Page 22 (1/2)

Chapter 1

I kept having these dreaht out by the entrance to The Underworld The lake is frozen and the trees are iced over with icicles dripping from the branches The sky is as dark as a shadow and the air chills htly aroundonto one another as if our lives depend on it

The wind is blowing my hair intois there but Alex and I, as if the whole world is eht occurs to ether, and if we don’t let go, ill die I look up at Alex and tell hihts, but he always shushes me as he brushes my hair away from my face

“It will be alright,” he whispers, but his bright green eyes tell me the opposite It won’t be okay, they say

I open , but a crackle ripples through the air and sucks the words away fro fro to destroy us

I look at Alex, wanting hi—but he never does He just sweeps my hair back and pulls me closer to him

“It will be alright,” he whispers one last tiht I hold onto Alex and take a deep breath as I aulfed by warmth

It will be alright

But will it? Because every ti on the floor of the cabin, stuck out in the middle of the snow-buried mountains And in the snow liesthat rendersas Stephan wishes Yes, I alake up from my dream, but sometimes I wish I wouldn’t

Chapter 2

The bathroo drip Drip…drip…drip…over and over and over again It was driving me crazy

I have been stuck in the cabin, where Stephan had leftI watch the sun rise through the barred , is another ht my life with Marco and Sophia had been lonely, then I had no idea what lonely was Because this was the mere definition of lonely

There was nothing in the cabin besides a bathroo me to starve to death He wanted me alive—he one, which, if things kept going the way they were, would probably happen pretty quickly

I wasn’t in that great of shape either The spot where I hit my head on the rock, when Nicholas had shovedinfected There was also only one blanket in the cabin and I constantly had to keep it wrapped around me, otherwise, I would freeze to death

It was the saht I sat there on the cold, hardwood floor, curled up in a blanket that smelled like dust and moth balls, and stared out at the snowy mountains that were decorated with marble-sized, lavender balls of Praesidium

But on the ninth day I lost it

I was lying on the floor tracing the cracks in the floorboards withBefore I knehat I was doing, I stood up and went over to the front door I swung it open and, ignoring the blast of Arctic wind that smacked me in the face, I stepped out into the snow, barefoot and in shorts, with a blanket wrapped around my shoulders

I wasn’t sure where I was going, or if I would even ive up

Stephan would not win Either I would escape, or I would die trying

I would not let the world end

I started down theuntilto break But I forceddesperately that the trail of lavender marbles would finally end so I could foresee my way back to Maryland

But as the wind kicked up, and the air dipped even colder, I knew

I was going to die

There have been a few tiht I died, but this was different I had to be dead this tiht I’ve been in a light vision before, and Nicholas had informed me that these kinds of visions ht now, right? Because all I could see was light

“Gemma,” a voice whispered “Can you hear me?”

My body tensed “Who is that?” I called out through the light

“Come toward me?” the voice echoed

I blinked, searching the light for someone, but I couldn’t tell as up or down, or if I was even standing or sitting

“I can’t see you,” I said “The light’s too bright ”

“Yes, you can,” the voice assured me “You just have to look harder ”

If the voice didn’t sound so unfa to Nicholas, because it see he would say But this voice was ed to someone older

So, not wanting to be difficult to a stranger, I blinked a few tian to dim Slowly at first, and then low

I could see now that I was lying on aup at what looked like a cathedral ceiling I got to my feet and examined myself over My skin was its normal pale color and it appeared that the cold hadn’t frostbitten any of ers

“Hello!” I called out, turning in a slow circle The pale light foggedit hard for me to see But I could make out a row of columns on each side of me and a statue not too far off in front I walked toward the statue, taking each step carefully, afraid that at any second so to jump out from behind one of the columns

I ed toout at me It was a statue of aabout the man’s face that looked familiar, but what had me puzzled even more was that in his hands was a crystal ball

“What in the world,” I et a closer look at the plaque mounted at the statue’s feet My pulse quickened as I read the plaque: Julian Lucas Lucas? No There was no way…Could this be a statue of my father?