Shattered Promises 02 - Fractured Souls by Jessica Sorensen (motivational books for students TXT) 📕

over my mouth and hold my breath. Suddenly, Stephan stops, his head tilting to the side and he glances over his shoulder.

He holds up his hand, signaling for Demetrius to stop. “Just a second.”

Demetrius pauses, his gaze sweeping the buildings. “What’s wrong?”

“Please, get us out of here,” I hiss at Nicholas as Stephan starts walking back toward us.

Nicholas wavers. “I don’t know... I kind of like being alone with you.”

“Nicholas,” I hiss again, grabbing onto his arm. “Get us out of here. Now.”

Stephan’s getting closer and I don’t understand what’s going on. He’s not supposed to be able to see or hear me, but I swear he can sense that I’m here.”

“What are you doing?” Demetrius calls out, but Stephan doesn’t reply as he continues moving toward us, grasping the sword as his eyes scan from side to side as if he’s searching for something—for us.

I dig my fingers into Nicholas’s arm and jerk him closer to me. “There’s someone in this vision that I’m pretty sure can either see or sense that we’re here and, if he can, then it’s very, very bad.”

His eyes widen as he takes my hand, abruptly looking anxious. “Okay, let’s go.”

I cast one last glance at Stephan as he picks up his pace, charging at us and I know something‘s very wrong. It doesn’t look like he can see us because he’s looking in the wrong direction, but he can obviously sense us.

“Nicholas…” I say, tripping backwards as Stephan reaches out for me. I open my mouth to scream, but then Stephan abruptly stops.

He’s only inches away from me and his eyes fasten right on mine as a slow smile curls up his lips. He touches the scar on his cheek with the tip of the knife, cutting a thin layer of skin off, and drawing blood. “You have it, too,” he whispers, then his eyes divert to my upper arm.

My skin ignites as I’m hauled backward, fading from the vision, but it’s enough time to see it. The red and black triangular mark on my arm.

Chapter 13

I trip over my feet, but quickly regain my balance as I land back in Adessa’s living room. The fear of what just happened still lingers in my body and has me gasping for air.

“Who was it?” Nicholas asks with very little patience as he gets into my face. “Who was in the vision?” He still has ahold of my hand and I try to wrench it out of his, but he refuses to let me go. “Gemma, talk to me.” He puts a hand on each of my shoulders and looks me directly in the eyes. “Tell me who it was that could sense us… It’s important.”

My chest heaves as I work to compose my breathing. “Why would anyone be able to sense us like that?”

“Because…” He pauses, eyeing me over. “Because it means the vision has already been seen or told to the person who was in the vision.”

I’m not surprised. I know Stephan has been told visions of the future and how the world will end, which is why he was supposedly protecting the star. Now, though, it’s beginning to make more sense. He wasn’t protecting the star, he was holding onto it for himself.

“Tell me what you saw,” Nicholas commands, roughly squeezing my shoulders. “And tell me how you saw it. Normal Foreseers aren’t able to just walk into other Foreseers’ visions.”

“I’ve got to go ask Laylen something.” I duck out from his hands and head for the doorway.

He catches me by the arm and his fingernails pierce into my skin. “Who was in the vision, Gemma? You need to tell me.”

“No I don’t,” I say. “What I saw… it doesn’t concern you.”

I tug my arm away from him and scurry out of the room. Nicholas doesn’t follow me, surprisingly, but I’m glad. I need to talk to Laylen alone. I find him in one of the rooms upstairs on a bed, reading a book. He’s on his side, propped up on his elbow, his boots kicked up on the footboard. His legs are too long for the twin bed and he’s nearly falling out of it.

“Hey,” I say, shutting the door, checking my skin in the light to make certain there’s no symbol on my skin. Thankfully it’s bare, the only thing there is a cluster of freckles. “I need to talk to you.”

He peers up from his book. “Hey, what’s…” He quickly sits up, shutting the book as he lowers his feet to the floor. “What happened? You look upset.”

“Something bad happened when we went into a vision.” I drop down on the bed beside him. “And Nicholas is getting suspicious that there might be something wrong with me.”

Laylen sets his book down on the nightstand. “You think he knows about the star’s power?”

I shake my head. “I don’t think he knows what exactly it is, only that there’s something different about me and my Foreseer power.”

“Well as long as he doesn’t know exactly what it is, then I think we’re okay.” Laylen pauses, sucking his lip ring into his teeth. “Although, I’m not really sure it’s so great that he knows so much about you.”

I nod in agreement, but then remember I have bigger problems to discuss than Nicholas. “There’s something else I need to talk to you about... something I just saw in the vision.” I shiver as I remember what I just left. “Laylen, I think I just saw the end of the world.”

It gets so quiet; I can hear the sound of our breaths and our hearts.

“The end of the world,” Laylen whispers, rubbing a hand tensely down his face. “Seriously?”

I nod. “Covered in ice.”

“Then the portal opens up.”

“At least from what I saw it does,” I say. “But then again, Alex already told me another Foreseer told the same vision, which is the same thing Nicholas said.”

“But I always thought maybe he was lying,” he mutters, staring the floor. “But I guess not… the portal opens