I’m getting ready to shut my eyes when the glass of the crystal frosts over with flakes of crisp ice. I hear a crackle moments later and I glance up just in time to see a stampede of black-cloaked Death Walkers storming our way, glazing the land with a sheet of ice and rapidly dropping the temperature to well below freezing.
I start to shake and chatter, the electricity simmering to a murmur as they ascend toward us, their yellow eyes glowing fiercely.
“Shit,” Laylen says when he turns and notices them. “Gemma, get us out of here.”
“I-I’m t-trying,” I chatter as I fight to hold my hand steady, noting the tint of blue my skin is taking on. The Chill of Death. I’ve experienced it once and I don’t want to ever experience it again.
As I attempt to find my energy and some sort of emotion to feed off of, I spot a blond haired, golden-eyed half-Faerie in the midst of the Death Walkers. Traitor! Not only does he play us, but now he’s also siding with evil.
I grasp tighter to Alex as his skin starts turning and alarming shade of purple. He’s too fragile, even with his Keeper blood, to withstand the cold and I need to get us out of here. I shut my eyes and picture Adessa’s living room, the purple velvet couches, the strange figurines everywhere, and the black and white checkerboard floor. Then I let my mind and body sync with the faint spark still thriving between Alex and me. It’s so weak, yet the emotions it brings out of me are more potent than any other emotion I’ve ever felt.
I want to hold him. Make him feel better. Kiss him. Touch him. Breathe in his scent. Feel him rocking inside me, being part of me, being connected with me in every way possible.
“Gemma…” Laylen’s voice is full of fear and panic. “Jesus, please...”
I hear a sharp noise like a thousand glass cups shattering against concrete and I open my eyes. Fragments of porcelain crack apart from the ground and fly through the air, unable to withstand the pressure of the ice.
My eyes open wider as the porcelain rushes towards us in a wave of sharp glass, the ground breaking apart. I hear Alex and Laylen shout out my name as the pillars snap in half and topple over, slamming against the ground and bursting across the ground.
We’re running out of time and soon we’re going to be sucked into the floor or taken out by the Death Walkers who are managing to avoid the opening with little effort, their feet hovering over the floor. Nicholas has disappeared and I wonder if he has gotten sucked down into the hole that’s forming.
Alex suddenly slides his arm off Laylen. Laylen continues to watch the wave of glass roaring closer to us with wide eyes as Alex limps toward me. My heart rate starts to still, my breath suffocating as my blood pressure drops with the temperature.
My breath puffs out in a cloud and envelops my face as Alex places a hand on each of my cheeks.
“Pretend they’re not there,” he says. “Pretend it’s just you and me and no one else.”
The look in his eyes and the delicacy in his words send a torrent of calmness through my body along with the desire to be near him. I can feel us being magnetized together as my body and mind connecting with the energy of the crystal.
I reach out and find Laylen’s arm as Alex continues to hold onto my face. I think I’ve done it, but a set of bony, stone cold fingers seize hold of my arm and the energy is blown out by a vapor of cold.
I scream as the Death Walker wrenches on me and my Foreseer power counters, strengthening. I feel like I’m going to rip apart and I’m not even sure if I’m still holding onto Laylen and Alex. My body becomes numb, brittle, tired, and worn.
I let out another scream as images pound through my head. Mountains… Adessa’s… desert… snow… lake.
They move so fast I lose complete control and disappear into the midst of them.
Chapter 19
When I open my eyes again, I’m lying face first in a field of grass. I push up, brush the dirt off my legs and arms, and then glance around at the lake, the cloudy sky, and the shallow hill as well as the stony castle near the horizon.
I start to walk forward, wondering where everyone else is when Laylen rises from the grass. His blond hair shimmers in the sunlight snaking through the cracks in the clouds.
“Jesus, how the hell did we get here,” he says then makes a repulsed face when he spots the grey stone castle towering in the distance. “And why here?”
“I’m not sure,” I say, stepping in front of him, the grass circling around us. “I lost control or something… the Death Walkers’ ice was making my power shaky.” I shield my eyes with my hand and glance around at the field and then the trees. “Where’s Alex?”