him with my knife and set it down on the dresser. “Answer my questions.”
“First, you’re going to bring me back to life,” he demands.
I shake my head. “Nope. You first.”
We stare each other down, a challenge between the dead and the living. I remember the days when I used to beat the shit out of him to get him to talk. I really do miss those days.
“Jocelyn’s gone,” he tells me, “but I’d like to point out that I warned her they don’t like me down in the Afterlife because I’m a half-breed.”
I want to rip his head off. “What do you mean, ‘gone’?”
He shrugs, sitting down on the bed. “When we showed up in the Afterlife, Annabella collected her essence and forced her to cross over. She’s moved on, past the ghost life.”
A lump forms in my throat, and I have to force it down before I speak. “So Gemma won’t ever see her again?”
“Jocelyn was never supposed to be here,” he says with an eye roll. “I already told you this. She had a brief gap between her death and crossing over where she could roam free, but unlike me, it was her time to go, and Annabella made sure she went.”
God, how am I going to break the news to Gemma? She was so determined her mom was going to come find her again, and now she’s never going to see her.
As my worry for Gemma swells inside me, I feel my life fading away. It’s the same thing that happened when I was kissing her in the hideout. I almost died, and I know why.
Because I’m falling in love with her.
“And what about my mom?” I ask cautiously, trying to keep my emotions intact. If I lose control, that might be it for me, and I can’t die yet. I have to save her. “Do you know where she is?”
“I thought she was dead, too.”
“Watch it,” I warn, aiming the knife at him again. “It’s your life at stake here. If you don’t help me, then I don’t help you.”
“Oh, I beg to differ.” He laughs at me. “This is so funny—watching you stress out because I know where your mom is and you don’t.”
Something snaps inside me, and I lunge for him, sailing right through him and landing on the bed, bouncing on the mattress and hitting my head against the headboard.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Laylen asks, gaping at me like I’ve lost my damn mind
“Trying to kill a ghost,” I growl, springing from the bed.
Nicholas laughs again as he dances around the room and spins circles around Laylen. “This is so much fun.”
I storm for the door. “Fuck you. I’m tired of this shit. Laylen, let’s go.”
“Wait,” Nicholas calls out in panic.
I smile to myself because he took the bait. “What?” I snap as I turn around.
“I might know where Alana is,” he says, stepping away from Laylen. “She’s trapped in a place where you yourself were once imprisoned.”
“What are you . . . ?” A revelation clicks, and it’s brutally painful, like a knife to the heart. “The City of Crystal . . . She’s trapped in that massive crystal. But how is that possible? She’s a Banshee.”
“Banshees, fey, vampires, all kinds have been trapped there at one point or another. And otherworld creatures give out the best power.” A shit-eating smirk comes across his face. “Amazing, isn’t it? You were once trapped there with her, and you didn’t even know it.”
“Take me there,” I demand as guilt piles on my shoulders.
She was there the whole time. How did I not know?
“Not until you tell me how to bring myself back to life,” he says, crossing his arms.
I flip the knife closed and shove it into my pocket. “When I free the lost souls from the Afterlife, I’ll make sure to include you.”
“You say it like you’re the one going.” He shakes his head and rolls his eyes. “That’s never going to happen, no matter how much you want it to.”
I gesture around the room. “Gemma’s not here, is she? And I have the ring, and as soon as I get my mother out of the City, I’ll have my ticket to the Afterlife.”
He erupts in laughter, hunching over and gasping for air. “You still don’t get it,” he says as his laughter dies down. “It has to be Gemma. It always has been and always will be. All of this was planned out before she was even born.”