Wait, why the h.e.l.l were her eyes familiar? I dropped my own eyelids, squeezing them tightly as I tried to figure out what was happening to me. Who was I? How did I get there? I sighed before re-opening my eyes and meeting Caty's gaze.

"Come on," she said, "I'll show you where everyone else is. You're only going to hurt yourself trying to recollect everything in one go."

I followed her across the brilliant green field. The perfectly warm day surrounded me in suns.h.i.+ne and joy.

"Does everyone remember?" For some reason I wanted her to keep talking.

She shook her head. "No, my mother and I have slowly started to piece it together, and we help each other by reminding ourselves every day, otherwise the world dissolves our memories again. But the Angelica don't remember, and I doubt they'll ever have the mental strength to break the magicks here."

I wanted to laugh at the word magicks such a funny word. What did it mean?

We came to a stunning lake, bordered on one side by white sand and the other by snowcapped mountains. I figured it would be extremely cold and frigid in the water, but as we pa.s.sed along the edge, I dropped down and my hand was engulfed by the warm silky lake. I noticed then, on the beach part, there were about two dozen figures sprawled out.

"Is that everyone else?" I asked. It seemed odd to me that some of them had colored wings, but at the same time it wasn't really odd. Was it?

"Yes, we spend our days here," Caty said. "This world will offer you anything you want or need, eventually, except a way to escape."

I looked away from the winged creatures to stare back at the lake. Reflected back to me in the crystal clear water was ... nothing. There was not one image staring back at me. And since there were mountains and trees everywhere, something should reflect off the water. And ... wait, what about my own reflection?

I couldn't remember what I looked like, and nothing there was showing me. The only thing I knew about my appearance was the incredible and detailed marks that littered one side of my body, which I noticed when I raised my left arm. They were like a pattern, something I'd seen before but couldn't remember. I wanted to see the entire mark, but again, I got nothing from the lake.

"Why can I not see myself?" I felt my features tighten again, as those nagging tendrils swirled through my body. The worry. The fear. And the very real concern that my time was running out.

"There're no reflections here. If you could see yourself, you might remember who you are. So much of our sense of worth is tied to our outer sh.e.l.l it would be a huge trigger to remember. No one here knows what they look like."

She linked her arm through mine and began to lead me around the lake.

"You're stunning, though; exotically beautiful, really," she murmured to me. "But that will do you no good down here. If we have any chance of escape you need to be exceptional on the inside, not just the outside."

I don't know why her words rankled me a little. Something about being thought of as a mindless and useless person was frustrating. I was sure that I had uses. I didn't feel like a person who just sat around looking pretty.

"Caty!" a woman shouted and moved toward us. "What happened?"

As she strode across the glittery sand, I noticed how much she looked like Caty. They had similar features and gestures, although the other woman had different hair color. It was very light, almost the color of the sun in the Utopian sky.

"That's my mother, Lasandra."

Again something was familiar about this. I could feel it in the back of my head. Another little niggle that would not go away. I searched further into my mind. I paused as a glittering light caught my attention. What was this golden cord in my head? I was about to send my mental energy in to touch the unusual cord when Lasandra reached us and distracted me from my task.

"h.e.l.lo," she said to me, her voice light, musical even.

When I didn't answer straight away, she turned to Caty. "Does she remember anything? This is the first Walker to fall into the Utopia in such a long time."

Caty shook out her ma.s.ses of straight, dark hair. "No, I got to her almost immediately and she was already blank."

"Excuse me. I'm standing right here." They were talking over me like I was stupid. Their actions created a storm inside, my annoyance warring with that calm, golden place at the back of my head.

Lasandra studied me closely. "You're much more coherent and well-spoken than most that fall. Generally it takes the Angelica a long time to even remember their language skills."

I was pretty sure I had no wings, so I was not an Angelica. Plus, they'd called me Walker.

"What is this place?" I was starting to wonder why I was there. Before, I had just accepted it, but now it seemed odd to just appear in a world. There must be a reason.

"This is Utopia. The most perfect place in all of the worlds," Lasandra said.

The two women led me over to sit on a small gra.s.sy hill.

"No one ages, or gets sick; it's as if time stands still. You'll be eternally happy and safe, but there's a catch."

"Isn't there always?" Caty snorted, leaning back to rest on her elbows.

"Is there always a catch?" I was trying to wrap my mind around this concept. "So do you have to die to get to Utopia?"

A big sigh from Lasandra was my answer.

"We don't know." Caty's voice was low. "No one remembers how they arrived here."

When I tried to think back to what I had been doing before waking up in the meadow all I recalled was the sensation of falling.

"I fell," I murmured. "I fell for a long time, and then I woke in the field."

Lasandra and Caty both became animated in a way I had not seen from them before. "You remember something? Don't stop pressing into those memories, force them to come back to you."

My head was starting to ache. I dropped it into my hand, blocking out the light and the two faces of the Walkers whose desperate expressions told me how much they were relying on me to help them.

What the h.e.l.l was a Walker anyways?

The golden cord captured me again. I let my consciousness glide closer and the sparkling warm that fizzled through me was almost as lovely as the fuzzy happiness I felt in Utopia.

I skimmed around the outside, before deciding 'what the h.e.l.l' and throwing myself straight at it. Voices exploded at the same time that energy flooded me.

Abby. Thank the G.o.ds. Where the h.e.l.l are you?

I knew that voice and yet I was confused for a few more minutes; why was there a voice in my head? Had I gone crazy? But then a shot of hot power blasted into me, and with this flow of lava through my veins came a sweep of clarity. As if I'd been drugged, the cloudy, euphoric nature fled my mind and I could think clearly for the first time.

Holy effing h.e.l.l! I shouted and cursed for a few good moments. Finally I managed to get words out together, like in a sentence and everything. I fell into this weird world where everything is perfect and it takes away your memories so you never try and escape.

I knew Fury had been the one to speak earlier, and while I could feel the other girls, they weren't talking at the moment.

Everyone went crazy when you fell in to the abyss on Nephilius. And, girl, is something going on with you and Brace, because he's one scary mother, and he's on a warpath to get you back.

Brace. Oh, s.h.i.+t. My heart was pounding hard now. I could feel it smas.h.i.+ng around in my chest. The two women I'd met, Caty and Lasandra, I remembered why their names were so familiar. They were Brace's sister and mother. They'd been lost in Utopia all this time.

Why didn't he follow me down here?

I was glad he hadn't, but I still thought it was strange.

Colt practically tied him down, which worked for a little bit, but then he turned into this weird cyclone-energy thing. Bada.s.s basically destroyed everything that came in his path. But Wolfboy managed to calm him down. He agreed to try a few other things to find you first.

I'd forgotten about Brace's deadly other power. He could literally rip anything that got in his way to pieces. Fury's nickname for Brace had never seemed more appropriate.

How long have I been gone? I asked.

Two days.

Alright, we hadn't lost much time. But I needed to get out of there straight away. I had a feeling that if I broke the connection with Fury it would be harder to connect a second time. This Utopia would adjust to my unknown power and somehow counteract it.

Okay, Fury, I'm thinking if I break our connection I'll forget everything again. There's strong energy or magicks at work here. But I need you to speak with Brace, Colt or Dad. Can one of them open a doorway using my memories? I sent her images of the beach area we were in.

I'm with Bada.s.s, Wolfboy, Pixie and Josian. I'll see if I can sign-language them a message. Don't disconnect from me. And I'm also going to try and trace to you.

I'd forgotten she now had that ability. I waited, wondering where the other girls were. I could feel them, but distantly. I thought there'd been other voices when we first connected, but it must have only been Fury. I gasped as a stinging sensation slapped back at my mind.

Fury, I said.

No answer. And no energy any longer.

d.a.m.n, I was alone in my head ... wait a minute ... I remembered everything. I had all of my memories. I lifted my face from my hands. Lasandra and Caty were still beside me, waiting patiently, and it seemed as if they hadn't taken their eyes from me the entire time I was in my head.

"Did you remember anything? About falling into Utopia." Caty's voice was thin, higher than usual as her eyes pleaded with me.

I jumped to my feet. The two Walker women followed my movements to stand beside me.

"I remember everything." I scrambled to open a doorway, searching for the link between Utopia and the land of Nephilius above. I needed to get it open before this place compelled me to forget again.

But I couldn't find a connection or tether.

I turned to Brace's family. "There are no doorways out of here."

"The cage," Caty said.

My confusion had Lasandra explaining further. "We knew that if we ever remembered how to open a doorway, it would never work with the cage. The energy that surrounds Utopia is what clouds our memories, contains our energy so no one can find us, and holds us prisoner," Lasandra said.

Was that the energy that held the souls captive up on Nephilius? I had a brief mental flash of the land above. Maybe it had a dual purpose above and below Nephilius.

"Can you show me this cage?"

"Follow us," Caty said.

We strode back across the huge field I'd originally fallen into. Our pace was fast; we were taking no chances in case this world stole my memories again. As I watched the beautiful Walkers I realized then how much they really reminded me of Brace. It was almost painful to be around them. I had a feeling Brace was the reason I'd been so susceptible to Utopia. It had been nice to let the fuzziness wash away the agony of my broken melding bond. They started to run and I quickly fell into step, my long-ago honed running muscles enjoying the sudden stretch. I felt good, as if I could jog at this pace forever.

The stunning scenery pa.s.sed us in a blur. I was trying to understand how a world like this could exist within Nephilius. Was this Walker-created, and how was it powered? Or was this actually the land that existed below the clouds of Nephilius, and had someone simply used it to their advantage by utilizing the powers of the cage?

Finally we came to a path that seemed to lead between two ma.s.sive mountains. And as we stepped around the first side I noticed the cage. It looked just like the isles above, the crisscrossing of energy rising high into the sky; energy which seemed to originate from a rhythmic scattering of large purple, crystal-styled stones.

"We've tried many times to destroy this, but the power is too great. Nothing has worked," Caty said.

"The stones cannot be removed and, while we can approach the cage, we're repelled if we move too close," Lasandra said.

I had an idea of a way to break the cage.

I wished that my father or Brace were there to check the viability of my idea, but they weren't, so I'd have to go on my own instincts. And do what I knew how. Which was suck this energy into my power well inside. That endless pit which loved ma.s.ses of power.

I turned to Lasandra and Caty. I'd probably need their help with this. "I'm going to see if I can draw the energy into myself, and hope I can weaken this cage enough for you two to steal away the stones. And plan B involves me using the acc.u.mulated power to destroy these stones," I said.

The looks on their faces did not inspire confidence, but really, what other options did we have right then? Wasting no more time, I threw out my tether, the one that had destroyed the room of horrors; the one that was always hungry and never satisfied with any amount of energy. I let it go free to do what it did best: energy vacuum.

It connected with no problem, and my head fell back as the intoxicating swell of power flowed into me. The visible bonds of the cage rose up before us, higher than anyone could see, disappearing into the mists far above into the land of Nephilius.

But as the energy began filling me, the stones began to flicker. Starting with the ones closest to me. It seemed as if I was draining them one by one. The drawing of the power went on for infinite amounts of time, and I heard Caty's gasp each time a stone flickered before going dark. And every time this happened we stepped forward, following the trail through the mountain pa.s.s. About halfway along, I started to feel the ma.s.sive overload of energy.

This was the most power I'd drawn into myself without having to expel it. But there were still many stones lit in the circle before us. I knew then I wasn't going to be able to drain them all. Finally the energy forced me to my knees, as if my legs could no longer physically support me.

What the h.e.l.l was I supposed to do now? I couldn't suck anymore power into myself, and I had to get rid of what I had before it destroyed me.

Acting purely on survival instincts and not having much other choice I formed an arrow-like shape with the power. A screech left me as I exploded the missile from my body like a shooting projectile, aimed at the second half of the still-lit purple stones. I hoped the blast of energy would destroy them.

That wasn't exactly what happened.

The visible expulsion of energy surrounded us in a swirl of color and light. And then, as if they had their own vacuums attached, the stones simply reabsorbed all of the power I'd just drained from them. Those that had gone dark were now lit up again, and the cage was back and functioning.

"s.h.i.+t," I said, before realizing I'd just cursed in front of my future mother-in-law.

I hoped she didn't mind a potty-mouthed Earth girl shacking up with her son.

They were expressionless when I faced them. "Okay, so plan A and B are looking like a no-go. I'm not strong enough to drain them all." I bit my bottom lip, trying to think of another solution.

"Maybe we can help by grounding some of the energy," Caty said.

Grounding energy?

"What would you do?" I had no idea what they were talking about.

Lasandra's brow furrowed. "You're very powerful, and for some reason your marks are permanently on display like the ancients, but if I had to guess I'd say you don't know much about Walkers."

Ouch, Brace's mom had a bit of an att.i.tude. Arrogance was cute on Brace, not so much on his mother. Oh, well, I might as well give them a brief rundown so they understood the reasons for my incompetence.

"Short story, I'm a half-Walker " Their sharp intakes of breath cut me off for a moment. "And I have only recently enlightened."

"Impossible," Lasandra breathed.

"Oh, I a.s.sure you, I'm very possible." I pushed back some free strands of hair that were annoying me. "There's been a bit of a battle going on while you were stuck down here. Que was part of a few crazies involved in the release of the Seventine. I've been trying to clean up his mess. Four of the Seventine are free and roaming around." And tormenting me. "And right now we're on damage control before all of them are free."

They gasped over and over, in repeated, breathless motions. Caty actually started to cough and choke on her shock.

c.r.a.p, we didn't have time for them to fall apart. I needed focus.

"Show me this grounding thing." I gentled my tone. I wasn't completely unsympathetic. I knew it was a lot to take in. Although they couldn't really be shocked by Que's involvement.