Marked

by Jasmine Derriman

  The voice of a girl running towards us made me float back to the real world for a second. The girl before us had around about shoulder length dark hair which the front section was pinned back to reveal her pale smooth skin, and beautiful complexion.

  “It’s not as bad as it looks, I promise,” Isaac stated. “She’s just worn out. She overused her mark, she needs sleep.”

  “Okay, well that’s all well and good, but your arm, Isaac-,” the girl started to say frantically.

  “Is fine,” Isaac said bluntly. “Can we just worry about her first?”

  The girl sighed a little but nodded. “Come on, we’ll go to the guest chambers.”

  I wasn’t really aware of any turns we took down halls, or if anyone else laid their eyes on me, the more I walked, the more out of it I got. I was drained, that’s how I felt, and my whole body just wanted to shut down, and I was relieved when Isaac placed me down on a bed. My eyelids were sliding open and shut as I felt the covers of the bed lay over me, and as I opened my eyes again I vaguely saw Isaac at the doorway.

  “Isaac,” I whispered his name, barley able to speak.

  “Go to sleep, Lily,” he said dimly, as I saw him turn to me. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

  “I know…I know,” I breathed. “I…I just want to say thank you though. You…you’ve helped me…even though I…I didn’t want to listen to you.”

  I think I saw Isaac smile, but I could barely see him between the haze around my eyes. “Goodnight, Lily.”

  I finally stopped frightening my tiredness, and I let myself sleep, but I knew the only reason that I felt so comfortable to sleep right now was Isaac. He protected me, and I trusted him, and he made me feel safe like I never had felt before.

  Chapter Eleven

  I had been in such haze, than when I woke up, for a moment I completely forgot everything that had been happening. The first thought I had that morning wasn’t of demons, it wasn’t of things that should be nothing but a fairy tale. My first thought that morning was of me wondering whether or not I was going to be late for school.

  Once I opened my eyes however, everything hit me again, and I realised I was living the fairy tale, and it was more than a fairy tale, it was my real life. As I sat up, I realised I definitely felt a lot more, refreshed, at least, I didn’t feel so weak at least. I pushed my hair away from face and I felt myself release a large breath of air. For a second it wasn’t real, and for a second I cared more about the school I hated for so long…because right now school was a walk in the part compared to what I had faced in the past two days.

  A light tap on the door made me jump and I found myself gathering my thoughts before I spoke.

  “Come in,” I yelled.

  I realised the door was across the away from me in the bed. The room had the same polished wood I had remembered seeing before. The bed I was in was a double sized bed with a beautiful wooden frame to it. Beside me, there was a chest of draws, also old and authentic like everything else in the room, including the maroon chair in the corner.

  The door creaked open and I wasn’t surprised to see that Isaac was the one that entered. I felt relieved to see him in a way. I wasn’t really sure where I was and I needed to see him right now to even begin to feel sane again.

  “Your arm,” I sighed.

  Isaac’s right arm, the arm the demon had managed to claw at, was heavily wrapped in white bandages, and they covered most of the top half of his arm.

  “Its fine,” he waved it off. “It’s only got to stay like this until we leave and see Felix. This place doesn’t have a healer at hand.”

  “That was my fault,” I said, “your arm.”

  Isaac shook his head, stepping into the room to walk over me. “It wasn’t.”

  “You didn’t have time to defend yourself because you were getting me out of the way,” I protested.

  “Lily, don’t worry about it,” Isaac said.

  “I am worried about it,” I admitted.

  “Well I’m worried about you.”

  Isaac calmly looked at me as he sat himself down on the edge of the bed near my legs. He seemed so much gentler than before. Before he seemed…aggressive, and aggravated, but now… it was all gone.

  “And why would you be worried about me?” I frowned.

  “Because…you killed a demon…again,” he added.

  It barley occurred to me that he was right. I had killed that demon last night, in fact I had practically tortured it, but that never stopped it coming at us.

  “That’s what I’m supposed to do, right? I’m and Insigne, like you, I’m breed to kill demons,” I muttered.

  “You’ve been an Insigne for three days now,” Isaac stated, “you’re not like me yet.”

  “Does that have to do with the fact that I pretty much passed out?” I muttered, looking way from him.

  “A little, yeah,” Isaac answered. “Eve can explain all of it to you though… make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

  “Eve?” I frowned, looking back at him.

  “Yeah, the girl that met us at the portal last night,” Isaac reminded me.

  “Oh, right, yeah,” I nodded. “I vaguely remember that.”

  Isaac smiled at me and sighed. “Hungry?”

  “Yes, actually.”

  “Good, get changed and I’ll wait for you outside.”

  The idea of killing a demon didn’t exactly send chills down to my spine. Both times that I had managed to kill a demon, I only ever felt relief. They were relentless, and no matter how many times they were hit or hurt, they didn’t give up or run away. That was the thing to me that separated them to any type of human. I guess I thought if it got so bad, a human would flee to survive, a demon didn’t want to survive if they couldn’t complete their task, they’d rather die. They weren’t humanised in anyway either. Their eyes are darker that the night and it would seem their hearts are too. I was surprised that I felt no guilt to stabbing a demon in heart like I maybe should’ve, and I knew that’s why Isaac was worried about killing another demon.

  My bag had been placed near the maroon chair in the corner, and it was covered in dirt, most probably from the way I just dropped it last night. It was nice to get into my own clothes, and get out of Hadley’s oversized clothes. I felt extreme comfort by dressing in my jeans and putting on a sweatshirt and even braiding my hair, it just made me feel like me, which I needed right now.

  Isaac was waiting outside for me like he said he would be. He was just leaning on the wall opposite my room, with his arms crossed over his chest, glaring into space. He pushed himself up straight when he saw me and smiled.

  “So what is for breakfast?” I asked him as we walked.

  He shrugged. “We have to make it actually.”

  “Okay,” I nodded slowly.

  “When there’s no one here… no one to learn I mean…we all kind of do our thing,” he shrugged. “I spent a bit of time last year…to research something…and Eve and I just ordered in a lot. There are cooks when the kids are here to learn.”

  “So you and Eve know each other well?” I guessed.

  “Oh yeah,” he nodded. “We’re the same age so we were both here when together for a year.”

  “You only spend a year here?” I said slowly.

  “An Insigne generally, gets there mark fifteen or sixteen, so by the time you’re seventeen you come here for a year. You train here, learn more about your mark, how to master it, and at the end of the year the whole year is ranked on who performs the best, and that rank helps determine where you get placed to respond to demon calls,” Isaac explained. “People like Eve, just choose to stay is all.”

  “Why?”

  “Well, Eve’s mark doesn’t exactly help in the field all the time, she felt she was better off here, or at least of better use.”

  “What’s her mark?”

  “Knowledge,” Isaac answered, opening a door for me.

  “Knowledge? How does that work?” I frowned, turning to him.
>
  “Well…she doesn’t just have infinite knowledge…she can learn quickly, and I mean anything she reads, anything she learns, she retains and she never really forgets it,” Isaac told me. “It’s pretty cool when you think about it.”

  “Would’ve helped me graduate school at least two years early.”

  Like the rest of this place, the kitchen was practically ancient. It consisted of rustic black marble stone benches; a gas stove oven, but not surprisingly a modern fridge. I was kind a relief to find breakfast cereals and milk, it felt like I hadn’t eaten properly for days. There were stools near the island bench and I sat on one of the stools whilst Isaac tried to keep the kitchen tidy and make us both breakfast.

  “What’s…going to happen today?” I asked Isaac, glancing at in from my speak

  Isaac paused as he put the milk away in the fridge before he spoke.

  “I’ve got to talk to some people first,” Isaac told me, shutting the fridge and turning around.

  “Who?”

  “The council elders,” Isaac answered.

  “And I won’t be a part of this conversation?” I asked him.

  He shook his head a little at me. “No, not this one.”

  “Hey, there you guys are.”

  I turned my head to see the same small petite girl that had greeted us last night. Today she had her hair pulled back in a tight bun and this time she wore glasses that were thick in the glass, but thin on the rims and really seemed to suit her.

  “Hey, Eve,” Isaac sighed.

  “They’re ready for you, Isaac, but I’m sure you already knew that,” Eve said, crossing her arms over her chest.

  Isaac looked over at me and he curled his lips together and placed the bowl of cereal in front of me before he walked over to Eve. I heard him whisper something to her, but I couldn’t make out what. Eve nodded at me and Isaac gave me one last look before he walked out of the kitchen. Eve stood there awkwardly for a moment before she took a deep breath and spoke.

  “I didn’t really get a chance last night to introduce myself,” Eve said, stepping over to me. “I’m Eve.”

  I felt like saying I already knew, but she was trying to be polite. “I’m Lily,” I said quickly, “and I don’t blame for not getting around to it, I was…quite out of it.”

  “That wasn’t your fault,” Eve shrugged. “Marks can be complicated…especially when they’re new.”

  “Mine is more the complicated,” I muttered, subconsciously touching my arm where the mark was.

  “No,” Eve disagreed. “Yours is powerful.”

  I had been staring down at my lap, rather than looking Eve in the eyes as she spoke. I paused before I lifted my head to meet her gaze and saw she was smiling at me.

  “Do you believe that I’m this…?”

  “Chosen one?” Eve suggested, as she took her glasses off putting them on top of her head. “I don’t know what to believe right now. This war has been going on for years, and the demons are getting smarter. The elders keep locating homes with research on…us. They’re trying to find our weakness, and they’re getting close it.”

  I didn’t want to tell Eve that I had seen exactly what she meant. We had been in house with the room of research and I don’t think I fully understand what the meant until now, and I also had this feeling I would get Isaac in trouble if I told her one of my near-death-experiences of the past three days.

  “The elders want to believe you are this ‘chosen one,’” Eve told me calmly. “They know that they’re fighting a losing battle…and the dagger won the war last time, and they think it’s their only hope.”

  “But it wasn’t just the dagger last time, was it?” I said to her.

  “Isaac has told you about our history then, has he?” Eve asked.

  “Bits and pieces,” I shrugged. “I know there was girl, who had the dagger and stopped the war from becoming to…big, but she didn’t end it.”

  “Annabeth,” Eve nodded. “That was her name, and she was the one to end the first demon war and then hide the dagger. She was fearless, and powerful, and humble. She understood the consequence of having more than one mark; she understood why they were taken away from everyone else. It was Insigne turned bad that caused the war the first time. They say he could control demons, and that the one mark he was left with gave him the power to control them, but we know of no such mark now. He wanted that dagger for power, nothing else…and he promised the demons that there would be no other Insigne left on this earth for them.”

  “But Annabeth won,” I nodded at her.

  “They say he took him down by herself in the end, but no one knows how exactly,” Eve answered me.

  “And they think I’m just like Annabeth…or what?” I frowned at her.

  “Only one can use the dagger,” Eve told me. “So yes, there’s a possibility.”

  “I look at marks…and I just know what they are,” I said shaking my head. “And I should…still be freaking out…shouldn’t I? But there’s something about all this…something I understand.”

  “It’s a good sign,” Eve nodded, “but the elders don’t want to give out false hope.”

  “What are they going to say to Isaac, and why does he have to be the one to talk to them?” I asked Eve quickly.

  “He hasn’t told you a lot, has he?” Eve asked surprised, sitting down on a stool beside me. “Well, you must know that Isaac’s mark doesn’t…do anything exactly?”

  “I was told, yeah.”

  “Well, we all have natural strength and combat skills, but because Isaac’s mark never did anything he worked more on his combat skills, and surprisingly without his mark he was one of the strongest Insigne’s to graduate that year. His is highly looked upon…but I think he doubts his power because he’s ashamed of his mark,” Eve shrugged. “The elders respect him….even though he doesn’t respect them.”

  “I…I just want to know what they’re saying to him…”

  Eve curled her lips together and she looked away from me and as she turned back, but I could literally see some sort of internal battle happening inside her mind.

  “What?” I frowned at her.

  “Hmm…okay, I wouldn’t normally do this…but okay. This place was like an old castle or something, I don’t know, but I do know that there are secret passages ways, and I know there is one that will allow you to hear what is going on in the council chambers without them knowing you are there,” Eve told me.

  “Seriously?” I said, practically jumping off my stool.

  “Come on.”

  I followed Eve through the halls of this place, knowing damn well I would get lost easy enough in this place, but that didn’t make me pay attention to where we turned at each hall. Eve slowed suddenly in one of the halls before directly stopping at one of the bookshelves. I watched her as she scanned the bookshelf slowly before selecting a book, and rather than pulling it out, she pushed it in. Something behind me clicked and I jumped and turned to see that part of the wall was no longer attached to the rest of the wall.

  “When you go in take a right and then left,” Eve told me. “You should see a vent and you should be able to open it and even see into the council chambers.”

  “You’re not coming in?” I frowned at her.

  “No,” she smiled slightly. “This isn’t for me to hear.”

  It was fair that there was a possibility that no one except Eve knew of this passage way. Once the wall closed behind me there was no light what so ever. Eve seemed to have forgotten that part and for a moment I stood there completely unsure of what to do, until something occurred to me. I held my hand out in front of me and shut my eyes. I felt it before I realised I had done it. I opened my eyes to see a small flame stirring the palm of my hand. I still had no idea how I managed to do ever do it, but I think there was just a part of me that had always known how to do it. My flame provided me more than enough light to allow me make the two turns Eve had told me to.

  Unlike the rest of this place, these walls we
re made of stone and it gave the room a sort of chill, which I was not enjoying at all. My flame only lit what was in front of me, not that I needed much more, but I felt the glow extend slightly as I stepped into a more open room. I held my hand at a different angle so I could see the walls. I was relieved when I saw some candles on top of what appeared to be a small cabinet. I placed my hand over the candles and slowly enough they lit, proving me the light I needed. As the room became brighter and I let the flame in my hand die out and I realised that the cabinet was filled with books and scrolls, all which looked nearly as old as this room. I felt curious to what they may contain, but before I could even think about opening the cabinet I heard the faint sound of a voice behind me.

  My eyes locked onto the vent that Eve had mentioned and I walked over to it, bending down onto the floor to find the hinge that allowed me to open the grate, and allowed me to slightly see I the room on the other side. I don’t know what I expected the elders to look like actually. I guess the name elders made me think that they would be wearing big long robes and sitting around in a circle, despite the warning Felix had given me that that wasn’t the case. These, elders, however were just dressed like average people, and I’m pretty sure one of them was wearing sand shoes.

  “She’s not a pawn in your game.”

  Isaac was in the far corner for the wide room. I think there was a table in the middle of the room, but the vent was only providing minimal viewing possibilities. I could see Isaac though and he looked pissed off.

  “We never said that she was,” a man standing near Isaac said calmly, “but you have brought her here for a reason.”

  “Of course I have,” Isaac snapped. “She was attacked by demons…several actually as you may have noticed from my arm. They want something from her…and it’s no coincidence that they all seem to ask her for the dagger. No to mention that she is a new Insigne, I would’ve brought her here anyway.”