how he feels about things, but if you’ve known him for as long as I have, then you’d know it’s mostly an act.”
I was just about to open my mouth and tell him that I still didn’t believe that Alex liked being around me, but the sound of approaching footsteps made me stop.
Laylen and I froze, and we both shot a quick glance behind us. But there was nothing.
“Where’s it coming from,” I whispered.
He shook his head, and scooted us over to the side of the path, where we stepped off of a ledge and down onto a glistening surface of blue glass that was as slippery as ice. He took my hand, and we hurried over to a massive crystal pillar that coiled down from the ceiling and connected to the ground. Right as we tucked ourselves behind the pillar, I caught a glimpse of a tall figure walking down the path.
“Someone’s coming,” I whispered to Laylen.
He gave me a nervous glance and then carefully peeked around the pillar. “What the…”
“Who is it?” I whispered.
“There’s no one there,” he told me, shaking his head.
I furrowed my eyebrows and then peeked around the pillar. I, however, was met by a pair of golden eyes that belonged to a very tricky faerie/Foreseer.
I jerked backward, but Nicholas caught me by the arm and reeled me into him. He moved away from the pillar, backing across the slippery glass at a speed I’d never be able to pull off.
“I knew you’d show up here,” Nicholas breathed in my ear, still backing us away from the pillar—and from Laylen. “I knew you would come and try to save him.”
I fought to get free, but my feet kept slipping out from under me.
Nicholas whirled me around, wrapped his arms around me, and pulled me forcefully against him. “Try anything funny, and I’ll have you out of here before you can even blink.”
“Nicholas,” Laylen called out as he chased after us. “Let her go.”
“Come any closer,” Nicholas warned, holding up the ruby-filled crystal ball that apparently he had in his hand the entire time. “And I’ll have her out of her before you can reach us.”
Laylen slid to a halt, but a look of rage on his face stayed.
“Wise choice,” Nicholas said, his damp breath hitting my cheek.
“What do you want?” Laylen asked, his bright blue eyes targeted on Nicholas.
Nicholas traced a finger down my cheek, sending a shiver crawling down my spine. “I have what I want right here.”
Yuck. I was so tired of ending up like this—trapped against Nicholas.
Laylen got this look on his face, like he was trying really hard to figure out how to free me from Nicholas before he took me away from the City of Crystal. I was panicking with the thought that Nicholas would end up winning. And if he did then…Well, I didn’t even want to think about the possibilities of what would happen if he did.
Nicholas strengthened his hold on me, the ruby-filled ball glowing in his hand. He was breathing deep, his chest rising and falling, as he raised the crystal ball up in the air. There was a blur of colors that swooshed toward us and then came a loud crack, followed by a soft thump.
I learned something new.
Vampires are fast. And I mean fast.
One second Laylen had been a ways away from us, and the next second he was right there.
It was amazing.
Another second and he’d knocked Nicholas out. Yep, actually knocked him out…I think.
“Is he…alive?” I asked, staring down at Nicholas’s body sprawled across the icy blue glass.
“Yeah, he’s good—just unconscious.” Laylen bent down and looped his arms underneath Nicholas’s arms. “We’ll let him sleep it off, and hopefully we’ll be long gone by the time he wakes up.”
“And what if we’re not?” I asked scooting out of the way so Laylen could drag Nicholas behind the pillar.
“Guess we’ll have to make sure we hurry.”
“Hurry?” I looked around at the giant cave we were standing in. “But we still don’t know where to go.”
Laylen didn’t say anything, only taking my arm to help me keep my balance as we walked back across the icy, blue glass. By the time we’d stepped back up onto the translucent crystal floor, I was extremely worried. Nicholas could wake up at any moment, and he probably would be super pissed when he did. And we still needed to find Alex.
As I rattled my brain for a solution on how to do this, besides searching the entire city