His lips part and it looks like he’s going to say something that will change everything. “Gemma, I….” He trails off and his throat muscles move to force a lump in his throat down.

We don’t say anything else as we lay face-to-face with our hands barely touching and stare at each other. It’s like a silent good-bye and the moment is flawless because it’s real. Part of me wishes that when I fall asleep, I’ll die right there on a peaceful note.

Chapter 22

“Gemma, wake up.” Someone kisses my forehead and brings a static zap to my skin.

I roll over, griping and moaning. “I’m too tired.”

“Gemma, please just open your eyes,” he pleads.

Sighing, I open my eyes. Alex is standing near the edge of the bed, leaning over me. He’s put his clothes back on and there’s a bag over his shoulder. I sit up, bringing the sheet with me to keep my naked body covered.

“What’s wrong?” I ask and then curl my knees into my chest. “It’s time, isn’t it?”

He shakes his head, hurries to the foot of the bed and picks my jeans and t-shirt up, tossing them to me. “We’re leaving.”

Panic surges through my body as I grab my jeans and quickly slide my legs into them. “Did the Death Walkers find us?”

He shakes his head again as he walks over to the window and peers out. It’s dark outside, but the moon is bright and the stars are vivid. “No, I’m taking you away from here.”

I tug my shirt over my head and flip my hair out of the collar. “Why? What’s wrong?"

He moves away from the window and adjusts the handle of the bag higher onto his shoulder. “I can’t do it. I thought I could, but I can’t.”

I button my jeans, but pause as shock sets in. “You’re taking me away so they won’t detach my soul?”

He nods, stepping in front of me. “I just can’t do it again… Lose you again.”

I scratch my head, at a loss for words as I slide to the edge of the bed. “But I thought it has to be done? So the star can stay preserved and save the world… Alex, I don’t understand?” I’ve prepared myself for the end and now he’s saying it isn’t, and I don’t know what to do with that.

He releases a slow breath and then squats down in front of me. He places his hands on my knees and keeps his voice low. “I know that the world needs to be saved, but right now, I can’t do it. Right now, I need you to come with me so that we can at least try to find another way to save it or get the star out of you.”

“But I—“

He puts his finger over my lips. “But I need you to come now, because my father’s going to be here any minute.”

It’s a defining moment in my life; one that I will either look back and regret or cherish. I rise to my feet and he threads his fingers through mine as panic and relief flash across his face. We exchange a look of understanding and then we run down the hall together and out into the garage.

There’s an old, black Jeep Wrangler parked in the middle and he guides me over to the passenger side door. I hop in and he rounds the front while I quickly buckle my seatbelt.

He drops the bag onto the console, climbs in, and slams the door. Then he unzips the bag and takes out a sword. It has a silver blade with jagged edges and a black handle with a red stone on the end. Carved along the side of the blade is the Mark of Immortality and there are flakes of dried blood on the metal.

“Is that the Sword Of Immortality?” I ask and he nods.

He turns the key and the engine purrs to life. Then he presses on the garage door opener, rests the sword in his lap, and tosses the bag on the backseat. “It’s better to be safe than sorry.”

I eyeball the sword as the garage door creeps open and snow drifts in. “But I thought we were running from your father?”

He shifts the car into reverse. “We’re running from everyone now, Gemma.”

My eyes expand as I realize how true this is. Once we drive away, it’s just him and me against a large army of Death Walkers and a group of Keepers who will do anything to protect the world.

With one hand gripping the steering wheel and the other grasping the shifter, he sucks in a deep breath. “Okay, hold on. It’s going to be a pain in the fucking ass to get out of here. The snow’s worse up here than it is in Laramie.”

I clutch onto the handle on the roof and brace my feet against the dash. As the door reaches the top, he floors the gas, but then quickly taps the brakes. He stares in the rearview mirror with a look of horror on his face. I follow his gaze to the back window with fear in my veins, wondering if his father has arrived. There are hundreds of yellow eyes flickering through the trees and shimmering against the snow. The whole area looks like it’s lit up with twinkling Christmas lights. I’m not sure if I’m more upset, or less, that it’s Death Walkers and not his father. Do I want my soul more or my life?

Through the midst of the Death Walkers a tall figure steps forward and into the garage. As the light hits his face, my hand grips the door handle. The scar on his cheek, the darkness in his eyes, the evil he brings with him.

“No, no, no, no.” I whisper as I flip the handle and crack the door. “It’s him.”

Alex turns his head toward me. He’s still holding the sword and his knuckles have gone white. “Don’t worry, we’ll figure something out.”

I let go of the door and clutch onto his arm. “No, you don’t understand. That’s the man who put my mother in The Underworld.”

He shakes his head in denial. “No, there’s no way.”

I release his arm and trace my finger down my cheek. “Yes, the man in the vision had that exact same scar.”

He’s acting strange, torn and baffled. He reaches for the handle of the door and then changes his mind and shuts off the engine. The man enters the garage and cold air gushes through the vents of the car. “You can’t be right,” Alex mutters as he lowers his head onto the steering wheel.

“Alex, I’m telling you, that’s him,” I practically shout. “That’s the man.”

He raises his head and the look in his eyes takes me off guard because he looks like he doesn’t know what the hell to do. “No, you don’t understand. That can’t be him because it’s Stephan… That’s my father.”

Chapter 23

The Death Walkers close in on the house, tromping up the driveway and leaving their tracks in the snow. Soon the exit is blocked by rows and rows of black-cloaked creatures, freezing the land and house. It’s snowing unbreakably, veil of ice falling from the sky and to the earth. It makes it hard to see, but I can still see enough.

“What are we going to do?” I ask Alex as I kneel in the seat and keep my eyes on Stephan. “I mean, he showed up with them… and he did that to my mom.”

Stephan is just lurking at the opening of the garage, leaning against the doorframe, like he’s waiting for us to come to him. Like we’re that stupid.

Alex takes the keys out of the ignition and stuffs them into his pocket. He turns his body toward the door with the sword positioned at his side. He doesn’t explain as he starts to open the door.

I grab the back of his shirt and yank on it. “You’re seriously not getting out, are you?”

He glances over his shoulder at me and then exhales before leaning over the console. He gathers the chain of my necklace in his hand and I think he’s going to tug on it and break it off my neck, but instead, he tucks it beneath my shirt. “Whatever you do, keep that hidden. Don’t let anyone know you have it.”

“Wait!” I reach for him as he moves away and land on the console as he climbs out of the car. He shuts the door, leaving me alone in the cab.

I press my hand to the locket hidden under my shirt. Why did he do that? Why would he make me hide it? I think I might know, but I’m not ready to accept it, yet, because it means that he no longer wants to save me. It means that the last few beautiful moments together didn’t mean anything. It means that he believes his father is good even after showing up with the Death Walkers. Alex and Stephan exchange a few words at the back of the car. Alex is talking heatedly with his hands, waving the sword around, and Stephan is a motionless conversationalist. I force my gaze off them and start searching the car for a weapon. I’m not going to go down without a fight, not just for myself, but for my mother.

I find an aged pocketknife in the glove compartment and take it out. This isn’t going to end well. I can feel it through every infliction that has been done to me, but I get out of the car anyway with the knife in my hand and round to the back of the Jeep, plotting a way to kill him and wondering if I have it in me.

“Gemma,” Stephan says in an eerily calm voice as I round the rear of the Jeep and come up behind Alex. “It’s so nice to finally meet you.”

Alex glances over his shoulder at me and his eyes go straight to the knife clutched in my hand. Don’t even think about, he mouths and I shake my head.

“Well, Alex, you’ve done a really shitty job keeping her out of trouble,” Stephan says as he walks over to a shelf in the garage and rolls up the sleeves of his button-down shirt. He scans the shelves and then selects a pickaxe. “I thought I taught you better than that. I thought I taught you to be strong, not weak and pathetic.” He holds the axe like a baseball bat and gives it a practice swing. My eyes never leave the blade. “I thought I taught you to never let your emotions get in the way. To turn it off and always put your obligation as a Keeper first.”

Alex holds the sword behind his back with the sharp tip pointed at the floor. “I was, but I—“

Stephan swipes the axe down and sinks the blade into the wood of the shelf. It breaks apart and splinters of wood fly through the air. “I don’t want fucking excuses. What I want, is a son that obeys and only follows my orders.”

I finally understand why Alex is so hot and cold. Laylen nailed it. He’s brainwashed, or at least, his father has tried to brainwash him; tried to create a soldier that only listens to him. The problem is, that the passionate emotions that grasp you and control you in the heat of the moment are far more powerful than ones that sedate you.

Stephan continues to swing the axe over and over again, ripping the garage into pieces of wood and spilled tools. He kicks at the tire of the car and slams his fist into the window. Glass covers the floor and scatters by our feet, but he doesn’t stop until everything is broken.

Alex reaches back and grabs my hand as Stephan turns toward the driveway and flings the axe out at the Death Walkers. It hits one of the monsters in the chest and it lets out a deafening scream, but the rest stay motionless, the tail of their cloaks gusting in the wind as snow blows down on their heads.

Stephan stills and runs his hands down the front of his shirt, brushing bits of wood off. “I’m not going to punish you.” He seizes Alex’s arm and yanks the Sword of Immortality from his hand. “But you’re no longer going to be a part of this.” He holds the sword in front of him and greed consumes his eyes. “Finding this, however, is the one thing you’ve done right.”