She winces, blinking dazedly. “A zombie? Why on earth would she think I’m a zombie?”
“Because apparently you’re supposed to be dead, and clearly you’re not.”
As she glances at the knife in my hand, I can see her mentally calculating whether to steal it from me or not.
“Choose your next move really carefully,” I warn. “I won’t hesitate to kill you if I have to.”
She shakes her head, sitting up. “You’re just like your father,” she bites out as she wipes some dirt away from her cheeks.
My eyelids narrow to slits. “See, now that’s the kind of thing to say if you want to get killed.”
She shakes her head, glancing around her kitchen, looking disoriented. “Sorry. I’m so confused. I can barely remember anything except”—her brows knit—“Aislin and that vampire showing up.”
“What are you talking about? When were they here?”
“I don’t know.” She massages her temples. “My brain feels so foggy . . . I can remember Gemma disappearing and Stephan yelling at me for letting it happen. Then he went on this rampage and started murdering Keepers. Marco and I were going to run, but Aislin and that vampire showed up then threw me through that trapdoor and used magic to seal it. They said they needed my gift of unus quisnam aufero animus to detach Gemma’s soul again. When Stephan found us, I was stuck behind that door, but I could hear him . . . killing . . .” Tears flood her eyes as a sob rips from her throat. “He killed Marco.”
“Okay.” I try to be compassionate, but I’ve never really been that good at it. “Why didn’t you just bang on the trapdoor to begin with, though? We could have freed you weeks ago when we first showed up here.”
“Because of this.” She jerks up her sleeves, revealing the triangular mark on her arm. “It’s begging me not to keep quiet any longer.”
She lunges for me, bearing her teeth, and I clock her in the face, knocking her out again. Her body slumps to the floor as Aislin and Laylen come rushing in.
She catches sight of the unconscious Sophia and stops dead in her tracks. “She’s still passed out? I thought I heard her talking.”
“She was, but I had to knock her out again because of the mark,” I say then quickly add, “And I think you two have some explaining to do, because she says you two are the reason she was stuck down there.”
Aislin scratches her head, glancing confusedly at Laylen. “She’s lying. She has to be.”
“What happened during that time you two disappeared?” I cross my arms. “And not just recently. I mean a month ago in Colorado. When Aislin transported Gemma and I to the cabin then went back for you”—I point my knife at Laylen—“you guys just disappeared.”
“We already told you we were running from the Death Walkers in Nevada.” Laylen leans against the doorway, his face laced with confusion. “That’s where we were.” He looks at Aislin. “Weren’t we?”
Aislin’s face contorts in perplexity. “I really don’t know.”
“You two seemed pretty confident when you showed up in Colorado to save us, and now you’re saying you have no clue what you were doing? Seems a little bit odd if you ask me.”
“Well, you seemed pretty confident when you told us the Death Walkers just picked up your dad and left,” Laylen counters. “Seems just as suspicious.”
“Why are we even arguing about this?” Aislin asks. “It’s in the past, and we should focus on the future. You know, the one we’re supposed to save.”
“It’s important,” I say, “because we might have a traitor in our midst.”
GEMMA
The queen’s liquid body slides like a blob down the tunnel as she leads me to her sister Annabella. White wisps of ribbon dangle from the ceiling around us and brush against my head as we duck into an open area lined with blooming tulips and roses. Petals float through the air as a light breeze sweeps across the garden.
“She’s going to want something from you,” Helena explains to me, running her fingers along the flowers as she passes them. The petals instantly wilt from the contact and crumble to the ground. “An essence would work well if you have one on your hands to give.”
I flick a dead rose petal off my arm. “Okay, but what exactly is an essence?”
She twirls around on the path, making the petals dance with her. She laughs as she stops, and all the petals