Page 35 of The Mist of Stars

She sits up, her violet eyes wild as she takes in Aislin, who is still sitting on the coffee table, and Laylen, standing a few feet away, then the candles flickering.

“We were trying to bring you out of unconsciousness,” Aislin explains, the glow of the candles dancing in her wide eyes. “I thought it wasn’t working, but then …” Her gaze bounces between Gemma and me.

I push to my feet. “Well, it worked. Obviously. Took me kissing her to get it to, though.”

“Screw you!” Gemma snaps as she jumps to her feet. Then she storms off down the hallway. A moment later, a door slams shut.

“Dude,” Laylen says to me with his eyebrows arched. “You really want to be a dick about it, considering everything?”

Aislin studies me with curiosity sparkling in her eyes. “Considering what?”

“Nothing.” I glare daggers at Laylen, warning him not to talk about my thing for Gemma. I already freaked her out enough for the day.

He holds his hands up in front of him, likemy bad. But he’s grinning.

Some best friend he is.

“I’ll go talk to her,” I tell no one in particular.

Aislin leaps to her feet. “No, I’ll go.” She points at me. “You and your mouth need to stay here.” She hurries away, rushing down the hallway.

An uneven exhale eases from my lips. “Great, she’s going to hound me for this.”

“You kissed her best friend.” Laylen drops into a chair. “Maybe she should.”

“Traitor,” I mutter as I lower myself onto the sofa. Then I prop my elbows on my knees and lower my head into my hands. “I know I messed up. There was just so much chaos going on inthat vision, and we were pressed together, trying to stay warm from the death walkers’ chill, and you know how I feel about her.”

“I do, but does she?” he questions. “You were such an ass about it. You made it seem like you kissed her to get you guys out of the vision … Wait—you were in a vision?”

I nod with my head still in my hands, my gaze glued to the floor. “We were. And I didn’t kiss her to get us out of it. To be honest, even with the doomsday shitstorm going on around us, all I was thinking about was how badly I wanted to kiss her.” Sighing heavily, I lift my head and slump back. “We have a huge problem. Because in that vision, a version of Gemma was there, talking to some guy about resetting time.”

He straightens at that. “What was happening that they needed to reset time?”

“The world was empty, like everything except for houses and the landscape was erased. Even the houses were empty. However, there was Gemma and this guy. And then there were death walkers—tons of them. They were marching down the road, not doing anything except for making everything frozen.” I lean forward and fiddle with the ring on my finger. “Here’s the thing … We just had a death walker show up here when they’re supposed to be extinct. Gemma and I have gone into a few visions for no reason, and she’s gone into one alone. Then she thinks she saw some ghost person, and she also thinks that she saw me when we were younger saying her eyes were freaky, but you know I’d never say that.”

He mulls this over with his forehead creased. “So, what’re you thinking? That the resetting time from the vision is bleeding into this world?”

“If they reset time, then maybe.” I yank my fingers roughly through my hair. “We need to find a way to get answers, and I think Gemma’s dad can help us, but he’s being kind of cagey.”

“Julian? That doesn’t sound like him.”

“I know. Maybe something is off with him, as well.”

“Where does that leave us then? We have to do something about it.”

“I know.” I scrub a hand across my mouth. “When Gemma and I got sucked into that vision in class today, the professor was acting suspicious, like he may have known more about what was going on than he was letting on.”

“So, let’s pay him a visit then.” Laylen rises to his feet.

I stand up, too. “And what if he doesn’t offer up the information easily?”

Laylen zips up his hoodie. “Then I guess we’ll have to do things the hard way.”

I’d say I hope it doesn’t come to that, but in the darkest parts of my soul, the ones I’m afraid to admit exist, a desire to do things the hard way burns almost hotter than the buzzing between Gemma and me.

I worry what that means, that maybe evil lives inside me.

That maybe I’m just like my father.

---