Death Walkers close in on Laylen and Gemma, but Gemma extends her wings and twirls around in a circle. The powerful feathered wings hit the Death Walkers, and they drop to the ground like dominoes. Gemma grabs Aleesa’s hand then Laylen’s before she kisses the flower and tosses it onto the windowsill.
“You know where to find me,” she whispers, and then the three of them disappear.
GEMMA
“I think my wing’s broken,” I complain, tucking the feathers inward. “I think the Death Walker’s ice did it or something.”
We’re in my old, childhood hideout with candles lit along the narrow room hidden inside a hill. Laylen is inspecting my wing while Aleesa lies on the floor, passed out from exhaustion.
“Does it hurt when I do this?” Laylen brushes his fingers along the tips of the feathers.
“Yeah.” I wince, my muscles tightening as pain shoots through the wing.
Laylen sighs then rests back against the dirt wall. “I’m not a doctor or anything, but I’m guessing it might be broken. Let’s just hope Aislin and Alex show up soon so we can do the spell and turn you back into you.” He pauses, rubbing his jawline. “Although, I still don’t get why you think they’ll be able to find us here.”
I shrug, leaning back against the wall. “It has to do with the flower I left in the windowsill.” I’m just hoping Alex will be able to find it.
I think he did . . . I had a dream that he did, anyway.
“What are we going to do when Aleesa wakes up?” I ask, yawning and stretching my arms above my head. “She’s going to act crazy.”
“I think we should find a place to lock her up until Aislin removes the mark.” He massages his arm where his Mark of Malefiscus used to be.
“Yeah, I guess.” But I’m starting to run out of ideas of places we can hide.
“Nice punch, by the way,” Laylen says with a proud smile. “I’ve been waiting for someone to do that to Stephan for a long time.”
I flex my fingers. “It did feel kind of good.”
As more time drifts by, I grow concerned that Alex didn’t find the flower and that my dream was only a dream. But about an hour later, smoke funnels around the room, and then Alex and Aislin appear in front of us.
My skin hums as I jump to my feet, so overwhelmed to see him that I start crying.
“You found us.” I throw my arms around him and hug him tightly.
“Of course I found you.” He buries his face into the crook of my neck. “I knew the moment I saw the flower that you probably came here.”
I suck back the tears and lean away to look at him. “Did you find a witch to help me?”
Alex shifts uncomfortably, keeping a firm grip on my hips. “We kind of ran into a problem with that.”
My elation crashes to the ground. “What kind of a problem?”
Aislin raises her hand, showing us a giant red X tattooing her flesh. “This kind of a problem.”
Alex sighs tiredly. “She’s been branded, which means no other witch will work with her again.”
ALEX
The look on Gemma’s face when I tell her the heart-crushing news that we don’t have a witch is enough to kill me.
I’m still pissed off that Aislin managed to get herself branded.
After I left Gemma’s dream of her escaping Stephan, Aislin and I went to track Emilia down so we could still do the spell when we came to the hideout. Turns out, Emilia had gathered her own mob of witches who blamed us for the Death Walkers showing up in Sin City. To punish Aislin, they marked her with the x so no other witch will ever work with her again.
“So I’m stuck like this forever?” Gemma sucks back the tears, her wings curling inward as her shoulders slump.
“We’ll find a way to fix this,” I promise her, cupping her face between my hands and wiping away the tears. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you. You know that.”
She sniffles. “I know you’ll try, but not everything’s in your hands, Alex. Sometimes shit just happens, and you can’t do anything about it.” As she starts to step away from me, one of her wings clips the wall, and she winces
“What happened?” I touch the wing, noting it looks crooked.
“It’s been like that ever since the Death Walkers and your dad showed up,” she says, frowning over her shoulder at