I chewed on my lip, concerns swirling in my head. This was the craziest tea party I’d ever been to.
As if I needed another reason for Arthur and Apollyon to be after me. This only painted a bigger target on my back. The only good thing about me being my mother’s talisman was that we wouldn’t have to go looking for it. Well, that and we knew Arthur didn’t have it.
“Thanks for the help, Aunt Vera, but we have to go. By now I’m sure my dad knows we portaled to London and is probably searching for us. We have to get back to New York.”
After kissing his aunt on the cheek, Gage tugged me to my feet and practically hauled me toward the front door.
My mind was spinning with everything I just heard. I was my mom’s talisman, and I had so much power that it might kill me. Oh, and my boyfriend was definitely hiding something from me.
Awesome.
Vera called to us when we were at her front door. Gage stopped and we both looked back at her.
“Be careful,” she said as she wrung her hands. It was the first time since we stepped foot in her house that she looked concerned, and that worried me. “Your father’s ambitions know no bounds.”
“If anyone knows that, it’s me,” Gage said, but acknowledged her warning with a nod.
“Your mother would be proud of you. Despite her choices to the contrary, she did want to do the right thing.”
Gage closed his eyes briefly at the mention of his mother. When he opened them, his gaze was filled with fiery determination. “Thank you,” he said, and with a final look at his aunt, he grasped the door and hurried us out of her home.
Drea and the others were loitering outside on the street and looked up at us as we descended the steps to join them.
“How did it go?” Drea asked.
I exchanged a quick look with Gage. “We got what we came for.”
Drea let out a sigh of relief. “Good. We’ll head back to the Lumen Compound and make a plan on how to get your mom’s talisman.”
“Actually—” I started to say, and then Skye appeared.
“Apollyon knows you’re the talisman and now he’s planning to hide your mom, eat your soul, and then kill her. Come on, you gotta get to the Netherworld stat, before he stashes her somewhere you can never find her.”
My heart jackknifed in my chest at her declaration. Okay, the universe just wasn’t letting up today with the bad news.
“How did he find out?” I screeched at Skye while my friends stared at me in confusion.
Skye pointed to the house. “Whatever realm she taps into for her power, he was there listening.”
Crap, crap, crap!
“How do you know all this?” I questioned, hoping it was some super unreliable source that I could immediately discredit because I didn’t want it to be true.
“Aurum,” Skye said while giving me a look that said, “Duh, idiot.”
I growled under my breath, knowing I couldn’t flake off her report.
Looking to my friends, I quickly filled them in. “I’m my mom’s talisman and Skye just appeared and said that we have to get to the Netherworld right now to save her before Apollyon hides her.” The words rushed out of me in a jumbled mess.
“What?” Drea and Gage shouted at the same time. Similar shocked looks were splashed across everyone’s faces.
“Meet me at the cemetery!” Skye called out, and then disappeared again.
This was crazy, everything was happening way too fast.
But I didn’t care. I didn’t need to process anything other than the fact that Apollyon was going to make it so that I couldn’t get to my mom.
I spun, trying to figure out which direction the nearest cemetery was. “Guys, I gotta find the nearest cemetery so I can make a portal and get to the Netherworld. I understand if you don’t—”
