Dragging me behind him like a ragdoll, Stephan trampled through the snow back toward the cabin. The Death Walkers’ chill nipped at my heels, and my breathing had slowed due to the cold. I wasn’t going to lie and say I wasn’t scared. I was downright terrified. But on a positive note, unlike my nightmares, he hadn’t commanded the Death Walkers to finish me off.
“You know, things were never supposed to come to this,” Stephan said, jolting me to the side as he swerved around a dead pine tree. “This wasn’t part of the plan.”
“What plan?” I asked in a shaky voice. “The one where you kill me?”
“Kill you?” He laughed like it was the silliest thing he ever heard. “Oh Gemma, no one wants to kill you. In fact, you being alive is very important.”
“Important to whom?” I whimpered as my shoulder scraped the bark of a tree. My skin burned beneath my jacket, and I could feel the warmth of the blood bleeding out.
“And my son,” he continued, shaking his head with disgust. “He should know better. Let’s just hope no permanent damage has been done.”
“Permanent damage to what?” I asked.
He laughed wickedly. “Oh, you’ll soon find out.”
That did not sound good.
And where was Alex? Had something happened to him? I guess I was about to find out, because the cabin came into view.
By the time we reached the back door, a small part of me felt grateful. My body had practically gone numb from the cold, and I knew that the inside of the cabin would be warm.
Other than that, I had nothing else to look forward to right now.
Stephan paused at the sliding glass door, his hand still grasped tightly onto my arm. With his free hand, he reached inside the pocket of his jacket and drew out the sword he had stolen from me earlier, the blade glinting dangerously in the porch light.
“Just to make sure you don’t run away again.” He lifted the sword, and I screamed as he sliced the blade across the upper part of my leg. It slashed through my jeans and stabbed into my skin. Tears stung at my eyes as blood seeped out.
“I think that should teach you a lesson not to ever run off,” he said, wiping the blood soaked blade off on his jeans.
The world swayed around me. I thought I was going to pass out. The pain…it was excruciating.
I teeter-tottered on the border of consciousness as Stephan yanked me inside the cabin.
I felt a tiny rush of relief when I saw that Alex was in the living room. At least he believed me now—about his father being bad—and was on my side. At least I wasn’t in this alone. That’s what I thought, anyway, until I realized the he was just sitting on the couch, completely unguarded. There was no reason for him to be here. Why hadn’t he run out into the forest to save me?
Alex’s bright green eyes went wide as he caught sight of the gaping wound on my leg, which looked even worse underneath the bright lighting of the living room.
“Jesus Christ, Stephan.” He jumped to his feet. “What the heck did you do to her?”
“She needed to be taught a lesson,” Stephan told him in a serene voice. “Running away is not an option for her, and you should know better than to tell her to do so.”
I noticed a spot of dried blood beneath Stephan’s nose and wondered if Alex had made him bleed when he clocked him one.
“I said I was sorry about that. I didn’t understand the situation,” Alex said apologetically, staring down at the floor.
“The situation,” I repeated, my confusion swirling just about as bad as the room was. “What situation?”
Stephan shoved me onto the couch, and Alex winced as I stumbled and landed on it awkwardly. But he didn’t try to help me.
“She needs to be alive,” Alex warned. “She won’t be useful if she’s dead.”
Gaping at Alex, I pressed my hand to my leg, trying to get the bleeding to stop. I didn’t understand. It seemed like whatever evil thing was about to take place here, he might actually be a part of it.
“We need to do it now,” Stephan told Alex “Before things get worse.”
“Do what?” My voice sounded weak and pathetic. “What are you going to do to me?”
“Gemma.” Alex gave me a sympathetic look. “I already explained to you what was going to happen.”
“You’re going to let him detach my soul,” I said, flabbergasted. Sparks were pouring through my body, and I suddenly despised them more than I ever had. “After all of this, after he sent my mom to The Underworld, after he showed up with them.” I pointed to the window, where the glowing eyes of the Death Walkers were peeking in.
Stephan clapped his hands together. “Bravo. Very impressive—discovering what I did to your mother.” He gave a dramatic pause. “But how on earth did you do it?”
I waited for Alex to tell him about my Foreseer ability, and the visions I saw with and without the crystal ball. Surprisingly, though, he kept his mouth shut.
I raised my chin defiantly at Stephan. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
He glared at me. “Your mother needed to be gotten rid of. She was getting in the way. And she went like a coward—crying the whole way to take you instead of her. She didn’t seem to understand that the world’s fate is depending on you and your inability to feel.”
So not true, but I couldn’t tell him that. “If the world’s fate depends on that, then why are you working with the Death Walkers? I just don’t see them being in a on a plan that has anything to do with saving the world.”
“What I do is really none of your business,” he snapped. “But if you must know—they are working with me to protect the world.”
I gave Alex a pleading look. “You can’t be buying this. Not when it’s Death Walkers that will come out of the portal and destroy the world. How could they be working to help protect the world, when they’re the ones who will be destroying it?”
Alex swallowed hard, but still didn’t say a word.
“Alright, that’s enough questions.” Stephan raised his hand in the air and snapped his fingers. “Bring me the memoria extracto.”
I glanced around the room. Who was he talking to? And what was the memario extracta or whatever the heck he said? Well, I was about to find out. A single Death Walker strode through the back door, carrying a small black box with a red eye painted on it.
It handed the box to Stephan and then left the room, taking all the warm air with it.
My body felt heavy and numb, but I wasn’t sure if that was from the cold air or from the significant amount of blood I lost.
Stephan’s dark eyes lit up as he opened the box and took out a grey rock.
“What is that?” I asked, not sure whether I should freak out or not. I mean, it was a rock for crying out loud. How bad could the thing be?
But any trace of humor I possessed slipped away as the rock turned black and started puffing out smoke.
“This is the most magnificent thing I’ve ever discovered.” Stephan held the smoking rock up for Alex and me to see. “It is so much better than detaching your soul, because not only will it rid you of all of your memories, but it will wipe away everything inside your mind. You won’t even be able to function anymore.”
Vomit burned at the back of my throat. And even though I didn’t want to, I started to cry hysterically. My tears had no effect on Stephan whatsoever, which I assumed as much. But I caught a glimpse of guilt flash across Alex’s face.
Maybe, just maybe, it wasn’t over for me yet.
“Alex, you can’t let him do this,” I cried. “Please. This is so much worse than detaching my soul, and you know it.”
I could see in his eyes that he could feel my pain, and for a moment I thought I had him.
Tears streamed down my cheeks. “Please.”
And then….he turned his head away from me.
My heart broke. How could I have kissed him? As beautiful as he was, and as wonderful as his kisses felt, a part of me had always wondered if everything he did was a rouse.
>
And now I knew. That part of me had been right.
The prickle traced up the back of my neck, releasing an overwhelming sense of pain. And I’m not talking about the pain I felt when my leg was cut. This was a whole new level of pain; the kind of pain that grips at your heart and rips it apart; the pain that comes when someone betrays you.
Stephan walked up to me, the rock smoking madly in the palm of his hand. “It’s time.”
With tears streaming down my cheeks, blood dripping down my leg, and my heart breaking, I shook my head. This was it. This was the end of my life. As sad and short-lived as it was, I didn’t want it to come to an end.
Stephan held the rock in front of my face. For a split second I thought I felt my skin glow warmly beneath the locket. But it happened so quickly that it was probably just my imagination. The sparks of electricity were going insanely wild, after all. They were probably heating up the metal.
“It’s time,” Stephan repeated.
I took one last look at Alex. His bright green eyes seemed to have lost a little of their shine. When I turned back to Stephan, a rush of warmth swept through my body. Funny, I would have guessed it would be cold.
Stephan grinned as I let out a painful gasp. I clutched onto the edge of the couch as my head started to hum. I was slipping away. I could feel it—the life leaving my body. I tried to think of my mom, her bright blue irises, her warm smile.
I tried to picture the life I never knew.
The humming in my head rang louder and louder until I couldn’t think anymore—couldn’t feel. The last thing I saw was Alex’s horrified expression before my eyes slipped shut. He had no right to be horrified. He let this happen.
I thought I heard a loud crash, but my eyelids were too heavy to open. Everything shifted black, and then…
I was gone.
# # #
Jessica Sorensen lives with her husband and three kids in the snowy mountains of Wyoming, where she spends most of her time reading, writing, and hanging out with her family.
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