18. Gemma

18 GEMMA

Aislin and I spend the next hour skim-reading through the books we have on us. Eventually, Aislin gets online and logs in to the keepers’ archives account so she can search there. I’ve already read through some of the book Henry stole for me, but who knows if any useful information could be inked in these pages? Much of it feels like blah, blah, blah, to the point where I toss it aside in frustration.

“I feel like my eyes are bleeding,” I gripe as I rub my eyes with the heels of my hands. “This book is about as boring as the sword-sharpening class we had to take last year.”

“Gods, that was the worst, wasn’t it?” Aislin is sitting with her legs crisscrossed, and the spell book is on the bed in front of her. “The expert who taught it had the most monotonous voice ever.”

“Not worse than Professor Telington. I fell asleep in his class like five times.”

“I remember that. I woke you up because you were drooling.”

I prop up on my arms and jokingly glare at her. “I did not.”

“You did so.” She flits me a mischievous smile. “It was all over your face, too.”

I pick up a pillow, preparing to throw it at her again, when someone knocks on the door.

We both freeze, our gazes snapping to the door.

Another knock, and Aislin hisses to me, “No one should be knocking on our door.” She quietly closes the book and scoots off the bed.

I follow suit, moving as soundlessly as possible. “Maybe it’s housekeeping?”

“Doubtful. We checked in, like, only an hour ago,” she whispers as we inch toward the door. “And they usually come late morning, not in the middle of the night.”

She’s right.

I bend over to retrieve a dagger from my ankle holster while Aislin snaps her fingers, whispers a spell, and then poof , a blazing ball of electric blue light forms in the palm of her hand.

“What if it’s a death walker?” she asks as we near the door.

I toss her a what-the-hell look with my brow arched. “You think a death walker is just going to casually knock?”

“Okay, probably not, but?—”

She’s cut off by another tap on the door.

I pad over the rest of the way and, summoning a breath, peer out of the peephole. What I see is more confusing than Aislin suggesting a death walker knocking politely on our door.

“It’s … It’s Henry.” I keep an eye up to the peephole, watching as Henry knocks again.

“What?” Aislin whispers, her eyes wide as she slants back, looking utterly confused.

That makes two of us.

“Gemma,” he calls out as his gaze zeroes in on the peephole. He stares at it then puts his own eye up to it. “Are you in there?”

I duck down. Logically, I know Henry can’t see through the peephole, but it’s unnerving that he’s trying to.

“Why would he be here?” Aislin asks in a low voice. “He shouldn’t even know where we’re at.”

“It doesn’t make sense,” I whisper, my palm dampening against the handle of the dagger.

“This is beyond stalker behavior. Something’s wrong.” She stares at the door as Henry knocks again. “What if he’s possessed?”

“Why would you go straight to that theory? He hasn’t shown any signs of possession.”

“Except for showing up wherever you are.”

“True. He never did that before.”

“So, at some point, he might have gotten possessed. Like your father might be.”

“You think someone’s possessing people that I know in order to get to me?” I question over more knocking. “Why would anyone do that?”

She raises her brows. “You just started going into visions, one of which showed a doomsday vision of our world. You might have some unlocked power that someone either wants to use or get rid of.”

Great. If she’s correct, that means my life is in danger, more than I thought.

I’m really starting to regret wanting a different, more adventurous life. At this moment, I’d go back to being a boring keeper.

“Gemma!” Henry abruptly shouts while banging on the door.

“We need to get rid of him,” Aislin says, the orb of light in her palm flickering.

I eyeball the door, my wheels turning. “We could capture him, tie him up, and get him to tell us what he knows.”

She wavers her head from side to side. “It’s kind of risky and diabolic, but it might be necessary. I can do a spell to knock him unconscious. Then I can use a binding spell to keep him trapped in the bathroom. It’ll only last a few hours, but that should give us enough time.”

“Are you sure you can do both spells?” I don’t want to question her, but Aislin’s accuracy on spells can sometimes be iffy.

“I think so.”

“ Think ?”

She squares her shoulder. “I can do this.”

“All right.” I put my trust in her. “What supplies do you need?”

She folds her fingers inward, stifling the orb of light in her hand. “Guard the door while I get everything.”

Nodding, I position myself in front of the door while Aislin hurries back to the bedroom. Henry has gone quiet, so I inch forward and peer through the peephole again.

“What is he doing?” Aislin asks.

“He’s standing there, just staring at the door.” I press my hand against the door. “He’s looking right at the peephole.”

“Do you think he has a weapon on him?”

“No. But if he’s possessed, depending on what creature’s control he’s under, he could have some sort of super strength.”

“So, we’ll knock him out with the spell before he can even get a chance to attack.”

“Can we do it with the door closed?”

“No, we’re going to have to open it. You’ll have to do that while I do the spell. Timing is everything.”

I exhale a stressed breath. Normally, I wouldn’t be this nervous, but after having death walkers come after me twice today, my nerves are abnormally on edge.

“I can do that,” I say with determination.

“Okay, I’m almost ready,” she says.

I peer over my shoulder. She’s sitting in a circle of candles with her spell book in front of her, and she’s clutching a necklace in her hand.

“I’ll tell you when to open the door.” She crisscrosses her legs then shuts her eyes and begins chanting a spell under her breath.

I hold my dagger to the side, waiting for her to signal for me to open the door. My heart is beating loudly in my chest, and the air has gone eerily still?—

“Now!” she shouts.

I yank the door open.

Henry startles, and then a smile rises on his lips. But before he can even react, Aislin yells, “Duck!”

I do, right as a blaze of fiery light swishes above me and collides into Henry’s chest. He gasps, his eyes widening before they roll into the back of his head. Then he collapses to the floor with a thump .

“Did it work?” Aislin asks with hope.

I lean over him. His eyes are shut, and he’s not moving, except for his chest as he breathes in and out. “I think so.”

I peer down the hallway. No one is around, and while the place was fairly empty when we checked in, I’m worried someone will come up here, stumble across this scene, and think the worst.

“We should get him inside before someone sees this.”

Aislin steps up beside me. “Agreed. I wonder why no one reacted to the banging and shouting.”

I grab Henry’s feet. “Maybe all the rooms on this floor are empty.”

“Or maybe he enchanted a sound barrier,” she suggests as she grabs his hands.

“That would mean he can perform magic.” I start dragging him into the room.

“If he’s possessed, he might,” she grunts as she helps me.

“Good point.”

Once we have him in the bathroom, Aislin performs a barrier spell. “There. He’ll remain stuck in there for a few hours.” She dusts off her hands.

“What are we going to do when he can get out?”

“I … Shit, I didn’t think about that.”

“Me, neither. That was so dumb of us.” Sighing, I pull out a chair from the table in the dining room and drag it over to where I can sit in front of the bathroom.

Henry is lying on the tiled floor in front of the shower, and his eyes are still closed.

“How long will he be out?”

“Probably a few more minutes.”

“Can you knock him out again?”

“Well, yeah, but why would I do that?”

I turn to see her blowing out the candles. Little wisps of smoke fill the air as she does.

“After we’re done interrogating him, we can knock him out again then drag him back into the hallway,” I say.

“Good idea.” Aislin makes her way over to the table to grab a chair. “We’ll have to make sure we time it right again.”

I nod then tap my finger against my bottom lip. “I have a feeling he’s going to be a pain in the butt.”

“Oh, for sure.” She puts the chair beside mine then takes a seat. She crosses her legs, rests an elbow on her knee, then props her chin onto her fist. “Hopefully, he won’t stay passed out for too long.”

A frown tugs at my lips. “Wait—you just said only a few minutes. You don’t really know how long he’ll remain unconscious, do you?”

She shakes her head. “Nope.”

I want to be a good friend—I do—but while I love Aislin to death, she really can be kind of spacey sometimes.

I push to my feet and head over to the kitchen.

“What’re you doing?” she inquires as I open a cupboard.

I take out a glass. “I’m going to splash some water on his face.”

“I’m not sure that’ll work.”

“Well, I’m going to try.” I fill up the glass then walk over to the bathroom doorway. Then I dip my fingers in it and splash a bit of water on his face. When that does nothing, I dump the entire thing on him.

That does the trick.

His eyes dart open as he bolts upright, gasping. Water trickles down his face as he frantically peers around the bathroom.

“Where am I?” he sputters, wiping the water off his face.

I set the glass on the floor, cross my arms, and lean against the doorframe. “Cut the shit, Henry. We know you’re under possession.”

“I …” He scoots backward across the tile until his back hits the shower door. “How did I get here?”

I roll my eyes. “Dude, stop pretending.”

“I …” Tears fall from his eyes. “Help me. I don’t know how I got here. One minute, I was at the academy, and then I was …” He shakes his head and starts sobbing.

Aislin gets to her feet. “Maybe he isn’t possessed? Or maybe whatever possessed him left his body?”

I shake my head with my eyes narrowed on Henry. Call it a gut feeling, but … “He’s pretending.” I wander back to the table to retrieve my dagger then return to the bathroom doorway. Henry is still crying, but he watches me as I pat the blade against the palm of my hand. “I guess we’re going to have to do this the hard way.”

Henry’s bottom lip quivers as he eyes the dagger. “Gemma?” he asks in a feeble tone.

“Have you ever felt a knife slice through your flesh, Henry?” I crouch down and angle my head to the side. “I have.” I hold up the palm of my hand where a scar mars my flesh. “I accidentally cut my hand once during defense class. Really deep, too. I had to see a healer witch and everything.” I flip the knife around in my hand, over and over again. “I think I’ll cut deeper on you.”

“You wouldn’t dare.” Henry smirks. “You don’t have it in you, little foreseer.”

“And there it is.” I straighten my legs, standing up and grinning at Aislin.

She gives me a wide-eyed glance. “That was creepy, best friend. Like, for reals.”

I shrug, pretending to be more casual than I feel. The truth is that I’m freaking out inside, but I’m not about to reveal that. “At least it worked.”

“Did it?” Henry laughs hollowly. “What do you think you accomplished, my dear?”

“ My dear ?” I lift a brow.

“You definitely just aged yourself,” Aislin adds, standing beside me. “So, you might as well fess up and tell us what you are.”

He laughs again, and then his eyes darken. “You may have caught me off guard once, but it won’t happen again.” He bends his leg. “I’m far more powerful than you.”

“If that’s so, then why haven’t you done anything yet?” Aislin challenges haughtily, flipping her hair off her shoulder and giving him a smirk.

I bite back a laugh as Henry glares at her.

“In this body, I can’t access my powers.” He pushes to his feet and inches toward us. “But when I come out of it, I’ll come after you.”

“Thanks for the heads-up,” I quip. “For future record, when creating a diabolic plan, you should probably keep it to yourself. Surprise attacks are much better. Like what we did with you.”

His eyes flash bright red, and then he lunges at us. But he crashes against the invisible barrier and flies backward, slamming into the shower door with enough force that the glass shatters.

“Um, whoopsie.” I glance at Aislin, whose expression matches mine. “We may not have thought that part through.”

Aislin shrugs. “It’s a good thing my father is paying for this.”

“Isn’t it Alex?”

“Alex used cash from our dad.”

“Oh.” The idea that Stephan will be paying for this makes it not as bad.

“Funny you mention your father.” Henry stands back up and brushes fragments of glass from his hair. Glass crunches beneath his sneakers as he slowly walks back toward us. “He might not pay for these damages if he knows you have one of his warriors locked up in the bathroom.” At our confusion, a cocky grin consumes his face as he cocks his head to the side. “Aw, you don’t know Daddy Dearest is having me spy on you. Interesting.” He rubs his jawline.

Aislin balls her hands at her sides. “You’re lying.”

Me? I dither between denying that Aislin and Alex’s father could be part of this, but seeing as how the man who found me in the basement could … Well, they’re the same man, and the version of Stephan who found me in front of that machine could be part of some evil plot to …

I’m not sure yet.

“Am I?” he mocks, lowering his hand to his side.

“You know what?” I say to Aislin while keeping my gaze fixed on Henry. “I think you should blast him with a boils spell. That could be fun.”

Henry’s expression falls. “You’d hurt Henry, too, if you did that.”

I casually shrug. It’s all bravado. I’m just crossing my fingers he doesn’t call my bluff. “Why would I care about that?”

“Because you like him.” He says it like it’s so obvious.

“I mean, he’s an acquaintance, for sure, but like we learned in class, sometimes you’ve gotta make sacrifices for the greater good.” I raise my shoulders, like, what’re you gonna do?

“You accepted a date with him,” Henry stresses. “You have to like him.”

“I was being polite.” That part is true.

His lips curl, revealing his teeth. “You’re a cruel girl.”

“ I’m cruel?” I point at myself. “You’re possessing someone.”

“And we want to know why,” Aislin adds, flicking her wrists and causing sparks of silver magic to cascade to the floor.

“Even if I wanted to tell you, I couldn’t. I’ve been bound by a blood promise.” He smiles as our expressions crumble.

“If that’s the case, then you were lying about Stephan having you do this,” Aislin snaps.

“There’s a loophole.” His gaze snaps to me. “Gemma should know. Her mere existence is a loophole.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I ask, trying not to squirm.

Henry merely shrugs then turns around and sits down on the floor, right on top of the glass. “One thing about barrier spells is that they wear off quickly. So, I guess we’ll see who lasts longer.”

“We’ll torture you,” Aislin warns with her fists clenched.

“Like I care,” Henry replies with that stupid grin on his face. “I’m a demon—I can live through a little torture.” He laughs.

Aislin and I trade a look, both of our expressions revealing our thoughts.

If Henry is telling the truth—that he’s possessed by a demon—we’re so screwed.