“So you discovered where I am?” Displeased, he offers me his hand to help me up and I gladly take it.
I look at the horizon and then around at the seemingly endless beach with no sign of life. “Wait. Why aren’t we in the same place as the last time I ended up here?”
“We are wherever I need us to be.” He starts down the shore, leaving footprints in the sand.
I hurry after him, sand building between my toes and the ocean rolling up over my feet. “I thought you were in the Room of Forbidden? I thought you were stuck in your own head and couldn’t get out, so how can you change places?”
He halts near a cluster of rocks and faces me. “I get bored sometimes and change the scenery to help pass the endless time.” He begins walking again toward the rocks.
“Why didn’t you just tell them what happened?” I ask as I rush to keep up with him. “Why didn’t you say that Stephan made you change the vision because he marked you with the mark?”
He glances at me solemnly. “It’s the downfall of being a Foreseer, Gemma. There are no second chances or room for mistakes. What’s done is done and I won’t ever be forgiven or trusted again for what I did.” Silence passes between us as we reach the rocks and we start to climb up them. I want to ask him if he has evil blood inside him, but I fear his reaction and the answer so I remain silent.
When he gets to the top of the rocks, he gazes out at the endless ocean, the wind blowing through his hair “You need to stop worrying about me,” he says as I stand beside him. “You have other problems to deal with at the moment.”
“Like saving the world…” Pain resonates inside my chest. “I think I already did that... dad I was able to fix the vision you erased… I erased you before you erased Alex and me”
“I know you did,” he says gloomily. “But that is not what I’m talking about.”
“Then what are you talking about?” I wonder. “Because it always seems like you’re talking in code.”
“I’m telling you about what you’re in store for.” The bottom of his robe flaps in the wind. He hasn’t looked at me since we got up here, staring at the sunlight, unblinking and I wonder how it isn’t hurting his eyes. “What waits for you in the near future.”
“I know what it is.” My voice is off pitch, revealing the shakiness within me. “I know that I die.”
“You’re still not getting it.” He blows out a frustrated breath and then looks at me. “You need to push that aside, otherwise you’ll never be able to save the world.”
“But I already did that. What more could I possibly do?”
He reaches into the pocket of his robe and retrieves a glistening silver ring embellished with violet gems that outline a massive lavender stone. He takes a hold of my hand and drops the ring into it.
The gems shimmer as I stare down at the ring. “What does it do?”
“I can’t answer that,” he says, turning toward the shore again and heading down the rocks.
“Why do you always say that?” I climb down the jagged rocks, still holding the ring, afraid to put it on because I have no idea what it does. “How can you give me things like this? And the mapping ball, but you can’t tell me how to use them? And how do you even have these things if we’re inside your head?” I reach the sand. “It makes no sense.”
“This is my loophole,” he explains, drowning in sadness and regret. “I’m able to give you these things, because we’re in my head and not in the real world. What I do in here doesn’t matter out there. But I can’t tell you how to use them, since that would be interfering with what you need to do out in the real world. You have to figure out the answers for yourself and pave the world with your memories.” He takes my hand holding the ring and encloses my fingers around it. “This is your loophole.”
“My loophole to what? Saving my life or saving the world?” I rush to say as the ocean begins to bleed away into the sand. The sunlight dims almost as if night has fallen and it grows quiet. “Wait, don’t send me back yet. I have a ton of questions.”
“No more trying to cheat, no matter what happens,” he calls out as I float backward, my feet lifting up from the sand. “If you’re not careful, you’ll end up in here.”
I shout at him to please tell me as the ocean vanishes and becomes one with the sand. Then I’m ripped away back to my room. When I open my eyes, though, I’m not in my room.
I’m engulfed by light, just like when I die.
Chapter 36
“You’re not dead,” someone says as I turn in circles, searching for something other than light. “If that’s what you’re thinking.”
An eerie chill slithers up my spine and at the same time my sense of smell is attacked by the scent of flowers and rain. “But you’re dead.”
“Am I?” the tricky half-faerie teases. “Are you sure about that?”
I clutch onto the ring as I strain my eyes to see through the light. “I’m not sure about anything anymore.”
I hear a thump then footsteps moving through the light in my direction. “Of course, you’re not. You’ve been clueless from day one. In fact, you’re the most clueless girl I’ve ever met. You’re always looking for the answers in the wrong places.”
“That’s not true,” I say as he materializes right in front of me, his golden eyes inches away from mine, his body so close I’m instantly suffocated with his body heat.
I step back. “You’re dead… aren’t you… and so am I.”
“I’ll answer that shortly,” he says with a wink. “But right now you have to go back.” He strides toward me and shoves me backward, his hands searing hot against my shoulders. I scream as I tumble into darkness.
***
I bolt upright, gasping for air. It takes a minute for me to realize I’m on my bedroom floor, safe and sound from any potentially dead faeries. But what kind of detour was that? I mean, some strange things have happened while I was traveling around with my Foreseer power, but that… that was too much.
I get to my feet with the ring that my father gave me still in my hand and then head downstairs to tell everyone what happened. I find Alex in the kitchen, making a sandwich. His hair is freshly wet and he’s wearing jeans with a thermal shirt. Laylen is at the kitchen table, flipping through a magazine, and dressed as if he’s about to go out to a Goth club.