The Fallen Star

“The Foreseer that saw the vision was a close friend of Stephan’s,” he whispered, his breath hot against my cheek. “And they’ve worked really hard to keep it a secret from the rest of the Foreseers so let’s not ruin it now by talking about it, okay?”

“But they might already now,” I pointed out. “Since the Death Walkers do.”

“They might, but they might not. And let’s hope they don’t because it will make it a lot harder to get you out of here if they do know.”

I rubbed my aching wrist, considering the idea of being trapped down here. Yes, the place was beautiful, but it was also creepy.

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And empty—I hadn’t seen a single person yet. And then, of course, there was Nicholas.

He heightened the creepy factor, like, a billion notches.

“Did you hurt yourself?” Alex asked, eyeballing my wrist.

I shrugged. “It’s not a big deal. When I landed, I fell and my wrist popped.”

“Here, let me look at it.” He reached for my wrist, pausing before gently taking hold of it. My first instinct was to jerk back and tell him not to touch me. Oh yeah, I might have been standing in the City of Crystal, waiting to see if the Foreseers would let me leave or not, but that didn’t mean I’d forgotten about the lies, secrets, and constant fighting that had gone on between us. Still, and I don’t know why—I guess I had a weak moment or something—I let him take my wrist in his hand and examine it over, sparks lighting

up

like

lightening

during

a

thunderstorm.

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“Really, it’s not that bad,” I told him, flinching as my wrist let out another pop.

“Sorry,” Alex apologized, tracing his finger lightly along the inside of my wrist. It tickled to the point that I had to bite my lip to keep from giggling. “I don’t think it’s broken or anything. You probably just popped it out of place.” He let go of my wrist.

“If it still hurts when we get back to the house, I can wrap it up.” I nodded, cradling my wrist in my hand.”Okay.” If I ever get back to the house.

“How about your stitches?” he asked.

“How are they doing? There not coming loose, are they?”

I shrugged. “I don’t think so.” He stared at me incredulously. “You haven’t check on them?”

“I glanced at them after I went into the vision and face planted it on the ground,” I said. “Everything seemed to look okay, I guess.”

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He lifted an eyebrow. “You guess.”

“Well, since I’ve never had stitches before, I’m not sure what qualifies them as looking okay and what doesn’t. But they don’t really hurt or anything.”

“They could have loosened up when you fell. Or they could be getting infected.

You never know.” He moved his hand toward the bottom of my shirt.

I backed away. “What are you doing?” He looked at me like I was an idiot.

“Checking to make sure your stitches are okay.”

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”

“So you’d rather get an infection and end up in a hospital.”

“No.” I sighed, inching into his reach.

“Fine, go ahead.”

I held my breath as he raised the corner of my shirt, peeled back the gauze, and peered underneath it. The way his fingertips kept grazing my skin tickled. Man, life could 590/695

be so unfair sometimes. There should be some kind of law or something ba

“So what’s the symbol on Nicholas’s wrist mean?” I asked in a pathetic attempt to distract myself.

“It’s the mark of a Foreseer.” His fingers worked their way along my skin.

I tensed as he touched a tender spot on my ribs. “Then why don’t I have one?”

“I’m not sure…Things seem to work differently with you. You might get one and you might not.” His fingers linger on my skin for an instant longer before he pressed the gauze back into place and tugged the corner of my shirt back down. “There good. Completely intact and infection free.”

“Good,” I said. And then, being the polite girl that I was, added, “Thanks for making sure.”

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“Whoa. Hold on.” He smiled, cupping his hand around his ear. “Did I seriously just hear you say thanks?”

“I’ve said thanks to you before,” I said.

He raised his eyebrows accusingly.

“Well, maybe not to you per se, but I’ve said the word before.”

“Oh yeah.” He laughed. “Is that so?” I nodded. “But I only say it when I truly mean it, so it doesn’t come out a whole lot.” He laughed again, and I felt my own smile breaking through.

Okay. Time out. Were we seriously, after everything we’d been through, having a moment here. So weird. Although, I wasn’t going to lie and say that I wasn’t enjoying it.

The moment gave me a brief glimpse into what things might have been like if I was normal.

However, when one of the tall, silver doors opened up, our little moment slipped away, just like that.

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“He's ready for you.” Nicholas said, holding the door open. “You can come in.” As I stepped through the doorway, I had to catch my breath. The place made the glass cave look completely ordinary. Shiny cutouts of silver and blue porcelain paved the way through green gemstones that mimicked blades of grass. The blue sky shined like a giant diamond, the cotton ball clouds floating across it like a mirage.

Alex and I followed Nicholas down the porcelain path, winding back and forth until we arrived at a silver throne perched on top of a sapphire platform. A short, plump man with curly elf shoes and dark brown hair stood beside the throne. Nicholas approached him, whispered something in his ear, and the little man nodded.

While Nicholas was distracted, Alex placed his hand on my arm and whispered,

“Oh yeah. You need to be careful around 593/695

Nicholas. He’s part faerie so he can’t be trusted.”

Before I could even react to the word faerie, or the combusting electricity his breath and touch brought on, a man appeared from behind the throne. He was maybe in his sixties, give or take a few years.

He was tall with pale skin and grey shoulder length hair. The silver shade of the robe he wore matched the silver shade of his eyes.

He took a seat in the throne, curling his thin fingers over the edges of the armrests.

“Welcome to the City of Crystal. I am Dyvinius, leader of the Foreseers.” His voice came out in slow, motionless syllables—very monotone-like. “I understand that you were able to use the Foreseers power to cha

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“Good.” Dyvinius tapped his fingers together, seeming pleased. “Well, I’m not sure if you know much about what a Foreseer does, or what we are, so I’ll explain. What we do is we use the energy of the Divination Crystal to see visions of either the past or the future. But mostly it’s the future. Once the vision is read, it becomes permanent. There is no changing it.”

Maybe he should explain that to the Keepers, since they seem to think differently.

Most of my life had been center around trying to do just that, and here he was saying it was impossible. What if he was right, though? Would that mean there was no hope to stop the portal from opening up? That there was no hope for humanity?

Wow. Talk about slapping reality across my face. And reality seemed to be forming a giant lump in my throat that was making it super hard to swallow.

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“Now from what I understand, you saw a past vision, which isn’t too uncommon of a thing to happen with begi

I felt like I might cry. The vision I’d seen was from the past. Which meant what? That the woman in it couldn’t be saved?

That lump in my throat nearly doubled in size.

“When a person goes into their first vision, they usually don’t know what they’re doing,” Dyvinius continued. “However, typically the Foreseer ability is discovered in a person before they see their first vision. That way we are able to monitor them. Occasionally, someone does end up slipping through the radar undetected. Sometimes we’re lucky enough to discover them later on, but sometimes we don’t.” His silver eyes locked on me, his expression blank. “We have a radar system that lets us know when there has been an interference with a Divination 596/695