I really wanted to be done with the whole traveling-through-a-crystal-ball thing, because it sucked. Big time. The falling part made my stomach churn, and don’t even get me started on the landing.
My feet hit the grassy ground with a thud, and I tripped forward, rolling my ankle. “Ow!”
“Are you alright?” Nicholas stood beside me, still holding my hand. Which I guess was good, but only because it kept me from falling onto the ground.
“Yeah, I’m good.” I slipped my hand out of his.
The castle towered behind us, the lake rippling in front. The sight of it tugged at my memories of the last time I was here.
“So what do I do now?” I asked Nicholas.
“You wait until the vision starts,” he told me. “You’ll have to tell me when it does, though, so I can help you see things clearly.”
I gave him a funny look. “You can’t see when it starts?”
He shook his head. “It’s your vision, so only you can see it. That’s the way things work.”
I gestured around us. “So what does this look like to you?”
He leaned in, his shoulder bumping into mine. The smell of lilacs, forest, and rain flooded my nostrils. “Everything looks grey. There’s a little haze and color here and there, but everything’s distorted.”
I backed away from him and focused on the scenery. It really was a beautiful place. Well, if you liked the whole outdoorsy thing that is. But there was the connection it held to the woman getting yanked away to The Underworld, which basically ruined any possibility of me liking the place.
A streak of purple suddenly rushed by me—the little girl.
“Okay, it’s starting,” I told Nicholas.
The little girl twirled in circles, just like she did the first time, her face still all hazy.
“What do you see?” Nicholas asked.
I wondered if I was allowed to tell him “Um...”
He frowned. “I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what you’re seeing.”
I sighed. “I see a little girl twirling in front of a lake.”
“Can you see her face?”
I shook my head. “Nope. It’s still all blurry.”
“Then you need to focus harder,” he said, as if it were that simple.
But it wasn’t that simple. “Focus harder on what exactly?”
“Hmm…” He gave me a look that immediately put me on edge. He strolled around behind me, standing way too close for comfort. And the smell of flowers and rain was killing me. I mean, I don’t mind breathing in the smell of lilacs every once in awhile, or taking in the scent of freshly fallen rain right after a storm, but he was a guy that smelled like flowers. It was too weird.
“Right now your mind is trying to adjust to the power of the crystal, but it can’t quite figure out how to get there.” He leaned over my shoulder, breathing into my ear. “The first thing you need to do is take a deep breath. Then, try to relax.”
What was it with him and invading my personal space? Maybe it was a faerie thing or something.
I took a deep breath and tried hard to ignore the flowery smell. “Okay, I’m relaxed. Now what?”
“Let your mind focus,” he said, still breathing into my ear. “The images are already there; they just haven’t connected with your mind.”
I inched away from him as casually as I could and sighed. “Yeah, I still don’t get it.”
He placed his hands on my shoulders. “Have you ever looked at one of those magic eye images before?”
My shoulders stiffened under his touch. “Uh, yeah, I guess.”
“Well, this is kind of like looking at one of those.” He pressed his fingertips into my shoulder blades, massaging them gently. “Relax your eyes and let your mind make sense of the images.”
I shrugged off his hands and concentrated on the images.
The little boy had come up during Nicholas’ little tutoring session and was now guiding the little girl away from the lake. Their faces were still blocked out by a sheet of haze, so I took a deep breath and let my eyes relax. Gradually, a tunnel started to form, fading away the rest of the surroundings so that the only thing I could see was the blurred image of the little girl’s face. Slowly, her face began to focus like a lens on a camera. Clicking and clicking, getting clearer and clearer.
I was getting so close to being able to see who the little girl was. Only a few more seconds and I probably would have had it. But then the man stepped into view, and all of my concentration shattered.
I kicked the ground with the tip of my sneaker. “Crap.”
“What?” Nicholas asked. “What’s wrong?”
“I just about had it and then this man….I don’t know. When he appeared, he ruined my concentration or something.”
“Well, don’t look at him then. Try to pretend he’s not there.”
Easier said than done, since I knew what the man was going to do pretty soon. I shook my head, frustrated, and returned my gaze back to the vision. I put my concentration on the boy this time, letting the tunnel form again. But right before his face snapped into focus, the woman ran up, and again my concentration shattered.
I was getting discouraged. “So what happens if I can’t do it?”
“You can,” he assured me. “All you have to do is catch a glimpse of each of their faces, and in the end your mind will put it all together.”
“And what if I can’t see all of their faces before the vision ends?”
He laughed. “Then I guess I’ll have to keep you down here until you do.”
His words filled me with determination.
The little boy was getting ready to head to the castle. Okay, you can do this, Gemma. The dark tunnel took shape, zoning in on the haziness of his face. Bits and pieces shifted together. Just as he was slipping out of my view, his face clicked into focus. His eyes were green, his hair brown.
I so had this.
I flung my attention to the man, who was yanking the little girl from the woman’s arms. I paid attention to nothing else but the girl’s blurry face. This time the haze disappeared much quicker. But I must have seen it wrong. There was no way that could be right. I blinked, and blinked again. But nothing changed. Her eyes—the color—violet. The exact shade of my eyes. My heart pounded inside my chest. Seeing the vision clearly suddenly became much more important.
The woman was heading down to the lake. Time was running out. I ran for her.
“Hey! Where are you going?!” Nicholas called out.
Ignoring him, I let the tunnel zoom in on the woman’s face. Her bright blue irises, her warm smile, everything became clear, and I knew I had seen her before. But I had already figured that out as soon as I caught sight of the little girl’s eyes. If this little girl in the vision was me, then the woman had to be my mother.
Tears streamed down my cheeks as I watched the woman get yanked underneath the water. I spun around to the man, shaking with anger. He was walking away, a sickening, satisfied grin on his face. His dark grey eyes, his black hair, I grabbed onto every little detail I could, right down to the slight crookedness of his nose and the scar grazing his left cheek.
My mouth dropped. “Holy—”
A hand came down on my shoulder, and I whirled around, my breath whipping out in frantic gasps.
Nicholas held up his hands. “Whoa. What the heck happened? What did you see?”
“Nothing,” I choked. “It wasn’t important.”
“It had to be something important since you’re all worked up.”
“I’m fine,” I snapped. “Can we just go back? The vision’s over.”
He eyed me over with his golden eyes. “Yeah, I know. I can see everything now that it’s complete. Beautiful place, by the way—the Keepers’ castle.”
“This is the Keepers’ castle?” I said, stunned. Alex had mentioned that the lake was the entrance to The Underworld, but he never said anything about the castle belonging to the Keepers. Why would he keep that from me?
“Hmm…I thought you would have known that since you’re a Keeper.”
A…Was I? “Um…yeah, but I’ve never been here before,” I told him, and then added, “I’ve lived a very sheltered life.”
He stared at my eyes. “Really. Is that so?”
I was getting nervous. “So can we go back?”
“What did you see exactly?” he asked, dodging my question. “Was there any meaning to it?”
“I don’t know. Is there supposed to be a meaning?”
“Sometimes.” He shrugged. “Sometimes not. Normally Foreseers use the crystal to see a vision that has a purpose.” He inched closer to me. “But your vision was started by accident, so maybe there’s a reason you saw it and maybe not. Regardless, you had to finish the vision just in case there was some kind of significance to it.”
Oh, there was a reason I saw it. Here was the problem, though. If the little girl was me, why couldn’t I remember any of this happening?
“Can we go back, please?” I asked Nicholas, trying not to sound anxious.
Nicholas ran his fingers through his hair. “Are you sure you want to go back?” He moved toward me until the tips of his black and red sneakers clipped against the tips of mine. “Because, if you want, we can stay here a little bit longer.”
I kept my voice steady. “Thanks, but no thanks. The vision is over. There’s no reason to stick around.”
His mouth curved into a devious grin. “I could give you a reason.”
Okay, faerie guy, it was time for you to back the heck down. “Yeah, I’m going to have to pass on that.”
His eyes were all over me. “If that’s what you want.”
“Oh, it is,” I assured him.
He looked disappointed as he held out his hand. “Let’s go then. But might I add that you are awfully nervous for a Keeper.”
I shook off his comment and took hold of his hand.
“Ready?” he asked.
I nodded. I was more than ready.
Returning to the City of Crystal was as simple as tying my shoe. There was no crystal ball to go through. No falling. I just blinked and we were back, surrounded by grass made of glass and a sky that shone like a diamond. Dyvinius was gone, which I thought was odd. But I was grateful for his absence and anxious to get back to the cabin, because there was something I needed to ask Alex. See, something occurred to me during the split second I was being pulled away from the vision. And if I was right about what had occurred to me, then Alex telling me about the star was going to seem mild.
Alex, thank goodness, was waiting for us in the Palace, and he rushed over as soon as he saw us appear.
“Everything good?” he asked, giving me a cautious once over, like he expected me to return broken or something.
I nodded. “But I’m ready to go.”
“So am I,” he said.
No one spoke as Nicholas took us back to the spot where we had entered the city.
Nicholas retrieved the tiny crystal ball from his pocket and held it out in front of me. “Are you sure you want to leave? Because, personally, I would love for you stay down here.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m good with going back, but thanks.”
“Well then.” He winked. “Until we meet again.”
Which hopefully was never.
I placed my hand on top of the crystal ball with zero hesitancy, and the next thing I knew, I was tumbling down the tunnel again.
I landed in the living room of the cabin with the gracefulness of a drunken person, stumbling and banging my knee on the corner of the coffee table. I don’t know what it was—if the falling threw off my equilibrium or something—but I just couldn’t land normally when traveling by a crystal, or by teleporting, or when walking on ice. Oh, fine. Maybe it was just me.
I was rubbing my soon-to-be-bruised knee when Alex appeared beside me.
“Alright, what happened?” he asked immediately. “And why are you rubbing you knee?”
“Because I bumped it on the table.” My voice came out sharp.
“Okay, jeez. Sorry for asking.” He paused. “So what happened?”
I stared at him, wondering if what I was thinking could be true.
He gave me a strange look. “Did something happen…I mean, with Nicholas? Did he...um…try something?”
“Huh?” It took me a second to get what he meant. “What? Yuck. No. Why would you even ask that?”
“Because that’s the way he is,” he said. “It’s the faerie inside him.”
“Well, nothing happened.” I sat down on the edge of the coffee table. “Not really, anyway.”
“Not really, anyway.” He gaped at me. “What does that mean?”
“It means he was acting creepy.”
He cocked an eyebrow. “Acting creepy how?"
“He was just…” I shook my head. I was getting off track here. “That’s not important right now. Okay, I’m going to ask you something, and I want you to tell me the truth, okay?”
He gave me a doubtful look. But before he could protest, I stood up, trying to appear confident.
“No, you’re not going to wiggle your way out of this one,” I told him. “I want the truth, and you’re going to give it to me. None of that ‘I can’t tell you’ crap. No more lying. Just the truth.” I had no idea where that boost of confidence came from, but it felt kind of good.
He held my gaze with sheer intensity, and I had a flashback of the two of us sitting in the astronomy classroom, staring each other down. “What’s your question?”
I took a deep breath and prepared myself for the worst. “Has my memory ever been erased?”
Chapter 30