“What are you all doing here?” I hear Dad M ask in shock, and I begin to push through my guys and the guards, with Kelly at my side. I hear the rattle of chains moving just as my dads come into view. Enzo’s sister, a bunch of teachers, and some people I don’t know are all chained to the wall with them. Dad M is the only one awake out of the lot, leading me to believe they must be drugged or something.

“Dad!” I shout, running over to Dad M and throwing my arms around his neck, despite the fact he can’t hug me back as he’s restrained. When I pull away I can see his relief. I can also see that he looks awful, and a quick glance around the room shows everyone else appears much the same way. Dirty, tired, and not in a good state at all.

“I thought you were gone, thought I’d lost you,” he says, kissing my forehead as I lift his chained arms to see the marked handcuffs on his wrists.

“Why aren’t they waking up?” Enzo demands after trying to wake his sister and failing.

“They inject us with something every day, so I don’t know why I’m awake. Maybe they messed up and gave me a lower dose,” my dad answers.

“You can heal them,” Taelon tells Mr Daniels, looking intently at the marks on his cheeks.

“What? How?” Mr Daniels asks.

“The marks on your cheeks are extended healing gifts. They don’t work like the normal healing mark. They can only heal poison or deadly bites. Back on Ariziadia, those marks are very useful and highly regarded,” he explains.

“Let’s give it a try then,” Mr Daniels says, walking over to Enzo’s sister and placing his hands on her face. Mr Daniels closes his eyes, the marks on his cheeks lighting up brightly, and then Stacey’s eyes pop open with a gasp.

“You’re alive! They told everyone you were dead,” Stacey cries as Enzo hugs her. We all happily watch as they hold each other and then Stacey’s eyes meet mine.

“You need to stop him, he’s destroying everything,” she says.

“What has Alaric done so far?” I ask, almost not wanting to hear the answer. Mr Daniels heals Dad P as Stacey explains.

“He has killed the entire London council, the New York council, and the Paris council. He must be close to getting the last two, but they’ve hidden from him so far,” she says, and there is a horrified silence in the room as we all process this.

“Fuck,” Locke breathes out what we are all thinking.

“The London council is not destroyed. It has me, and I’m officially making Kenzie, Kelly, the twins, East, and Enzo new council members, until we have destroyed Alaric and we can have a vote,” Mr Daniels says firmly, pulling his hands away from Dad P as he groggily wakes up. He looks straight at me, so much relief in his eyes.

“Come here, Kennie,” he tells me, and I run over to him, holding him close as I feel him kiss my forehead. “I knew you weren’t gone. No one beats my little Kennie that easily.”

“So, council members, what are we going to do now?” Stacey asks, and none of us have a reply. Other than the intention to kill Alaric, we are pretty much winging this.

“Also, the marks on your hands can open any lock. Like these handcuffs,” Taelon tells us.

“Daniels, you focus on waking everyone up, and the ones with the locking breaking mark, you start unlocking everyone,” East says. We all get to work, and I hold my hands over my Dad’s handcuffs, thinking of the mark on my hand. The mark lights up with a slight burning sensation for a second, but then his handcuffs fall to the ground and I’m pulled into my dad’s arms. We all make quick work of releasing everyone and just have to wait for Mr Daniels to wake up Dad L and everyone else.

We find that most are either old teachers of Marked Academy, or family of the council members that were killed. We’re in a large warehouse, surrounded by boxes, and I bet there are rebel guards outside. I wonder if I could just create a portal to get everyone out of here without them even noticing?

“Nope, it’s too much power, and we need to make a solid plan of attack, rather than just jumping in. We were lucky there are no guards inside here when we came through,” East says, clearing reading my mind again, but I don’t argue with him. He’s right. Though, I am annoyed at his new tendency to just pop into my mind whenever he likes. We’re going to have to discuss that later.

“First off, where is Alaric?” I ask everyone that is awake, and it’s Dad P that answers.

“He has control over the academy, and it’s his base of operations. If he’s anywhere, it’s there.”

“With your mum,” Dad M points out with a slight growl.

“We need to get close, but it has to be somewhere he wouldn’t expect. We have the element of surprise for now, and we can’t lose that. It’s our only chance to end this. Does anyone have any ideas? It’s not like we can sneak up on an island; he’d see us coming a mile away,” Enzo points out, speaking to the room. A woman puts her hand up, standing up shakily with a nervous expression when I nod to her.

“My name is Linda. I went to school with Alaric, and I was also a teacher there for many years. I have a house on the mainland. It’s just across the water from the academy, as I didn’t want to live in there,” she begins, and I listen impatiently for how this will help us. “It has an underwater tunnel in the basement that leads into the Academy’s basement. No one else knows it’s there. It’s an old tunnel, and I’m warning you now that it’s probably falling apart from lack of use and upkeep. It will likely be dangerous,” she explains quickly, probably noticing my expression. I give her a small smile, hoping to make up for my impatience.

“Even falling apart, I still think it’s the better option than just walking straight into the academy randomly,” I state, and there are mumbled agreements. “Okay, so we’re using the tunnel, then. I guess there’s only one more thing I need to ask; who’s coming with us?” I say, looking around at all of them. They aren’t in a good state, not to fight anyway, exhausted from their torture, and unable to be completely healed without the time and manpower to do so. I’m not going to force them if they don’t want to do this. I’m surprised when nearly everyone in the room, bar one or two, puts their hands up.

“We have all lost someone to Alaric and his rebels, and we will fight to get our revenge,” Linda says firmly, and I totally understand that.

“I promise you will get your revenge. Alaric will die,” I say, leaving out the fact that the price of his death will likely be my life.

“Alright, let’s go. We can knock out the guards, and grab their keys. They must have cars around here somewhere,” Mr Daniels suggests, and none of us say another word as we walk to the door. We all know, one way or another, this ends tonight.