out who he was. I knew he was a 540/695
Keeper. A traitor Keeper. But that was it. I had to figure it out.
Somehow.
Another huge question I had was why did I keep slipping into the vision things? I hadn’t touched a Crystal Ball or anything when I’d witness the Keeper and Demetrius chatting it up, just like I hadn’t when I’d been pulled away back at the telescope and saw the mother and daughter walking in the field. The daughter who might possibly be me since the mother had called her Gemma.
If this was the case—if the daughter was me—than the vision had to be from the past.
But the question was, why couldn’t I remember it actually happening? If it had already taken place, I should have some memory of it, right?
Ah! I was so confused.
I pitter-pattered through my thoughts, trying to make sense of everything, but ended up feeling more lost than ever. Which 541/695
was saying a lot since I always felt lost. There was only one way I could think of to get some answers to my endless list of questions. But whether he’d tell me the truth or not, who knew? I at least had to try, though.
“Alex,” I said so abruptly it made him jump.
“What?” he asked breathlessly.
I ignored the warning in my gut begging me not to ask. “Is it possible to see a vision without a Foreseer’s crystal ball?” He gave me a funny look. “Why do you ask?”
I shrugged. “I was just wondering.” He thought about it for a second. “I don’t know… I think there might have been one Foreseer who was powerful enough to do it, but I don’t know anything about him.” Oddly enough, he actually sounded like he was telling the truth. “Oh. Okay.” I turned and looked out the window, thinking about the woman and daughter in 542/695
the field; the horrible scene I’d witnessed at the lake; the Keeper and Demetrius’s discussion about the woman that they’d conveniently made disappear, and the girl who they’d said needed to be kept away from humanity. They had to have been talking about my mother and me. They just had to. Either that, or there was another poor unemotional girl roaming around the world somewhere.