Crap.
Alana’s lips parted, but I intervened. “I’ll do it. I’ll talk to her.” Alana bowed her head. “I’ll go then.”
“But not too far,” Helena purred. “You owe me your time, collecting my souls, just like all humans who make the choice to cross over into the Banshee world. Immortality doesn’t come without a price. And you. You’ve been hiding from your debt for a very long time, ever since I agreed to bleed you with Banshee blood and preserve your state.” Alana lowered her head again. “I know what I owe.” Then she backed away, out into the hallway, leaving me alone with the liquid queen.
I couldn’t tell if her eyes were on me, but I sensed they were, heavy and withholding. “I know you,” she finally said.
“Everyone seems to,” I replied with a sigh.
“You’re important,” she said. “Filled with an essence I’ve never tasted before. Annabella would be excited to get a taste of you.”
“As much as I’m flattered,” I said. “I really don’t think I want to be tasted.” She let out a reverberating laugh that rumbled at the walls and floor. “You’re clever. But I wonder just how far that cleverness has taken you and how far it could take you?”
“I m not sure I m following you,” I admitted.
“You’re freeing these Lost Souls for the purpose that they aren’t supposed to be here.” Her hands curled around the armrests. “But tell me. Why not free your own soul?”
“I didn’t realize it needed to be freed.”
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“Everyone’s soul needs to be freed in some way or another. But yours is different. Yours needs to be freed from the pain that holds you captive.”
I touched my heart, unbeating and hollow. “My soul’s fine.”
“But it won’t be,” she said, “Not after you die. And you will very soon.”
“How do you know about that?” I twisted the ring on my finger.
“How do any of us know anything,” she said. “Because we choose to.” I wondered if the queen had been conversing with a Foreseer recently. “So you think I’m going to die soon?”
“All humans die,” she replied. “Your life just ends sooner, with sacrifice. But you won’t be alone. You’ll die with someone important to you. Someone you wish you could save.” Alex. “Perhaps.”
“But you can’t save yourself and others from death. At least not without a price.”
“What kind of price.” I dared a step toward the throne. “Are you saying there’s a way to save us?”
“Not us. Only one. Only one can survive. With a simple sacrifice. One for the other. But the question is who will live and who will die?”
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Chapter 36
(Alex)
It’d been too long. But there was nothing I could do about it. Laylen and Aislin were watching me like hawks, afraid I’d do something stupid and barge into Gemma’s room and wake her. I probably could have taken both of them down, although Aislin and her magic might have been a match for me.
“Quit fidgeting,” Aislin said sifting through her herbs. “You’re driving me crazy.” The TV was on and I flipped through the channels, which were all the same: madness, chaos, death. It was depressing. I clicked the TV off and picked up my knife to sharpen it across a piece of metal.
“You’re driving me crazy,” I retorted. “Just decide already if you have the stuff or not.”
“These aren’t marked.” She opened a baggy and picked through the green flakes. “It takes some time to sort through them.”
I dragged my knife down the sharpener. “Where’s Laylen? I thought he was going to check on things.”
“He barely went upstairs a few minutes ago.” She sealed the baggy shut. “You need to relax.” I pointed the tip of my knife at the stairway. “Relax? You know she’s dead up there, right? And her spirit’s wandering around in the Afterlife.”
She shook a baggie and then picked up another. “What is that?”
“You tell me,” I said. “I’m no herb expert.”
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She narrowed her eyes. “Not this.” She motioned over her shoulder. “That banging. It sounds like it s coming from the basement.”
My eyebrows furrowed. “This place doesn’t have a basement.” She sniffed the baggy. “Well, then it’s coming from under the house.” My ears perked, detecting a faint nose. “Yeah, what is that?” I stood, knife out as I headed for the kitchen. When I turned the corner, it was obvious the noise was coming from underneath the floor. I bounced on the tile, searching for a lose one, wondering if there could be a trapdoor. The center stone, right in front of the table, caught slightly. I squatted down, digging at the grout with my knife. It shifted and sure enough, there was a trapdoor.
I contemplated what to do. Who knows what could be down there? Anything really. And how it got there was puzzling. I tapped my knife on the tile and the banging stopped. Frozen in the silence, I heard a voice.
“Hello.”
I backed away. “Aislin, could you come in here?”
The tile grinded as it was forced from the rest of the floor. After a second past, a hand appeared out of the dark hole. “Hello.”
I almost dropped my knife at the familiar voice.
The person heaved themselves out of the hole. “Alex,” the auburn-haired woman said. “What’s going on?”
I moved at the terrified woman and dipped my knife, resting it at her throat. “Who are you?” 174
She blinked wildly, scared to death. “It’s me Sophia, Gemma’s grandmother.” I shook my head. “Sophia’s dead. You, what are you? A Banshee? A witch?”
“No, no, no.” She raised her hands in surrender. “I swear I’m Sophia.” She searched helplessly around the kitchen, looking for something that would prove who she was.
“Better hurry,” I said, pushing her to her breaking point.
Tears slipped from her eyes. “I don’t know what to do.”
I felt kind of sorry for her and considered moving my knife back, to let her breathe, when a pan went soaring through the air and smacked the woman straight in the forehead. Her eyes crossed and she collapsed to the floor.
I turned, finding a wide-eyed Aislin, breathing heavily. “What was that? A zombie or something?”
“Zombies don’t exist. You know that.” I bent down, examining the stranger. A cut on her head trailed blood down her cheek. “No, she’s alive. But did you really have to throw a pan at her?”
“I panicked.” She came up behind me. “So if she’s not a zombie, then what is she?” I picked up her wrist, checking her arms for marks and then tilted her head, checking the back of her neck. Beneath the collar or her shirt, I spotted the tip of the Keepers mark.