“She needs to be alive,” Alex warned Stephan. “She won’t be useful if she’s dead.” Gaping at Alex, I pressed my hand to my leg, trying to get the bleeding to stop. Was he kidding? I didn’t understand. It seemed like 686/695
whatever evil thing was about to take place here, he might actually be a part of it. I’d already come to the conclusion that whatever Stephan was going to do to me wasn’t going to be for the good of all humanity. If that were true, he wouldn’t have been working with the Death Walkers, who could in no way represent good. And besides, look what Stephan had done to my mother.
“We need to do it now,” Stephan told Alex “Before things get worse.”
“Do what.” My voice sounded weak and pathetic. “What are you going to do to me?”
“Gemma.” Alex gave me a sympathetic look. “I already explained to you what was going to happen.”
“You’re going to let him detach my soul,” I said, flabbergasted. Sparks were pouring through my body, and I suddenly despised them more than I ever had. “After all of this.
After he sent my mom to The Underworld.
After he showed up with them.” I pointed to 687/695
the window were the glowing eyes of the Death Walkers were peeking in.
Stephan clapped his hands together.
“Bravo. Very impressive—discovering what I did to your mother.” He gave a dramatic pause. “But how on earth did you do it?” I waited for Alex to tell him about my Foreseer ability, and the visions I’d seen with and without the crystal. Surprisingly though, he kept his mouth shut.
I raised my chin defiantly at Stephan.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” He glared at me. “Your mother needed to be gotten rid of. She was getting in the way.
And she went like a coward—crying the whole way to take you instead of her. She didn’t seem to understand that the world’s fate is depending on you and your inability to feel.”
So not true, but I couldn’t tell him that.
“If the world’s fate depends on that, then why are you working with the Death 688/695
Walkers? I just don’t see them being in a on a plan that has anything to do with saving the world.”
“What I do is really none of your business,” he snapped. “But if you must know—they areworking with me to protect the world.”
I gave Alex a pleading look. “You can’t be buying this. Not when it’s Death Walkers that will come out of the portal and destroy the world. How could they be working to help protect the world, when they’re the ones who will be destroying it?” Alex swallowed hard, but still didn’t say a word.
“Alright,
that’s
enough
questions.”
Stephan raised his hand in the air and snapped his fingers. “Bring me the memoria extracto.”
I glanced around the room. Who was he talking to? And what was the memario ex-tracta or whatever the heck he’d said. Well, I 689/695
was about to find out. A single Death Walker strode through the back door, carrying a small black box with a red eye painted on it.
It handed the box to Stephan and then left the room, taking all the warm air with it.
My body felt heavy and numb, but I wasn’t sure if that was from the cold air or from the significant amount of blood I’d lost.
Stephan’s dark eyes lit up as he opened the box and took out a grey rock.
Yeah, you heard me right. A rock.
“What is that?” I said, not sure whether I should freak out or not. I mean it was a rock for crying out loud. How bad could the thing be?
But any trace of humor I possessed slipped away as the rock turned black and started puffing out smoke.
“This is the most magnificent thing I’ve ever discovered.” Stephan held the smoking rock up for Alex and me to see. “It is so much better than detaching your soul because not 690/695
only will it rid you of all of your memories, but it will wipe away everything inside your mind. You won’t even be able to function anymore.”
Vomit burned at the back of my throat.
And even though I didn’t want to, I started to cry hysterically. My tears had no affect on Stephan whatsoever, which I assumed as much. But I caught a glimpse of guilt flash across Alex’s face.
Maybe, just maybe, it wasn’t over for me yet.
“Alex, you can’t let him do this,” I cried.
“ Please. This is so much worse than detaching my soul, and you know it.” I could see in his eyes that he could feel my pain, and for a moment, I thought I had him.
Tears streamed
down my cheeks.
“ Please.”
And then….he turned his head away from me.
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My heart broke. I knew I should’ve never trusted him. How could I have ever kissed him? As beautiful as he was, and as wonder-full as his kisses felt, a part of me had always wondered if everything he did was a rouse.
And now I knew. That part of me had been right.
The prickle traced up the back of my neck, releasing an overwhelming sense of pain. And I’m not talking about the pain throbbing in my leg. Nope. This was a whole new level of pain. The kind of pain that grips at your heart and rips it apart. The pain that comes when someone betrays you.
Stephan walked up to me, the rock smoking madly in the palm of his hand. “It’s time.”
With tears streaming down my cheeks, blooding dripping down my leg, and my heart breaking, I shook my head. This was it.
This was the end of my life. As short and sad 692/695
lived as it was, I didn’t want it to come to an end.
Stephan held the rock in front of my face. For a split second, I thought I felt my skin glow warmly beneath where the locket was touching. But it happened so quickly that it was probably just my imagination.
The sparks of electricity were going insanely wild, after all. They were probably heating up the metal.
“It’s time.” Stephan repeated.
I took one last look at Alex. His bright green eyes seemed to have lost a little of their shine. When I turned back to Stephan, a rush of warmth swept through my body. Funny, I would have guessed it would be cold.
Stephan grinned as I let out a painful gasp. I clutched onto the edge of the couch as my head started to hum. I was slipping away.
I could feel it—the life leaving my body. I tried to think of my mom, her bright blue iris, her warm smile.
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I tried to picture the life I’d never know.
The humming in my head rang louder and louder until I couldn’t think anymore—couldn’t feel. The last thing I saw was Alex’s horrified expression before my eyes slipped shut. He had no right to be horrified.
He let this happen.
I thought I heard a loud crash, but my eyelids were too heavy to open. Everything shifted black, and then…
I was gone.
# # #
Jessica Sorensenlives with her hus-band and three kids in the snowy mountains of Wyoming, where she spends most of her time reading, writing, and hanging out with her family.
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Document Outline
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36