The Fallen Star

I took a shaky breath. “Because he’s the one I saw force my mom into the lake.”

Chapter 32

“No. There’s no way,” Alex said, shaking his head. “It’s gotta be a mistake.”

We’d gone into the living room because the temperature had dipped so low that our butts were almost to the point of freezing off. Literally. He’d said about a thousand times that there was no way his dad could have forced my mom to get into the lake.

But I wasn’t buying it. I knew what I’d seen, and I knew it wasn’t a mistake—I’d seen the vision more than once. Not to mention the man kept showing up in my nightmares.

His face was practically engraved into my memory.

“It’s not a mistake,” I told him. “I know what I saw. I know it was him.”

He glared at me. “You don’t know that for sure.”

“Yeah, I do,” I assured him with confidence. “I’ve seen the vision twice.”

“But you were only able to see his face in one of them,” Alex pointed out. “So there’s a possibility that you might be mistaking him for someone else. I know my father would never do anything like that. Ever.”

Tell that to Laylen. “How can you be so sure?”

He stared at me, dumbfounded. “Because he’s my father.”

I chewed on my lip, mulling over my options here. Should I tell him about my dreams? If I did, I ran the risk of giving away too much information, and I still wasn’t sure if I trusted Alex. Even after we’d kissed. “You were there, you know? In the vision. There was a little boy with the same bright green eyes as you.” I wasn’t sure if I was right or not, it was just a guess. It made sense, though, when I thought about it. His bright green eyes and how he’d called Stephan his father.

“No. There’s no way,” he said firmly. “I’d be able to remember it happening if I was.”

I raised my eyebrows at him. “Perhaps your mind has been tampered with too.”

“No. There’s no way,” he repeated, but the firmness from his voice had slightly faded. He ran his fingers restlessly through his hair. “Look Gemma, maybe you saw it wrong. Maybe it was someone else who forced your mom to go into the lake. I mean Dyvinius said that you didn’t see the vision correctly the first time. Who’s to say you didn’t see correctly the second time either.”

I bit back my irritation the best I could. “I saw it correctly both times. The only problem with the first one was that I couldn’t see the peoples’ faces.” He still looked unconvinced, and it made me so angry that I kept going. “Besides, the vision isn’t the only time I’ve seen him.”

He blinked, looking lost. “What do you mean?”

“Well…” There was no backing out now. I’d already opened Pandora’s Box. “Before I learned anything about who I was, I was having these nightmares where I was being chased through the forest by the Death Walkers.”

“Yeah, I remember you mentioning that.” He sat down on the couch and rested his arms on his knees. “But what does that have to do with my father?”

“Because at the end of every dream, the Death Walkers capture me and a man appears and orders them to finish me off.” I sighed and sank down into the couch beside him. “The man in my nightmares had the same scar as your father.” His eyes widened as I continued, “And back at Laylen’s, when I was lying on the floor freezing to death, something happened to me—something similar to what happened to me back at the fieldtrip. I went into this vision, and there was a man and Demetrius chatting it up about how they’d gotten rid of some poor woman that was a Keeper.”

He gaped at me. “Hold on. So what you’re telling me is that you went into a vision without a crystal ball not once, but twice. Why didn’t you tell me this before?”

“I did. At least, I did with the first one.”

“Yeah, but I just assumed that was some resurfacing memory or something. But if you’re seeing something that has Demetrius in it…” He let out a loud breath. “There’s no way that could be a memory. You’ve never seen him before.” Silence choked the air as he considered all of this. “How is it even possible for you to do that?” he muttered to himself. “How can you see a vision without a crystal ball? It’s just not possible.”

“When I asked you about it before, you said you weren’t sure if it was possible or not for someone to see a vision without a crystal ball,” I reminded him. “You even said that you may have heard of someone who could.”

He stared down at the floor, seriously contemplating what I’d said.

“Alex,” I said a little too loudly and he jumped. “That’s not important right now. What’s important is that this other man chatting it up with Demetrius had a scar on his cheek.”

He swallowed hard, looking…well, really, really vulnerable. I had to admit, I didn’t like how it looked on him. It made me feel anxious and had me questioning whether he was going to fall apart. He couldn’t fall apart. Not if his father was secretly working with Demetrius. And was the one who’d gotten rid of my mother. And was heading here right now.

“Look, I know this has to be hard to hear,” I said.

“Has to be hard to hear?” He laughed an unsettlingly kind of laugh. “What you’re telling me is that not only did my father send Jocelyn to The Underworld, but that he’s working with Demetrius.”

“I understand that it’s hard to hear, but do you think it wasn’t hard for me to watch my mother get sent to The Underworld?”

“Yeah, but you don’t even know her,” he mumbled.

“Hey.” I sprang from the couch and threw my hands on my hips. “That’s not fair. The only reason I don’t know her is because of you.”

“You can’t be right about my father,” he muttered, ignoring me. “There’s just no way.”

“If that were true, then how would I know all of this? What? Do you think I just made it all up or something?”

He shrugged. “How do I know? Maybe you did?”

I was fuming. “I’m not the one who’s a liar.”

He glared at me angrily.

I glared back just as angry.

I’m not sure how long our argument would’ve gone on—probably awhile—but I never got to find out because the air suddenly froze over with a deathly chill, and we both stopped talking.

Great. Not again.

Chapter 33

“How did they find us here?!” I was standing in the dining room, watching Alex dig frantically around in a secret cabinet that had been hidden behind a massive china cabinet. I hadn’t realized just how strong Alex was until he’d slid the enormous thing out of the way like it was made of air. “And what the heck are you looking for in there.”

I was still pissed off about his refusal to accept that his father was responsible for my mom being trapped down in The Underworld, but my fear that the Death Walkers were heading here was overriding my anger. After we’d felt the air freeze over, Alex had run over to the window, and yep, sure enough, a flock of them were headed right for the cabin. We wouldn’t have been able to see them, since it was dark outside, but their eyes lit up the night like a swarm of fireflies.

“This is what I’m looking for.” Alex held up the Sword of Immortality. “And this.” He held up another sword, a much smaller one with a less jagged blade, which he shoved the handle of it at me. “Here, take it.”

“Why?” I backed away. “It wouldn’t do me any good.”

“You’ve stabbed one before.”

“Yeah, but that was a freak accident.”

He nudged the small sword toward me. “Take it.”

I sighed and took it. “What are we going to do now?”

“We’re going to make a run for it,” he said and rushed out of the room.

I chased after him. “How, though? They're practically here already.”

Heading for the door that led to the garage, he shot me a look over his shoulder that told me to quit being difficult. “So what? You’d rather stay and wait for them to get here?”

“No,” I said dumbly. “That’s not what I meant. It’s just that how are we supposed to get out of here?”