Page 28 of The Mist of Stars
“I don’t know.” I squat down beside the sofa and look Gemma over.
She looks like a sleeping faerie with her pale skin, flowing brown hair, and full lips. She’s gorgeous. I’ve thought that since we were around thirteen years old. She’s also smart as hell, funny, and feisty. If I had my way, I’d have started dating her a long time ago. But she despises me for reasons I just learned about. But those reasons aren’t real because I’ve never said anything bad about Gemma. I’ve teased her, but only because Ilike seeing her smile and roll her eyes at me. It’s the only time she’ll pay attention to me, so I may have gone a bit overboard over the last handful of years.
It doesn’t help that I dream about her in a way that sends déjà vu through me. Sometimes I wonder if, in another life and world, we were soul mates. But, do other lives and worlds exist? I didn’t think so, but then Gemma and I went into that vision …
“She said she saw another vision?” I glance up at my sister.
Laylen is standing a handful of feet behind her and has the same concerned expression on his face as the rest of us. Unlike with me, Gemma talks to Laylen, so the two of them are good friends. I wish she’d be that way with me.
Aislin nods, her gaze landing on me as she swallows. “It was while we were at the shop buying supplies for the spell. She touched a crystal ball and went into it. She said she saw a vision of her living a life with other people who weren’t her parents, and they were talking about how her soul was broken.”
“How old was she in it?” I wonder, because it can’t be from the past, but it makes no sense that it’d be her future.
“She didn’t say, but I’m guessing she was young.” Aislin folds her arms around herself. Her clothes are wet from the chill of death starting to melt. “Alex, something weird is going on. First, these visions, then Gemma sees some guy I can’t see, then a death walker shows up here.” She gestures at the doorway to the kitchen.
I stand up and face her. “Wait … You couldn’t see the guy?”
“Yeah, I don’t know if he was a ghost or what,” Aislin explains tensely. “But Gemma said he was about our age, with blond hair, and he was super creepy. Oh, and she said he acted like he knew her.”
“Butshedidn’t knowhim?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “She said he seemed familiar, but she didn’t know why.”
I direct my attention back to Gemma. Her chest is rising and crashing with each breath she takes. She seems fine except for the cut on her head and the fact that she’s passed out. This is way more than merely a concussion.
“Can you send me into her mind?” I ask. “I know the spell for that is complicated, but I also know it’s possible.”
“Yeah, but you know how sucky I am at powerful spells,” she stresses while shifting her weight.
“I know you struggle sometimes, but I have a feeling she’s trapped in her own mind.” I gently touch the side of Gemma’s head. Her skin is alarmingly cold, putting urgency on the situation. “If we want to help her, we need to figure out what’s going on.”
“You can do this.” Laylen moves up behind Aislin and places a hand on her shoulder. “We’ll be here for you to help and offer support.”
Aislin releases an exhale. “It is a little strange because the ingredients that are required for a mind-entering spell are pretty similar to the spell we were originally going to do.”
Silence falls over us.
A nagging feeling begins to rise inside me. I keep thinking about Gemma’s father and how he acted as if something awful was heading our way. With him being able to see the future, it was unnerving to hear him say it.
“Why do I have a feeling that this is not a coincidence?” I ask, glancing between the two of them.
“Because those rarely exist,” Laylen answers right as thunder booms so loudly the entire house quakes.
“All right, let’s do this then,” Aislin says, looking completely terrified.
While she prepares to perform the spell, I backtrack to the kitchen to look around. I need to report the death walker to thekeepers’ committee, but that requires calling my father, who is the leader of it.
I loathe my dad. He’s not the nicest man and, deep down, I know if he learns that an extinct creature went after Gemma, he’ll start questioning why, which will lead to him being suspicious of her. I’ve seen him do it to keepers countless times, and he ended up ruining their lives. He’s not a good man and hasn’t ever been, even before my mother passed away.
I hate that I hate him. I struggle with it every day. Just like I struggle with who he’s tried to make me be and who I want to be.
Right now, I’m making this decision based on what I feel is right. And that’s to keep quiet about the incident.
Glass crunches beneath my feet as I make my way around the kitchen. Rain is pouring in through the open window—we need to get it boarded up. I turn around to see if I can find a board to hang up over it when my boot lands on a solid object. I step back and bend over to pick it up. It’s a silver, heart-shaped locket with a purple stone in the center.
I skim my finger along the front of it?—
Images slam through my mind of me holding the necklace, of me putting it on Gemma, of me kissing her and telling her that I love her. Just like I did in the vision Gemma and I went into where I proposed to her.