Reaching into my pocket, I take out the Cornu Lepore. I thread it through my fingers and hold it up in front of my face, letting it spin. Nalina watches it spin, her eyes hungry and full of lust. She wants it. Badly. And it makes me wonder if she wants to control the Fey.
“But, why do you want it back?” I ask, letting it spin from my fingers.
She’s mesmerized by it. “I already told you why… because I’m not supposed to have it.”
I shake my head and enclose my hand around the necklace. “No, I don’t think that’s the only reason.” I lean forward, getting close to her, and her eyes darken as they shift to my hand and then back to my face. “I think that you want to have it for the same reason Helena does. I think that you both want to rule the Fey and their realm. Because if you do, you’ll have more power than any other Fey—maybe even more than anyone else in the world.” I tip my head to the side, thoughtfully. “When you told me, during my first visit, that there was a battle breaking out in the Fey Realm and that Lucinda, Helena, and Annabella all wanted something…” I unfold my fingers and let the chain hang around them, dangling the pendant down at eye level, “you meant this, didn’t you?”
It makes sense. Helena already rules the Lost Souls, but if she has the ability to rule the Fairie Realm, too, she’d have a lot of control and power, which is her favorite thing. Also, if there really is a war about to break out amongst the Fey, her chances of winning would be even greater with the ability to control both sides.
I slip the pendant off my fingers and tuck it back inside my pocket. “I think I might have just gotten what I came here for.”
“You know that belongs to me,” she snaps, sticking out her hand. “Give it back.”
“Right now, it belongs in my pocket.” I get up from the sofa, feeling liberated—feeling powerful—but also very tired.
I walk towards the door. “Well, Nalina, it’s been a real pleasure, but it’s time for me to—” Her arms wrap around me, and she tackles me to the floor with a surprising force for someone her age. My head bangs against the floor and she lands on my back, grabbing my hair as I try to flip over. I elbow her in the side, trying to shove her off me. I manage to get on my back, twisting my body, but she shifts her weight and sits down on top of me, pinning me down by the shoulders with her weight. She reaches into her pocket and whips out a knife, flipping it open, she places it against my throat as she smiles down at me.
“The necklace is mine, give it back!” She yanks back my head and tips the blade of the knife so it grazes my skin.
I gradually reach inside my pocket, inching my hand in as I glance around, looking for something that can help me. What I need is to get out from underneath her. What I need is the knife.
Suddenly, someone pounds on the front door and it distracts Nalina long enough that I kick her in the gut. She huffs as she slumps forward, dropping the knife to clutch her stomach. I shove at her and she loses her balance and falls to the side, then I quickly leap to my feet and make a mad dash towards the door.
“You’re not going anywhere!” Nalina cries, running towards me with the knife in her hand.
The door swings open and hits the wall with a lot of force and I whirl around ready for anything because, at this point, anything could walk through that door. What I see, though, is nothing I could have prepared myself for. I stumble back, tripping over my own feet and fall to my ass.
My body bounces back and my head hits the hardwood floor, hard. I blink up at the ceiling, watching it spin insanely.
“Gemma,” I hear his voice, but I tell myself it’s a hallucination because he’s dead. I saw that he was dead, touched his cold skin, saw his funeral and the missing mark. Alex is dead.
Except he can’t be since he’s leaning over me, his bright green eyes fierce, and his jawline is taut like it almost always is.
“Are you okay?” He bends down and touches the side of my head, right at my temple where my pulse is racing. Or maybe it’s his.
I nod my head up and down, afraid to blink, afraid to breath. “Are you?”
His lips quirk and then he’s reaching for my arms, lifting me to my feet like I’m air. Steadying me by the shoulders, he smoothes down my hair, and traces a line down my cheek as he pulls away. I watch him, unable to take my eyes off him because he’s here, alive, when I thought he was dead. Suddenly I feel alive again. The numbness is gone. My heart has stopped bleeding.
He smiles softly, shifting his weight, and looking a little uncomfortable. “Gemma, if you don’t stop staring at me like that, I’m going to lose it and have to take you back to the castle.” He sucks in a deep breath, his chest expanding as he lets it out and his eyes scroll down my body. “And as much as I want to, we have a bunch of other stuff to fix at the moment.”
“I don’t care,” I say with honesty, still staring at him. “I don’t care about any of that. I want you to take me back to the castle. I want you.”
I’m not even sure what compels me to say it. I’ve always been afraid of intimacy and how it makes me feel, but right now, standing here with him when I thought he was dead—it’s scarier if I don’t say it. I almost missed my chance.
Alex’s neck muscles work as he swallows hard, then he wraps his lean arms around me and warm air flows freely though my lungs again as I bury my face into his strong chest. “I’ve missed you,” he whispers in my hair, his heart beating against my cheek and the sound is the most amazing, beautiful noise that’s ever touched my ears. “I hated seeing you like that… seeing her inside you.”