I look over at Alex. “Is that true?”

Alex shrugs. “I have no idea how the mark works, other than it’s pure evil and the person who has it has to have evil in...” He trails off, recalling that in another time I had the mark.

“It’s okay. I’ve already come to the conclusion that I have evil in my blood.” I shrug, pretending it’s no big deal. “And I think I know where it comes from now—from my father.”

“You sure about that?” Nicholas questions with amusement.

“What do you know about it?” I wonder, suddenly seeing why Alex gets so frustrated with him.

He gives a shrug, but it looks awkward with his arms restrained above his head. “Let me go and stay here and I’ll tell you.”

I tread with caution. “If we do that, then how do we know you’re telling the truth and how can we trust you? You don’t have a very good track record.”

A grin expands across his face. “Guess you’ll just have to take that risk.”

Dammit. Why does the one person who seems to have the answers have to be a very obnoxious faerie/Foreseer that loves twisting things into riddles and making everything complicated?

I exchange a look with Alex and Aislin. “What do you guys think we should do?”

“I don’t know…do you think we can trust him?” Aislin asked Alex with wariness.

He folds his arms across his chest, appearing annoyed and lost amongst many other things. “I have no f**king clue.”

I glance down at the faint scar on my palm and get an idea. I extend my hand out in front of me, palm up. “I have an idea,” I say then look at Nicholas. “Would you be willing to do a Blood Promise that you wouldn’t do anything harmful to anyone and that you would tell us what we need to know in exchange for your freedom and staying here?”

Alex promptly starts protesting. “No f**king way,” he says, at the same time Nicholas remarks, “Clever girl.”

“Why not?” I ask Alex, lowering my hand to my side. “It’s not like it’s a bad thing to do or anything and it’ll help us make sure this all works out the way that we want it to.”

“Blood Promises can go wrong, Gemma.” Alex frowns as he traces the scar on the palm of his hand. “The promise is unbreakable—you can’t take it back. And if you say the wrong thing, you can end up making a promise you didn’t intend to make.”

“Is that what happened with us?” I ask, raising my brows in accusation. “Did you say the wrong thing? Or is it that you just want to take it back?”

He looks taken aback. “Why would you say that?”

I shrug indifferently. “Well, it’d make things easier right now for you, wouldn’t it?”

He steps closer to me. “Even if we never made the promise, I’d still…” His tongue slips out of his mouth and wets his lips as he struggles for words. “I’d still f**king hate what’s going on more than I’ve ever hated anything in my entire life.” He takes another step toward me, so close the tips of our shoes brush against each other. “What I feel for you isn’t based on some stupid star or promise or anything other than my emotions.”

We’re veering toward forbidden territory, about to jump off the cliff, at least he is. Even though I desperately want him to continue, I need to stop it before he does something he can’t take it back.

“Okay, we’ll have to be really careful then when we make the blood promise.” I change the subject. “You tell me exactly what to say.”

He looks at me for a fleeting moment with hurt in his eyes before he shoves it all down and moves away from me. “Even with the Blood Promise, if my father shows up, Nicholas will more than likely still have to do what he asks since I’m pretty sure the Mark of Malefiscus is more powerful than a Blood Promise.”

“Okay, well I guess we’ll have to make sure your father doesn’t find us then,” I say. “I think it’s worth the risk to get some answers, Alex.”

Alex is unconvinced, but I already have made up my mind and turn to Nicholas. “Okay, you and I will make a Blood Promise. I’ll promise you can stay here with us, and you’ll promise that you’ll answer all of my questions truthfully. And, you won’t harm any of us while you’re here, got it?”

Nicholas considers what I said then a grin slowly creeps up on his face. “I want one more thing.”

“No way,” I say firmly. “That’s the deal. Take it or leave it.”

He nods his head at Aislin. “I want Witch Girl over there to try and find a way to get this mark off my arm.”

My head snaps in Aislin’s direction. “Can you do that?”

Aislin ravels a strand of her hair around her finger. “I don’t know…I mean, there might be a spell that could remove a mark, but I’ve never heard of it, or I might not be powerful enough to actually pull it off. Plus, my spell book is gone so it makes finding the spell to do it even more complicated.”

“You know other witches, don’t you?” Nicholas says in a condescending tone. “Talk to them—see if they know how.”

“Maybe I could see if someone knows a spell that would work,” Aislin says. “But it’s going to take time and a lot of searching probably, in places I don’t generally go.”

“We’re talking black magic?” Nicholas asks.

“More or less,” Aislin replies and Nicholas seems twistedly pleased by this.

“Good, then we have a deal.” He smirks at all three of us.

I glance at Alex who’s shaking his head, arms folded, muscles taut, but he doesn’t utter a word. “Okay, we have a deal,” I say, wondering when I became the spokesperson of the group. I stick my hand in Alex’s direction. “Do you have a knife on you? So I can cut my hand and make the promise.”

Still frustrated, he stuffs his hand into the pocket of his jeans and retrieves a small, silver knife. “I still don’t think this is a good idea.”

I take the knife from him and flip open the blade. I try to keep a steady hand as I aim the knife at my palm. “So I just cut and then what?”

Alex sighs, finally giving up on being stubborn, then takes the knife from me, and then holds my hand in his. He draws a line across the scar on my palm with his thumb before releasing my hand. “I need your other hand to do it.”

I give him my other hand like he asks. “Can we not do the promise in the same place twice or something?”

His head is angled down so I can’t see his expression. “No, you can do that, but I don’t want to do it on the scar that was from our promise—that’s mine.”

It might be the sweetest thing he has ever said to me. I bite back a smile, though, because it’s a feeling that’s bitterly sweet.

“Man, you two are going to kill each other quickly, aren’t you?” Nicholas reminds me of what I can’t have.

Alex shoots him a glare as he touches the cold blade to my skin. “I’m going to cut your hand and his,” he tells me. “Then you’ll press your palm to his and repeat exactly what I say, alright?”

I nervously nod. “Alright.”

“And be very careful that you repeat exactly what I say,” he stresses.

“Don’t you need to untie Nicholas first?” I ask.

“I’m not going to let him go until the promise is made,” Alex states firmly. “You’ll just have to reach up to his hand.” Then very vigilantly he makes a small cut along my palm. Blood seeps out of the wound and I quickly cup my hand. Then Alex moves over to Nicholas, reaches up over his head, and with less carefulness, slices Nicholas’s hand open. Blood drips out of the wound and down his bare arm.

Stepping back, Alex closes the blade then tosses the knife onto the floor. “Okay, put your hand up to his,” he says to me.

Gathering up the courage, I step forward and get on my tiptoes to press my bleeding palm against Nicholas’s. The smell of flowers and rain is overwhelming and his nearness makes me uncomfortable as he leans over and smells my hair.

“We should have done this a long time ago.” He breathes in my scent. “God, you smell so divine.”

I slant my head away from him. “Back the hell off, faerie boy or I’ll drop kick you in the balls.”

Aislin snorts a laugh as Nicholas chuckles lowly in my ear. “Sounds kinky to me,” he says.

I roll my eyes. “Only in your dreams.”

“Repeat exactly what I say, Gemma,” Alex says, interrupting us. “EGO votum permissum.”

I speak slowly to avoid mistakes. “EGO… votum…permissum.”

“Vos subsisto hic quod Andron.”

“Vos… subsisto… hic quod… Andron.” My voice shakes.

“Mos capto aufero vestri vestigium.”

“Mos capto… aufero… vestri… vestigium.”

Alex and I release a breath of relief, then Alex points a finger at Nicholas. “You better repeat exactly what I say. No changing or adding anything, understand? Or I’ll kill you.” He says it with a straight face and I have no doubt that he just might do it.

After Nicholas agrees, Alex tells him what to say, speaking the words carefully. Nicholas repeats everything correctly. But I have no idea what’s being said, so I’m putting a lot of trust in Alex. I analyze the idea of how much I’m trusting him at the moment and come to the conclusion that perhaps my feelings toward him might be drifting into the unsafe zone. But I haven’t felt the prickle yet nor have I felt anything that’s stopped and made me think, hey, that’s got to be love.

After the Blood Promise is made, Alex cuts the rope and frees Nicholas. He falls to the floor on his knees and rubs his wrists as he wipes the blood from his lip with the bottom of his t-shirt. “God, that feels good.”

“Now tell us everything you know about my father. Gemma. The Vision. No holding back.” Alex bends down and collects the knife from the floor.

“Can we at least sit down?” Nicholas asks, sounding pained.

Alex shakes his head as he cleans the blood off from the knife on the side of his jeans. “Whatever, let’s just get this over with.”

Chapter 7

In the living room, Alex sits down in the sofa next to Nicholas, not wanting me near either himself or the faerie—I’m still trying to figure out which one. I take a seat on the couch across from them beside Aislin. The curtains are drawn so there’s minimal sunlight and heat flowing in through the windows, but the tension makes the air stifling.

Alex puts his knife on the table, kicks his feet up, and sits back. “Alright, start talking.”

“About what?” Nicholas presses back a grin and sinks back in the chair, having to move slowly from the pain Alex inflicted while beating him up. “I can’t seem to remember what any of this was about?”

Afraid Alex might snap, I chime in. “How about you tell us what happened on the beach,” I suggest. “Why there was another me there? I erased a vision, right?”

“Yes.” His eyes bore into me and make me squirm. “But it would also be an example of how extraordinary you are.”

Let the running around in circles begin. “Define why that makes me extraordinary.”

Nicholas flexes his mangled hand, wincing from the pain. “Because you erased a vision, which is something that’s completely forbidden and could have severe consequences. Plus, not a lot Foreseers can do that.” His eyes darken as they elevate to me. “If I wanted to, I could turn you into the Foreseers… you know there’s punishment for erasing visions. Or we could do it the easy way and you and I could go into one of the bedrooms and I could punish you myself, just so you won’t ever be a naughty girl again.”

I crinkle my nose as Aislin makes an ewe face and Alex starts to close in on him. “What kind of a punishment?” I hurry and say, trying to keep the conversation moving forward. I can’t help but think of my father and the strange place he’s in. Is that the punishment?

Nicholas grins. “Well, it would require you na**d and lots of whips and ropes.”

“Not that punishment.” I roll my eyes, making a repulsed face. “I mean, punishment from the Foreseers.”

“I don’t know for sure.” Nicholas muses over something, tapping his finger on his swollen lips. “I’ve only heard of one Foreseer being punished for erasing a vision before.”

“Do you know who he is? And where he is?” I’m trying to be as vague as possible but still get the answers that I want.

Nicholas shakes his head. “Our kind don’t like to talk about things like that because…well, I think, because it reminds everyone of how much control and power Foreseers really have over everything.”

He’s more right than I wonder if he realizes. Look at what my father did. He changed the entire course of the world and not in a positive way.

I get up and grab the crystal ball from the end table. “So can you explain to me what this is?” I ask, turning and holding up the crystal ball.

“Where the hell did you get that?” The glow of the crystal reflects in Nicholas’s greedy eyes as I set the ball down on the coffee table and sit back down.

“That’s not important.” I hope I’m not making a mistake by showing it to him. “What’s important is that you tell me what it is and how I use it.”

Nicholas’s hand drifts for the crystal ball, hesitating, before he picks it up. Alex stiffens and so do I. I don’t know what the crystal ball does. For all I know, it may have enough power to destroy us. That kind of an object shouldn’t be in the hands of someone like Nicholas.