A sudden snap of light blazed across the Keeper man’s face. The haze covering his face momentarily flickered away before returning to a blur again. But the flicker lasted just long enough for me to see a faint white scar scuffing his cheek. I gasped. It was the man from my nightmares. The one who always stepped out of the shadows of the forest right after the Death Walker captured me.

“Did you hear that?” The man with the scar asked.

Demetrius shook his head. “Hear what?”

Scar man held up his hand, and his head turned in my direction

I threw my trembling hand over my mouth and sank back behind the chair. This wasn’t supposed to happen. He wasn’t supposed to be able to see me.

Heavy footsteps treaded toward where I hid. My body shook with fear. If he caught me, I knew he’d kill me, just like he did in my nightmares.

“I could have sworn…” his voice drifted over the back of the chair.

I shut my eyes. Please wake up. Please wake up. Please….

“Gemma, wake up.”

Electricity sparkled across my skin, which meant…I cracked open my eyes. I was back at Laylen’s, and yes, Alex was there, standing over me, looking utterly terrified. But why? Why was he looking at me like that?

”What the heck happened?” His voice cracked.

I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out but a wheeze. What was wrong with me? Was my voice broken? Then it all came rushing back to me. The Death Walker. It’s breath hitting me in the chest. Being paralyzed.

Panicking, I tried to will my cold limbs to move.

They didn’t.

“Stay still,” Alex told me and turned to…Aislin—I hadn’t even notice she was there until now. “Go see if you can find Laylen.”

Her bright green eyes were wide. “What are you going to do?”

“I’m not sure,” Alex said, glancing down at me. “Her skin’s already gone blue.”

Blue! I struggled to lift my hand up so I could check out the damage, but then remembered I couldn’t move.

Aislin had a purple duffel bag draped over her shoulder, and she let it fall to the floor. “Alex, are you going to be able to stop it from…because you know if you can’t then—”

“Just go!” he yelled.

She flinched, spun around, and dashed out the door.

Alex immediately went into Save Gemma Mode. He slipped off his jacket and knelt down on the floor beside me. “Okay,” he mumbled to himself as he assessed me over. He wrapped his arms around me and helped me sit up, every bone in my body feeling as though it was going to snap like a twig. Then he leaned me into him.

Right away, the electricity started working its magic, thawing my frozen body and lifting the cold away. I could breathe again and even wiggle my fingertips a little.

“It’s going to be okay,” he whispered.

Well, this was a nice change. Put me on the verge of dying and he was all for being nice to me. And as strange as it was, I actually felt content. All of my problems, big or small, seemed irrelevant at the moment.

Moments later, my breathing had returned to normal. And I was shivering, which was a good sign because that meant I was no longer paralyzed.

He rubbed his hand up and down my back. “Well, at least you’re moving again.”

“Yeah, at least there’s that.”  I croaked.

He laughed, his breath ticking at my neck.

I was starting to feel better now, but I made no effort to try and move away from him. I sat there and let him rub my back and whisper that it was all going to be okay because…Well, because it felt nice. And no, I hadn’t forgotten about all the lies and unsolved mysteries that seemed to center around Alex. It was just that his arms being around me felt so comforting, and hey, I was only human…or at least partly human...I think.

“Gemma.” Alex murmured.

“What.” My voice sounded strangely euphoric.

“Did you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Stab that thing.”

I raised my head away from his shoulder and followed his gaze to the Death Walker sprawled on the floor, a knife sticking out of its chest. “Yeah, I did. Laylen told me if I ran into one of them to stab it in the chest and run. But it breathed this cloud thingy on me, and I couldn’t move my body anymore.”

“That cloud thingy is called the Chill of Death,” he said then muttered, “I can’t believe you actually stabbed one of them.”

Chill of Death. Well, that sounded lovely. “I think I took it off-guard or something.”

“Still, it’s not—”

Aislin walked into the room. When she caught sight of us, she hit a dead halt and pressed her hand over her heart. “Oh my gosh. I’m so glad you’re alright. I thought—”

“Aislin,” Alex warned.

I knew what he was trying to do. He was trying to stop her from breaking the bad news to me that I’d almost died. But I’d figured that out the moment the Chill of Death had hit me.

“Where’s Laylen.” Alex let go of me and rose to his feet.

I tried not to act too disappointed about him letting me go as I struggled to get to my feet. My legs wobbled and the room spun and I almost fell right back down. Fortunately, I was getting really good with being dizzy and worked my way through the spinning without falling on my butt.

“He was just behind me,” Aislin said at the very same moment Laylen ran into the room.

He slammed the door behind him, the icicles on the ceiling rattling in protest. He went to lock the door, but the Death Walker—the one I’d stabbed—had broken the lock when it had come crashing into the room. “Son of a—” He smashed his fist against the door. “We need to get out of here! Now!” He hastily shoved one of the bookshelves against the door. May I add here, that it was a very heavy bookshelf, at which he was able to pick up very easily. So he was strong.

“There’s more of them!” Alex cried, and I suddenly was aware that he had the Sword of Immortality gripped in his hand.

Laylen gaped at him. “Yeah, there’s more. What did you think—that one single Death Walker showed up?”

Alex glared at Laylen and took a threatening step toward him.

“Guys,” Aislin stepped between them, “you can fight all you want later. Right now, we need to get out of here before the rest of them find us, or that thing decides to wake up.” She pointed at the unconscious Death Walker lying on the floor.

“That one isn’t ever going to wake up,” Alex said, yanking out the small knife I’d stabbed into its chest. He tossed the knife aside, the blade covered with a thick black goo. Then he raised the Sword of Immortality into the air and drove it deep into the Death Walkers chest.

Honestly, I was expecting this big ordeal. Like the Death’s eyes would shoot open, or it would jumped to its feet and let out one of those horrible screams I’d heard it do before. But nothing happened. There was no scream. No opening of the eyes. No movement at all. Perhaps because it was already unconscious?

Alex heaved the sword back out and wiped the black goo off on the Death Walkers cloak. “Can you transport us out of here?” he asked Aislin.

“I don’t know…Four people is a lot to do at once.” She paused, mulling it over. “But if I made two trips it might work.”

“Okay…” Alex’s gaze drifted over to Laylen, then me, before landing back on Aislin. “You should take Gemma and me first since she’s the most important one to get out of here. Then you can come back and get Laylen.” He turned to Laylen. “If that’s okay with you?”

Laylen shrugged. “Whatever. But you might want to hurry up. There were a bunch of them heading across the desert right for us. I’ve already taken care of two of them, but when the rest show up, even the Sword of Immortality isn’t going to help.”

Alex nodded and gathered up two duffel bags—one black, one grey—from off of the floor.

“Why does Laylen always have to be the one to stay behind?” I asked Alex as he swung the black duffel bag over his shoulder.

“Because I need to be the one watching you,” he answered simply. “I leave for only a couple of hours and all hell breaks loose.”

“That wasn’t Laylen’s fault, though,” I argued. “I was the one who came out of the hiding place that he told me to stay in.”

“He was the one responsible for you, therefore it’s his fault,” Alex said, loud enough for Laylen to hear.

Laylen didn’t say a word.

I opened my mouth to protest that it wasn’t his fault. It was my fault—I should’ve stayed in the stupid trapdoor. But Laylen gave me this look that told me not to even bother. I sighed. “Oh, fine. Whatever.”

Alex gave Laylen a dirty look—I had no idea why, though, since he was the one being rude—and tossed a grey duffel bag at me. Instead of catching it, I hopped to the side. Like I said, I’m not coordinated and know not to even try.

“We picked up some of your clothes while we were at your house,” he told me, his tone clipped.

Frowning, I swiped up the bag. The idea of Ailsin and him digging through my clothes made me squirm. “So did you find Marco and Sophia?”

He shook his head. “Nope.”

“What about Stephan?”

“Nope.”

He was being a total jerk so, whatever, I just stopped talking.

So Aislin and Alex hadn’t been able to find anyone back in Afton. I thought back to the conversation Laylen and I had about Stephan and my mom’s “disappearance,” and how Laylen had said Alex was brainwashed. Maybe Laylen was right. What if they’d really found Marco and Sophia? What if they’d really found Stephan? What if this was all a ruse to get me somewhere where they could force me to stop feeling.

“Gemma.” Alex’s voice ripped me out of my daze. He’d moved over beside Aislin and was motioning for me to come over.

I scurried over right as Aislin dipped the tip of the candle into the flame.

“Wait a sec.” She pulled the crystal back out. “Where are we going?”

“To the Hartfield Cabin,” Alex replied. “No one ever goes up there, so it should be safe for now.”

She nodded and started twisting the crystal in the flame. “Per is calyx EGO lox lucid via,” she whispered.

Red tinted smoke rose up from the candle.

I glanced back at Laylen, who was leaning against the bookshelf that was holding the door shut. I hated to leave him behind. I know I barely knew him, but out of everyone in my life, he was the only one who was truthful with me. And now, I had to go off with Alex, the Guru of Lie Twisting. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t afraid of Alex or anything. But trying to figure out which of the stuff he said was real, and which of the stuff he said was crap, was difficult. Especially with all the constant buzzing.

Laylen mouthed for me to be careful.

I nodded, letting him know I understood what he meant—watch your back.

“Per is calx EGO lux lucis via!” Aislin shouted. The crystal was glowing bright red. Smoke was rising wildly in the air.