Aislin twisted her golden-blonde hair around her finger, looking on edge. “I don’t know…maybe she had to go somewhere else besides the store.”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “Nothing’s open this late.”

Alex and Laylen gave Aislin a quizzical glance—I’m glad I wasn’t the only one noticing her weird behavior.

“What exactly did she say on the phone?”Alex asked.

Aislin quickly shook her head. “I don’t know…I don’t remember.”

“Aislin,” Alex warned. “What did she say?”

“I don’t want to tell you!” Aislin cried, throwing her head down into her hands. “Then you two will just go and try to save her, and I can’t take any more of it.”

“Any more of what?” Alex asked, his voice softening a little.

“You risking your life all the time.” She raised her head and tears were dripping down her cheeks. “Dad’s crazy, mom left, and you’re all I have left.”

“Aislin,” Alex’s voice was cautious. “I understand where you’re coming from, but this is what I—we do. We’re Keepers. We risk our lives and that’s how things are.”

I swallowed hard. I never knew their mom had run off, leaving them with a madman for a father.

“Well, you can tell me,” I said to Aislin. “I’ll go get her by myself.”

“He won’t let you.” Her voice cracked.

“Yeah, he will,” I assured. “Wherever she is, I’ll go by myself.”

Alex opened his mouth. “Like hell I’m going to—”

I covered his mouth with my hand, ignoring the heat of his lips on my palm. “If I foresee there, he doesn’t have a choice.”

“I’ll go with her,” Laylen chimed in, meeting my eyes. “You and I can go, and they can stay here.”

I dropped my hand from Alex’s mouth and he gave me a dirty look. Surprisingly, though, he said nothing.

Aislin burst into tears, sobbing so hysterically, I could barely hear her when she said, “she went to the Keeper’s castle to try and kill my father.”

Chapter 11

At first I thought I didn’t hear her right. I mean, why would my mom do such an insane thing? It was crazy—she would have to be crazy…

Oh my God. “She’s crazy,” I whispered.

“She’s not crazy,” Alex said. “She just wants to protect you.”

“And get herself killed in the process,” I said. “To me, that seems like a pretty crazy thing to do.”

“She’s your mother, Gemma.” Alex’s voice was gentle. “It’s the same thing she did when Stephan sent her to The Underworld—she was trying to protect you.”

My eyes widened.“What if he sends her to The Underworld again?” No, no, no, no, no.

“Relax, Gemma,” Alex reached over and placed his hand on my hand. His touch brought an electric shock and he quickly pulled away. “We’ll go get her.”

“No we won’t,” I told him. “I will. Stephan doesn’t need both of us showing up there. It would be like handing him the end of the world on a golden platter”

He let out a sharp laugh. “You actually think I’m going to let you go to the Keeper’s castle by yourself.”

“No, I’m not letting you go with me,” I said, mimicking his sharpness.

We burned fiery glares at each other.

“How do we even know Stephan’s there?” Laylen interrupted.

“I don’t know…On the phone all Jocelyn said was that she was going to the Keeper’s castle to put a stop to Stephan,” Aislin said. “I tried to talk her out of it, but she wouldn’t listen and then she hung up on me.”

“So we don’t even know if Stephan’s there?” I said. “She could just go to the castle and find it empty. I mean, the last time Alex and I were there—when we saved my mom from The Underworld, it looked like no one had been in the castle for a while.”

Aislin twirled her hair around her finger so tightly it became tangled. “He might not be…but he might,” she said, working to untangle her hair.

“Well, I need to go get her, regardless if Stephan’s there or not.” I was aiming for an indifferent tone, but I sounded more like I just drank fifteen cups of coffee. I stood up on my wobbly legs, preparing to head off to the doomful castle.

Alex stood up and stepped in front of me, a look of protest on his face as he opened his mouth to say something. But Aislin interrupted him.

“Just a second...I have an idea” She stood up and smoothed out the creases on her shorts. “There might be a way to find out exactly what’s going on—if your mom’s in trouble.” She paused and we all stared at her in anticipation. “I can do a tracker on her.”

“A tracker?” I asked. “What’s that?”

She gave me a small smile. “It’s a spell.”

“Oh, okay…But Aislin, why haven’t we done this before?” I wondered. “On your father? So we know where he’s at.”

She swallowed hard. “I can’t use magic on my father.”

“Oh, okay.” I said, figuring she meant it was too painful for her or something, which seemed weird, but okay. “You don’t have to then.”

“No, I mean I can’t use magic on him. Literally.” She let out a tired sigh. “When I was younger, he had me place a shield spell on him, so no witch could ever use magic on him….it was horrible. It took so much magic, my nose started to bleed and I passed out.”

I felt sorry for her. “How old were you?”

“Twelve.” She stared off, lost in her memories.

“That’s why you passed out for those two days?” Alex asked, his jaw tightening with anger.

“I’m sorry, but he told me I had to.” She was almost in tears. “And I was too young to understand that it probably was a bad thing.”

“I’m not mad at you, it’s just….” He popped his knuckles, his jaw still set tight. “He’s such an asshole.”

That was putting it mildly.

“Well, anyway.” Aislin shook her head, shaking away the memory. “I can do a Tracker Spell, but I need a few things first.”

I raised my eyebrows with intrigue. “What kind of things?”

She started listing off a bunch of stuff with eccentric names. Then she announced she was going to go search the internet for nearby places that sold witch supplies—stores similar to Adessa’s. When I asked how far we would have to go, she told me not to worry, places like that were all over, and there was probably one right here in town.

And she was right.

I decided to go with her to the store, which was about ten miles out of town, right along the side of the highway. I figured if I went, I could hurry her up. The clock was ticking and driving me crazy. I needed to find out where my mom was and if she was okay. And not knowing was eating at my insides.

We were transporting to the witches store since a) it was a much quicker form of transportation and b) we didn’t have the car since the Tahoe was totaled.

“Please be careful,” Alex told both of us as we prepared for our departure. “Just hurry up, get the stuff, and come back.” He looked worried.

He had pulled me aside, while Aislin had been gathering her transporting stuff, to give me his pocket knife. What he was thinking was going to happen, was beyond me. We would be gone for like ten minutes. But I guess considering the circumstances, it probably was best to have a weapon on me, even if I didn’t necessarily know how to use it very well.

Aislin chanted her magic words under her breath as she dipped the red crystal into the flame of the black candle. The smoke tinted red as she continued to repeat, “per is calx EGO lux lucis via,” until the smoke swept us away.

It was a creepy place; that was for sure. It felt like I had stepped into a scary movie, where the car breaks down on the side of the road, and the only option I have is to go into the one and only rundown building. And when I go in, no one ever sees me again.

And of course it had to be late at night, with the darkness engulfing us. Thankfully there were a few lampposts, and the house’s porch lights shone bright, making it grey instead of a pitch black.

“Are you sure this is the place?” I asked Aislin. The old house’s wood siding was rotting, and the porch looked like it was going to cave in on the next person who dared step foot on it.

Aislin glanced around and then pointed at the numbers 44 on the front of the house. “Yeah, that’s the number it had on the address on the website.”

I looked at her solemnly. “This place has its own website?”

She nodded as she picked up her candle and crystal and tucked them into the pocket of her shorts. Then she started across the gravel parking lot, which, surprise, surprise, was vacant—there wasn’t a single car. I followed after her, the gravel crunching under my DC’s, my nerves coming unhinged with every step.

We trotted up the stairs and stepped onto the porch, which creaked loudly beneath our weight. Aislin raised her hand toward the doorknob, but hesitated.

“Do we just go in?” She glanced over her shoulder at me. “Or should we knock.”

I shrugged. “I don’t know…Probably knock, I guess.”

She knocked, and the screen door fell off its hinges. We scattered to the side as it crashed down on the porch.

Aislin’s eyes went wide as she stared down at the fallen door. “Shit.”

I gave her a shocked look, because I had never heard her say that before.

“Sorry,” she apologized, like I cared. “But I don’t think that’s a good start.”

I shook my head. “I know…Are you sure there weren’t any other witch supplies stores nearby that maybe aren’t so….ominous.”

Aislin glanced at the broken door and then back at me. “Maybe it might be a good idea to go somewhere else.I mean, it doesn’t even look like someone is here.”

I nodded and we started down the stairs.

“There was a place I think in the next town over.” She pointed to our left. “It’s not much farther.

“Can I help you?”

The voice startled us, but not as much as the fact that she seemed to come out of nowhere. A woman stood at the bottom of the steps, her black hair blended into the night, along with her black dress, and her dark eyes weighed heavily on us.

“Umm…” Aislin shot me an ‘oh-crap’ look and then stuttered to the woman, “we were just…um…Is this Medea’s Herbal Supply Shop.”

The woman’s gaze bore into us as she assessed us over. “It is.”

Aislin forced a smile. “Well, are you open?”

I was kind of hoping the woman would say no. Yes, I knew we needed to hurry—we needed to figure out where my mom was. But this woman brought a sense of discomfort that sent my stomach rolling and my feet wanting to bolt.

“I am open,” she said, and my hope shattered to the ground. She ambled up the steps, the porch rocking with her movement. “I see you knocked my door down.”