Alex and I release a breath of relief, then Alex points a finger at Nicholas. “You better repeat exactly what I say. No changing or adding anything, understand? Or I’ll kill you.” He says it with a straight face and I have no doubt that he just might do it.
After Nicholas agrees, Alex tells him what to say, speaking the words carefully. Nicholas repeats everything correctly. But I have no idea what’s being said, so I’m putting a lot of trust in Alex. I analyze the idea of how much I’m trusting him at the moment and come to the conclusion that perhaps my feelings toward him might be drifting into the unsafe zone. But I haven’t felt the prickle yet nor have I felt anything that’s stopped and made me think, hey, that’s got to be love.
After the Blood Promise is made, Alex cuts the rope and frees Nicholas. He falls to the floor on his knees and rubs his wrists as he wipes the blood from his lip with the bottom of his t-shirt. “God, that feels good.”
“Now tell us everything you know about my father. Gemma. The Vision. No holding back.” Alex bends down and collects the knife from the floor.
“Can we at least sit down?” Nicholas asks, sounding pained.
Alex shakes his head as he cleans the blood off from the knife on the side of his jeans. “Whatever, let’s just get this over with.”
Chapter 7
In the living room, Alex sits down in the sofa next to Nicholas, not wanting me near either himself or the faerie—I’m still trying to figure out which one. I take a seat on the couch across from them beside Aislin. The curtains are drawn so there’s minimal sunlight and heat flowing in through the windows, but the tension makes the air stifling.
Alex puts his knife on the table, kicks his feet up, and sits back. “Alright, start talking.”
“About what?” Nicholas presses back a grin and sinks back in the chair, having to move slowly from the pain Alex inflicted while beating him up. “I can’t seem to remember what any of this was about?”
Afraid Alex might snap, I chime in. “How about you tell us what happened on the beach,” I suggest. “Why there was another me there? I erased a vision, right?”
“Yes.” His eyes bore into me and make me squirm. “But it would also be an example of how extraordinary you are.”
Let the running around in circles begin. “Define why that makes me extraordinary.”
Nicholas flexes his mangled hand, wincing from the pain. “Because you erased a vision, which is something that’s completely forbidden and could have severe consequences. Plus, not a lot Foreseers can do that.” His eyes darken as they elevate to me. “If I wanted to, I could turn you into the Foreseers… you know there’s punishment for erasing visions. Or we could do it the easy way and you and I could go into one of the bedrooms and I could punish you myself, just so you won’t ever be a naughty girl again.”
I crinkle my nose as Aislin makes an ewe face and Alex starts to close in on him. “What kind of a punishment?” I hurry and say, trying to keep the conversation moving forward. I can’t help but think of my father and the strange place he’s in. Is that the punishment?
Nicholas grins. “Well, it would require you naked and lots of whips and ropes.”
“Not that punishment.” I roll my eyes, making a repulsed face. “I mean, punishment from the Foreseers.”
“I don’t know for sure.” Nicholas muses over something, tapping his finger on his swollen lips. “I’ve only heard of one Foreseer being punished for erasing a vision before.”
“Do you know who he is? And where he is?” I’m trying to be as vague as possible but still get the answers that I want.
Nicholas shakes his head. “Our kind don’t like to talk about things like that because…well, I think, because it reminds everyone of how much control and power Foreseers really have over everything.”
He’s more right than I wonder if he realizes. Look at what my father did. He changed the entire course of the world and not in a positive way.
I get up and grab the crystal ball from the end table. “So can you explain to me what this is?” I ask, turning and holding up the crystal ball.
“Where the hell did you get that?” The glow of the crystal reflects in Nicholas’s greedy eyes as I set the ball down on the coffee table and sit back down.
“That’s not important.” I hope I’m not making a mistake by showing it to him. “What’s important is that you tell me what it is and how I use it.”
Nicholas’s hand drifts for the crystal ball, hesitating, before he picks it up. Alex stiffens and so do I. I don’t know what the crystal ball does. For all I know, it may have enough power to destroy us. That kind of an object shouldn’t be in the hands of someone like Nicholas.
He gazes at the crystal ball in awe. “This is what we Foreseers refer to as a mapping ball. They’re very rare.” He turns over the crystal in his hand. “In fact, they’re pretty much nonexistent.” He bites his lip as he sets the ball down on his lap. “They hold a map of someone’s life and show all the decisions they’ve made… although, some mapping balls are used to keep a secret hidden in the midst of thousands of their memories. It really is the most amazing thing.” His withering gaze makes me shy back in the seat. “So whose is it?”
I glance at Alex, wondering if I should divulge that information to Nicholas. Alex presses me with a stern look, warning me to keep quiet.
“There’s no use trying to keep it from me,” Nicholas says. “Because I’m sure you’re going to want to know how to use it, and that means you and I are going to have to go inside it.”
“Inside it?” I ask, dumbfounded and Nicholas simply nods. Great. The last thing I want to do is go wandering around in my father’s memories with the perverted faerie. But I don’t really have a choice. “It’s my father’s,” I tell him.
“I thought you told me you didn’t know who your father is?” Nicholas questions.
“I just recently discovered who he was,” I explain with an evasive shrug. “A lot of shit’s happened since the last time we talked, well at least in this version of our lives.”
“Yes, it has,” Nicholas agrees, glancing down at the mark on his arm, and then returning his attention to me. “How did you find out who your father was? And how did you get a hold of his mapping ball?”