“ Can’tfind him? But what would it matter if anyone found him—he’d be dead by now, right?” Laylen leaned in more, his knee pressing against mine. “Right before Malefiscus was sentenced, he found a way to become immortal, at least that’s what people say.”
“How did he make himself immortal?” I asked, fully involved in his story.
Laylen slowly shook his head. “As far as anyone knows, becoming immortal isn’t possible unless someone becomes like a Black Angel or a Death Walker or a…vampire.”
I glanced down at Laylen’s forearm where the black symbols of his mark of immortality were tattooed. “Did he actual get the mark of immortality?”
“I don’t know…I’m not sure if my parents left out parts of the story to sugar-coat it for me, or if there are parts that even they didn’t know about.” A look of deep thought passed over Laylen’s face.
“Well, if Stephan has the same mark as Malefiscus, then what does that mean?”
“It means Stephan has to be a descendant of him, at least he most likely has to be. There are very rare cases where someone gets a mark without being a descendant from someone with the same mark” He paused, glancing down at the mark on his arm. “Well, except for the mark of immortality that is.” We sat there in silence, and I wondered if he was thinking about his mark of immortality. I was thinking about a million different things that ranged from my end-of-the-world vision, to the Mark of Malefiscus, to my Foreseers mark and how I didn’t seem to be a descendant of a Foreseer. Well, at least that I knew of. Since I didn’t know who my father was, it was still possible that I might be.
“So Stephan could be a descendant from the most evil man that has ever walked the earth?” I asked with a shiver.
“If he is,” Laylen said, the heaviness of the situation ringing in his voice. “That would explain why he is controlling the Death Walkers. Those who have the Mark of Malefiscus have control over them. And…”
“And what?” I pressed.
“And it would give him a reason to open the portal.” Laylen’s eyes pressed the gravity of the situation.
“And why he’d want to try to end the world,” Laylen added. “It’s in his blood.”
Silence dripped by. The house was quiet and I wondered what Aislin and Adessa and Nicholas were doing, and in a way, I wished I were them and didn’t know about all of this.
“Do you think my mom knows Stephan had the mark?” I asked quietly.
“I think your mom may know even more than that.” Laylen’s bright blue eyes never left me.
Something else was bothering me. “Laylen, do you think it’s possible that Stephan… that he…,” I let out a breath. “That Stephan wants to use the stars power for something bad. That maybe that’s why he’s been keeping me around all this time...Do you think he might be using it to open the portal.” Something about the way Laylen was looking at me made my heart stop.
“I don’t know…” He said quickly looking away from me.
“Laylen, please just tell me if you know something” I begged. “You always tell me stuff. Don’t be like Alex.” He turned his head back toward me. “The thought has crossed my mind that maybe…that maybe that’s exactlywhat he’s doing.”
I felt like I’d been kicked in the stomach. Even though I had thought it myself, it was a lot harder to deal with hearing him say it aloud. That I could be carrying something around inside me that could end the world. That my very existence could be bad. “How long have you thought this?”
“Since Aislin and I showed up at the Hartfield cabin back in Colorado—when Stephan showed up with the Death Walkers, but yet he didn’t try to kill you. He wants you alive for some reason. And that reason I’m sure isn’t a good one.”
I nodded. Keep it together. Keep it together.
“Okay…Okay.” I was trying very hard not to fall apart.
But, at the same time, how could I not fall apart?
“Are you okay?” Laylen asked, concerned.
I had to force myself to speak and was startled by the hollow tone my voice had taken on—something I hadn’t heard it do in awhile. “Yeah, I’m fine.” He looked like he wanted to say more, but I decided to stop him, because honestly, I didn’t want to talk about how I was feeling at the moment. Or about the fact that the prickle was poking at the back of my neck releasing an abundance of worry and panic at a level I had never felt before.
“I think I better get back to Nicholas and my training.” I stood up from the bed.
“Gemma.” Laylen got to his feet. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah.” My voice sounded numb. “I just need to get back, if for nothing else, so I can get into The Underworld to save my mom. Then maybe we’ll get actual answers, instead of just a bunch of guesses.”
“Okay…” Laylen watched me as if I were a scared mental patient who was about to go off the deep end, and I left the room with a giant lump swelling in my throat.
Chapter 15
Nicholas was turning out not to be so bad to be around. Let me stress the not sobad part, because he still got under my skin more times than he didn’t.
This could have been because, after what Laylen had said to me about him thinking that I just might be carrying around something that would end the world that I really just didn’t care anymore how Nicholas was. I mean, why waste time getting worked up over a guy who was a little bit friendly. Okay, well a lot friendly, but at least he was friendly. And yeah, he did smell strongly of flowers and rain and forest, which was kind of a strange smell to be coming off of a guy, but he was a faerie, and these little things seemed like they might just be faerie traits, and something he probably couldn’t help.
At least that’s what I was telling myself.
It’d been two days of excruciating training, falling into visions, blinking out of visions. Fortunately, I hadn’t dropped down into anything world-ending, because I really didn’t want to see that again. In fact, I hadn’t dropped into anything important at all, which was okay with me.
I needed a break from seeing things I didn’t want to see, like the world frozen over by ice, my soul getting removed, and me curled up in a little ball with my eyes looking very empty.
It was too much.
After my crazy little episode I had during the world-ending vision, Nicholas had decided to take control over where we went for now, and all these places had ended up being fairly dull places so far. What Nicholas didn’t know—but desperately wanted to know—was what I had seen when I dropped into the end-of-the-world vision. He pressed me to tell him for over an hour before finally giving up.
And now here Nicholas and I were sitting on the black and white tile floor of Adessa living room, with the shimmering, violet ribbon floating, crystal ball balanced between us.
“So where’s the next place we’re going?” I asked Nicholas.
He was wearing a bright green shirt, and a pair of dark blue jeans. Each night, after everyone went to bed, he’d leave, and when he would return in the morning he would be all cleaned up and ready to go.
“Hmmm….” He tapped his finger on his lips, which he almost always did when I asked him a question.
“That’s a good question.”
“And it’s a question only you can answer,” I pointed out, crossing my legs.
“Maybe…or maybe not,” he wavered. “I think maybe it is time for you to try and pick the place again.” I shuddered as I remembered the end-of-the-world vision I had thrown us into the last time I’d tried to control going into one on my own.
Nicholas must have sensed something was wrong with me because he said, “If you don’t practice going into and out of visions on your own then you’re going to be no use when it comes to trying to go into The Underworld. Besides, practicing might help you when you drift off into one of your visions without a crystal ball.”