“Why do you think your father would reset time, if it was going to mess it up?” Laylen asks with a pucker at his brow. “It doesn’t make any sense.”

It gets quiet again, but a different kind of quiet, one where I know they’re all thinking the same thing, but too afraid to say it.

Finally, Alex gets the balls to put it out there. “Gemma, you don’t think he’s setting you up, do you? To maybe finish whatever it is he started with my father.”

“Who said he was doing something with your father,” I say coldly. “He never said anything about that.”

“He never said much about anything,” Alex points out, his knuckles grazing the back of my neck, as if he’s attempting to keep me calm with his touch. “But I’m guessing that he probably erased the vision and recreated things so the world would end for my father.”

“Stop saying that,” I snap defensively.

He gives me a look of empathy. “Gemma, I get defending your father, trust me, I really do. But sometimes what we want them to be isn’t what they are.”

“Shut up,” I snap, surprising everyone in the room. “You don’t know anything about him, but you’re making judgments based on one thing.”

“No one knows anything about him.” Alex’s hand drifts to my shoulder.

But I shrug it off and get to my feet. “I need some air.” I hurry for the door and burst outside. I hear Aislin say something about let her go as I shut the door behind me. Then I sink down on the front steps, bring my knees to my chest, rest my chin on them and stare at the stars.

“Are you evil?” I wonder aloud, wishing to hear his voice again, but the only answer I get is silence and that leaves me wondering if maybe Alex is right. Perhaps my dad is working with Stephan to end the world and using me to help him.

Chapter 11

After staring at the stars for an eternity, I come to the conclusion that what I need to do is see the vision my father changed and make the decision for myself whether he’s working for the evil side or the good one. If what he’s told me is true, it should be clear in the vision. If not, then I won’t change it. However, that still leaves the problems of getting into the mapping ball.

I march into the house and pick it up from the coffee table, all three of them staring at me as if they think I’m having a meltdown. “I’m going to do this—I have to. If anything looks suspicious then I won’t change the vision, but I need to see it for myself.”

Alex is already shaking his head before I even finish. He stands up, reaching to take the crystal ball from my hand, but I put it behind my back. “You don’t even know how to use it,” he says. “Nicholas never explained anything to you other than how to get enough power to use it.”

“Well, I can start by getting the power from the City of Crystal,” I tell him. “And then go from there.”

“It’s too risky,” Alex says. “Hell, sneaking into the City of Crystal is risky enough not to mention stealing some of the power, bringing it back—which I might add we don’t know how to do—and then you’ve got to figure out how to use the power to get inside that thing.”

“Maybe there’s another Foreseer we can ask,” Aislin suggests, glancing at her phone as it vibrates. “There has to be one that might help us, right? Nicholas couldn’t be the only one.”

“Involving another Foreseer would mean involving another person, which is risky,” Alex says. “Besides, we don’t even know what side the Foreseers are on?

“Maybe you could ask your father,” Laylen says to me. “I mean, you’ve been there once, so why can’t you go there again? You could also maybe get more of a feel if he’s…” He stops talking, offering me an apologetic look.

“I don’t know if I can... when I went there the first time it was entirely by accident and he wouldn’t tell me anything no matter how much I asked him,” I say, sitting down on the coffee table and studying the crystal ball, still illuminating from the center star. “I think I need to talk to my mom. She might know something that could help.” I check the clock on the wall, realizing it’s nearing morning. “I’m starting to get worried about her… Shouldn’t she be back by now?” I look at Aislin for an explanation.

“I don’t know…maybe she had to go somewhere else besides the store.” She shrugs, but it’s a blasé shrug, like she doesn’t care, or knows something else she’s not telling me.

“What’s going on?” I ask. “You’ve been acting weird every time I bring up my mother.”

Aislin presses her lips together, looking everywhere but at me. “She’s fine.”

“I didn’t ask if she was fine,” I tell her sternly. “I asked what’s going on.”

Again she refuses to speak, so Alex intervenes, “What exactly did she say on the phone?” he asks his sister.

Aislin shakes her head, her lips starting to quiver. “I don’t know. I don’t remember.”

“Aislin,” Alex warns, stepping toward her. “What did she say?”

“I don’t want to tell you!” Aislin cries, dropping her head into her hands to hide her tears. “If I do then you’ll just go and try to save her, and I can’t take any more of it!”

“Any more of what?” Alex’s voice softens a smidgeon.

“You risking your life all the time.” She lifts her head back up and her eyes are red from the tears. “Dad’s crazy, mom left, and you’re all I have left. I mean, I get that it’s our job and everything to protect the world but seriously I need a god damn break... You’ve already died once.”

“You can remember that?” Alex and I say simultaneously.

She nods, her face contorted with confusion as she dabs tears from her cheeks and eyes with her fingertips. “Yeah… I actually can as of now.”

Alex and I trade a look. “Something strange is going on,” he says.

“It has to be from me altering the vision,” I utter quietly, knowing it makes my father look even guiltier.

“Then we need to either fix it,” he says firmly. “Or find out what’s going on.”

I hold the crystal ball up. “That’s what I’m trying to do, but Aislin needs to tell me where my mom is. She might be the only one who can help us at the moment.”

Alex gives me a tolerant look, like he doesn’t want to do what he does next. Still he sits down beside Aislin and puts his arm around her shoulder. “Look, I get where you’re coming from, but this is what I—we do. You’ve known that since we were three years old and father explained to us that we were Keepers. We risk our lives and that’s how things are. So please, just tell Gemma where her mother is.”

She shakes her head again. “I’m not going to, so you can stop pretending to be nice.”

“You can tell me,” I offer to Aislin. “I’ll go get her by myself.”

“He won’t let you.” She scowls in her brother’s direction. “He’s too stubborn and cares for you too much.”

“I won’t tell him,” I say and in return get the nastiest look from Alex. “I’ll keep it a secret and use my Foreseer power to go there by myself.”

Rage flares in Alex’s eyes as he rises to his feet, tall and sturdy, intimidating, but I refuse to back down. “Like hell I’m going to—”

I stand up and put my hand over his mouth, ignoring the warmth of his lips against my flesh. “If I foresee there, he doesn’t have a choice. You can have a tantrum but in the end, you can’t make me take you.” I lower my hand and wait for him to argue, because by the expression on his face, I can tell that he’s going to.

His eyes darken and his voice drops to a firm, husky tone. “I can always tie you to the bed and make it so you can’t go anywhere.”

He’s right. There’s Praesidium all over this place, making it impossible for me to use my Foreseer power inside it. And he’s strong enough that all he’d have to do is pick me up and carry be to the bed—he could tie me down with one hand. And by the amount of intensity in his eyes, I can tell that he wants to do it and by the way my blood is heating beneath my skin, I think part of me wants him to do it too.

Laylen finally clears his throat, alleviating the tension. “I can go with her.”

“That doesn’t make me feel any better,” Alex says, displeased. “I need to be the one to go with her.”

“Laylen can protect me just as much as you can,” I tell him, which is clearly the wrong thing to say.

“Like f**king hell he can.” He leans in and puts his lips beside my ear. “Would he die for you?”

I squeeze my eyes shut as my heart starts to pound. This is not good. Emotions. They’re surfacing, so many of them, and he can feel it too because his lips graze my neck. “Alex, I think it might be good if Laylen goes with me,” I say, breathless. “Not just for Aislin’s sake, but for you and me as well.”

“Gemma… I—”

“It’s for the best,” I cut him off.

He stiffens. When he pulls back, he gives me a look of indifference. “Fine, if that’s what you want.”

“It’s what I want.” But it isn’t really. I want him, but I can’t have him. Not anymore.

As he steps away from me, I breathe freely again and then turn to Aislin. “Okay, tell me where she is.”

She sniffs back more tears. “She went to the Keepers’ castle to try and kill my father.”

Chapter 12

At first I think I didn’t hear her right because why would my mom do such a crazy, erratic, impulsive, dangerous thing? It’s crazy—she would have to be crazy.

“Oh my God. She’s f**king crazy,” I whisper in shock. “She’s completely lost her mind... It has to be because she spent all those years in The Underworld, right?”

“She’s not crazy,” Alex reassures me, putting a hand on my arm as I slowly lower myself onto the sofa. “She just wants to protect you and she probably thought this was the best way not to get you involved, which I completely understand.”

“She’s going to get herself killed,” I state in disbelief. After all these years without a mother, I finally get her back only for her to run straight into danger two days later.

Alex massages my shoulder. “We’ll go get her.”

“No we won’t,” I say to him, leaning out of his touch. “I will. Stephan doesn’t need both of us showing up there so we end up right in his hands where he can lock us up and let the events of the world play out just like he wants them to. It would be like handing him the end of the world on a golden platter. And besides, I made a promise to Aislin that you wouldn’t go.”

He shakes his head, dumbfounded. “You actually think I’m going to let you go to the Keepers’ castle by yourself? Have you seriously learned nothing about me?”

“I’ve learned you’re a stubborn as**ole who gets his way all the time,” I dare say.

He gives me that dark, lustful look again. “Should we go back to the plan where I tie you up to the bed.”

As his gaze sweeps across my body, my skin tingles. “I’ll never forgive you if you don’t let me go. Like we planned, Laylen will go with me and protect me.” I look at Laylen, feeling Alex’s demanding gaze burning a hole in the back of my head. “Are you ready to go?” I ask Laylen. “Or, if you don’t want to anymore, I understand. I know you offered before you knew where we were going.”

Laylen looks at me like I’m acting ridiculous. The he gets to his feet, coming over to me. “Of course, I’m going to go with you.”

“Thank you.” I almost give him a hug, but decide against it, considering how Alex is acting right now.

“But you should change into some pants first.” Laylen points at the shorts I have on. “It’s freezing up there at night.”

I glance at the window where sunlight sparkles across the land. “But it’s morning.”

“It’s night at the castle,” he says. “Trust me.”

“Okay, give me a second.” I start for the hallway and go into the bedroom. I put on a pair of jeans, change my shirt, and rinse my face off, trying to fight my nerves. I’m going to the castle, where Stephan could potentially be and I’m not a Keeper or a ninja warrior. I’m kind of klutzy and uncoordinated. I wonder what the odds of me walking away unscratched from this are.

As I’m telling myself to suck it up and think of my mom, someone knocks on the door.

“Come in,” I call out as I pull my long, brown hair up in a ponytail.

Alex walks in and stuffs his hands into his pockets, glancing around at the room and then the bed where we’ve had hot, steamy. “You about ready to go?”

“Yeah, I think so,” I say, reaching for my jacket on the bedpost, my hand noticeably shaking from my nerves.

“Hey.” He catches my trembling fingers in his hand. “Come here.” He guides me with him as he sits down on the bed.

I notice that he’s carrying the Sword of Immortality, the jagged blade glinting in the light. I’m about to ask him why he has it when he starts talking.

“My mom left when I was about five,” he says, stroking the back of my hand. “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 and if maybe she’s dead.”