Page 67 of The Mist of Stars
“I hope we don’t run into any death walkers.” Aislin speaks so suddenly that I startle. She’s gripping the steering wheel so tightly her knuckles are white, her jaw is tense, and the moonlight casts across her hauntingly fearful expression like a stage light. “If we do, Laylen and I will fight them off while you enter the portal.” The engine roars as she shifts to a lower gear to slow down the car. She again sinks into silence for a moment. “Gemma, you don’t have to go if you don’t want to. I know I’m probably coming off pushy, but he’s my brother, and he’s all I have?—”
“I know.” I place a hand on her arm. “I want to do this. Ihaveto.” I face forward in the seat, gazing up at the stars thatare now visible in the midnight sea above us as they work to break through the clouds. “I know I had some issues with Alex, but I realized they were not real. And …” I press my lips together as I think of my star dreams, the electricity between us, and the visions I’ve had of him and me in another life. “There’s obviously some sort of connection between us.”
She bobs her head up and down as an exhale falters from her lips. “Do you think you’ll be able to do it?” She turns into the school’s parking lot, tires squealing at her lack of deceleration.
“We’re supposed to be discreet,” I remind her as I reach to unfasten my seat belt.
“Sorry.” She parks the car next to Alex’s then yanks apart the wires so the engine will die before shoving open the door.
We both get out then jog across the parking lot before taking the stairs two steps at a time. We’re both on alert for any security guards or death walkers lurking nearby, but we luck out and make it to the professor’s office without any mishaps.
Laylen is waiting for us when we enter. Once we’re inside, he shuts and locks the door, not bothering to turn on any lights—thank God because I don’t want to see Professor G.’s body—but the flashlight on his phone. He uses that to light up the way as we start down a narrow, damp tunnel that looks like it leads to the pits of an icy hell.
Aislin hugs her arms around herself as the temperature plummets. “This place is creepy.”
“I know. It looks like it’s been here for ages, too,” Laylen says over the sounds of our footsteps echoing against the cement walls. “I’m worried there’s more down here than just that portal, but so far, I haven’t seen anything.”
“It looks like a vampire crypt,” Aislin mumbles as she angles her head up to look at the ceiling.
I do, too, and a water droplet pegs me between the eyes. At least, I hope it’s water.
“How far is it down here?” I say right before I feel it.
The buzzing.
The humming.
The silent whisper of something beckoning me to it.
I know what it is before I even see it. The electricity radiating off it is exactly like the one that was in Stephan’s basement.
A moment later, we wind around a corner, and it comes into view.
“Holy effing magical madness,” Aislin breathes out as the three of us stop in front of the illuminating framed wall of light. “This is what a portal looks like?”
I smash my lips together with so much force that my jaw pops. My heart is a mess inside my chest, and my skin is dampening with sweat.
“Gemma,” Laylen says, “how do you even know what to do?”
“I don’t,” I reply with the brutal truth. “All I’m going on is what Nicholas told me.”
“What if you’re not a foreseer, though?” Laylen frowns at me. “You won’t be able to find your way out. And even if you are, you’re not skilled enough to use it very well.”
Aislin eyes the portal warily. “Maybe we should pause this for just a second and try to find a book on navigating your foreseer power, or portals, or something.” Her gaze collides with mine. “I want to save my brother, but now that I’ve seen the portal, I don’t think you should wing it. Maybe we can find your father.”
“He’s possessed,” I remind her, “by something that killed the professor and tried to frame me. And we still don’t even know why. Though, I’m guessing it has something to do with this.” I nod at the portal.
“So, then we’ll figure this out on our own.” Aislin moves closer to me. “I can do a truth spell or something. I don’t know … I haven’t thought it through yet, but there has to be another way.”
Part of me wants to do that—to pause this. To let myself be a coward. But the truth is, now that I’m here, that connection I feel with Alex is breathing and alive in my body. And when the machine extends its energy out to me, lightning quick, I allow it to grab me. Because, in the end, I would’ve walked right in there, anyway.
“Gemma!” Laylen’s and Aislin’s voices chase after me as I’m tugged into the light.
It’s all I see—light.
And stars.
Part of me wishes I could stay here forever, but I eventually find Alex in the middle of it, standing in a cluster of starlight so bright that I’m not sure how we’ll ever be able to find our way out.