Shattered Promises 02 - Fractured Souls

by Jessica Sorensen

  “Yes, but your parents weren’t Keepers,” Stephan replies venomously as he wrenches the sword away from Demetrius’s reach. “Mine were. In their eyes, to have a child who bears the mark was a disgrace, which is why they so stupidly tried to cut it off.” His jaw sets tight as he stabs the sword into the ground and the ice cracks below the blade.

  They continue to walk again, heading past us, and I turn to follow them with my eyes.

  “It’s a gift,” Demetrius says. “We’ve been chosen since birth by the mark—since before birth—to free him and everyone else who was bound by his sentencing.” He raises his hand in the air and his expression glazes over as he shuts his eyes.

  “And now we have,” Stephan says thoughtfully as he lightly traces his finger down his scar.

  “Yes, and now we have,” Demetrius agrees, opening his eyes and lowering his hand to his side.

  “Gemma,” Nicholas says and I gasp, almost forgetting he is there.

  I fling my hand over my mouth and hold my breath. Suddenly, Stephan stops, his head tilting to the side and he glances over his shoulder.

  He holds up his hand, signaling for Demetrius to stop. “Just a second.”

  Demetrius pauses, his gaze sweeping the buildings. “What’s wrong?”

  “Please, get us out of here,” I hiss at Nicholas as Stephan starts walking back toward us.

  Nicholas wavers. “I don’t know... I kind of like being alone with you.”

  “Nicholas,” I hiss again, grabbing onto his arm. “Get us out of here. Now.”

  Stephan’s getting closer and I don’t understand what’s going on. He’s not supposed to be able to see or hear me, but I swear he can sense that I’m here.”

  “What are you doing?” Demetrius calls out, but Stephan doesn’t reply as he continues moving toward us, grasping the sword as his eyes scan from side to side as if he’s searching for something—for us.

  I dig my fingers into Nicholas’s arm and jerk him closer to me. “There’s someone in this vision that I’m pretty sure can either see or sense that we’re here and, if he can, then it’s very, very bad.”

  His eyes widen as he takes my hand, abruptly looking anxious. “Okay, let’s go.”

  I cast one last glance at Stephan as he picks up his pace, charging at us and I know something‘s very wrong. It doesn’t look like he can see us because he’s looking in the wrong direction, but he can obviously sense us.

  “Nicholas…” I say, tripping backwards as Stephan reaches out for me. I open my mouth to scream, but then Stephan abruptly stops.

  He’s only inches away from me and his eyes fasten right on mine as a slow smile curls up his lips. He touches the scar on his cheek with the tip of the knife, cutting a thin layer of skin off, and drawing blood. “You have it, too,” he whispers, then his eyes divert to my upper arm.

  My skin ignites as I’m hauled backward, fading from the vision, but it’s enough time to see it. The red and black triangular mark on my arm.

  Chapter 13

  I trip over my feet, but quickly regain my balance as I land back in Adessa’s living room. The fear of what just happened still lingers in my body and has me gasping for air.

  “Who was it?” Nicholas asks with very little patience as he gets into my face. “Who was in the vision?” He still has ahold of my hand and I try to wrench it out of his, but he refuses to let me go. “Gemma, talk to me.” He puts a hand on each of my shoulders and looks me directly in the eyes. “Tell me who it was that could sense us… It’s important.”

  My chest heaves as I work to compose my breathing. “Why would anyone be able to sense us like that?”

  “Because…” He pauses, eyeing me over. “Because it means the vision has already been seen or told to the person who was in the vision.”

  I’m not surprised. I know Stephan has been told visions of the future and how the world will end, which is why he was supposedly protecting the star. Now, though, it’s beginning to make more sense. He wasn’t protecting the star, he was holding onto it for himself.

  “Tell me what you saw,” Nicholas commands, roughly squeezing my shoulders. “And tell me how you saw it. Normal Foreseers aren’t able to just walk into other Foreseers’ visions.”

  “I’ve got to go ask Laylen something.” I duck out from his hands and head for the doorway.

  He catches me by the arm and his fingernails pierce into my skin. “Who was in the vision, Gemma? You need to tell me.”

  “No I don’t,” I say. “What I saw… it doesn’t concern you.”

  I tug my arm away from him and scurry out of the room. Nicholas doesn’t follow me, surprisingly, but I’m glad. I need to talk to Laylen alone. I find him in one of the rooms upstairs on a bed, reading a book. He’s on his side, propped up on his elbow, his boots kicked up on the footboard. His legs are too long for the twin bed and he’s nearly falling out of it.

  “Hey,” I say, shutting the door, checking my skin in the light to make certain there’s no symbol on my skin. Thankfully it’s bare, the only thing there is a cluster of freckles. “I need to talk to you.”

  He peers up from his book. “Hey, what’s…” He quickly sits up, shutting the book as he lowers his feet to the floor. “What happened? You look upset.”

  “Something bad happened when we went into a vision.” I drop down on the bed beside him. “And Nicholas is getting suspicious that there might be something wrong with me.”

  Laylen sets his book down on the nightstand. “You think he knows about the star’s power?”

  I shake my head. “I don’t think he knows what exactly it is, only that there’s something different about me and my Foreseer power.”

  “Well as long as he doesn’t know exactly what it is, then I think we’re okay.” Laylen pauses, sucking his lip ring into his teeth. “Although, I’m not really sure it’s so great that he knows so much about you.”

  I nod in agreement, but then remember I have bigger problems to discuss than Nicholas. “There’s something else I need to talk to you about... something I just saw in the vision.” I shiver as I remember what I just left. “Laylen, I think I just saw the end of the world.”

  It gets so quiet; I can hear the sound of our breaths and our hearts.

  “The end of the world,” Laylen whispers, rubbing a hand tensely down his face. “Seriously?”

  I nod. “Covered in ice.”

  “Then the portal opens up.”

  “At least from what I saw it does,” I say. “But then again, Alex already told me another Foreseer told the same vision, which is the same thing Nicholas said.”

  “But I always thought maybe he was lying,” he mutters, staring the floor. “But I guess not… the portal opens and the world ends.”

  “Unless we change it…somehow.” I recollect the vision and Demetrius’s conversation with Stephan. “Why would someone try to cut a mark off their child?

  Laylen’s head snaps up. “Why would you ask that?”

  “In the vision,” I say. “Demetrius and Stephan were talking and they—”

  “Wait a minute,” Laylen cuts me off, lifting his hand in front of us. “Hold on. They were there—Demetrius and Stephan were there together?”

  “Yeah.” I give him a quick recap of what I’ve just seen.

  Laylen looks utterly shocked when I finish. “So what you’re saying is that the scar on Stephan’s face used to be a mark? One that he was born with?”

  “Yeah, but what’s the mark for?” I ask. “And why would his parents cut it off?”

  Laylen swallows hard, his throat muscles bobbing up and down. “Maybe it was his Immortal mark… but I’m not sure. From what I know, you have to have some sort of supernatural blood in you to bear the mark; such as Vampire.” He glances down at the Mark of Immortality on his arm.

  “Maybe he is something,” I tell him. “And he’s hiding it... maybe that’s what the mark is.” I pause, summoning the courage to ask. “What exactly does a red and black triangle represent.
”

  His face twists with puzzlement. “I have no idea. I’ve never heard of such a thing… why do you ask?”

  “Well, I first saw it on Draven and then, when I blacked out, I saw it on me,” I tell him, my voice shaking with my nerves. “And then, just barely, when I was going out of the vision, Stephan stopped in front of me, touched the scar on his cheek, and told me I had one on me, too.” My hands tremble as I fear what this all might mean. “And when I looked down on my warm, it was there.”

  “I’m not sure…” Laylen rubs his hand across his jawline, deliberating my words with worry lacing his demeanor. “Gemma, I honestly don’t remember seeing it on Draven, either.’

  I touch my forearm. “He had it right there.”

  “Maybe I missed it.” He sounds unconvinced, though, and it makes me uneasy, like he either thinks I’m crazy or is worried that there might be something wrong with me.

  “It couldn’t be a symbol of Immortality, could it? Maybe it’s the one that makes him Immortal amongst the Immortals.”

  “Maybe.”

  I sit in silence, trying to figure out what it all means, not just with the symbol in question, but also with the future. The fact that Stephan wants to end the world, using me, and the fact that he can’t be killed… what other option does this leave me with except that I’ll end up being the person solely responsible for ending the world? And then what? I’ll either die in the frozen streets or be killed with the use of the star’s energy.

  “Are you okay?” Laylen asks.

  “Yeah, I’m fine.” I sound hollow and I’m not sure why. Yes, I just saw the end of the world, but Alex has told me about it before this. Still, he made it seem possible that we could stop it and now it doesn’t seem realistic. I’m going to be the thing that makes it happen.

  “Gemma, we’ll figure something out,” he assures me, brushing his finger across my jawline. “We’ll get to your mom and maybe she’ll know something… how to stop Stephan. I mean, he put her in the lake for a reason. I can have Aislin look around to see if we can figure out what kind of marks there are that would be bad enough that someone’s parents might cut it off.”

  “I think I better get back to Nicholas and my training.” I stand up from the bed and trudge for the door.

  “Gemma.” Laylen gets to his feet and trails behind me. “Are you sure you’re okay? You’ve been through a lot within the last few weeks. I’m worried you’re going to break apart.”

  I force a tight smile, letting the hollowness seep into my body. “I’m fine,” I repeat and walk out. However, what I really want to say is that I think I’m already broken.

  Chapter 14

  I’ve started having this reoccurring nightmare, but it doesn’t just happen at night. It goes on during the day as well. In it, my mom is begging me to help her, save her from the treacherous place she’s been imprisoned in. Each time I can see The Underworld and what it looks like, a secret cave buried beneath the lake; a place sculpted out of rocks, mud, vines, and a home for water Fey that thrive on torturing. Every time I manage to make it there, to my mother, who’s trapped in chains and secured to a wall. Yet, as soon as I come close to reaching her, the triangular mark appears on my arm and, instead of saving her, I suddenly want to kill her.

  When I wake up, I sometimes continue to feel the dark filling me.

  This isn’t my only problem. I also have to deal with Nicholas who is a pain in the ass. It’s been two days of excruciating training, falling into and out of visions. I need a break from seeing things I don’t want to see and I need a break from perverted Faeries. What I really want is for this to all be over and I’m doing everything I can to make that happen, even if it means taking a risk or two.

  Aislin and Laylen have been spending a lot of time together, looking through books and asking around about marks and the strange triangular symbol that no one seems to know about. Laylen even asked some of the Vampires if they knew that Draven had one and either they don’t know or are denying it.

  The biggest void is inside me, though, created from the absence of Alex and the electricity. Two days without it and I swear I’m feeling more sluggish, less enthusiastic, and emotionally drained.

  Nicholas and I are sitting on the black and white tile floor of Adessa’s living room with a simple crystal ball between us. He’s wearing stonewashed jeans, a green shirt that makes his golden eyes look brown, and his sandy hair is fluffed up at the top because he keeps messing with it. I have my hair down today because I couldn’t find anything to put it up with and no makeup on as usual. My black shorts are too short while the purple and black striped tank top is a little too tight; both selected from the Black Angel themed wardrobe Aislin picked out for me.

  “Try again,” Nicolas demandingly commands, motioning at the crystal ball. He’s growing impatient and I’m growing flustered, a bad combination.

  “Okay.” I take a deep breath and extend my hand out to Nicholas, my other hand hovering over the crystal ball. “Stop being so bossy.”

  “Don’t pretend you don’t like it.” Nicholas takes hold of my hand and unnecessarily intertwines our fingers, making my blood boil. “Do you have an idea where you’re going to take us?”

  “Yeah, I have an idea.” I shut my eyes and brush my fingers across the cold glass of the crystal ball, knowing that what I’m about to do is wrong. I need to know, though; I need to see her.

  I pictured what I’ve been seeing in my nightmares over and over again because I need to see if my mom is still my mom or if her sanity is too far-gone.

  I need to know how it all ends.

  ***

  “So where’d you take us?” Nicholas rubs his hands together, appearing intrigued as he glances around. “Somewhere good I hope.”

  “Um…” I’m at-a-loss for words.

  We’re standing in a tunnel, the muddy walls dripping with musty water and moss. Vines hang from the ceiling and water flows below our feet. It looks much different from in my dreams, strangely more unrealistic than anything as if it was created from a haunting fairytale

  “I think I…I think we might be in The Underworld.”

  His face reddens with anger as he shuffles toward me. “You what?”

  I open my mouth to tell him that I’m sorry, even though I’m really not, when a shriek reverberates through the tunnel and my head snaps in the direction it came from.

  “What’s wrong?” Nicholas follows my line of gaze, even though he can’t see anything. “Is it a Water Faerie?”

  I squint through the darkness at something white. “I’m not sure…” I move forward, straining my vision. “It’s something white and wavy and… or more like Ghostly and boney…” My face falls as I step back. “Shit, I think it is.”

  Nicholas tugs on the back of my shirt and pulls me to the side of the tunnel. He presses his back against the wall and then shoves me back by flattening an arm over my chest.

  “What’s wrong with you?” I hiss. “We’re in a vision, so they can’t see us.”

  He quickly shakes his head, his wide eyes searching around us in terror. “It’ll be able to sense I’m here.”

  “How?”

  “Water Faeries are Fey, so it’ll be able to sense I’m here because I’m part Fey.” He presses himself against the dirt wall as far as he can go with his hands flat out to his sides. “And if it does….” He shudders.

  “And if it does then what?” I press, eyeing the Fey heading toward us. Its face is a skull, its fingers bone, and its feet are hidden by wispy pieces of fabric that brush against the dirt as it floats.

  His chest descends as he releases a breath. “Look, there are certain reasons—rules—that don’t allow me down here. And I can’t take us out of here, because I can’t—my Foreseer power is no use down here.”

  I glare at him, stepping away from the wall and moving in front of him. “Then how did you ever plan on helping me save my mom?” His silence says everything and I shake my head, putting my hands on my hips. �
�You weren’t ever planning on it, were you?”

  More silence and I want to smack him.

  “I can’t believe this,” I say, pacing the area in front of him “You know what, actually I can. Still, though.” I huff in frustration, the prickle stabbing violently at the back of my neck while I feel like wrapping my fingers around his. “You are seriously the cruelest person I’ve ever met… playing me like that… over my mother.”

  He shrugs. “You should have known better than to believe someone like me.” He glances down the tunnel as if he senses something. “Ferries are a tricky breed.”

  I look over at the water Faerie nearing us, and then return my attention to Nicholas with a dark look in my eyes. “You know what, I think I’m just going to sit here and let it find you. You deserve it, you know, for messing with my head.”

  He scowls at me, but there’s fear in his eyes. “Look at you… you’re starting to sound as cruel as me.”

  I shrug. “But only with you.”

  “Yeah, but you’re new at this and you’re going to lose,” he says.

  “You think so?” I question, pointing over my shoulder. “Because the water Faerie’s right behind us.”

  His eyes snap wide and he takes off down the tunnel. Shaking my head, I run after him, leaving the water Faerie in the distance. He continues to run with me chasing at his heels until we reach a dead-end, the tunnel opening up onto a wide room carved out of rock. In the middle of the hollowed out space is a throne made of stone that has a back spiraling up to the ceiling like a slide.

  Nicholas keeps running until he trips over his feet and I slow to a stop, I laugh at him.

  “Well, that was smooth,” I say, staring down at him with my hands on my hips.

  He glares at me, opening his mouth as he gets to his feet, but I hold my finger up as someone walks into the cave.