Gritting my teeth and trying for the millionth time, I call on my divination mark, picturing the eye with the swirls, while also trying to focus on the vision Kelly had before. Finally, I feel a vision pull me in.

“Where the hell are we?” I ask, looking around. The landscape around me is unfamiliar, and feels so different to anywhere I have been before. The whole place seems to pulse with the magic of our marks.

“I can't believe it. We're really here,” Enzo's voice replies, as he pulls me close. He sounds so amazed, so in awe of this place, and I am too. It’s all real.

“I'm so fucking glad you're here with me,” I whisper, leaning up and kissing him...

“What are you doing?” Locke asks from the doorway, pulling me from my vision. I quickly open my eyes and look at him, trying to force a smile onto my face.

“Nothing, just um, meditating?” I say, shrugging and feigning nonchalance. I can't help but feel disappointed, I finally bring on a vision and it's the wrong one.

“You don't seem like the meditating type,” he replies with a smirk, as he steps into the room and shuts the door behind him.

“I'm trying to bring on a vision, I want to try and see if I can work out what Alaric is planning,” I say, giving him a half-truth at least. I don't want to worry him about Kelly's vision. I don't want to worry any of them, or burden them with this, not yet anyway. I’ll find out who it is in the vision first, I’ll figure out how to stop this, and then I’d tell them.

“Wouldn't Kelly be better for this job? No offence to your divination mark powers, but Kelly is an extremely powerful seer from what I've heard. Plus, I wouldn't put too much trust in visions, Kenz. You know nothing is foolproof with them, you can't trust them to always show you the truth,” he says, taking a seat on the bed next to me. I launch myself at him, wrapping my arms around him tightly. “Woah, Kenzie, what's this for?” he asks, cuddling me back.

“I just really needed to hear that right now, Locke. You wouldn't believe how much,” I whisper, squeezing him tightly.

“What's wrong?” he asks, stroking my hair and pulling me onto his lap.

“I don't want to talk about it, and plus, I don't even have time right now,” I say. I let myself relax for a moment against his chest, just listening to the repeated rhythm of his heartbeat.

“Why don't you have time?”

“I have to leave for testing in like...” I trail off, looking for the clock on the wall. “Ten minutes ago,” I finish, seeing the time. I groan and reluctantly pull myself away.

“Nope, not so quick,” he says, pulling me back and pressing his lips firmly to mine. I sigh in contentment, and then kiss him again, wrapping my arms around his neck and straddling his lap. His hands move down over my ass, tugging me closer to him.

A cough from the door makes me freeze. “Mackenzie, you’re meant to be in the lab,” Alaric calls from the door. I roll my eyes. Great, because being tested on like a freaking lab rat is what I want to be doing right now, as if. I look at Locke, his hair is all ruffled and he looks sexy as hell. Yeah, I could think of better things to be doing right now.

“Mackenzie,” he calls again impatiently.

Standing up, I make a huffing noise as I follow him from the room. As I reach the door, giving one last look and quick smile to Locke before I turn back and leave, heading for the stupid lab.

* * *

“Just try and keep calm,” the man in the white coat says.

“Keep calm? You're planning on using the pain mark on me while I'm covered in freaking suckers on my head, and a million monitors beeping around us. You want me to keep calm? Are you fucking insane?” I seethe.

“We just want to see if the mark will attempt to trigger, and what happens to your brainwaves and heart rate if that occurs,” he explains.

“Oh, and that makes it all okay then,” I snap.

“Please relax, Miss Crowe,” the man tells me, and then he presses his hand down on my shoulder. Pain shoots through my body instantly, my teeth clamp down and the sound of beeping filling the room is the only thing I can focus on for a second. The beeping gets louder, as I try to focus through the pain he is dishing out. Try and keep calm my ass. He either isn't using all his power on me, or is very weak with the pain mark as it doesn't hurt that bad I am eventually able to think. Not bad enough to make my other marks want to fight him. It's only annoying, like little bugs prickling all over my skin.

“Enough, this will not work. Emotions trigger the twelfth mark, and I finally found proof in the things stolen from the academy,” a woman says as she walks into the room. The man moves his hand away and I take a deep breath. I roll to the side to see Kelly walking in, and she runs over to me, placing her hands on my head. They light up, warming my forehead and side of my face where she touches, making me instantly start to feel better. I sit up, pulling all the wires off me before looking back at the woman who watches me. She has long black hair tied up, a white coat on, and she holds an old looking book in her hands. I pick up my jumper from the end of the bed and pull it over my head.

“Can I show you something, Mackenzie?” she asks me when I'm done and I nod, sliding off the table.

“Whatever you have to show me can't be any fucking worse than that,” I reply and follow her over to a table. She sits down, and I take the seat next to her as she opens the book. It's old enough to be falling apart, the pages are torn at the ends and crumbling as she moves them. The woman opens the book to the last page, where the twelfth mark is in the middle. There are people drawn all around it, and the arrow is bigger, dividing the sphere and the people. I look down it, knowing this little mark is the cause of all the trouble in this world. One tiny mark. I look underneath the mark to see the rows and rows of symbols written in a paragraph.

“They’re Ariziadian markings, or how they write. We don’t know the real name. That’s what is written underneath, as this book is from Ariziadia,” she tells me.

“The rumoured place all marked come from? The old fairy tale that our parents used to tell us, to scare us into going to sleep? Go to sleep or you might fall through a portal to Ariziadia,” Kelly asks with a slight laugh, as she sits in the seat next to me. We have all heard the fairy tales of Ariziadia. That it’s another world, where marked originals came from, but it’s only rumours used to make marked children go to bed. Just like humans have their fairy tales of the big bad wolf. There is nothing of real proof anymore, nothing to prove the world ever existed all those millions of years ago. Even the books, the water in the academy, and every artefact can be explained away as things ancient marked made in this world. Not brought over from Ariziadia.

“It’s not rumoured, it’s real, and the council have always known this. This book is from there, as are many other things we have collected,” the woman snaps and looks worried when I raise my eyebrows at her.

“I wouldn't speak to my friend like that, not if you want my help,” I say, watching as she looks at me and then back to Kelly.

“I'm sorry, I’ve spent my whole life researching a place you just claimed is rumoured, please understand,” she says to Kelly, who nods.

“So…can you read this?” I ask, placing my finger on the symbols. They look like marks, just smaller and every one of them is different from any marks we know.

“Yes. This claims that the twelfth power is drawn out by emotion, heavy emotion. Be it fear, sorrow or love,” she says, tracing a finger over the book in almost a loving motion. I bet this woman is married to her work.

“Well there's nothing we can do here then,” I say. Wanting to leave and maybe break into this woman's room later to find out what the twelfth mark is myself.

“I believe we should test this new theory with your friend Kelly...and me,” Verity says, as she walks into the room like she owns it. Dressed in all leather again, and her stupid shiny hair looks good as it moves around her. Gods how much I want to be petty as fuck, and cut all her hair off in her sleep.

“I don't believe that it would be smart to test such high emotions at this time,” the woman shakes her head and gets up, “I will go and ask Mr Daniels or Alaric what their opinion is on the matter, with this new information,” she says, practically running out the room after grabbing the book. Looks like I’m not the only one who wants to move very quickly in the other direction whenever Verity shows up.

“Let's go,” I tell Kelly, standing up as Verity moves in front of me.

“Everyone out, now,” Verity shouts, and I watch in the corner of my eye as all the scientists and healers run out from the room. This can’t be good.

“What are you doing? Your brother wouldn't let you do this. You’ve already had a warning, and the next time your brother won't be able to protect you from getting locked up. Playing the innocent sister won't work forever, as fucked up as you are,” Kelly spits out. Verity steps back and slams all the doors in the room shut with her air power.

“No one will hate me for activating the twelfth power. You should be thankful Kelly, you have no idea what Kennie's daddy dearest has planned for her,” she chuckles, and I grab Kelly's arm when she steps forward. While I'm distracted stopping Kelly from attacking the crazy bitch, she lifts her hands into the air and then pulls them down, making me and Kelly slam onto the floor.

“What happens when the twelve and her friend run out of air?” Verity chuckles, and aims her hands at us both. I go to call my powers when I realise I can’t breathe, and I panic. I roll on the floor, feeling my lungs being strangled and black dots slowly appear in front of my eyes the more I struggle to breathe.

“Maybe I should kill your friend? It would teach you a lesson for going after my Enzo, you little slut,” she says, and the pressure increases in my chest. I scream in my head as I taste blood in my mouth, calling every single one of my marks. I turn my head to the side and see Kelly turning blue, her eyes wide and panicked as blood pours from the corner of her mouth. The twelfth power takes over as I stare at Kelly, burning the back of my neck as I close my eyes. I feel each one of my marks start to burn, the fire mark, the water mark...

“NO! You stupid girl, she will destroy the whole unit!” I hear Alaric scream, seconds before a hand punches me hard in the face, and everything goes black.