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She wasn’t in the bed when we entered the room.

She was out on the deck, staring out at the ocean. I carefully approached her, the floorboards creaking underneath my weight, but she didn’t turn around.

I came to a stop beside her and handed her the cup of water. She took a few swallows and set the glass on the railing. I waited for her to say something, but all she did was look out at the ocean with a lost expression on her face.

“Mom,” I said, concerned she might have slipped into a state of shock again.

My mother turned and looked at me. Then her eyes moved to Laylen. “Laylen…is that you?” He stepped up beside me. “Yeah, it’s me.” She smiled, but it looked wrong, like she had to work really hard to make the corners of her mouth curve upward. “You’ve grown up so much.” She looked at me, and in the brightness of the rising sun, I could see her eyes held a deep sorrow in them. “And you…” she burst into tears, alarming me. “You’re—

You’re still …” she trailed off, thinking about something as tears continued to stream down her cheeks. Then she let out a sigh. “You’re still you.” I wasn’t sure what to tell her—that I wasn’t still me, but someone trying to figure out how to be me. But I was afraid saying this might break her heart, and she already looked really broken.

“So what’s been going on,” she asked and took another sip of water, “while I’ve been gone.” What happened? That was the million dollar question, wasn’t it? I took a deep breath and started to explain.

*** I tried my best to get everything right and fill her in on everything that had happened. There was so much though, and truthfully, I really didn’t know much. But I told her everything I knew. I told her about my lifeless years and how the prickle came and freed me. I told her about the Death Walkers and how Stephan was working with them. How he had the Mark of Malefiscus and how he put the mark on Nicholas. I explained to her my special Foreseer gift and the visions I saw. And even though I didn’t want to, I gave her the details of how Stephan had tried to take it all away from me again. And how the locket—the locket she gave me—had saved me.

She took it all in, processing my every word. When I struggled with certain details, Laylen jumped in and aided me through them. We also had to explain to her what Laylen was, even though it really didn’t have anything to do with any of this. But I felt like she should know everything—after being trapped in a place of death and fear for as long as she had.

When I was done, she sat there in silence. We were still out on the deck. The sun was beaming down. The ocean was roaring and people were out on the beach, splashing and playing in the salty water without a care in the world.

They were lucky—not having to know the dangers that were out there.

“Gemma,” my mom said after I finished talking. “I’m so sorry.” She reached over and tentatively took my hand. I could feel her pulse racing through her touch.

“I’m so sorry you had to go through this.” I swallowed hard, feeling my insides lurch. “It’s not your fault…I—I know you tried to protect me.” She shook her head. “I should have tried harder.” I didn’t want her to feel responsible. She did what she could—I watched her do it. Before I could try to convince her, it wasn’t her fault, though, she said, “I need to talk to Alex.”

“Alex,” I gave her a quizzical look. “Why do you need to talk to him?”

“Because,” she looked at Laylen then back at me. “I need all of you here—including Aislin—before I can explain what I know about what’s going on.” When I still looked at her strangely, she added, “I need all of you here, because what I’m about to tell you involves all of you. Each of you plays a part in it.”

“Plays a part in what?” I asked. “Stephan trying to open the portal.”

“Oh, Gemma.” My mom shook her head exhaustedly. “There is so much more to Stephan’s plan than just opening a portal and releasing the Death Walkers.”

Chapter 39

You know those moments where time seems to stop? Well, I was having one of those moments right now. Laylen, my mom, and I sat there as the words my mother had just said sunk in. Laylen had been right when he said that my mother probably knew things, but I’d never expected her to say there was a lot more to Stephan’s plan than just opening the portal, or that she would say all of us played a part in whatever Stephan was planning to do. I’d always assumed it was just me.

Me and the star.

I guess I was wrong.

Laylen got to his feet and told us he would go wake up Aislin and Alex. Then, he left my mother and I sitting out on the deck alone. For awhile, neither of us spoke. We just sat there, listening to people laughing out on the beach.

“So, how have you been really?” she finally asked.

“And don’t say okay, because I know it’s not true.”

“I don’t know…” I said, searching my mind for a way to change the subject. “I don’t get something. Why was I able to undo what Sophia did to me…when she detached my soul, I mean.”

“That’s a question I can’t answer just yet,” she said, tilting her head up toward the sun. “I will, though, just as soon as everyone gets here.”

“Okay.” Not the answer I was expecting, but it worked.

Laylen returned seconds later with a very sleepy-eyed Aislin and Alex. Alex and Ailsin each grabbed a chair and dragged it to where my mother and I sat, and Laylen hopped up and took a seat on the railing.

Aislin was the first to speak, seeming kind of nervous. “Jocelyn, I can’t believe you’re here…It’s just so…” She looked like she was going to burst into tears

My mom, despite the fact she had been locked away in The Underworld, still possessed motherly instincts and reached over and placed a hand on Aislin’s hand. “It’s okay. I’m alright. Everything’s alright.”

I highly doubted that was true. In fact, I was fairly sure my mom was about to drop a not-all-right bomb on us here pretty soon.

Alex seemed less tolerant toward Aislin’s emotional behavior, and I even caught him rolling his eyes.

“So, Laylen said there was something you wanted to tell us?” he asked impatiently.

My mother nodded. “There is. But I need you to tell me what you know first. Gemma’s already told me what she knows, but I think you might know a little more.”

Shocker? I think not.

He pressed his lips together, his arms crossed over his chest as his eyes wandered around to all of us.

“Alex.” My mom’s voice was persuasive. “I understand your initial reaction is to keep things a secret—it’s what you’ve been taught to do. But it’s important that you tell me what you know, so we can stop the end of the world from happening.” He still seemed hesitant. “Where do you want me to start?”

My mother considered this. “Why don’t you start from the beginning?”

“But, what is the beginning?” Alex asked, like he was asking a riddle.

My mother was patient, though. “Why don’t you start with the day that Gemma’s soul was detached. Do you remember what happened that day?”

He glanced at me, and I raised my eyebrows at him, implying to go ahead, because boy was I dying to hear this.

“The day Gemma’s soul was taken away…” He shut his eyes for a moment and then opened them back up. “She and I were hiding out in that little fort in the side of the hill, because earlier my father had told us Gemma had to go away.”

I touched the palm of my hand where the faintest of scars resided, remembering the vision I saw. How he had cut my hand and his, saying the words foremas he pressed them together. It was a word I still didn’t know the meaning of. One of these days, I think, I was going to have to invest in buying a Latin Translator Pocket Dictionary, if such a thing existed.

Alex must have noticed me touching my hand, because he clenched his own. “But he ended up finding us and took Gemma away. I never saw her again...Well, until my dad made me enrol in school to see if I could get to the bottom of why she started to feel.”