I have no idea why he’s being agreeable, and honestly, I don’t like it. It makes him seem even more sketchy and untrustworthy than he already is.
“Where’s my mom?” I ask Nicholas.
He gives a shrug. “How should I know? She’s your mother. I just know she’s here, not what she looks like.”
Shaking my head, I turn to Laylen. “Do you want to look left, and I’ll take the right?”
Laylen nods then disappears around the left side of the crystal ball while I head right.
“What about me?” Nicholas calls out after me. “What should I do?”
I ignore him, scanning the features of each person I pass. The longer I search, the more I question if this is just another one of Nicholas’s games, some stupid trick like the ones he used to pull when we were kids.
When we were younger, I always hated when he visited the Keepers’ castle. Everything was a joke to him, and he constantly teased Gemma. There was one specific time when he almost convinced her to go swimming in the lake when she couldn’t swim. That day, I lost it and made a plan to get rid of him. Gemma and I had stolen the Cruciatus diamond—the Queen of The Underworld’s diamond—and when my father went looking for it, I blamed Nicholas, said he took it. My father was so furious he never allowed Nicholas back into the castle. He’s had a grudge against me ever since, but the feeling is completely mutual.
I abruptly slow to a stop as I catch sight of someone who resembles my mother. Her skin is much paler than I remember, and her dark hair has thinned, but beneath her weakened state, I can see it—the person who used to take care of me.
I hurriedly yank out the tubes and snap the chains, catching her weight as she slumps against me.
Her eyelids lift open. “Is it time?”
“Yeah, it’s time. I’m going get you out of here.” I shift her weight, leaning her against my shoulder as I wrap my arm around her. “Just hang on.”
Blood drips from her skin where the tubes were. “But it’s time, right? For Gemma to go to the Afterlife?”
I almost drop her on the floor. “You know about that?”
“Of course I know,” she says, her voice feeble. “That’s what I’ve been waiting for. It’s kind of the whole point of all of this.”
I have a ton of questions, but I shove them away for now. “Let’s get you out of here, okay?”
Laylen races over and drapes my mom’s arm around his neck. Then the three of us all head for the door.
Nicholas bows his head as we approach him. “Alana.”
My mother smiles weakly at him while I shoot him a death glare.
“Wait? How can you see him?” I ask.
“I’m part of death now, Alex,” she answers, her head slumping to the side.
“Oh, yeah, I guess that makes sense.” I balance my mom against me, and we follow Nicholas out of the room.
Once we get far enough away from the enormous crystal ball, Nicholas takes out the miniature traveling ball. “Do I need to ask where we’re going?”
“You already know,” my mother replies, leaning against me. “To Gemma. Take us to Gemma now before it’s too late.”
“Too late for what?” I ask.
“Let’s hope you don’t ever have to find out,” she says.
Nicholas sticks out his hand with the crystal balanced in his palm. “All right, who wants to go—?”
“Put the crystal down,” Dyvinius’s voice echoes through the cave.
When I look over my shoulder and spot him hurrying up the path toward us, I quickly place my mother’s hand on the crystal ball. “You know where Gemma’s old house is, right?”
She nods, and then she’s sucked into the crystal.
“I ordered you to stop!” Dyvinius cries out, his silver cape swishing behind him as he picks up the pace.
Laylen hurries and dives through the crystal. Then I reach for it, but Nicholas moves it behind his back.
“I should just leave you here, let them tie you up to the crystal again.”
“That’s fine,” I say. “Enjoy your death.”
He glares at me and I glare right back.
“I hate you,” he says, moving the crystal back in front of him.
“Trust me, the feeling’s mutual.” I place my hand on the crystal ball right as Dyvinius reaches us.
“Finally,” Nicholas says as he drops down into the living room. He puts the crystal away in his pocket then dusts off his hands. “My work is done.”