The Marked Girl

by Lindsey Klingele

  Cedric’s arms wrapped around both Liv and Shannon now, propelling them forward. He lifted them off their feet and out through the ruined wall into the night. Behind them, the burning chunk of ceiling crashed down onto the floor of the warehouse with a deafening bang, sending sparks and pieces of charred wood flying. Cedric pushed Liv and Shannon to the hard ground, diving on top of them to protect them from the debris.

  Heat raked up Liv’s legs, and she struggled to breathe through smoke and ash. She turned back to the warehouse just in time to hear a groaning sound.

  “It’s going to collapse,” Liv choked out.

  Cedric nodded, unable to speak. Shannon’s eyes were closed, though she continued to suck in huge breaths of air. Liv put an arm under Shannon’s shoulder and hauled her up so the three could move across the small lawn. Liv knew that she should move her legs faster, faster, faster, but couldn’t force her muscles to respond to her command. She just barely registered that the earth had stopped shaking.

  They finally reached the spot where Daisy half stood, hands on her knees, and Kat held a still-bleeding Merek.

  When Cedric saw Merek, his face went entirely still. He was covered in soot and ash, but his eyes burned through it all.

  “You!” Cedric let go of Shannon’s arm and launched himself forward, tackling Merek to the ground. He barely noticed that Merek, limp as a rag doll, didn’t even try to fight back.

  Cedric grabbed Merek’s shoulders and shook until his head flopped backward. “Why did you do it? Why?” he screamed, voice catching in his throat.

  “Cedric!” Kat yelled out. Liv could see that she was covered in dust and the knuckles of her hand were bloody—she’d been fighting, too. “Stop!”

  But Cedric wouldn’t stop, or couldn’t. He slammed Merek’s shoulders again into the ground.

  “I . . . don’t . . .” Merek coughed.

  “You betrayed us! Why?” Cedric’s lips were pulled back into a grimace, his eyes were wild. “Why?”

  But Merek didn’t just look scared—he seemed confused.

  Even in her daze, something Malquin said before popped into Liv’s head. Maybe you are less insightful than I thought. . . .

  “Cedric, wait,” she yelled, as loud as her smoke-charred throat would allow. “It wasn’t him. Malquin told me . . . it was someone else.”

  Cedric’s body tensed, but it took another moment for his fingers to release Merek’s shoulders. He stayed there, hovering over Merek for some time.

  “There is no one else,” he finally said. “It had to have been him.”

  “I did not betray anyone,” Merek responded. His voice was thin and raw. For the first time since Liv had met him, it was entirely devoid of sarcasm. Like the rest of the group that sat wheezing and sweating on the lawn, Merek was totally rung out, a hollow shell. A teenager who was in over his head. “I swear.”

  Kat leaned down and slowly coaxed Cedric away from Merek.

  “We will figure everything out when we get away from here,” Kat said. She bent over Merek, ripped the sleeve from her shirt and wrapped it slowly around his largest wound, the one from Malquin’s knife. “Can you move?”

  Liv’s eyes shot back to the burning building. A few figures were still scattering into the night, some wearing flowing robes that flew out behind them as they ran. Any wraths and Knights who made it out of the fire weren’t sticking around to see what happened next.

  When the right half of the warehouse collapsed in on itself, it did so with a shudder and a bang. The crumbled remains of concrete walls stood brightly against the night.

  There was no sign of the portal.

  “Liv, look,” Shannon said, nudging Liv’s side. Liv followed her gaze past the ruins of the warehouse to the surrounding area beyond. She had a hard time processing what her eyes were telling her.

  They stood in a field of rubble—and not just right outside the warehouse. For a full block, every building in sight had been completely leveled. Brought down to the ground.

  Decimated.

  THE DEBRIS

  They moved as quickly as they could through the darkened Venice streets. Liv’s lungs burned and her head pounded with each step, and she only wanted to sit down somewhere cool and clean. But they had to keep moving, away from the Knights and wraths fleeing the wreckage of the warehouse, away from the cop car Cedric had stolen, away from anyone who might try to stop them.

  Getting away quickly was difficult, what with everyone still coughing up ash. Merek could barely even stand without Kat and Cedric on each side to prop him up. But still they moved, following Liv’s lead. She was taking them to the only familiar place nearby—the ocean. When they reached the beach, Liv looked around, trying to get her bearings. It was nearly dawn, and sirens wailed in the distance. Liv wearily directed the others to turn right, toward the only structure that could provide some sort of shelter where they could stop and rest for a while.

  As the Santa Monica Pier grew closer in Liv’s line of vision, with its familiar buildings and Ferris wheel outlined against the sky, her body finally started to shed some of its panic. They collapsed into the sand under the rounded wooden pillars that supported the weight of the pier. The shadows would hide them well.

  With Kat’s help, Cedric was finally able to snap the shackles from around Shannon’s wrists. Once that was done, he moved to sit a little away from the group, his arms wrapped loosely around his knees. He stared out at the water and avoided looking at Merek, who in turn stared at the sand, his expression dark.

  Liv fell down next to Shannon and Daisy, noting their soot-streaked faces and thinking she must look just as dirty. Their throats must be as parched and dry as her own, too, after inhaling so much smoke. She wished she had water—or anything at all—she could give to them to make it better.

  “Let’s never do that again,” Shannon said flopping down in the sand and rubbing her wrists.

  “Are you okay?” Liv asked Daisy. Her sister looked up, as if startled by the question, and Liv saw that her eyebrows were furrowed. She regretted asking—of course Daisy wasn’t okay. “I’m so sorry to pull you into this. I really wanted to keep you safe, not put you in danger. I shouldn’t have come for you at all.”

  Daisy looked out at the ocean, not responding for a while. When she did say something, her words surprised Liv. “I’m glad I know the truth, even if tonight was, like, the worst thing that ever happened to me.” She looked over at Liv. “I’m glad you found me.”

  “Me too.” Liv smiled and turned her head toward the ocean. “We’re going to need a way out of here. Time to call Joe.”

  Liv moved a little way from the others to dial, and Joe picked up on the first ring. “I’m glad you’re all okay,” Joe said when Liv was done explaining what had happened. His voice sounded strained. “Peter and I are just outside the city. Do you have somewhere safe you can go until we can get to you?”

  Liv thought of the Echo Park house. It was likely that Malquin knew about it, and his wraths, too.

  “No,” she said. “There’s nowhere safe left.”

  A pause. “Then stay where you are. I’ll be there soon.”

  “Okay. And Joe? There’s something else.” Liv heard light static through the line as Joe waited for her to continue. But how could she tell him this? Not only tell him that his brother was alive, but also explain what he had become? There was no easy way.

  But it had to be done, and there was no one to do it but her.

  “Malquin isn’t from Caelum. He went over there through a portal.” Liv took a breath. “Twenty years ago.”

  Joe made a small noise of shock, and Liv knew he understood. “John,” he whispered. When he spoke again, his voice was shaky. “Okay. Okay. I’ll be there soon, all right?”

  “Okay,” Liv breathed. She hung up and turned to the exhausted group around her. “Joe’s on his way to come get us. And as long as we’re waiting, there are some things you guys should know.”

  Liv filled Cedric, Kat, and Merek in
on everything Malquin had told her about his plan. When she was done, Cedric took his head from his hands and stood. His expression was carefully controlled. It was a scary thing, Liv thought, watching Cedric pull himself into leader mode like that. But it was impressive, too. “He fell through the portal. But now we know what he wants. He won’t give up just because he lost a handful of wraths in a fire.”

  Liv closed her eyes, trying to block the sights and smells of the fire from her mind.

  “We can’t let him open a giant portal,” she said. “You saw what happened to those buildings, and that portal was only open a few minutes. If it had been longer . . .” Liv swallowed.

  “We will not let that happen,” Cedric said.

  “But it’s worse than just that. The portal closed on this side, but Malquin explained that they stay open on the other end, in Caelum. He could still use it to bring wraths through . . .”

  “Better the wraths come here than stay in Caelum,” Kat said, her voice cold.

  “Nice,” Shannon shot back.

  “No,” Cedric said, his voice again eerily calm. “Expelling the wraths to this realm is not the solution. But now that we know Malquin’s plan, we can stop him. We can find him in Caelum and intercept him before he can cause more damage to either world.”

  “You really think you can do that?” Liv asked. “Stop him before he comes back?”

  “Yes,” Cedric said. “I can.”

  “Why should we trust you now?” Merek said, his voice rough and shaky. He coughed and spit into the sand. “Look how far trusting you has ever gotten us.”

  Cedric winced. “I know I could have done things better, Merek. No one knows that more than I. We acted rashly tonight, going to get Daisy, and then . . . I acted rashly. . . .” Cedric’s voice faltered, and he swallowed hard. “But I will not make that mistake again. We will make sure the scrolls are safe here, we will follow Malquin home to Caelum, and we will stop him.”

  For a moment, no one spoke.

  “Look,” Daisy said, pointing out toward the sea. A thin shimmer of lighter blue was beginning to rise from the horizon, with just a hint of pink underneath it. “It’s morning.”

  While everyone looked out over the water, Liv’s head swiveled to Cedric. The almost-morning light was not yet bright enough to reflect in his eyes, and his features looked dark. He seemed very far away, like he was slipping from her. Soon, she wouldn’t be able to reach him at all.

  Liv pushed herself up from the soft sand and walked over to where he stood.

  “Can I talk to you? Before Joe gets here.”

  Cedric nodded. “Of course.”

  He followed her as she started to walk away. Kat watched them go with careful eyes, but didn’t make a move to join them.

  Liv led Cedric out from under the pier, up the beach a few paces to the worn, wooden stairs that led from the sand to the main pier entrance. In the early darkness of morning, the pier was empty. Its boards were cool to the touch, though Liv knew they would be baking hot later, under the summer sun.

  “Where are we going?” Cedric asked. He looked around at the closed-up shops and restaurants, the Ferris wheel frozen in place at the far end of the pier.

  Liv led him across the width of the pier to the railing on the other side. They were near enough to keep an eye out for Joe on the road, but far enough to be out of sight of the others. Liv leaned her arms up on the splintery railing and listened to the splashing of waves against wood.

  “Liv?”

  “I wanted you to see this,” she said.

  The strip of sky at the horizon of the ocean was growing larger, and the sky was getting lighter with each second.

  “Do you have oceans in Caelum? Or piers like this one?”

  Cedric shook his head. “We have a sea. But nothing like this.”

  “I know you’ve seen a lot of terrible things since you’ve been in this world,” she continued. “But I’d hate for you to think it is all bad. That after everything, you still thought it was . . .” Liv trailed off, the word hell on the tip of her tongue. With the images of the fire still bright in her mind, she couldn’t bring herself to say it.

  “I do not think it is all bad,” Cedric said softly, looking out over the waves. “Not anymore. There are a lot of dangerous things here, but there are dangerous things in Caelum as well. It’s just the unknown that is frightening.”

  “But this place, it’s at least a little less unknown than it used to be?” Liv struggled to keep the hopeful tone from her voice.

  Cedric’s mouth twitched a little, just a hint of his half-smile. “Yes,” he replied. “And not everything that was frightening turned out to be bad.”

  Liv swallowed hard, trying to summon back the courage she’d felt at Daisy’s house after her pep talk with Shannon, just before the wraths had attacked. Even if it was ill-timed, she knew this would be her last chance to say something real. This is the moment, she yelled inside her head. Do it now. Her stomach clenched, and she turned back to look at the ocean.

  “Cedric, you and me . . .” She faltered. Why was it so hard? Why, after everything else . . . ?

  “Liv,” he said, carefully. “You do not have to—”

  “No, that’s the thing. I do have to. I really do. Because what we have between us, it’s new to me. It’s all scary and . . . unknown. But that’s no reason to be afraid of it, right? It’s no reason to shut down. I know this is completely the wrong time, but if you really are going to go soon, I don’t want to regret never telling you . . .”

  Cedric’s eyes bored into hers, searching. But Liv couldn’t tell what he was thinking.

  “. . . how much I care about you. Because I do, so much.” The words were tumbling out of Liv’s mouth now, and she let them. She knew if she stopped talking, this moment would pass away like all the others had and she’d never be brave enough to get it out.

  “I just want to explain, I want to be clear so there’s no doubt . . . whenever we’re around each other, it’s like you’re the most important thing in the room . . . and I just need you to know . . .”

  Liv didn’t wait for Cedric to interrupt her. She leaned in quickly and kissed him hard. His mouth tasted like salt and smoke. After a split second, Cedric began to kiss her back. He reached up to the back of her head, and his fingers tangled up in her bedraggled hair.

  With effort, Liv pulled away. “I just need you to know that . . . I need you to know that I want you to stay.”

  Cedric’s hands remained in Liv’s hair, but his eyes were fixed on the wooden pier beneath their feet. Time ticked by for what felt like minutes, hours, even, and Liv had trouble remembering to inhale and exhale. Even though her feet were on solid ground, she felt like she’d just taken a running jump off the pier, and she was falling, falling, falling into nothing. . . .

  Cedric stepped away, releasing Liv and tucking his hands into his pockets. He cleared his throat.

  Liv landed, hard.

  “I can’t,” Cedric said.

  Liv took a half-step back, looking to the ocean so Cedric couldn’t read the emotion in her eyes.

  “Everything that happened tonight, it was my fault,” Cedric went on. “Someone could have died in that fire. I may not know how we were betrayed, but in the end, it was still my decisions that led us there.”

  Liv thought about the day before, when she had pleaded with him to go to the observatory, and then to find Daisy. When Kat had called her out on manipulating Cedric to get her way. She shook her head. “It was my decision to go to Beverly Hills. If it’s anyone’s fault, it’s mine.”

  “No. You wanted to go, but the decision ultimately falls on me. That is what it means to be a leader. That is what Kat has been trying to tell me.” Cedric breathed out heavily and ran a hand through his hair. “I fought for so long, against my father’s wishes, against my future. All I wanted was to fight, not to rule. But I can’t run from it—I have to be a leader. Their leader. There’s no changing what I was born to be. Even if I wanted
to . . .” Cedric paused. “I can’t.”

  Liv stayed completely still as Cedric went on. He sounded weary now. “I was born to protect my people, and these past few days, I have not been doing that. I should have put the welfare of Kat, Merek, and my family first, but instead all I could think about was . . . you.”

  She looked hard at him in the rising daylight. There were his hands that had picked her up to run from the wraths. There was his mouth that she had kissed just minutes before. . . . He was standing right before her, but the possibility of him was drifting farther away with each second.

  “Having you around, it confuses things,” Cedric continued. “My priorities shift when you are close. My priority becomes you. And it cannot be you. Not now, when we need so desperately to get home, and not soon, when we have such fighting ahead of us. And not later, when I have to take up my responsibility to my family and my kingdom. Not ever, Liv.”

  Cedric turned away from her then.

  A hundred responses formed on Liv’s mouth. That it wasn’t fair. That she understood. That she didn’t understand. That he was taking the coward’s way out. That he was brave.

  In the end, she said nothing. She saw the resolution on Cedric’s face, and she knew she wouldn’t sway him. The hurt was sinking in, like a fresh wound that stings just before it begins to throb. Her words were out there now, and so were his. There was no taking any of it back.

  The wind swirled Liv’s hair around her face. She could just see the sky turning bluer over the water. The darkness seeped away by the second.

  “I am sorry,” Cedric said.

  “Don’t,” Liv said, shaking her head. “Please don’t apologize.”

  Cedric nodded. “I will make sure that you, Daisy, and your brother are hidden from Malquin. It is in the best interest of both our families that he does not get what he wants. We’ll figure out the safest way to keep you from him, but meanwhile . . . I think it would be best if you and I kept our distance.”

  It took a good amount of Liv’s energy to keep her voice steady as she said, “Okay.”