16. Gemma

16 GEMMA

I’m kneeling in a forest with my hands cuffed by chains. The sky is bleak with darkness, the starlight dim, but the moon is a crystal ball amid the night sky. The air has a nip to it, and the grass and tree branches around me sway in the breeze.

I’m not sure how I got here. I’m also not sure why I feel funny. My head is filled with memories that aren’t my own, of me with short, purple hair and magic flowing through my body. I’m crying, but I’m not sure why, my tears dripping to the ground and sparkling like glitter.

“Hello?” I call out.

Tree branches snap, and then two figures step from the shadows.

It takes me a moment, but I recognize them. Alex and his father. I want to call out to them, but the words won’t leave my lips. I’m trapped inside a body that I don’t think is mine. Instead, I sob, “Please,” over and over again.

Stephan shoves Alex in front of me and demands that he kills me. Alex hesitates, but Stephan threatens him with Aislin’s life. So, Alex lifts the dagger and, with so much remorse in his eyes that I feel it inside my chest, he stabs me.

I don’t feel the pain, but as I fall to the ground, I see his expression blank out, as if his soul has left his body, and nothing is left but darkness ? —

My eyes fly open, and I gasp, bolting upright. I’m still in the car and, apparently, Alex has been trying to wake me up because he’s leaning over me. I end up smacking my head into his with enough force that it hurts. We groan in unison as we move away from each other.

“I’m sorry,” I murmur with my hand pressed to my forehead.

“It’s fine … You were asleep, and I was just trying to wake you up.” He sinks down into the driver’s seat, blinking a few times. “You were whimpering like you were having a nightmare.”

I was , I want to tell him. About you killing some pixie.

But that can’t be real. It was just a nightmare. It’s not like I could actually know that happened …

Except for the fact that I’ve time traveled through visions lately.

I eyeball Alex as I lower my hand. Would he kill another creature to protect Aislin? Would I blame him if he did?

No, I’d do the same thing.

Sitting in the driver’s seat with his body rotated toward me, the door is open behind him, and light is emitting from someplace close enough that the cab is illuminated. It’s not only from the interior light, either.

I peer around and realize we’ve arrived at the hideout, and the light is coming from the wooden structure we built a long time ago.

“Did someone put a generator in there?” I wonder, returning my attention back to Alex.

“I did a few years ago.” His gaze is unwavering. “How’s your head?”

“It’s fine.” I flick my wrist dismissively and turn to ask Aislin a question, but the back seat is empty.

“They already got out,” Alex explains, as if reading my mind. “We’ve been here for a few minutes. I was having a hard time getting you to wake up.” He pauses. “You were passed out pretty badly. I’m concerned maybe it’s something either with these visions or the chill of death affecting you mentally.”

“I’m pretty sure I was just asleep.” I chew on my bottom lip. “Unless …” Shaking my head, I shove open the door. “Nothing. Never mind.”

“No, it’s something.” He places a hand on my arm, stopping me. “Just say it. I promise you can trust me.”

Rubbing my lips together, I swing my leg back into the car and face him. “Fine. I was having this dream that I was in this pixie. She had purple hair, and she was crying. I had no control over her. And I had to watch as you … killed her.” The last of my words are faint.

Alex pales. “You saw that?”

I straighten. “You did that?”

Silence is like the boom of an echoing thunder around us.

His throat muscles work as he swallows hard. “I had to.”

My mind is racing. Why am I entering his memories? This is too much—all of it. But I do understand what he’s saying—I saw his father force him to do it.

“I—”

“Guys!” Aislin shouts. “Are you coming or what?”

My gaze snaps to the hideout. She’s standing in the doorway with the light hitting her back and making her a shadow.

I turn back toward Alex, but he’s already jumping out of the car. Great, he probably thinks I’m judging him, but I’m not, at least not about this.

I would like to know why Stephan made him do it and how deep that abuse goes, since Aislin already mentioned how her father hit her. I’ve never liked Stephan, but I could never place my finger on why. Maybe I’ve sensed the evilness in him.

As I get out of the car, I tell myself that that’s the answer, but I can’t stop thinking about that machine in the basement of his house. He’s clearly hiding it from the keeper world, but why? What can it do?

As I near the hideout, I dare a glance around at the trees enclosing the land, looking for a sign of yellow eyes looming in the shadows. But everything is dark, calm, and still.

Too still.

Tearing my attention away, I step into the shelter. It’s small with wooden walls, a table, some chairs, and a dirt floor. Back in the day, the ceiling was simply wood, but someone—Alex, I’m guessing—installed a light.

“Is it just me or has this place gotten smaller over the years?” I remark as I turn in a circle.

“I think it’s because we’ve gotten bigger.” Laylen plops down in a chair and kicks up his boot-clad feet onto a makeshift barstool, a few chunks of mud falling off the bottoms. “How long has it been since you’ve been up here?”

I shrug as I sink into a chair. “A while.”

Aislin hoists herself up onto the table and swings her legs back and forth. “It brings back so many good memories.” The corners of her lips quirk. “And dramatic ones.” She gives Alex and me an insinuating look.

Alex avoids my gaze. “If you’re talking about mine and Gemma’s drama, it wasn’t drama.”

Aislin tucks her hands under her legs. “Then what was it?”

He lifts a broad shoulder as he collects an old, rusty knife from off the floor, an item we must’ve brought up here at some point. “Ask Gemma.” He sneaks me a glance before returning his focus to the rusty knife. He examines it as if it’s the most fascinating item he’s ever seen.

“It was a misunderstanding,” I reply, observing his reaction.

His fingers twitch, but he shows no other reaction as he tosses the knife aside.

“I need to call up a few of my connections and get this thing going with the security footage. If all fails, then Aislin, you might have to wipe some memories, if someone gets to it before we do.”

Aislin nods as she hops off the table. “I have a ton of my stuff with me because I was moving out …” She trails off as she slows to a stop. “Shit, all of my stuff is in the Jeep, including my spell book.”

Alex rubs his jawline as he considers this. “You might have to drive back and get it. But be extra careful.”

“She can’t go alone,” Laylen protests, shaking his head as he gapes at Alex.

Aislin puts her hands on her hips and lets out a dry, harsh laugh. “Can’t go alone? I can do whatever I want. Do I need to remind you that I’m the only one out of the four of us who has powers?”

“That’s not true,” Alex comments as he leans against the wall with his tattooed arms folded across his muscular chest. “Gemma probably has foreseer powers.”

“True,” Aislin agrees. “But she can’t really do anything with them—no offense.”

“None taken.” I cross my legs. “Besides, we don’t know if I, for sure, have them. It’s just a guess.”

“Based on a lot of evidence,” Alex grumbles, clearly in a bad mood, probably because of what I brought up in the car.

It’s odd. I’ve spent years loathing him, and yet I feel bad for bringing something up that had to be traumatic for him. I wonder if Aislin or Laylen know about it.

“Look, I can handle it,” Aislin assures Laylen with her hands in front of her.

He props a foot onto the wall. “I know you can, but it’s safer if someone goes with you.”

I raise my hand to volunteer, but Laylen beats me to it as he leaps to his feet.

“So, I’m going with you,” he offers with a charming grin.

Aislin’s cheeks are flushed, and I mentally roll my eyes. Those two are so into each other, yet they never say it.

“Okay, let’s go then.” Aislin spins for the door with Laylen following.

That’s when I become aware that … “Wait.” I stand up. “I think I should go.”

“Why?” Alex asks, pushing away from the wall.

“Because …” I don’t want to say the reason. “I can stay alone with …” I trail off as Aislin throws me a wave and yanks Laylen out of the hideout.

I think that witch did this on purpose.

My attention shifts back to Alex, who’s studying me way too intensely. “What?”

“What were you going to say?” he asks. When I shrug, he shakes his head and rolls his eyes. “You’re afraid to be alone with me. Whatever.”

“Hey, those are your insecurities, not mine,” I point out. “I have no problem with what I saw. I feel awful that it did, but I get why you did it. And it’s not like it’s totally abnormal for a keeper to kill a paranormal creature—it’s our job.”

His jaw muscles are tense. “It wasn’t because of the job. She was innocent.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. We don’t know her story.” I prop my hip against the edge of the table. “But you did it for Aislin. And I do believe you protected her. No offense, but your dad is bat-shit crazy, and creepy.”

He studies me while unfolding his arms and lowering his hands to his sides. “How bad did he threaten you when you stumbled onto the machine? And what did it even look like?”

I give him a quick recap of the description and what occurred. By the time I’m finished, we’ve moved over to sit in the chairs.

“The thing is, the only reason I knew it was there is because I could feel the energy,” I mutter with my legs stretched out. “And that energy felt like the energy between us.” I gesture back and forth between the two of us.

“Really?” He frowns, his face set in deep thought. “That doesn’t seem coincidental to me.”

“Why would it be connected? And how?”

“I don’t know. Maybe the machine is doing something to us.”

“Like what? We’re super far away from it, and I can still feel this thing between us … Wait—can you?”

He rakes his teeth along his bottom lip as he nods. “But maybe it’s not necessarily connected to us, but it caused it to appear between us.” He’s sitting backward in the chair, with his arms crossed on the top part, his leg bouncing up and down with restless energy, causing the change in his pocket to clink together. “I need to see this machine, but my father has cameras everywhere in the house … Speaking of which, let me check on responses to the message I sent out for help getting the security footage.” He slants back to retrieve his phone from his pocket then checks the screen. His mood elevates. “I gotta bite.”

“From whom?”

“Noah.”

“The guy who eats his own boogers?”

He bobs his head up and down as he types a response. “But those booger fingers are really good at hacking into computers.”

I choke on a laugh. “Dude, why’d you have to put it like that?”

He flashes me a smirk. “Because I knew it’d make you laugh. Besides, you’re the one who pointed out that he picks his nose. Why you’re staring at him while he’s doing it is beyond me.”

I playfully kick his foot. “It’s hard not to notice when he’s your weapons knowledge partner. Do you know how often I saw him do it, and then we had to assess weaponry? I had to devise some really creative ways as to why I wasn’t examining the daggers and blades and stuff after he touched them with his booger fingers.”

He chuckles, his eyes crinkling around the corners. “What were the reasons you came up with?”

“I went through a lot, like my hands hurt and dumb shit like that. But the one I landed on that really helped was that I’m a germaphobe.”

He smiles. “Smart thinking.”

“I know, right?”

We fall silent, and he stares down at the dirt floor. It’s clear he’s lost in thought again, and I find myself wishing I knew what was going on in his mind.

“Alex, has your dad done that kind of stuff to you a lot?” I proceed cautiously.

His lips are smashed together as he starts bouncing his leg up and down again. “What’s considered a lot ?”

My chest feels weirdly tight. “It’s not your fault.” I duck my head to catch his gaze. “You got handed a shit card when it came to a father.”

“I know that.”

“Okay, so you’re fine? As fine as you can be, anyway?”

He drags his tongue along his teeth, considering this. “I’d be more okay if you let me kiss you again.”

I give him a hardy har look. “Not funny.”

“I’m not trying to be funny.” He swings his leg over and stands up, his phone buzzing in his pocket. “You’re beautiful, and you taste good. It’s a really good distraction.” He grins impishly at me as my jaw nearly bitch smacks the ground.

Before I can even grasp what he said, he answers his phone and wanders out of the hideout.

I’m not sure what’s more surprising—what he said or the way my stomach fluttered from it. Seriously, it’s like I’ve swallowed a bunch of tiny faeries.

While I’m waiting for him to return, I pull my phone out of my pocket to see if I have any missed messages, crossing my fingers that one of my parents has gotten a hold of me. I have one message, and it’s from Henry. The amount of disappointment I feel in that has me questioning if Alex is right—perhaps it’s better if I don’t go out with him.

Henry: Hey, I just want to say that I’m so excited about our date. Here’s a list of restaurants we can go to before the movie. Any favorites?

I blow out a stressed breath as I attempt to figure out a response.

“Great news.” Alex returns. “Booger-fingers got the footage.”

“Already?”

“Yep. He’s emailing it to me. It’ll take a few minutes to download.” He starts pacing, kicking up dirt as he does. “It’s almost there.”

I anxiously hold my breath, watching Alex wear a path on the dirt floor. I know the moment the downloads come through because he comes to a complete stop, his shoes scuffing against the dirt at the sudden abruptness, and Alex sort of trips. Alex is not the kind of guy to trip, so it’s a warning that it’s bad.

“Who is it?” I ask.

In the back of my mind, I wonder if perhaps it’s his father. I’m not certain how he’d be connected to this, but with everything I’ve seen, the evidence points to Stephan being the kind of man who would kill someone.

“It’s …” He swallows hard as he lifts his gaze to me. “It’s your father.”

“What?” I screech as I spring to my feet and snatch the phone out his hand. Part of me believes he’s joking with me, though I don’t know why he’d think that was funny. But on the screen is a brown-haired man with violet eyes ducking into Professor G.’s office. He appears cagey, too, sneaking glances behind him, as if checking to ensure no one is around.

“No,” I whisper, shaking my head. “My father wouldn’t do something like this. Not just kill a person but try to frame me.” Tears burn my eyes. The truth is, I can deny it all I want, but this video points to that being the case. “Maybe he didn’t kill him. Maybe he went in before it happened.”

“Maybe.” Alex pries the phone from my fingers, his expression guarded. “Let’s watch through the entire thing and see. We’re not sure what time he was killed, so perhaps someone else went into the office after your father left.”

I nod while pushing an uneven exhale from my lungs. “I don’t know why my father would be at the academy. It’s not where he told me he’d be.” And the fact that he’s not answering his phone now has me on edge.

What if he did kill Professor G.? There has to be a good reason, right? Well, as good of a reason as one can come up with as to why you’d murder someone.

Alex tells me to sit down then drags a chair over beside me. Then we spend the next handful of minutes skimming through the security footage. My father leaves the office in a hurry. Then, after that, no one else enters.

“Perhaps someone went in there through a portal?” I suggest in a desperate attempt.

“Maybe.” Alex plunges into contemplative silence. “Your father was acting strange earlier today. Do you think there’s a way he could’ve been possessed?”

That causes me to straighten. “I’m not sure, but you’re right—he was acting strange. And he’s totally gone radio silent. It could be that he’s not himself.”

“That could be the answer then. Or maybe it’s a portal. Or maybe the professor did something bad, and your father was taking care of it.”

“That still doesn’t explain why he’d try to frame me.”

“Perhaps that letter was for something else.”

“That seems like a stretch.”

“I know,” he agrees, frowning. “We need to get a hold of either your mother or father then go from there.”

I tap his phone in his hand. “What about the security footage?”

“This is the only copy,” Alex assures me as he stuffs his phone back into his pocket.

“I do find it a little weird that my father didn’t think to erase the footage himself. Everyone knows the academy has security cameras, so why would he take the risk?” I ravel a strand of hair around my finger. “I think it points to possession.”

“Agreed. It makes me uneasy, though, that we have a keeper—a foreseer—wandering around, possessed by some creature daring enough to walk into the academy during business hours and kill Professor G.

I unravel my hair from my finger. “Makes you wonder why Professor G.”

“Good point.” Alex taps his finger against his bottom lip. “I think I need to go back to the crime scene.”

I pull a face. “Gross. The body’s still there.”

“I know, but it’s worth dealing with that if it means getting an answer to this. We don’t know much about the professor. I think it’ll help if we know more about him.”

He has a valid point.

“I’ll go with you,” I offer, but he shakes his head.

“With the death walkers after you and someone trying to frame you for the professor’s murder, I think you should probably stay away from the academy for a while.”

“But it’s almost graduation,” I gripe. “I was looking forward to being done so I could get the hell out of this town. If I don’t attend classes, it’ll set me back.”

Alex gives me a really look. “That’s really what you’re worried about?”

I grimace. “I get that it’s way bigger than that—I do—but it still sucks balls.”

“Well, hopefully, we can figure this out so we can get back to our regularly scheduled lives,” he says flatly.

“You sound kind of emo about that,” I remark. “Do you not want to go back to your regular life?”

Instead of responding, he smashes his lips together.

My mind drifts back to his father and what I saw him make Alex do. Maybe he doesn’t want to go back.

“Where are we going to stay tonight?” I decide to change the subject that’s clearly making him gloomy. “Or are we just going to sleep here?” I gesture at our hideout. It’s not like I want to sleep in the dirt, but it might be for the better, since I have deadly creatures chasing after me.

“I think we should get a hotel,” he answers. “In the next town over. We can pay with cash so it’s untraceable, and then Laylen and I can go back to the academy.”

“You want to do all of that tonight?”

“We have to get it done tonight. They’ll discover his body by tomorrow.”

“Right.”

My mind starts spinning. What if we aren’t able to solve this? What if the death walkers keep coming after me? What if my father did murder Professor G.? What if this framing me thing actually works, and I get arrested for murder?

In the keeper world, that means getting locked up in your own personal hell of a realm where nothing but you and solitude exists. I’ve heard stories about it, about people getting locked away in their own minds, and it sounds more terrifying than even death itself.