The Fallen Star

I rewound through everything I’d seen, desperately trying to piece it all together. I wasn’t sure who the little boy was. And the man, yeah, I’d seen him before. But only in my dreams and whatever those other things were that I kept zoning off to—the vision-like things. After coming here and talking with Dyvinius, I was becoming skeptical that they could be visions, since he’d only mentioned 616/695

me seeing one. Of course, I wasn’t bringing it up just to find out. It’d probably only create more problems with getting me released from the City of Crystal.

“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 in on 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.”

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“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 back 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 shined like a diamond. Dyvinius was MIA, which I thought was kind of odd. But whatever. I was grateful for his absence and anxious to get back to the cabin because there’s something I needed to ask Alex. And it’s not what you’re thinking. I wasn’t going to ask him about the vision. Nope. See something occurred to me during the split second I was being pulled 618/695

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’d 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’d 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’d 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.”

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Which hopefully was never .

I placed my hand on top of the crystal ball with zero hesitance, and the next thing I knew, I was tumbling down the tu

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 equilibri-um 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.

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“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 621/695

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.” Yeah, I have 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 flash back 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

I didn’t even have to hear his answer. His expression said it all.

“Why!?” I cried. “Why would you do that?!”

It took him a second to respond. “Why would you think your memory has been erased?”

“For two reasons,” I said, my voice shaking uncontrollably with anger. “First, because I’m almost certain the little girl in the vision was me.”

His bright green eyes widened. “What! It was you?”

I let out a derisive laugh. “Oh, like you didn’t know that already.”

“I didn’t,” he said. “I swear. But why do you think it was you?”

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“Because of her eyes…they were violet.

And if the little girl is me, then I’m pretty sure the woman that was forced to go to The Underworld is my mother.” He swallowed hard. “Gemma, I don’t even know what to say? I am a little confused as to why this would make you think your memory was erased.”

“Because of my second reason.” I couldn’t believe I was going to tell him this. I mean, I wanted to have some secrets of my own. But in order to explain everything clearly, I needed to tell him. “Do you remember when I was looking through the telescope back at the field trip, and I suddenly ran off?”

“And I found you crying on the bus,” he said, nodding.

“Well, the reason I ran off is because, while I was looking through the telescope, I went into something similar to a vision. Although I had no idea at the time what the 624/695

heck was going on. But anyway, I ended up out in this field. There was a little girl and a woman there, and both of their faces were blurred out.”

He stared at me impassively, but I caught his Adams apple bobbing up and down as he swallowed hard. “So what happened?”

“Nothing really. They just stared up at the stars for awhile, talking.”

“And you don’t know who they are.”

“Well, the mom had called the girl Gemma, which puzzled me because, if she was me, then why couldn’t I remember the scene from own memories. I mean, I know I’d have been only like four at the time, but still…you’d think I’d be able to remember something. And I also thought the same thing when Laylen told me I was four when I left my mother. How could I have been four yet not be able to remember a single thing about her?” I paused, taking in a deep 625/695

breath. “And then on my way back from correcting the vision, something suddenly clicked, and I knew that the mother and daughter in the field, and the mother and the daughter by the lake, were me and my mother. It was like my mind had suddenly been able to retrieve some of my lost memories or something.”

He looked like he was truly struggling to stay calm. “I still don’t understand why this would make you think your memory has been erased. Sometimes people just forget things.”