she was wearing. “I just have one more question before I explain what I know. The day Gemma started to feel, were you there at her house?”
I’m pretty sure that everyone’s eyes, including my own, widened in shock.
“Why the heck would you think that?” Alex asked, baffled. “I wasn’t allowed to be near her.”
“I understand that,” my mom’s voice was calm. “But I need to know if, by some chance, you decided to break the rule your father set of not being allowed to go near her.”
Everyone waited for him to answer, but I’m sure I was the one most eager to hear what he was going to say.
Alex gazed out at the ocean, his bright green eyes twinkling in the sun like emeralds. “It was something I couldn’t help…going there.”
“I understand that,” my mom said. “More than I think even you do.”
I didn’t get what was going on here. Why hadn’t Alex told me this? Then again, why was I getting surprised over this? This was Alex. But, I don’t know, I thought he’d been a little better about not keeping secrets. I guess I was wrong.
“So, you were at Marco and Sophia’s the day my emotions returned,” I asked Alex, angrily. “And you never told me.”
He avoided looking at me as he shrugged. ‘It wasn’t that big of a deal. I mean, so what if I went there.”
“Alex, I’m fairly sure you’re the one who brought Gemma’s emotions back to her,” my mom said as patiently as ever. “See there’s a connection between you two, which is where the electricity comes from.”
“What’s the connection?” My words rushed out.
She took a deep breath, and said two simple words. But they were two words that would change everything.
“The star.”
Chapter 40
“The star,” I repeated my mother’s words. “How does that connect us? I mean, it’s only in me so I…” I trialed off as a thought occurred to me. Electricity that flowed between two people—it was something that always seemed so impossible, yet every time I was around Alex, there it was. I could feel it buzzing right now, hot and shimmering. But, I only felt it with Alex and never anyone else, which meant what…oh. “Does Alex have a star’s power in him too?”
“Are you crazy?” Alex practically yelled at me. “Why would you even think that?”
I glared at him. “Why would someone ever think I was carrying around a star’s energy inside me? They wouldn’t. But yet I am.”
“I don’t know…” He had this look on his face like he was trying to cause trouble. “They might, considering how you are.”
“What unemotional,” I said furiously.
“Okay, you two,” my mother interrupted, which was a good thing because I could feel the electricity on the rise, so things were about to get really heated. “Alex, Gemma’s right. You do have a star’s energy in you. Not a separate star, but the same one.”
Alex was shaking his head. “No. There’s no way. How could a star’s power accidently get transferred into Gemma and me?”
“Because it wasn’t an accident,” my mother said and motioned her hand around at all of us. “None of it was. All of this—all of you happened for a reason. Gemma having the star in her—you having the star in you. Aislin being a witch, and Laylen being a vampire. None of this was an accident.”
My heart was beating a million miles a minute, like an insane humming bird was in my chest. I glanced at Laylen, remembering how Nicholas said Stephan had created him, and how Laylen had told me he couldn’t recollect how he had been changed. Memory loss, just like me.
“So what you’re saying,” Laylen said, speaking slowly as if he’d forgotten how to form words. “Is that I was bitten on purpose—that Stephan had a vampire bite me?”
My mother nodded and then looked at all of us gravely. “Stephan has been planning this out for years—ever since he found out the portal could be opened.” She sighed, looking drowsy. “Stephan’s been looking for a way to free Malefiscus since the mark first appeared on his face. No one knew about his mark, though, because his parents cut it off and tried to keep it hidden. I didn’t even know he had it until it was too late.” She swallowed hard. “Stephan is a descendent of Malefiscus, but I’m not sure how. I don’t think either of his parents bore the mark.”
“I still don’t get it, though.” Alex said. “You say all of us play a