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

“I think so,” Laylen says, gripping onto the chains.

Alex’s eyelids suddenly shoot open and my breath catches. His normally bright green eyes are dull and he looks incredibly weak. I’ve never seen Alex look so weak. It is strange and heartbreaking as well as completely disconcerting. It makes me realize how much I like the confidence he portrays most of the time and how safe it makes me feel. I realize a lot of things at that moment; about me, about him, about us. I can feel something shifting inside me; chains breaking, my body drifting closer to him and farther from another.

“Are you okay?” I ask, cupping his cheek.

He opens his mouth to speak, but no sound comes out and his head bobbles around, like his neck is too weak to support it.

Laylen bends the metal links and snaps the chains like twigs. I reach up to help Alex and he falls onto me like a hundred and eighty pound bag of bricks. I almost buckle to the floor, but Laylen catches him and supports the majority of his weight.

“Excellent catching skills,” Laylen jokes, flopping Alex’s arm over his shoulder.

“Hey, I never claimed to have them,” I protest, grunting as I attempt to carry some of Alex’s weight. “Besides, I’m not a half-Vampire, half-Keeper who is freakishly strong.”

“Would you two stop joking around,” Alex says with a smidgeon of humor in his voice as he leans against me and I slip his free arm around my waist. “Can you get us out of here before we get caught?”

I start to retrieve the crystal ball from my pocket, but Alex shakes his head and then nods at the massive crystal ball exploding with energy, a enormous glowing orb radiating around the pallid, seemingly lifeless people. “Don’t use your power too close to this… it could kill you.”

I nod and we head for the door, Alex dragging his feet as we walk. Laylen holds up most of Alex’s weight and we move quickly, distancing ourselves from the gigantic crystal ball. Once we’re a safe distance away, I retrieve the crystal ball from my pocket while Alex works to hold himself up and gather his own balance. Laylen grabs onto my arm and I touch Alex, making sure they both go with me.

I’m getting ready to shut my eyes when the glass of the crystal frosts over with flakes of crisp ice. I hear a crackle moments later and I glance up just in time to see a stampede of black-cloaked Death Walkers storming our way, glazing the land with a sheet of ice and rapidly dropping the temperature to well below freezing.

I start to shake and chatter, the electricity simmering to a murmur as they ascend toward us, their yellow eyes glowing fiercely.

“Shit,” Laylen says when he turns and notices them. “Gemma, get us out of here.”

“I-I’m t-trying,” I chatter as I fight to hold my hand steady, noting the tint of blue my skin is taking on. The Chill of Death. I’ve experienced it once and I don’t want to ever experience it again.

As I attempt to find my energy and some sort of emotion to feed off of, I spot a blond haired, golden-eyed half-Faerie in the midst of the Death Walkers. Traitor! Not only does he play us, but now he’s also siding with evil.

I grasp tighter to Alex as his skin starts turning and alarming shade of purple. He’s too fragile, even with his Keeper blood, to withstand the cold and I need to get us out of here. I shut my eyes and picture Adessa’s living room, the purple velvet couches, the strange figurines everywhere, and the black and white checkerboard floor. Then I let my mind and body sync with the faint spark still thriving between Alex and me. It’s so weak, yet the emotions it brings out of me are more potent than any other emotion I’ve ever felt.

I want to hold him. Make him feel better. Kiss him. Touch him. Breathe in his scent. Feel him rocking inside me, being part of me, being connected with me in every way possible.

“Gemma…” Laylen’s voice is full of fear and panic. “Jesus, please...”

I hear a sharp noise like a thousand glass cups shattering against concrete and I open my eyes. Fragments of porcelain crack apart from the ground and fly through the air, unable to withstand the pressure of the ice.

My eyes open wider as the porcelain rushes towards us in a wave of sharp glass, the ground breaking apart. I hear Alex and Laylen shout out my name as the pillars snap in half and topple over, slamming against the ground and bursting across the ground.

We’re running out of time and soon we’re going to be sucked into the floor or taken out by the Death Walkers who are managing to avoid the opening with little effort, their feet hovering over the floor. Nicholas has disappeared and I wonder if he has gotten sucked down into the hole that’s forming.

Alex suddenly slides his arm off Laylen. Laylen continues to watch the wave of glass roaring closer to us with wide eyes as Alex limps toward me. My heart rate starts to still, my breath suffocating as my blood pressure drops with the temperature.

My breath puffs out in a cloud and envelops my face as Alex places a hand on each of my cheeks.

“Pretend they’re not there,” he says. “Pretend it’s just you and me and no one else.”

The look in his eyes and the delicacy in his words send a torrent of calmness through my body along with the desire to be near him. I can feel us being magnetized together as my body and mind connecting with the energy of the crystal.

I reach out and find Laylen’s arm as Alex continues to hold onto my face. I think I’ve done it, but a set of bony, stone cold fingers seize hold of my arm and the energy is blown out