He placed his hands on my shoulders. “Have you ever looked at one of those magic eye images before?”
My shoulders stiffened under his touch. “Uh, Yeah, I guess.”
“Well, this is kind of like looking at one of those.” He pressed his fingertips into my shoulder blades, massaging them gently. “Relax you eyes and let your mind make sense of the images.”
I shrugged off his hands—I couldn’t focus with him touching me—and concentrated on the images.
The little boy had come up during Nicholas’s little tutoring session and was now guiding the little girl away from the lake. Their faces were still blocked out by a sheet of haze, so I took a deep breath and let my eyes relax. Gradually, a tunnel started to form, fading away the rest of the surroundings so that the only thing I could see was the blurred image of the little girls face. Slowly, her face began to focus like a lens on a camera. Clicking and clicking, getting clearer and clearer.
I was getting so close to being able to see who the little girl was. Only a few more seconds and I probably would have had it. But then the man stepped into view, and all of my concentration shattered.
I kicked the ground with the tip of my sneaker. “Crap.”
“What?” Nicholas asked. “What’s wrong?”
“I just about had it and then this man….I don’t know. When he appeared, he ruined my concentration or something.”
“Well, don’t look at him then. Try to pretend he’s not there.”
Easier said than done, since I knew what the man was going to do here pretty soon. I shook my head, frustrated, and returned my gaze back to the vision. I put my concentration on the boy this time, letting the tunnel form again. But right before his face snapped into focus, the woman ran up, and again, my concentration shattered.
I was getting discouraged. “So what happens if I can’t do it?”
“You can,” he assured me. “All you have to do is catch a glimpse of each of their faces, and in the end, your mind will put it all together.”
“And what if I can’t see all of their faces before the vision ends?”
He laughed. “Then I guess I’ll have to keep you down here until you do.”
His words caused me to shiver. But they also filled me with determination.
The little boy was now getting ready to head to the castle. Okay, you can do this Gemma. The dark tunnel took shape, zoning in on the haziness of his face. Bits and pieces shifted together. And just as he was slipping out of my view, his face clicked into focus. His eyes were green, his hair brown.
Alright. I so had this.
I flung my attention to the man, who was now yanking the little girl from the woman’s arms. I paid attention to nothing else but the girl’s blurry face. This time the haze disappeared much quicker. But I must have seen it wrong. There’s no way that could be right. I blinked. And blinked again. But nothing changed. Her eyes—the color—violet. Yes, violet. The exact shade of my own. My heart pounded inside my chest. Seeing the vision clearly suddenly became much more important to me.
I looked at the woman, who was now heading down to the lake. Time was running out. I ran for her.
“Hey! Where are you going?!” Nicholas called out.
Ignoring him, I let the tunnel zoom in on the woman’s face. Her bright blue irises, her warm smile, everything became clear, and I knew I’d seen her before. But I’d already figured that out as soon as I’d caught sight of the little girl’s eyes. I wasn’t that stupid. If this little girl in the vision was me, then the woman had to be my mother.
Tears streamed down my cheeks as I watched the woman get yanked underneath the water. I spun around to the man, shaking with anger. He was walking away, a sickening, satisfied grin on his face. His dark grey eyes, his black hair, I grabbed onto every little detail I could, right down to the slight crookedness of his nose and the scar grazing his left cheek.
My mouth dropped. “Holy—”
A hand came down on my shoulder, and I whirled around, my breath whipping out in frantic gasps.
Nicholas held up his hands. “Whoa. What the heck happened? What did you see?”
“Nothing.” I choked. “It wasn’t important.”
“It had to be something important since you’re all worked up.”
“I’m fine,” I snapped. “Can we just go back? The vision’s over.”
He eyed me over with his golden eyes. “Yeah, I know. I can see everything now that it’s complete. Beautiful place, by the way—the Keepers castle.”
“This is the Keepers castle?” I said, stunned. Alex had mentioned that the lake was the entrance to The Underworld, but he’d never said anything about the castle belonging to the Keepers. Why would he keep that from me?
“Hmm…I thought you’d have known that since you are a Keeper.”
A…Was I? This had never been explained to me. “Um…yeah, but I’ve never been here before,” I told him and then added, “I’ve lived a very sheltered life.” Which was true. My life, up until a few days ago, had been very sheltered.
He stared at my eyes. “Really…is that so?”
Okay, now I was just getting nervous. “So can we go back?”
“What did you see exactly?” he asked, dodging my question. “Was there a meaning to any of it?”
“I don’t know…Is there supposed to be a meaning.”
“Sometimes.” He shrugged. “Sometimes not. Normally Foreseers use the crystal to see a vision that has a purpose.” He inched closer to me. “But your vision was started by accident, so maybe there’s a reason you saw it and maybe not. Regardless, you had to finish the vision just in case there was some kind of significance to it”
Oh, there was a reason I saw it. Here was the problem, though. If the little girl was me, why couldn’t I remember any of this happening? I know I would have been really young when it happened, but you’d think I’d have been able to remember something about it, right?
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 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.”
“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 bei
ng pulled 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.”
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 tunnel again.
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 equilibrium 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.
“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 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?”
“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 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 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.”
I shook my head. “No. This is different. I can feel it. I know there’s got to be more to it than that. I mean, I can barely remember anything about my life at all.”
“Gemma, I really think that—”
I threw my hands in the air exasperatedly. “Just tell me. Has my memory ever been erased?”
He shook his head. “No. Your memory has never been erased.”
“You’re lying!” I yelled. “I know you are. There’s no way I could forget her.” And now I was crying. But honestly, I really didn’t care. There was too much agonizing pain inside me to care.
“Gemma, please just sit down for a minute and hear me out,” Alex said in the shakiest voice I’d ever heard come out of his mouth.
“No!” I cried. “I’m not doing anything else that you tell me to do. I’ll never listen to you again!”
He rubbed his forehead, looking tense. “If you’ll sit down and listen to me, then I’ll try to explain everything the best that I can.”
“Yeah right.” I sniffled. “You’re like the mastermind of lying.”
He pressed his lips together, trying really hard not to laugh at my remark. “I know I’ve lied to you a lot, but this time I won’t. I promise.”
I stared at him through tear-drenched eyes, searching his face for signs that he was lying. He looked so sincere it was almost startling.
“You promise.” I sniffed. “You’ll tell me the truth?”
He gave a slow, reluctant nod. “But I have to warn you that what I’m going to say is way worse then what you’re imagining.”
I wiped the tears from my face with the sleeve of my shirt and sank down on the couch. “It doesn’t matter. I still want to hear it.”
He sank down on the couch beside me, slipped off his baseball hat, and dragged his fingers tautly through his hair. “I don’t even know where to begin. No matter where I start, it’s going to sound really bad.”
I liked that he was nervous. He was usually so calm, cool, and colle
cted—he was usually lying. So nervous was a good sign he was telling the truth…I hoped, anyway. “Start anywhere, then. If it’s all bad, then what does it matter?”
He contemplated this for a moment. “Okay, so you remember the prophecy I told you about, right?”
I sighed. “How could I forget it?”
“Well, I left out a few parts of that story. See, while Stephan was trying to figure out a way to keep the prophecy from happening, your mother had just disa—or if what you say is correct, was thrown into The Underworld.” He paused, gazing off, lost in thought. “You were extremely emotional. Crying all the time.”
“I’d just lost my mother,” I pointed out, annoyed. “Of course I was emotional.”
“Yeah, I know. And I’m not saying that it wasn’t understandable, I’m just trying to explain why Stephan did what he did.” He shifted uneasily in the chair. “A lot of Keepers are born with gifts. There are a lot of different kinds, some more useful than others. The one Sophia has is called unus quisnam aufero animus. Or one who removes the soul.”
“One who removes the soul,” I repeated, my eyes widening. “You took my soul! Are you freaking kidding me?!” I leapt up from the couch, my adrenaline pulsating into overdrive. He was so right. It was way worse. At least the stars energy could be construed as adding to a persons’ life. But taking away a soul—it was like ripping away the very essence of being human.
My legs wobbled and the room swayed. I grasped onto the edge of the coffee table, gasping for air. Was this what a panic attack felt like?
Alex got up and placed his hand on my back. “Gemma, calm down and listen to me. That’s not what I am saying.”
I tried to shake off his hand, but he held it steadily in place.
“Get—away—from—me,” I gasped between shallow breaths.
“No, I won’t get away from you. You need to listen to me. We didn’t take your soul away.”
“Huh?” I let go of the table and stood up straight. Alex’s hand fell off my back. “Then what did you do to me?”
“I’ll tell you, but let me finish before you start freaking out, okay?”
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