“Laurel, are you up? If not, wake up and let me in before everybody else wakes up. I am freaking out. The door’s bolted. Let me in.”

Slipping back into my dress—I’d dared to sleep naked again—I walked over to the door and unlatched the bolt Raudrich had magically placed there.

“What is it? What’s wrong?”

He was covered in sweat.

“Shut the door. I don’t want to risk anyone hearing me.”

Once the door was shut, he began to pace back and forth across the length of the room.

“Marcus, what happened?”

“I don’t know what happened, Laurel. I woke up early and it was freezing in my room. I was laying there with every cover in the room wrapped around me trying to decide if it was worth the effort of uncovering myself to walk across the room and light a fire. Then, out of nowhere, the fire just lit itself.”

“It lit itself?”

He nodded. “Yes. And that’s not all. I lay there trying to justify it, right? Because otherwise I worried I would go running from this castle screaming. So, I tried to calm myself down by thinking things like maybe they have the fires set on some sort of timer, or maybe there was still a bit of lit kindling in the bottom from before bed and it sparked just right. But then…” He paused and placed his palm against his forehead as if he still couldn’t believe it. “I lay there and began to think, hmmm…I wonder what time it actually is? I wonder if it’s still dark out? And then, the curtains covering each of the windows on either side of the bed just opened. On their own, Laurel.”

He stopped pacing and moved to stand right in front of me.

“Laurel, this castle, these men, they’re in my head. They’re listening to my thoughts. Someone is doing something to me. I don’t like it. I don’t like it one bit.”

I knew what it was. It wasn’t remotely what he thought, and I had no idea how to tell him.

“Marcus, sit down. You look like you’ve just run five miles.”

“I feel like it. My heart is beating fast enough.”

I patted the bed and waited until he took a deep breath and moved to join me.

“How are you so calm, Laurel? You don’t look surprised at all.”

“If you’d seen what I saw last night, you wouldn’t be either.”

And so it began. I told him everything. I told him where Raudrich had taken me and all about what had happened to Nicol and Freya. I told him about Machara’s cell down below the castle and what had happened when Raudrich took me down to see her. I told him about the way Raudrich had held me in his arms while he told me Nicol’s story, and the way I felt when I kissed him in front of Machara. I took my time describing the entire night. I was in no hurry to get to the end of the story—to the part where I would have to tell him what he was.

By the time I finished, Marcus’ breathing had returned to normal and he appeared much calmer than before.

“He likes you, you know? I could tell he did at dinner last night.”

I nodded. I was going to try and take dream-Kate’s advice. I wouldn’t question what I felt to be true.

“I know, but we don’t need to talk about me and Raudrich right now. There’s something I have to tell you.”

Marcus chuckled, and I sincerely hoped it wouldn’t be the last time he would laugh for the foreseeable future.

“Even more happened last night? Geez, Laurel, that was enough to fill up a week.”

I could sense it then—as the words formed in my mind—just how much this would hurt him. The news would be bad enough, but once he learned that I’d suspected this even before Morna sent us back here and didn’t tell him…I wasn’t sure if he would ever be able to forgive me.

“Marcus, this doesn’t have to do with last night. This has to do with you. Something happened before we left for Scotland. Something I now know, I really should’ve told you about before now. I just…” I started to ramble the way I always did when nervous. “If it turned out to be nothing—which I was pretty sure it would—I didn’t want to worry you for no reason. But Marcus, it wasn’t nothing. It was a really, really big something and I’m so sorry.”

He looked confused as I started to cry.

“Laurel, calm down. It can’t possibly be as bad as all that. Just tell me.”

“I know I told you about the documentary and the book. Those really are the reasons I wanted to come here. Although, as we both know now, they were what Morna used to prep me for where she was sending us.”

Marcus reached for my hands and gently rubbed his thumb back and forth across my knuckles. It pained me more than he could know that he was trying to comfort me as I was trying to figure out how to deliver news to him that would change his life forever.

“I know all that, Laurel.”

“I know. But there’s something I left out. Something I didn’t tell you about the book that I found.”

He didn’t look worried.

“Okay…what didn’t you tell me?”

“You’re going to hate me, Marcus.”

He leaned forward and kissed my forehead. It made my heart ache.

“I could never hate you.”

I took a deep breath and braced myself.

“There was a portrait in the book. A portrait of The Eight. You were in the portrait.”

He didn’t seem to understand.

“Well, we are here now, aren’t we? Maybe the portrait is painted while we’re here.”

“No, you weren’t next to The Eight. You were one of the The Eight.”

I took another deep, shaky breath as I watched realization set it.

“I don’t think they’re inside your head, Marcus. I think your own powers are starting to come to the surface. I think you’re destined to be one of The Eight.”