He considered this carefully. “Go over and take her hand, but move slowly—see if you can get her to come with us.”
I looked at him with terrified eyes. “Maybe you should do it?”
He shook his head. “No, this is something I think you have to do.”
Whether he was right or not, I took a deep breath and made my way cautiously into the room. My mother made no reaction, just sitting there, her hands resting on her lap.
“Mom,” I said, reaching my hand out toward her. “It’s Gemma…your daughter.”
She looked at me, and then suddenly, she was really looking at me. She got to her feet and moved in for a hug, but then pulled back quickly, cradling her arms across her chest.
“Gemma,” she said, not looking happy, but horrified. “What are you two doing down here.” Her voice was sharp and it made me cower back. “You shouldn’t be down here.”
“We came here to save you.” My voice wobbled.
“Well, you shouldn’t have,” she said sternly. “How did you even get down here?”
“With an…Ira.”
Her eyes didn’t widen in surprise. In fact, she acted as if she predicted me to say that. “Well you have to leave now.”
Easier said than done. “We would, but…my Foreseer power isn’t working at the moment.”
She shook her head. “I was hoping that would skip you.”
What the heck was she talking about? “Huh?”
She started to say something else, but a loud cry, like an angry cat, screeched from somewhere.
“We have to go.” She rubbed her forehead. “But how am I supposed to get you out of here?”
“We need to get to water,” Alex told her as he entered the room. “There’s supposed to be a place somewhere down here that will take us up through the lake. A water route, maybe? Do you know where it is?”
“We can’t go anywhere.” She frowned. “The Fey will make us suffer if we try.”
“The Water Faeries are out for the moment,” Alex told her in a gentle voice. “So they can’t make you suffer. But we have to hurry before they wake up.”
She stared at us in confusion, and then suddenly her eyes lit up. “Oh my God, I completely forgot about that.” She brushed past Alex and I and ran out into the tunnel.
Alex and I gave each other a look, and then we chased after her.
“Mom,” I yelled. “Where are you going?”
She kept running down the tunnel, her bare feet thumping against the dirt floor. Another cat-like screech rang out from somewhere, and Alex and I sped up our pace and caught up with my mother.
“You forget things sometimes!” she shouted at us as we ran. “Being down here, it messes with your mind and sometimes you just forget.”
Forget what? Where the exit was? “But do you remember where it is now?” I asked.
She nodded, and a burst of adrenaline soared through me. We ran deeper into the darkness, weaving and turning through the tunnel. I crossed my fingers that my mom really knew where she was going. The cries and screams seemed to be filling the air more and more, and I worried that the Water Faeries were waking up. My mother seemed unbothered by the screams. She just kept running, and didn’t stop until we entered into the cave with the rocked-shaped throne that twisted up to the quartz ceiling.
My mom sprinted over to the throne and circled around it as she stared up at the ceiling. “When I first came here, I was told that if you climbed up the back of the throne it would take you to a place where you could escape. The problem was, I never had a chance to get away. And after awhile, I just sort of forgot about trying.” She stepped up onto the throne and climbed up the back of it. The twisting shape was like a slide, which made it hard to climb. But, even though it was tricky, she managed to make it all the way up with only a few slips, and then she disappeared through a small hole in the ceiling.
I looked at Alex, stunned.
“Alright,” he said, hopping up onto the throne. “Let’s go.” He reached up and pulled himself onto the back of the throne. I followed him, but I moved less gracefully than he did. I even managed to scrape my knee of the rock more than once. But finally, I was pulling myself up into the hole where my