“We burned her up.” Aislin stood up and swept the ash off her clothes, while Laylen brushed some out of her hair.

Alex blinked at her. “You burned the witch up?”

“It’s a long story.” I started to get to my feet, but Alex took my hand and pulled me up. My hand tingled and I quickly slipped my hand out of his. Why did he have to touch me like that? It was torturous.

Alex flexed his hand. “So what were you saying about the witch being crazy?”

“And that she had the Mark of Malefiscus.,” I reminded him, sinking down on one of the sofas.

Alex sank down on the sofa beside me. “I thought you were kidding about that part?”

I shook my head and started to explain. While I did, Aislin went back into the bedroom to do the Tracker Spell, which would hopefully tell me what was going on with my mom, and if I was going to have to go on a rescue mission to save her.

“So there are others with the mark?” Alex asked after I finished.

“From what it sounded like, yeah, there are.” I nodded. “And they’re all just waiting around for Malefiscus to rise again or whatever.”

Laylen bit at his lip ring. “And they all might become immortal—Stephan might become immortal?”

“If he can figure out how to make the mark,” I explained, wiping some ash off the ugly olive-green lines on my arm. “But it sounds like he hasn’t yet.”

“We need to hurry then.” Alex ran his fingers through his hair.“We need to figure out how to get you into that mapping ball to fix the vision.”

Man, I could feel the pressure. “I know.”

A small wall clock ticked in the background as we all took in the severity of the situation. We needed to save the world, by using the mapping ball, yet we didn’t know how to use the mapping ball.

“But what if I change the vision back to whatever it was, and Stephan still lives,” I said, thinking out loud. “I mean I know Malefiscus won’t be freed, along with a bunch of Death Walkers, but if there are already people with the Mark of Malefiscus, couldn’t they still get together with Stephan and do some damage?”

Alex and Laylen both stared at me with stunned expression. Apparently, neither of them had been considering this.

Before we could go on discussing the possibility, Aislin came barreling into the room, breathless and flushed. “I found your mom,” she panted. “She’s at the castle.”

I think part of me was holding onto the hope that maybe my mom hadn’t gone there; that she started to, but then decided against it when she realized it was probably a suicide mission.

“It’s bad too,” Aislin said. “She’s locked up in a room upstairs, and there are Death Walkers there, which means Stephan’s probably there.”

“Of course he is.” I sighed miserably. There was a time when Alex and I had both agreed nothing was ever easy. And it always seemed to be the case, at least in this world.

“Are you ready to go?” I asked Laylen. “Or, if you don’t want to anymore, I can go by myself…I’ll understand.”

“Gemma,” Laylen said, all serious and intense. “Of course, I’m going to go.”

“Thank you.” I almost gave him a hug, but decided against it, figuring it would be weird with an audience.

“But you should change into some pants first.” Laylen pointed at the Levi shorts I was wearing. “It’s freezing up there at night.”

“Okay, give me a second.” I started for the hall.

“I still think I should go,” Alex said abruptly. “I don’t see why I have to stay here.”

I narrowed my eyes at him, not wanting to go down this road again. “We already went over this. It’s not wise for both of us to go because Stephan needs both of us in order to open the portal.”

He walked up to me and stood way to close for it to be in the safe-from-feelings boundary. “Then I should go and you should stay here.”

“We already talked about this too.” I inched myself back, smacking my elbow onto the wall. I rubbed my elbow.“Ow…You have a sister you would be leaving behind. I don’t.”

Intensity burned in his bright green eyes. “You’re leaving me behind.”

I didn’t even know how to respond to that—I was too flustered and feeling things I knew I shouldn’t be feeling—so I turned away and headed off to my bedroom. Alex said something else, but when I shut the door it blocked out his words. And for a second, it blocked out all of the danger I was about to face. If only it were that easy. If only I could shut the door, lock myself in the room, and make my problems stay on the other side.

But like I said, nothing is ever easy

I pulled on a pair of jeans, changed my shirt, and rinsed the ashes off my skin. Then I flopped down on the bed, trying to mentally prepare myself for what I was about to do. But I was sure that was impossible. I was so terrified and deep down I wanted to run out of the room and tell Alex I changed my mind and he could go. But this was not his problem—it was mine. 

Someone knocked at the door.

“Come in,” I called out, figuring it was Laylen ready to get the show on the road.

But it wasn’t Laylen. It was someone who I probably shouldn’t be alone in a room with.

“You about ready?” Alex walked in and shut the door behind him.

I sat up and frowned at him. “I’m not taking you with me. You need to stay here with your sister.” I tensed up under his gaze. “I never realized your mom left.”

Still not speaking, he sat down on the bed, making me even tenser. Well, that and the fact that he was holding the Sword of Immortality.

“What are you doing?” I asked. “I mean in here…with me?”

He stared at the floor, his eyebrows dipping down. “My mom left when I was about five.” He said suddenly and looked up and met my eyes. “At least I think she left…I have to wonder now, after everything my father has done, if maybe he had something to do with it.”

There was so much agony burdening his expression that I wanted to lie and tell him that that probably wasn’t the case. But he would know it was a lie, and it would make things worse. I think in reality, we both knew Stephan probably had something to do with his mom disappearing.

“There’s this rock at the back of the castle that hides a secret entryway to the basement,” he said, still looking back at the floor. “Laylen should be able to lift the rock up so you guys can get in…no one knows it’s there but me.” He looked up and handed me the Sword of Immortality.

The jagged, silver blade glinted deathly in the light and the handle was cold against my skin. “What—why are you giving me this?”

“Because you might need it.” He shut his eyes tight, as if he was in pain. “I want you to be able to protect yourself.”

My heart thumped in my chest. “Thanks.”

He paused and fear filled his eyes, which freaked me out even more because Alex rarely showed fear, especially such a powerful kind of fear.

“Can you promise me something?” He sounded breathless.

The word left my lips under no control of my own. “Anything.”

I surprised both of us and seizing my rare moment of cooperativeness he quickly said, “Promise me if anything happens at all—if anything even remotely bad looks like it will happen, you’ll come right back.”

I swallowed hard. “Alex, I can’t—”

He placed his hand across my mouth. “I know you feel like you need to save her—and I completely understand that. But you also need to understand that you might be the one person who can save the world. So if it all comes down to it, you’re going to have to save yourself.”

I was breathing loudly, so loud the sound filled up the room.

He moved his hand away and suddenly he was panicking, his foot tapping madly against the floor. “I should be going with you.”

“No, you shouldn’t.” I shook my head. “Aislin needs you. I—I didn’t realize that about your mother.” I stared down at my feet. “No one should be alone in the world.” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “It hurts…a lot.”

It was quiet for a moment as my thoughts drifted back to my old life filled with loneliness. As dangerous as my new life was, I don’t think I would trade it back. I never wanted to go back to that.

“You need to let me start doing things on my own—let me make my own decisions.” I met his eyes. “No one ever has.”

He nodded. “I know I do.”

Silence enclosed around us again.

“Gemma,” Alex whispered, and I knew what the softness of his voice meant.

I should have stopped him—I know I should have—but I found that my lips were incapable of forming a refusal. So I let him lean in. I let him brush his lips against mine. I let him kiss me.

I waited until my skin started to heat, and then I pulled away. He nodded, as if he understood. Then we got up, and left the room as if nothing happened.

Laylen was a little freaked when he saw me holding the Sword of Immortality. And that was okay—I was a little freaked out by it too. I could just see myself doing something stupid, like tripping and accidently stabbing him with it.

It made me nervous.

I stood in the living room, one hand holding Laylen’s hand and my other gripping the sword. My pulse pounded as I tried not to panic at the huge responsibility I had put on myself.

“Are you ready?” I asked, tilting my head up at the six foot four vampire.

“Are you ready?” he replied, his voice pressing me to make sure.

I nodded and shut my eyes. “I am…let’s go…”

“Wait. Wait.”

My eyes shot open as Aislin came running into the room. She tripped over a small maroon rug and shot it a dirty look as she stopped in front of me. “I have something for you.”

I furrowed my eyebrows. “You have something for me?”

“Yeah,” she said with an excited sparkle in her green eyes. “It’s to help you see in the dark.”

I thought she was going to hand me a flashlight or something, which didn’t seem like such good idea. It would be like saying: ‘hey we’re right here, come and get us.’ But instead she whispered, “iuvo vos animadverto,” as she raised her hand and blew something in my face.

Instinctively, I dropped the sword and pressed my hands to my eyes. “Oh my God! What was that?”

“Oh, sorry,” Aislin apologized. “I was just so excited because I figured out how to do it, but I guess I should have warned you.”

I rubbed my eyes. “Thanks, but a warning would have been kind of nice.”

“Jesus Christ, Aislin,” Alex said sharply. “What were you thinking?”

“I was thinking I was giving her night vision,” Aislin retorted.

I dropped my hands and blinked a few times. Everything looked normal. “Night vision?”

She smiled, looking a bit like her old cheerful self again—something I hadn’t seen in a few days. “Yep, night vision. So you don’t have to stumble around in the dark basically blind.”