Free The Vision by Jessica Sorensen Page B

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