I now realized they had actual eye sockets, just no eyeballs. I almost threw up.
“Now, which way to go here?” the Queen dithered. “Oh, I know. Since you guys were so kind to bring it back to me.” She reached into the pocket of her white dress and pulled out the teardrop-shaped sapphire diamond. “Let’s use this to torture her soul.”
Was she serious? Torture my soul. My soul. No freaking way.
Panicking, I yanked at the straps, pulling and tugging as hard as I could. But it was useless. The Queen handed the diamond to one of the Water Faeries and it came face-to-face with me. As it reached its bony fingers toward my mouth with the diamond resting in its hand, I couldn’t help but let out the most blood curdling scream.
And then….it dropped to the floor.
Chapter 36
Okay, I should probably explain what happened a little bit better. The Water Faerie dropped to the floor, not my soul. It’s body hit the cement floor with a loud thump, along with every other faerie in the room, including the Queen herself.
There was this moment where Alex and I just looked at each other with wide eyes, and then Alex was running for me.
“What the heck happened?” I asked, as he worked to get the straps unfastened.
“I have no idea,” he said, slipping the buckle loose. “Let’s go.”
I jumped to my feet, and we ran passed the lifeless bodies of the Water Faeries and out the door. To our shock, the Water Faeries, who had been in that room, had sank to the floor as well.
I stood there gaping at the scene in sheer and utter bewilderment.
One of the men strapped to a table begged me to free him. “Come on little girl,” he said. “Just undo the straps, okay. I promise I don’t bite.”
“Gemma.” Alex’s voice brought me back to reality. “Come on.” His hand was extended out to me.
I glanced at the man, who was still begging me to let him go.
“They’re here for a reason,” Alex said. “Now come on. We have to go, before they…” he glanced at the faeries lifeless bodies scattered across the floor. “Wake up, I guess?”
I nodded—he was right. I took his hand, and we sprinted down the tunnel.
“We have to find water,” Alex said as we ran toward where the cell doors were.
“Wait,” I said, pulling back. “We have to find my mom first?”
He shook his head, trying to drag me forward. “No, we have to go. We don’t know how long they’ll be out.”
“I’m not going without her,” I said sternly, refusing to budge. “I came down here to rescue her, and I’m not leaving until I do. Besides, this is our only chance to free her—we’ll never be able to come back.”
“We have no idea where she is,” he argued. “It could take forever.”
“Fine.” I slipped my hand free from his and dodged around him. “You go find water,” I called over my shoulder, heading for a cell door, “But I’m going to go find my mom.”
Alex let out a frustrated breath, but he followed after me. “Gemma, we need to go now.”
Ignoring him, I unlatched the first cell door I came across and opened it up. The room was empty. “We’ll never get answers if we don’t find her…” I hurried to the next cell door and opened it up. Empty again. “Like you said, she knows things. That’s why she’s down here.” I unlocked a third door, starting to wonder if maybe I was on the wrong track with the cell doors. “And if we don’t get some answers, the world’s going to end. I’ve seen….” I opened the third door and immediately trailed off, my jaw dropping at the sight of a woman, sitting on the bed, wearing ratted old clothes. Her brown hair trailed down her back, and her bright blue irises were as blank as my eyes had been before I experienced the prickle. But despite the blank look, I knew…she was my mother.
Her head slowly turned and she looked at me, but there was no recognition that she knew who I was.
“Mom,” I whispered. The word felt so strange coming out of my mouth.
She blinked at me, but that was it. There was nothing there—no life, no spark, no nothing.
“Jocelyn,” Alex said, from over my shoulder. “Are you alright?”
Still, my mother stared at us with nothing more than a look of emptiness.
I felt like I might start crying, but knew I couldn’t. Now was not