The Underworld (25 page)

I sped up too, the fabric of my clothes scratching

against my skin with my every movement. Also, since I

had been wearing flip flops when I fel into the lake,

they fel off of my feet, and now I was walking around

barefoot. The leaves, twigs, and rocks rubbed sharply

against the soles of my feet as I practical y ran to

keep up with Alex. But that was okay. Alex was

barefoot too, and if he was tough enough to do it, then

so was I. Besides, I’d felt worse pain in my life, both

physical y and emotional y.

Laylen trailed off a little ways behind us. He’d taken

off his shirt while he walked and was ringing out the

water. I didn’t mean to stare at him for so long—I

mean it wasn’t like I never saw a guy without his shirt

off before. And real y, I wasn’t staring at him because

he had his shirt off, so much as what I saw on his

shoulder. (Wel , that was stretching it a little, but I was

stil partial y staring at his shoulder). Cupping his

shoulder was the Keepers mark—fiery-gold flames

bordering a black circle. So there it was; the mark that

had branded him a Keeper. And right along his

forearm was his other mark; the one that had branded

him not good enough to be a Keeper anymore.

Laylen shook out his shirt and then noticed me

gawking at him like a stalker. He gave me a funny

look and I turned around, rol ing my eyes at myself.

We walked through the forest for awhile, with Alex

stopping every so often to glance around. He looked

lost, and final y, with his forehead scrunched over, he

muttered, “Where the heck is it?”

“Wel , if you tel us what you’re looking for, then

maybe Laylen and I can help you,” I pointed out as I

shooed a bug away from my face.

“I don’t know…” He was hesitant, which meant there

was something he didn’t want to say. “There’s this

little hideout I use to hang out at when I was little…

there’s a hil somewhere with a bush covered by violet

flowers.”

Wel , there you go. I actual y knew the solution to

this problem. Go figure.

I turned in a circle, scanning through the trees and

bushes, until I picked up on the direction I’d wandered

in when I was in the vision and found the little hideout.

“It’s over there,” I pointed in the direction where I

was ninety-nine percent sure the hideout was.

Alex gave me a funny look. “What is?”

“The hiding spot
we
use to go to when we were

kids,” I told him, adding emphasis on the “we” to

make a point that I remembered.

“You remember that?” he asked, taken aback.

I watched him as I started to explain, wondering

how he was going to react to the fact that I knew about

our little promise we made when we were kids. “While

Nicholas was taking you to the City of Crystal, I

unintentional y went into a vision here.”

He raised an eyebrow at me. “Anything important

happen?”

I shook my head, trying not to think about how I had

to watch my own soul get detached before I could

leave the vision.

“Nothing important at al ?”

Now I gave him a funny look. “What does
forem

mean?”

For a brief second, his bright green eyes widened

in surprised, but then the look quickly disappeared

and was replaced by Alex’s lying poker face, as I was

going to cal the straight-faced look he got whenever

he was going to tel me a lie.

“I have no idea what
forem
means,” he said, acting

al whatever.

My gaze drifted down to his hands and I looked for

a very faint, very smal scar.

He clenched his hands into fist and started off in the

direction I had pointed toward.

I didn’t fol ow him. Instead, I turned around and

cal ed out to Laylen, “Do you know what
forem

means?”

I heard Alex mumble curse words under his breath,

but I ignored him.

“What?”Laylen came to a stop in front of me, his

eyebrows dipping down.

“Forem. Do you know what it means?”

He gave me a puzzled look. “Yeah, it means—”

“Found it!” Alex yel ed louder than was necessary.

Laylen and I headed off in the direction his voice

came from and found him standing on the side of the

hil , holding back the branches of the blooming violet

bush. I climbed up the hil , my bare feet sliding in the

rocks and mud, and Alex gave me his hand and

helped my over the bush. I dropped my feet down into

the hole and onto the first step of the ladder. Then I

climbed down into my old childhood hideout.

Laylen, not even bothering to use the ladder,

dropped in right behind me. It was pitch black, except

for the soft sunlight trickling through the hole.

“Anyone have night vision?” I asked, and Laylen let

out a laugh.

Alex pushed past us and vanished into the

darkness. There was a lot of banging around, and

then he struck a match. The pale orange glow orbed

around the room as Alex hurried and lit a candle. Then

he placed the candle down on top of a table, sat down

on the floor, and began digging in the dirt floor.

“It’s buried in the floor?” I asked, squatting down

next to him.

He nodded, digging quicker until there was a fairly

good size hole. Then he stopped and pul ed out a

smal wooden box. On the top of the box, written in

child-like handwriting was the names Gemma and

Alex.

“We had a secret box?” I asked him in awe as he

pried the lid open.

He shrugged, like it wasn’t a big deal, but the glow

of the candles showed a twinkle in his bright green

eyes. He lifted the lid off, and al three of us leaned

over the box, like we had just opened a trunk of buried

treasure.

I had to wonder what was going to be inside a box

that was made by two kids—two very strange kids I

might add. There was nothing too strange in it,

though: a rock, a bracelet, a photo of me and my

mom, which I immediately snatched up. In the photo,

my mother and I stood out in a field dusted with violet

flowers. The sun shined brightly in the background,

and we were both smiling—happy.

I glanced at Laylen, remembering our sil y little

rol ercoaster ride, and wondered if it was the same

kind of happiness as what I felt when this photo was

taken.

Alex removed everything from the box, and piled al

of it onto the floor, except for one thing: a sapphire-

blue teardrop diamond.

“Thank God,” he said, clutching the diamond in his

hand.

“That’s it? That’s what’s going to get the Queen to

agree to free my mom?” I slipped the photo of my

mother and me into the back pocket of my shorts,

which were almost dry now, and leaned toward Alex

to get a better look at the blue diamond resting in the

palm of his hand.

“Is that the
Cruciatus
diamond?” Laylen’s eyes

were huge as he stared down at the teardrop

diamond.

“Yeah, it is,” Alex replied, his voice wavering.

“Is it—does it do anything?” I asked nervously,

worried that maybe my energy would set it off or

something.

Alex closed his hand around the diamond. “The

Queen use to use it to suck the fear out of people

before one of the Keepers took it from her.”

“But if no one can enter The Underworld, then how

did they take it from her?” I asked.

“A long time ago things use to work differently,”

Alex explained drowsily. “The Queen used to be able

to come up to the castle to discuss matters of

business and to make truces with the Keepers. That’s

how the Keepers ended up sending people down

there as a punishment. This,” he held up the diamond

between his fingers, “was once used during a

bargain.”

“Wel , how did you end up with it?” I wondered.

He almost smiled. “You and I stole it.”

“Stole it,” I said, stunned. “Why would we do that?”

“For fun,” he replied with a shrug. “We used to do a

lot of things like that.”

Interesting, I guess, and it was kind of nice that he

was giving me a little insight into our past.

Alex closed his eyes, the blue diamond stil

clutched in his hand. He looked like he was sleeping.

“So what do we do now—just take the diamond

with us when we go to The Underworld, and offer it to

the Queen in exchange for my mother.” Wel , that’s if

we even get to The Underworld. We stil needed the

Ira, which Nicholas had, and after what happened at

the City of Crystal it appeared that Nicholas just might

be working with Stephan.

Alex didn’t answer, his eyes stil shut.

“Alex,” I said softly. “Are you okay?”

He stil didn’t answer me.

I looked at Laylen worriedly, and he shook Alex

gently by the shoulder. “Hey, you okay man?” he

asked.

But stil , Alex remained silent and motionless with

the diamond resting loosely in the palm of his hand.

“Maybe the diamonds doing something to him,” I

said, reaching for Alex’s hand that held the diamond.

When I touched his skin, I noticed how dul the flow of

electricity was, and I immediately panicked, worried

he might me dying.

“Alex.” My voice came out loud and panic-stricken. I

grabbed his arm.”Wake up.”

His eyelids lifted, and a rush of relief swept through

me like a breath of fresh air on a warm summer day. I

started to pul my hand back, but he caught hold of it

and grasped onto my fingers.

I stared at his hand grasping mine. “What are you

doing?”

“Shhh…” He shut his eyes again. “I just need a

minute, okay?”

Like a light bulb clicking on, it suddenly occurred to

me what he was doing. He was feeling weak and our

little electric connection was…wel , it was recharging

him. I could feel it too, ascending and boosting my

energy.

Laylen got to his feet and dusted the dirt off of his

jeans. “I’m going to go check and make sure no one’s

coming. I’l be right back.”

“You think someone would show up here?” I asked,

glancing up at the hole.

He looked at Alex and then shrugged. “You never

know.”

I almost told him to stay. Something inside me felt

afraid—a strange kind of afraid. One I couldn’t quite

explain and had never felt before.

Confused about my feelings, I sat there on the

ground as Laylen climbed up the ladder and

disappeared into the daylight. Alex was stil holding

onto my hand, the electricity growing hotter and hotter

with each beat that went by. In al actuality, its heat

was making me feel a little better too. I wasn’t even

aware I had closed my eyes, until I heard Alex say my

name. I cracked open my eyes and found him

watching me with this intense look on his face.

I started to ask him what was wrong, but something

in his eyes made me pause. I don’t even know what

the look was, maybe a mix between tired and…

vulnerable. Or maybe it was just that he was real y

looking at me. And I mean
really
looking at me.

Then he was leaning in toward me, and I felt my

body tense up. Half of my brain was begging for me to

rip my hand out of his and run. But the other half was

tel ing me to stay put. He had done so many bad

things to me—terrible things that maybe I should have

ran. But he also had gone to the City of Crystal,

knowing he would be chained up to the energy

sucking crystal bal , al so I could try to get my mother

out of The Underworld. There were stil smal wounds

in his skin where the tubes had been inserted. It

wasn’t pretty, and he had done it to help me.

So I didn’t move away, watching, waiting, knowing I

was going to let him kiss me.

“Gemma.” His voice was soft and shaky. A moment

later his lips brushed mine, and electricity spun

through me.

But the kiss lasted only a split second, because

right as our lips touch, someone shrieked from

outside. Alex and I both pul ed away, and both our

gazes shot toward the ladder.

Alex’s eyes scanned the room. “Where’s Laylen?”

“He said he was going to go check to make sure no

one was outside.” My heart raced as I stood up.

“Don’t you remember?”

He shook his head and slowly got to his feet. “How

longs he been gone?” he asked as he walked over to