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

of Adessa’s living room with a simple crystal ball between us. He’s wearing stonewashed jeans, a green shirt that makes his golden eyes look brown, and his sandy hair is fluffed up at the top because he keeps messing with it. I have my hair down today because I couldn’t find anything to put it up with and no makeup on as usual. My black shorts are too short while the purple and black striped tank top is a little too tight; both selected from the Black Angel themed wardrobe Aislin picked out for me.

“Try again,” Nicolas demandingly commands, motioning at the crystal ball. He’s growing impatient and I’m growing flustered, a bad combination.

“Okay.” I take a deep breath and extend my hand out to Nicholas, my other hand hovering over the crystal ball. “Stop being so bossy.”

“Don’t pretend you don’t like it.” Nicholas takes hold of my hand and unnecessarily intertwines our fingers, making my blood boil. “Do you have an idea where you’re going to take us?”

“Yeah, I have an idea.” I shut my eyes and brush my fingers across the cold glass of the crystal ball, knowing that what I’m about to do is wrong. I need to know, though; I need to see her.

I pictured what I’ve been seeing in my nightmares over and over again because I need to see if my mom is still my mom or if her sanity is too far-gone.

I need to know how it all ends.

***

“So where’d you take us?” Nicholas rubs his hands together, appearing intrigued as he glances around. “Somewhere good I hope.”

“Um…” I’m at-a-loss for words.

We’re standing in a tunnel, the muddy walls dripping with musty water and moss. Vines hang from the ceiling and water flows below our feet. It looks much different from in my dreams, strangely more unrealistic than anything as if it was created from a haunting fairytale

“I think I…I think we might be in The Underworld.”

His face reddens with anger as he shuffles toward me. “You what?”

I open my mouth to tell him that I’m sorry, even though I’m really not, when a shriek reverberates through the tunnel and my head snaps in the direction it came from.

“What’s wrong?” Nicholas follows my line of gaze, even though he can’t see anything. “Is it a Water Faerie?”

I squint through the darkness at something white. “I’m not sure…” I move forward, straining my vision. “It’s something white and wavy and… or more like Ghostly and boney…” My face falls as I step back. “Shit, I think it is.”

Nicholas tugs on the back of my shirt and pulls me to the side of the tunnel. He presses his back against the wall and then shoves me back by flattening an arm over my chest.

“What’s wrong with you?” I hiss. “We’re in a vision, so they can’t see us.”

He quickly shakes his head, his wide eyes searching around us in terror. “It’ll be able to sense I’m here.”

“How?”

“Water Faeries are Fey, so it’ll be able to sense I’m here because I’m part Fey.” He presses himself against the dirt wall as far as he can go with his hands flat out to his sides. “And if it does….” He shudders.

“And if it does then what?” I press, eyeing the Fey heading toward us. Its face is a skull, its fingers bone, and its feet are hidden by wispy pieces of fabric that brush against the dirt as it floats.

His chest descends as he releases a breath. “Look, there are certain reasons—rules—that don’t allow me down here. And I can’t take us out of here, because I can’t—my Foreseer power is no use down here.”

I glare at him, stepping away from the wall and moving in front of him. “Then how did you ever plan on helping me save my mom?” His silence says everything and I shake my head, putting my hands on my hips. “You weren’t ever planning on it, were you?”

More silence and I want to smack him.

“I can’t believe this,” I say, pacing the area in front of him “You know what, actually I can. Still, though.” I huff in frustration, the prickle stabbing violently at the back of my neck while I feel like wrapping my fingers around his. “You are seriously the cruelest person I’ve ever met… playing me like that… over my mother.”

He shrugs. “You should have known better than to believe someone like me.” He glances down the tunnel as if he senses something. “Ferries are a tricky breed.”

I look over at the water Faerie nearing us, and then return my attention to Nicholas with a dark look in my eyes. “You know what, I think I’m just going to sit here and let it find you. You deserve it, you know, for messing with my head.”

He scowls at me, but there’s fear in his eyes. “Look at you… you’re starting to sound as cruel as me.”

I shrug. “But only with you.”

“Yeah, but you’re new at this and you’re going to lose,” he says.

“You think so?” I question, pointing over my shoulder. “Because the water Faerie’s right behind us.”

His eyes snap wide and he takes off down the tunnel. Shaking my head, I run after him, leaving the water Faerie in the distance. He continues to run with me chasing at his heels until we reach a dead-end, the tunnel opening up onto a wide room carved out of rock. In the middle of the hollowed out space is a throne made of stone that has a back spiraling up to the ceiling like a slide.

Nicholas keeps running until he trips over his feet and I slow to a stop, I laugh at him.

“Well, that was smooth,” I say, staring down at him with my hands on my hips.

He glares at me, opening his mouth as he gets to his feet, but I hold my finger up as someone walks into the cave.

Her head is hung low, her brown hair tied in a bun on the top of her