pretty much makes the pendant useless, until a Faerie comes along. The first day I spend here, I search high and low for a weakness in the land, a secret escape route, a hidden path. I even try to use my Foreseer power over and over again, and coax Aislin to try to use her magic, but neither works. The few days that pass, feel like years. While Aislin mourns, barely talking, I try to constantly stay awake because, every time I close my eyes, I see Alex with that stupid Banshee; stealing souls and looking happy about it.
A few days into my imprisonment, I’m walking with Aislin. It’s early morning, the grass dewed and wet underneath our feet. The sky is painted golden as the sun peeks over the horizon and highlights the edges of the cliffs. It’s a sight beautiful enough to paint, but being here, living here, is horrible.
We walk along the base of the cliff, plucking at the leaves on the trees. “I have a question,” I say. “How did the guards get in?”
“Fey magic,” she mutters, kicking a rock.
“Faeries don’t have magic.” I dodge around a tree. “Do they?”
She shakes her head, gathering her hair out of her face as she stares at the ground. “They’re not supposed to, yet they do… I think something might be changing.”
I think of the war, the struggle for power between the Queens, and how Luna was in the real world, but now she’s not, like she was looking for something, then found it and came home.
Aislin stops walking and picks up a small rock from the ground. Bending her elbow, she tosses it at the rocky ledge above us. “I’m so sick of this. We’re always fighting something—nothing changes.” The rock bounces off the cliff and tumbles back towards us, just like when the boulders fell. “It gets old, you know?”
“Yeah, I know,” I agree. “But what else are we going to do? Give up? Because that’s about the only option we have.”
“Maybe,” she says, discouraged. I remember when I first met Aislin, how cheerful she’d been, but now she seems beat, worn out, tired of fighting.
We walk silently for a while, until we reach the entrance to the tunnel.
“Are you sure the shield is on?” I check, eyeing the opening over. “I walked in here, you know? I mean, how do you really know… because they told you or something?”
“It only works when you’re trying to leave.” Bending her arm, she points at her elbow at a patch of skin peeling off. “This is what happened the last time I checked it.”
I stop, bending over to pick up a rock, then standing up straight, I throw the rock and it flies down it.
Aislin lets out a gasp, clutching onto my arm. “Oh my God, it’s… it’s not on anymore?”
I let my arm fall to the side. “How do you know?”
She lets go of my arm and marches up the path, winding around the tree, and then steps up to the opening. She glances up at the top of the cliff and then, taking a deep breath, she sticks her arm into the cave.
I walk up behind her, squinting at the cave. “What are you doing?”
She lowers her arm to her side and gives me a sad smile. “The last time I tried to do that—the last time we tried to put something in there—it instantly lit on fire, but…” She rolls her shoulders back and marches forward, stepping into the darkness. “Would you look at that?” She sticks her head back out and jumps up and down, clapping, and for a moment she seems like her old self. “It’s off.”
“Yeah, but why do you think it’s off?” I wonder skeptically because nothing is ever supposed to be this easy. It’s practically a rule these days. Easy equals danger. “I don’t know—” before I can finish protesting, she yanks on my arm and tugs me inside.
“What if it’s a trap?” I hiss as she releases her hold on my arm.
“A trap to what?” she asks with doubt. “To trapping us back in here? Because, let’s face it, Gemma, they already pretty much have us.”
I nod, still doubtful. “Yeah… maybe….”
“Maybe it’s just a malfunction,” she suggests. “But whatever it is, I think we should risk our chances because staying here,” she gestures around the room and then glances at the cliff where Aleesa fell from, “is going to get us nowhere.”
She has a point, but still, it seems way,