by Cece Rose
“Do you speak English?” Enzo asks, his voice firm and confident.
“Take them,” the leader says, and the guards step forward. Well, I guess they do speak English then.
“Wait!” I step in front of Enzo, who just swears under his breath. The leader holds his hand up, looking at me curiously.
“My name is Mackenzie Crowe. We don’t mean you any harm, and we didn’t plan to come here. All we want is to find the portal, our friends, and leave,” I explain, and for a second he seems curious, but it’s gone within a second.
“You opened this portal, and you will pay for the damage you have done. Your friends’ lives seem a fair price, Mackenzie Crowe,” he says and nods at his guard, before turning around and walking away. I start to shout after him when the guards surround us, and my eyes dart back to Enzo.
“Don’t fight them, we can’t,” he says.
The guard to the right of Enzo chuckles and snidely remarks, “Weaklings, all of you.”
Enzo smiles and quickly lifts his hand, slamming his fist into the guard’s face and he falls to the ground with a thud, knocked out. As the other guards hold Enzo back, he winks at me.
“I thought you warned me not to piss them off?” I ask, as two of the guards grab my arms, and the one on the right pulls a dagger out his pocket, pressing it into my side.
“I told you not to piss them off. We both know there was no chance of me not doing it,” he replies, smirking even as I watch the guards tighten their grip on him.
“No fighting us, or I will kill her,” the one holding the dagger warns, and Enzo gives him one sharp nod before walking towards the mountains with the guards holding his arms. I hope the others don’t come here.
Chapter 6
Logan
As East and I follow after a confident-looking Kelly, we exchange concerned glances. We don’t need to speak to know what the other is thinking right now. Kelly was distraught and practically comatose, the guy she was in love with just died. However, now she's powering up towards the mountains as if we're all having a pleasant hike, and she's eager to get to the end of the trail.
“Kelly, we should probably stop for a minute, and find some water,” East calls after her, breaking the tense silence between us all. She carries on like she hasn’t heard him, but if anything, she’s sped up a little.
“Kelly!” I yell, trying to get her attention, but she keeps right on walking. “Kelly, stop!” I shout louder, grimacing at the irritation I hear in my own voice.
“We don’t have time to stop,” she shouts back, not even turning around to face us. I groan as I take in the steep climb ahead of us. East and I only got a couple of hours sleep last night. She’d woken us up before first light, and practically dragged us back onto the path. I’m pretty sure she didn’t even sleep for those few hours, because whenever I’d stirred I had seen her pacing. How is she functioning without sleep for so long? I notice East isn’t walking beside me anymore and turn back to him, seeing him frozen in place staring up at the sky.
“East?” I call, stepping back towards him, but he doesn’t answer, just keeps staring up. “Are you okay?”
“Is it me, or is there a fucking dragon in the sky?” he asks incredulously, pointing up above us. My head shoots up, my eyes searching the skies for something impossible, and damn if they don’t find it. In the distance is what most definitely looks like a dragon. Fucking hell, I hope it doesn’t breathe fire.
“It’s definitely a dragon, and unless you two want to meet it, hurry up!” Kelly shouts back at us, still pressing ahead.
“Aren’t you walking in the direction of the dragon?”
“We’re going through a gap in the mountains. It won’t see us if you two would just hurry up like I keep asking you to do,” she snaps, spinning around on the spot to glare at us, her hands on her hips and eyes blazing.
“Wouldn’t we be better covered by the trees back there?” East questions. “Away from the flying dragon?” he adds, his eyes darting up nervously to the gigantic beast that’s flying around high in the sky near to the mountains.
“We have to go this way, and we have to go now. Or else we’ll miss them, and then Kenzie and Enzo won’t make it without you guys,” she explains haughtily, before turning and carrying on.
“Wait, miss who? Locke? You know where my brother is?” I call, racing after her to make her explain.
“Yes, I know where Locke is, and you better hurry up before someone kills him,” she answers as I reach her, rolling her eyes. I can hear East running up after us from behind, clearly having decided to follow Kelly towards the threat in the sky after all.
“Someone’s trying to kill him?” I ask, my eyes widening in alarm. She laughs, but it’s a hollow sounding laugh. Empty.
“Relax, it was a joke. He’s driving Mr Daniels completely insane, and he may or may not be muttering under his breath about ways to silence your brother,” she answers.
“You can see all that?” East asks curiously, catching up to us and walking on her other side.
“I can see everything,” she whispers. “It’s so strange. My vision here seems amplified. I can see all of us, every possibility, every path we could take, and ones I couldn’t even imagine before. I can see where we are now, where we’ve been, and all the places we could go from here. I can see him too…” her voice waivers off, and she coughs awkwardly. “Ignore me. Anyway, yes, I can see them. We’re getting close.” She speeds up again, powering ahead as if she’s trying to lose us.
I share another concerned look with East. Both of us can easily guess who the “him” is that she’s referring to.
There’s only one mark that gives the gift of communing with some of the dead, and Kelly doesn’t have the spirit mark. I can’t imagine Ryan’s spirit would be one to stick around either.
“We need to watch her,” East says quietly, and I nod silently in agreement.
“I saw that too,” Kelly shouts back in an irritated voice, and East’s eyes bulge. “I’ll forgive you, if you two would just hurry up!” she adds with a yell. We both speed up, trusting that even if she is confused from grief right now, that she’s clear enough to be telling us the truth about Kenzie and the others. We have to get wherever it is we need to be for them, and quickly.
After narrowly avoiding stumbling over a rock, I continue walking behind Kelly through a dark, damp pathway through the mountain. A pathway that looks long forgotten by the rest of Ariziadia. East steps closely behind me, and I can’t stop the snigger that escapes me when I hear him stumble over the rock.
“Could have warned me,” he mutters.
“Warned you about what?” I ask not so innocently.
“Wanker.” He shoves my back lightly.
“Shhh!” Kelly urges us to be quiet.
“What?” I whisper in response.
“Just wait,” she answers, a little glee slipping into her voice. We turn a corner, and Kelly darts forward, turning and pressing her back against the wall, just as a figure smacks me to the ground. Another knocks East to the ground at the same time. Kelly laughs from where she’s standing against the wall.
I pull my arm back, ready to fight back, when I see my attacker’s face above mine. A face that’s just like mine. “Locke?”
“Logan? How did you find us?” he asks, giving me a one-armed hug as he pulls me up from the ground. I look over and see Daniels helping East up.
“Glad you three are alive,” Daniels says, nodding at us.
“As sweet as this reunion is, we don’t have time for it,” Kelly says impatiently, any humour she’d had a second ago already gone.
“And you’re back to that.” I turn to her, giving her a glare. “Why don’t you just tell us what we are rushing around for?”
“You need to save Kenzie and Enzo,” she answers plainly.
“Well how are we going to do that when we can’t get back to Earth?” Locke asks, sounding confused. I swallow thickly, not wanting to be the one to explain that Enzo and
Kenzie are stuck here too. Luckily, Kelly has no such qualms.
“Kenzie and Enzo fell through, too. They’ve been separated, and some guy has a knife to Kenzie’s throat, or he will in about thirty minutes.
“What?!”
“Knife?!”
“You can’t be…”
“Fucking serious?” everyone seems to exclaim at once, as we all turn to Kelly.
“So, here’s the plan,” she begins, ignoring all our concern as she continues to explain calmly. “I’m going to distract the people, and then you guys are going to sneak down to the building in the centre with the red roof. You’ll grab Enzo from the entrance hallway where he’s being held by two guards, and then continue into the main chamber save Kenzie. Are we all clear?” she asks.
“What people?” Locke asks.
“And where is this building?” East adds.
“I don’t have time to explain. Do you all trust me?” she asks, and begrudgingly we all nod. Of course we trust her on this, she cares about Kenzie just as much as we do. “Great, now follow me.”
Chapter 7
Logan
“Five, four, three, two, one…” Kelly starts randomly counting down as she peeks through the small gap between the wall and the door. I look around the small storage space as Kelly swears under her breath and starts counting again. She has been doing this for the last half an hour, and none of us know what to say to her. We agreed to trust her, but I think she is losing her god damn mind.
“What do you keep doing that for? Why are you counting?” I finally snap, and she turns sharply to me.
“For the distraction to come. They have been stopped outside, but my timing is off,” she mutters, and her eyes almost seem to glow a white colour for a second before she shakes her head.
“What is the distraction? You haven’t told us anything!” I whisper harshly, and Locke places his hand on my chest, stopping me from going over to Kelly and shaking the shit out of her.
“Remember, I distract, and you all go to get Enzo, so don’t follow me out. I will catch up,” she says and starts counting again. This time when she gets to one, she opens the door, and walks out like she hasn’t got a care in world. I dart forward, peeking out the door when it shuts behind her, and my mouth drops open at what distraction Kelly has planned.
“She is crazy, fucking crazy,” I mutter, making all the guys run over to the door to catch a glimpse of what I’m seeing. Kelly is sneaking around behind what can only be described as a holding pen on wheels. Inside the pen are five creatures, that look similar to horses, but they are not. They have two large spikes on their heads, black fur covering their huge bodies, and feet that look big enough to squash your head. They have long noses like horses, with large eyes that glow red.
“Is she letting them out?” East questions, and I shrug my shoulders. I don’t have a clue. Kelly leans down, picking the lock with a knife she just happens to have, and it snaps open just as some people walk past. I watch, holding my breath as she hides behind the pen, and thankfully, the people keep walking without seeing her or the broken lock. When they are gone, she goes back to the front of the cart, pulling off the chains and opening the doors. I watch as she reaches into her pocket, pulling out a lighter, and flicking it on. Where the hell did she get that from?
The creatures all turn towards her rapidly, like they can sense the flame. The one nearest Kelly steps forward, pressing its nose into the fire, and the fire spreads all over its body like he is covered in petrol. The fire spreads from creature to creature, but it’s not hurting them. It’s like they are making themselves set on fire and they all seem happier in the flames. The creatures never take their eyes off Kelly and the flame. It’s almost like the flame is controlling them. An alarm rings, sounding like a horn, just as Kelly waves the lighter in the air and runs off down one of the corridors, with the creatures running after her.
“That girl knows how to cause one hell of a distraction, that’s for sure,” Logan mutters as we watch dozens of Ariziadian people run off in the direction Kelly just left in.
“She’s Kenzie’s best friend; did you honestly expect her not to be a little bit crazy?” East says. Daniels nudges me out of the way, waiting until the last person jogs past us before stepping out the room.
“This way, we won’t have much time. If we see anyone, we will have to knock them out, but make sure not to kill anyone. We need these people to get home and killing their people won’t make their leader listen to us,” Daniels warns us, and then sprints off down the corridor before any of us can agree to his plan. I run after him, with East and Locke at my sides. The corridors are empty; the sound of crashing and shouting can be heard behind us, but that only means Kelly’s distraction is working. I stop when I run into Daniels’ outstretched arm, and he puts a finger to his mouth to shush me. I look around him, seeing Enzo standing in the middle of two guards who are waiting just outside a pair of double doors.
“I’ll take the one on the right,” Mr Daniels says, and he jumps out from behind the wall. I call my air power, slamming it into the guard on the left and pushing him away from Enzo. He gets up quickly, as East comes to my side. East slams a wave of water into the guard, who pushes it out of the way likes it’s nothing.
“They are stronger than us with their marks, just punch them!” Enzo shouts, and I turn for a second to see him, Daniels and Locke struggling to push past the wall of air the marked are using. East grins, running and jumping straight at the guard in front of us. I use my air mark to knock his feet from under him, and East lands straight on his chest, his fist smacking in the guard’s face before he can call his marks to stop East’s hit from landing.
“Marks or not, that has to hurt,” I say glancing at the passed-out guard.
“Crowe is in there, hurry! They’re going to kill her!” Enzo shouts at us, running towards the door, with us all following and praying they haven’t touched Kenzie. If they’ve hurt her, whether they have more marks than us or not, we will find a way to burn this world to the ground.
Chapter 8
Mackenzie
As we are led into the mountain, I try not to show just how interesting I find the place. We know so little about the marked that live in Ariziadia, and yet, they seem to know something of us. The way they’re watching me and Enzo so intently as they lead us through says it all. Like it’s the Red Sea, people part out of our way as we walk along a path that leads us deep into the heart of the mountain. I look above us for the source of light, noticing just how bright it is in the mountain, even this far in, and I can’t see any torches or electricity. The entire mountain seems just as light as it is outside. How is this possible?
I turn my attention to the marked walking with us. They look less scary in human form than they did dragon, but still, I remain cautious. Without my powers, I'm practically useless. The some of the marks covering their skin are unlike any I've seen before, but they have some similar ones, too. From looking at just three of the men, I can see they seem to carry all eleven of the marks we have. I can't spot the twelfth mark on any of them, but they could easily be hidden under their black trousers. One of the marks I don’t recognise looks like a mask. I wonder what that one does? Do these other marks really symbolise other powers, or are the marked here just fans of tattoos that resemble marks?
“This way,” the leader indicates, gesturing for us to take a left turn. We're led back out into natural sunlight, and my jaw drops at what I see now that we've walked through the mountain. The light that glistens off the buildings is almost blinding, and the sheer amount of structures packed and hidden away in the middle of the mountains is unbelievable. It's like they've dug down into the ground in the centre of a circle of mountains and built a mini-city in here. If you didn't know where the entrance was, and if you didn't climb to the top of the mountain to check, you'd never see this place; it's so perfectly hidden. But what are they hiding from?
“Holy shit,” Enzo mutters.
“This is insane,
” I say in agreement. We don't get long to gawk though, as we're roughly dragged down some stone steps towards the buildings. “Where are you taking us?” I ask, earning myself an annoyed look from Enzo.
“You don't get to ask questions here, Mackenzie Crowe,” the leader answers before any of the others can speak. I go to speak again, but I'm cut off by another irritated look from Enzo. I slam my mouth shut and nod at him, accepting that for now, he's probably right and I really should shut up.
We're guided silently through the mini-city, and it feels like we're being taken right into the heart of the place, towards the very central building. The central building doesn’t reflect the light as the other buildings do. Its roof is a deep red, and it’s shorter than the rest of the buildings, but spans much longer.
We’re led to that building, and I’m pulled ahead of Enzo as we walked single file through a corridor.
“You will wait here,” one of the men grunts to Enzo, as the others continue to lead me further into the building.
“Like hell am I letting you take her,” he growls, his black eyes burning, and he starts forward, clenching his fists. I look over at all the marked surrounding us, and take a deep breath.
“Just leave it, Enzo. Please?” I plead. There are just too many of them. I try to communicate with my eyes that we can’t take them all. Our best bet is to try and reason with them. I can try and talk sense with whoever they’re taking me to see. He nods, begrudgingly leaning back against the wall, and two of the guards stop to stand either side of him, while I’m led deep into the heart of the building.
“You will go in here,” the leader says, and I nod. Shakily, I reach out and push the large, ornately decorated door open. I walk into the large chamber, flaming torches lighting themselves as I walk down towards a large throne. On the throne, I can barely make out a shadowed figure sitting there.
