that Aleesa’s still missing, and we need to find her.”
“We will.” I slam to a stop, and Aislin runs into me. “There we go. An unmarked one.”
Aislin assess the woman I point at.
“Maybe I should handle this so you don’t piss her off.”
“Hey, I can be charming when I need to.”
“No, you just think you can,” she says. “Give me a few seconds to talk to her, okay?” Then she marches up to the witch with her shoulders held high.
They talk for a minute or two before they both push their way through the mob, heading toward me.
“This is Emilia, and she’s going to help us,” Aislin says, “as long as we offer her protection while she does.”
I nod. “Let’s hurry, though, before we’re too late.”
The moment we step inside the store, I freeze at the lack of electricity in the air. A rush of cold hits me next, and I know the Death Walkers have been here.
I sprint into the living room as rage floods my body.
The table, the chairs, and walls are all glazed over with ice. And lifelessly lying on the floor is a Death Walker with a gaping hole in the center of its rotting chest
“Dammit!” I kick the tipped over table. “I’m so sick of this shit! I’m so sick of losing her! I just want to fucking hold her in my goddamn arms and not have to worry about Death Walkers, Black Angels, and my father. I just want us to be . . . normal!”
Aislin and Emilia come rushing into the room.
“What on earth is this?” Emilia asks, horrified. “I didn’t sign up for this.” She backs toward the door, her eyes wide as she gapes at the dead Death Walker. “You said I’d be safe. This isn’t safe.”
Aislin shakes her head, her eyes watery. “They made it out alive,” she whispers more to herself. “They had to.”
I point my knife at the dead Death Walker. “Who killed that, though?”
Before Aislin can answer, Emilia screams at the top of her lungs and runs out of the room.
“I’ll go get her,” Aislin says before racing after her.
I crouch down to examine the Death Walker. The only thing that can kill a Death Walker is the Sword of Immortality. I can see where the blade pierced its chest, but what I don’t get is where the sword came from, because the last time I checked, my father had it.
“Gemma, where are you?” I stand up and circle the room.
Everything is frosted over except for the front window, which strangely is open. I walk over, sticking my head outside, and spot a single purple flower sitting on the windowsill, the same kind of flower that was in the field where we met while Gemma was dreaming. And it’s the same kind of flower I used to pick for her when we would walk out to our hideout.
I shut my eyes, and just like that, she’s pulled me into a dream. Only this time, it’s not a dream filled with kisses and touching. This time, there’s nothing but chaos as she shows me the horror that happened . . .
I’m standing at the side of the room, watching as Laylen and Gemma sit there and chat on the sofa. I try to say something to her, but unlike the other times we’ve met in her dreams, she doesn’t seem to hear me.
“You know what? I think I kind of like the wings.” Laylen caresses the feathers on her back, making my blood boil.
“Don’t be weird,” she jokes, pulling a face at the wings.
“I’m not being weird.” He gives her a teasing smile. “Hey, what if you can fly?”
“I can’t fly,” she says, but then her brows knit together in that cute way that means she’s thinking deeply about something. “Can I?”
“You should try it,” Laylen encourages.
She only sighs, leaning back against the couch. “This sucks. I should be trying to find a way to get into the Afterlife, and instead, I’m stuck here.”
“We’ll get it all fixed,” he assures her. “We always do.”
“I hope so.” She kicks her boots up onto the table. “Although, sometimes I wish we could just take off and run away from it all like Adessa and Tesha.”
Laylen leans back, resting his arms behind his head. “I still can’t believe they bailed.”
“Wouldn’t you run away if you could?”
“Maybe,” he says, pondering something. “Do you think maybe in another life, if we’d been born human, without marks, without all of this, we could’ve lived