I hate to break it to you, but you’re already kind of there.”
“I stole it from Nalina,” I explain, heading for the bench. “Nalina is Luna’s granddaughter.”
“Wait a minute. Didn’t Nalina say she was your aunt?” she questions as she lowers herself down onto the bench. Her eyes are a little wide and glossy as she stares at the cliff where Aleesa fell, but then she gasps as she puts the pieces together. “So you’re Luna’s great-granddaughter?” It comes out loud and I throw my hand over her mouth.
“Shh…” I put my finger to my lip, shaking my head as I sit down on the bench beside her. “No one can know.”
She nods her head at me and I lower my hand to my lap. “Sorry, but seriously,” she hisses. “That means you have Fey blood in you.”
“I know,” I whisper. “And I can’t let Luna know about it or about this.” I touch the spot on my shirt where the pendant is hidden.
“But I thought,” she nods at the pendant, keeping her voice low, “that was just supposed to be some powerless necklace thingy.”
Shaking my head, I lean in. “Turns out, it can control the Fey.”
“What?!” she exclaims and then quickly slaps her hand over her mouth. “Sorry, but I don’t get it. How did I not know about this?”
I shrug, shaking my head. “I’m beginning to think there’s a crap load of stuff out there that we don’t know about.”
She nods in agreement, tears starting to pool in the corners of her green eyes, but she sucks them back. “So what are you planning on doing with it?”
“Well, I was planning on taking over the Fey to get you out of here, but since they pretty much led me right to you, I guess nothing.”
She presses her lips together. “I wouldn’t quite settle on that just yet.”
“Why?”
“Because… because I did something.”
Whenever Aislin says she did something, it’s usually something bad. “What?”
She blows out a breath. “Luna made me put an irreversible charm on the land. No one can leave without walking out of the exit.”
“Wait, you can’t lift it?”
“Irreversible means irreversible, unless I have the power of a coven, which I don’t.”
My gaze sweeps the cliffs and the spot where the guards seemed to materialize out of thin air. I could look around, try to find cracks in the hideout, waiting for someone to come save us, but I’m tired of waiting. I just want it over.
“I’m going to use the pendant to control the Fey,” I decide. “I’m going to get us home.”
“Do you think that’s a good idea? I mean, do you really know anything about how the pendant works?”
I get to my feet. “No, but I don’t care. All I care about is getting us out of here and getting us back to the castle.” And saving Alex, but I don’t tell her that part. Not yet. Not after she just lost her half-sister.
“I want to argue with you,” she says. “But I really want to get out of here, too.”
I nod my head in agreement. “Now I just need to figure out how to work this thing… I mean, do I just show it to them? And what about Luna?”
Aislin stands up and I notice a slight shake to her body, the aftermath of shock probably. “What about Luna?”
“I never expected her to be here.” I pause, mulling it over. “I mean, what if there’s a problem with the Fey responding because she’s here. Crap.” I start pacing, beginning to panic as I think of Alex, back with Draven, shifting and changing into a soul snatcher. “I have to come up with something. Quickly.”
Aislin watches me pace in front of her. “Gemma, stop pacing. You’re making me nervous.”
I keep pacing, shaking my head, and my pulse starts to rise. “What do I do? I can’t… I can’t deal with this anymore.” It’s like every single thing hits me at once. All the feelings I’ve ever felt—along with new ones—and it sends me to my knees as something slams inside my skull—an image.
Alex is kissing the Banshee, tongues tangled as they hold onto one another in the middle of a group of headstones. The moon, an orb against the night sky, and a light fog covers the damp grass. They keep kissing each other fiercely and when they finally pull away, Alex grins.
“That was fun,” he says, staring at the spot on the ground in front of his feet where a body rests.
The blond Banshee