“Not anymore, though.”
“No one does what he tries to get them to do anymore,” Laylen pointed out.
“Yeah, I guess so,” I said as we entered the living room.
Aislin was sitting cross-legged on the floor with a laptop resting on her lap, and Alex sat on the sofa, watching TV.
Hmmm….what was wrong with this picture? Oh, yeah, it looked normal.
Upon closer look, I noticed Aislin was searching the web for mark removal spells, and Alex was sharpening a sword as he stared blankly at the TV. Yeah, that seemed more fitting.
“Oh, thank God.” Aislin pressed her hand to her heart and let out a relieved sigh when she saw me. “I thought you weren’t going to wake up.”
“You guys always think that,” I joked. “Yet, I always do.” Aislin clicked the computer mouse. “Wow, you seem in a good mood.”
I gave her a funny look. “Do I?”
“It’s because of the lingering adrenaline from the rush.” Alex turned around and gave me a lingering look that made my skin hum. “So you’re a Keeper after all.”
“I guess so,” I said, trying not to squirm under his intense gaze. But, God, it was so intense, and suddenly I wanted to lean down, run my hands through his messily-in-an-intentional-kind-of-way hair, and press my lips to his.
Whoa.
“So,” Laylen said, changing the subject. “What’s our next move?”
He sat down on the floor beside Aislin and I took a seat in the chair behind them. Across from me Alex sat, still looking at me with way too much heat glowing in his bright green eyes. Was he trying to kill me or something?
“Has anyone talked to my mother?” I asked. “I mean what happened? Or could she even tell you?”
“After we made the same Blood Promise with her as we did with Nicholas, then yeah, we got some information out of her.” Alex raised his hand showing me a fresh cut on the palm of his hand.
“You didn’t tie her to the garage ceiling and beat her up first, did you?” I asked, half joking, but half serious.
Alex let out an amused laugh and shook his head. “No, Gemma, I didn’t beat your mom up.”
“So what did she tell you?” I brushed my hair out of my face. “Did she say how she ended up at the Keeper’s Castle?”
Alex’s face grew grave. “ Hecalled her.”
“But my mom doesn’t have a phone?” I pointed out. At least I think she didn’t, since she just got out The Underworld a few days ago, and I’m pretty sure reception down there is nonexistent.
“No, he calledher,” Alex said, setting his sword on the table “As in he summonedher.”
I leaned back and folded my arms. “Summoned?”
“Apparently, Stephan can summon people with the Mark of Malefiscus,” Laylen said, looking over Aislin’s shoulder as she typed something on the computer.
“How exactly does that work?” I asked.
Laylen glanced at Alex. “We have no idea, and neither does Jocelyn. All she said was that she suddenly felt compelled to go to the castle, so she did.” I tapped my foot anxiously. “How do we know he’s not going to summon her right now?”
“We don’t know,” Alex said straightforwardly. “But we’ve got her locked up and we took away her Key of Malefiscus.” I frowned. “Key of Malefiscus .He has his own key now.”
“He’s had one all along,” Alex said with this bitter/sarcastic tone. “Apparently, as Stephan marked each one of the Keepers’ with the Mark of Malefiscus, he also gave them a key, so when he touches his scar, they can take the key, trace a door, and Walla—they’re at the castle.”
“What the…” I shook my head in astonishment. “So Nicholas had one of these too. And Marco and Sophia.” Aislin gasped when I mentioned Marco and Sophia’s names. I gave her a funny look, but she avoided eye-contact with me.
“Nicholas didn’t have one, I don’t think,” Alex said.
“Jocelyn said that Stephan gave them to the Keeper’s he marked.”
“I still can’t believe it…all this time…my mom….” I shook my head, thinking about before, when I knew nothing about her—when I thought she was dead—and I use to wonder what kind of a person she had been. And now I had her back, but it turns out she was marked with evil.
“Gemma.” Alex voice was cautious. “I think you should go talk to your mom about this…there are some other things you need to know and I think you should hear them from her.”
“Bad things?” I asked, even though I was sure they were.
He wavered momentarily. “Not necessary bad things, but things you need to know.”
I nodded and got to my feet. “Where is she?” He pointed over his shoulder at the stairs. “Up in Marco and Sophia’s old room.”
He gave me one more look that made me feel like I was some sort of Greek Goddess shimmering in the sunlight, and then I headed off up the stairs to go chat about the dark side with my mom.
She looked miserable, lying on the floor, bound to the wall by chains. What I was wondering, though, was where all the stuff came from? The hooks in the wall that held the chains—the chains themselves. Had Marco and Sophia owned this stuff or had someone went out and bought them?
Her head was resting on a pillow, her brown hair a tangled mess. Her eyes were shut and she was breathing softly.
I shut the door behind me and her eyes shot open.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you up,” I said apologetically.
She sat up and I went over and sat cross-legged on the floor in front of her. We both stared at one another, not knowing where to start.
“I’m sorry, Gemma,” she finally said with a guilty look on her face.
I traced a star pattern in the carpet with my finger. “It’s okay. I understand you couldn’t say anything about the mark to me.” I paused. “But there’s one thing I don’t understand.
How is it you’re marked, yet you went to The Underworld to protect me? And how was it you could tell us all those things that day—about the ending of the world? Shouldn’t the mark have stopped you?”
She shook her head. “There are always loopholes, Gemma.”
“You keep saying that, but it doesn’t make sense to me at all.”
“I know. Some things are hard to understand and even harder to explain.” She rested her head back against the wall. “Sometimes my mind gets all cloudy as if it doesn’t belong to me, and I say words that aren’t my own.” She traced the cut of the Blood Promise on the palm of her hand. “It’s not cloudy right now, but it won’t last forever.”
“The Blood Promise won’t?” I asked.
She shook her head sadly. “I won’t.”
She was freaking me out. “What do you mean? You’re not leaving me again, are you?”
She didn’t answer right away, and when she did speak, she dodged around my question. “Remember how you told me that you saw the vision of Stephan forcing me into the lake.”
I nodded. “How could I forget?”
She smiled, but it was forced. “Well, you didn’t understand the vision completely—there were things that happened that confused you.”
“Like what?” I asked.
She let out a sigh. “Stephan didn’t force me into the lake, like he—and you—thought. I went in there on my own….I chose to go to The Underworld on my own.” I was shaking my head. “No, you didn’t…I saw him force you to go in there.”
She reached for my hand, the chains dragging across the floor. “No, you didn’t. That’s what it may have looked like, but that’s not what happened.” I was still shaking my head as she continued on, “I’ve always had this gift....kind of like super will power, and for the longest time, even after Stephan marked me, it stayed with me—made me strong.”
“How did he mark you?” I asked. “How did he mark everyone? Didn’t anyone fight back?”
“That’s hard to do when there are Death Walker’s there,” she explained, her blue eyes drifting off into empty space.