to be in a lot of pain. But, was he talking about the physical kind of pain or the emotional kind?
“Look,” he said, before I could ask him to clarify which kind of pain he was referring to. “No matter what happens, I need you to hold on, okay? No matter how bad things get, don’t give up.”
The idea of not giving up was suddenly eating away at me. “But wouldn’t it be better if I didn’t hold on? If I just let myself go?”
He looked alarmed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I don’t know…” The prickle was starting to poke at me. Poke, poke, poke. I scratched viciously at the back of my neck. “It means, wouldn’t things be better if I was gone?”
His eyes widened, and he looked as if he was freaking out. Not the reaction I was expecting, but okay. “Wh—why are you saying this?” he asked.
The prickle was really going at it. “Because, it would be better for a whole lot of people if I was. I mean, if I might be the one who’s going to open the portal instead of closing it, wouldn’t that make me be responsible for everyone’s deaths?”
“Where did you get the idea that you’re what’s going to open up the portal.”
“It’s kind of obvious, once I really thought about it. I mean Stephan’s working with the Death Walkers, bares the Mark of Malefiscus, and I saw him in that vision where the world had ended in ice. What do all those things have in common? They’re all bad. So why would Stephan want the star’s power for anything good.”
Alex rubbed his hands across his face, I think, maybe to hide the fact that he thought the same thing I did. When he dropped his hands, though, the look on his face took me back.
“I don’t care what you think the star’s energy is being used for.” His bright green-eyed gaze burned into me. “We came down here to save your mom, so we could try to piece this all together and come up with a plan to stop it. And until we get all that done you can’t give up. You can’t give up before we’ve really even tried, okay?”
Who was this guy sitting next to me, staring at me with such an intense look of determination in his eyes? Yeah, I knew it was Alex, but not the Alex who I first met.
“Okay,” I said, forcing my strange “giving up feeling” away for the moment. “I won’t give up until we’ve tried.”
He nodded and we both sat there in the silence again, staring at the cement wall in front of us. Alex put his knife back in his pocket, slid his hand over, and set it on top of mine. I shut my eyes and let the buzzing take me away from this horrible place. I let in deafen out the screams. I let it sweep me away.
Chapter 35
Alex and I stayed the way we were until the door to our cell swung open. When I opened my eyes, I saw that a Water Faerie was hovering in the doorway. I thought about running—knocking the Water Faerie down and bolting for an exit. Although there wasn’t anywhere for me to go…“Oh my God,” I breathed.
Alex looked from the Water Faerie to me. “It’ll be okay, Gemma. Just make sure you hold on.”
I grabbed his arm, my eyes widening as I whispered, “I think I might know a way to get out of here.”
“What?” he said loudly and I shushed him.
“It’s time.” The Queen appeared in the doorway. “Both of you follow me.”
I got to my feet, but Alex just sat there staring at me, still shocked by what I said. He was probably wondering how the heck I could know there was a way out of here. The only reason I did know there might be a way out was because of Laylen’s and my trip to see Vladislav. See, during our visit, when we asked Vladislav if anyone had ever escaped The Underworld, he said yes, and then added that most of the people who do try to escape drown during the attempt. So there was another way out of here besides through the Ira. There was a way by water.
But where was the water? The Underworld was supposed to be below the lake so…I glanced up at the ceiling, at the water dripping down from it.
“Hurry up!” The Queen roared.
Alex got to his feet, and we followed