Marked by Power (The Marked Series Book 1)

by Cece Rose

  “Thank you,” I say, looking up and meeting his deep-green eyes.

  “You’re welcome, Miss Crowe. I believe you are meant to be in class right now, are you not?” he asks.

  “Um . . . yeah. I kind of got sent to the headmasters’ office, but I have no idea where that is, if I’m honest,” I explain.

  “Have you not downloaded the Academy app?” he asks.

  “Well, the thing is, I have no idea where my phone is, so no. I’m not really a tech-friendly person. Tech kind of hates me. Ironic considering that I apparently have the technomancy power as well. I would have never believed that I would get that mark,” I reply. He smiles at me, and it takes everything I have not to fucking swoon. Damn.

  “I’ll show you where the office is, come with me,” he offers, still smiling. I nod my head and follow him, he slows down to match my pace. I look up at him from his side profile. He’s just as damn hot from this angle too! I can feel my heart slamming against my chest as he walks closely beside me. Damn. They didn’t make my teachers like this in the human school I went to, that’s for sure. I draw my eyes away from him and will my heart to slow down its beats.

  Teacher or not, he is way too unattainable for me, anyway.

  Chapter 6

  Kenzie

  Sitting on a small, uncomfortable chair across from two of the three headmasters, is not how I wanted to start off my school year here.

  “Mr. Daniels, thank you so much for showing Mackenzie to our office,” one of the headmasters says. He’s dressed in all black: black trousers, black tie, black shirt. It stands out in complete contrast to his fair skin and white-blond hair.

  “Yes, that will be all,” the other, Mr. Lockhart, adds adjusting his blue tie.

  “Actually, I’d like to stay. If that would be acceptable?” he asks, taking up a position sitting on the edge of a low filing cabinet, clearly not waiting for an answer.

  “Yes, yes, that will be fine. Now, Mackenzie, it appears you lost control of your fire power in your lesson today?” His beady eyes narrow on me, and I feel myself squirm in my seat.

  “But, sirs, it was my first lesson, it was just an accident,” I mumble. I try to look anywhere but at the headteacher dressed in black. His beady eyes are giving me the creeps.

  “It was many students’ first lesson today, and yet, they did not set fire to their classrooms,” he replies.

  Yeah, but they didn’t have a teacher that gave them no frickin instruction. I bite my lip to keep in my retort, instead casting my eyes downward.

  “Mr. Layan, we have had other students lose control in the past, and I remember one who destroyed the swimming pool. I believe all Miss Crowe needs is training,” Mr. Daniels says, interrupting whatever Mr. Layan was going to say next. They have a frickin swimming pool here?

  “That may be true, but still, this is not acceptable,” he says, his tone frustrated that Mr. Daniels is sticking up for me. Even I don’t really understand why he is.

  “Of course not,” Mr. Daniels says, his voice placating as he watches me closely. Mr. Lockhart is watching me, too, but doesn’t say a word. Just sits, with his hands folded on his lap.

  “We have no other option than to give you detention, where I hope to see an improvement on your powers in six months,” Mr. Layan says. I get the feeling out of the three of the headmasters, he is the one with the most power over the school.

  “Six months?” I ask, shocked. That’s seriously steep for a little mistake on the first day. Just, you know, accidently making fire tornadoes in your first class must happen all the time. I barely hold in a laugh at that thought.

  “Yes. We would usually suspend a student for an incident like this, but we will let it pass this once,” he replies, and looks to Mr. Lockhart, who nods his agreement.

  “Why?” I ask, my voice dripping with suspicion. I have a feeling it’s because of my twelfth mark, and that they want to know what it does. Don’t we all? I know I shouldn’t have said anything when he glares at me, not answering.

  “Mr. Daniels, you will take over detention every Sunday. Hopefully, you can teach Miss Crowe some control over her powers,” Mr. Lockhart says, finally speaking, but it’s not to me. Frickin great, the one day I have off, and I’m going to be in detention.

  “I would be happy to,” Mr. Daniels responds, and I look over at him, his warm eyes watching me closely, and his lips turn up in a smirk. Maybe detention wouldn’t be so bad? I mean, at least there is a good view guaranteed. He stands up and walks to the door, holding it open for me.

  “Bye,” I say to them, and they nod, one after the other. It’s a little creepy. I walk out of the room and wait for Mr. Daniels to close the door behind me.

  “I’m afraid we have missed lunch while we waited for the headmasters to get here. What class do you have this afternoon?” he asks me.

  “Divination,” I say.

  “That’s on the top floor, come on,” he replies, nodding his head and walking down the corridor. I catch up and walk by his side. There are a few students rushing around, they don’t look our way as they hurry to their classes.

  “Tell me what really happened in fire class today, Miss Crowe,” he asks me, his voice soft, but there’s an undertone of concern in it that I pick up on. He probably thinks I’m mad after seeing me punch a wall earlier.

  “Why do you think anything happened other than me setting fire to a classroom?” I ask, and he smiles down at me as we get to the staircase.

  “Just a hunch,” he says, but there’s a note of humour in his tone. I follow him up the first staircase, and then we go up the next.

  “Miss Tinder didn’t explain how to stop my power. I imagined a ball of flames like she asked, and then dropped it, thinking it would go out. I then tried to use air to put it out, but that only made fire tornados–” I stop blabbering on when I trip up a step, and his arm catches me, pulling me close to his chest as he stops me from falling. Holy smokes, this teacher is way too attractive up close. I can see the deep-green of his eyes behind his glasses and the smooth, faultless skin. How is he this friggin attractive and my teacher, a teacher I can’t just kiss?

  “Careful, Miss Crowe,” he says in a whisper, his arm still around my waist. The sound of a bell ringing startles him, making him step back and clear his throat. We carry on walking as he speaks, and we get to the next set of stairs.

  “Never use air to put out fire. It only feeds it. Water would have been ideal,” he explains.

  “I was going to call water when a guy walked through the flames and put them all out,” I say, thinking of the jackass. I’m going to get him back for pointing me the wrong way to the headmasters’ office and for being a general ass.

  “This is your classroom, Miss Crowe,” Mr. Daniels says, and I turn back to look at him.

  “Thank you,” I reply.

  He runs a hand through his hair. “I’ll see you Sunday in the gym at six and not a minute later,” he instructs with a deadly serious face.

  “In the afternoon?” I ask, concerned that he is going to say the morning. He only laughs.

  “The morning, Mackenzie,” he says my name softer than the rest of his words, and he turns to walk away. My eyes drop to the amazing ass he has in his tight clothes, then up to the muscular chest and soft-brown hair.

  Damn. This teacher is going to be the death of me.

  Chapter 7

  Kenzie

  “You are ten minutes late, Miss Crowe,” The old-looking teacher says. He stands as I walk through the door of the room. Looking up, I notice that the ceiling of the dome-shaped room is completely open, the open sky is allowing the sun to be our light in here. I spot Kelly sitting alone at the back of the room, with an empty seat next to her, smiling at me.

  “I’m sorry. I was with the headmasters,” I say, and the teacher nods. He must be in his sixties, with long, grey hair and a stern face covered in wrinkles.

  “Please take a seat, and we will begin,” he replies. It feels like every pair of eyes
in the room is watching me as I walk toward the back of the room and take the seat next to Kelly.

  “Hey, fire starter, I’m glad to see you’re alright. I was getting worried. Have you done anything else I should know about?” Kelly whispers, and I smile at her.

  “Does ogling the hot Mr. Daniels count?” I whisper, and she chuckles a little.

  “Who is Mr. Daniels?” she asks. I go to whisper back, when I hear my name being called.

  “Miss Crowe and Miss Curwood, you are first on my list. Please come to the middle of the room,” the teacher says.

  I stand up with Kelly, and we walk back toward the teacher. He smiles and gestures for us to stand in front of him.

  “Now, class, I’m Mr. Lindeman, and my specialty is Divination. Divination is one the hardest powers to master and nearly impossible for most. The strongest of our people can only see a year or a little more into the future, so please bear this in mind. The future is never completely certain, nor is it completely clear in vision form,” he explains. We all know this, but I’m hoping I can see a little of the future.

  “Now, I want you to use your divination powers on each other. One at a time. Miss Crowe, why don’t you go first?” he asks gently.

  “Sure,” I nod.

  “Now, stand a foot away from each other and hold hands. Holding a connection to someone enables them to see whatever you see in the vision. When you are first learning to use your powers, recollection of the vision can be difficult. You will be partnered so if you are unable to remember what you saw, your partner should be able to fill you in,” he explains. I nod and hold both my hands out, Kelly slides her hands into mine and winks at me.

  “Please call on your mark, Miss Crowe,” he says. I reach into my mind, calling on my mark and envisioning it in my head. The divination mark is a basic eye design, but the pupil of the eye is full of swirls. I picture the swirls moving, a constant motion, frequently changing direction. The minute I call it and close my eyes, the vision takes over.

  “Kelly, the amount of powers you have means nothing to me. I’ve always just wanted you,” a male voice says as I open my eyes. I can’t see anything, and I recognise the voice, but I can’t place it. The room is black, and as I watch, two blurry figures come into view.

  “I-I can’t do this. I’m sorry, but you’re with them, and they have her!” Kelly shouts. I feel a tugging sensation that causes me to close my eyes and when I open them, I’m back at the academy.

  “What did you see?” The teacher asks, but Kelly softly shakes her head. She doesn’t need to say anymore.

  “Myself, eating a big, bacon sandwich tomorrow morning,” I say, and he nods, like he expected that. I don’t know who Kelly was speaking to, but I have the feeling she does by the way she is blushing and looking away from me. Who could it have been?

  “Very good job, now it’s your turn Miss Curwood,” the teacher says, gesturing at her to begin.

  I watch as Kelly closes her eyes, and my eyes widen as she starts faintly glowing white. Actually glowing. I don’t get to look for long before I feel a pulling sensation, and I close my eyes.

  “Kenzie!” a man roars, his voice filled with both anger and worry. I open my eyes, to see fire everywhere and we are in the middle of the academy hall. I can see myself, standing holding my stomach in the middle of all the fire. My hair is covering my face as I look down at the floor, so I can’t see my expression. I turn slightly to see a man running towards me, putting out the flames as he goes with water from his hands. It’s the guy from earlier, the one that walked through the flames to put out the fire. He falls to his knees in front of me, just as I collapse into his arms.

  “Enzo,” I hear myself say, my voice sounds strange to me, but you can’t miss the emotion in my voice. Why would I have any other emotion than hate for that jerk?

  “Not like this, you are not leaving me, Crowe!” Enzo shouts, moving my hands and covering the wound with his own. Just as I watch myself pass out in his arms, I see him healing me and he moves his hands away, lifting my shirt a little to show the closed-up scar. Was I stabbed? Enzo picks me up, holding me close and places a kiss on my forehead. Why is the incredibly hot jerk kissing me?

  “Is she?” Locke asks as he runs over, putting out more of the fire as he stops near Enzo, and Enzo shakes his head.

  “No, but that fucking teacher who did this is going to pay for hurting her. I’m going to fucking kill him,” Enzo spits out, the fury in his tone is the last thing I hear before I’m forced to close my eyes by the pull.

  When I open my eyes again, I see Kelly’s pure light-blue eyes open in shock, her whole body is still glowing white. The light suddenly disappears, and she collapses to the floor in a heap.

  “Kelly!” I shout, going to catch her, but I miss. A wave of air stops her body from hitting the ground, holding her in the air. I look over to see Mr. Lindeman holding a hand out towards Kelly, air flowing from his hand. He gently lowers her onto the floor, and I fall to my knees, gently shaking her shoulder. I can hear the classroom whispering, but no one is brave enough to say anything out loud.

  “She will be fine, class. The divination power is strong for her, and this sometimes happens. However, I have never seen a glow before,” Mr. Lindeman says, his tone echoing the shock of his words as he comes to kneel next to her. He places his hands on her head, and I watch as he heals her, then moves his hands away. Kelly slowly blinks open her eyes, and stares at me, a vacant look in her eyes, her expression violently bare of any emotion.

  “The portal will open,” she says blankly, her eyes roll back, and then she passes out again.

  What portal will open?

  Chapter 8

  Kenzie

  Clutching onto Kelly’s hand, I look down at her pale, unconscious face, my eyebrows drawing together in concern. I glance around the crappy excuse for a first aid room, mad that Kelly is currently lying across a few chairs, rather than on a bed. They’re remodelling the actual first aid centre. Fucking typical.

  Kelly stirs, and I instantly lean forward and stroke the hair from her face. “Kells? Sweetie, are you okay?” I whisper softly.

  “Kennie?” she mumbles. Oh Gods. She hadn’t called me Kennie since we were eight years old.

  “It’s Kenzie,” I mutter.

  “Kennie-kenz,” she mumbles back, a smile taking over her face as her blue eyes flutter open. Seeing the expression take back over her face fills me with relief. She’s okay. Despite the healer’s reassurances, I wasn’t accepting the fact my best friend was okay until I saw it for myself. I sit back in my seat, allowing myself to get a little more comfortable as Kelly slowly moves into a sitting position.

  “Do you remember what happened?” I ask softly, still holding onto her hand and rubbing it soothingly.

  “Um, the last thing I remember was you lying about your vision and saying it was about eating a bacon sandwich, which kind of made me feel hungry . . .,” she trails off as a mortified look takes over her face. “Oh Gods, I did it wrong, didn’t I? I didn’t have a vison and instead knocked myself out like an idiot in front of the whole class,” she whispers in a horrified tone.

  “No, Kells, complete opposite. You had a killer vision, and you glowed. You freaking glowed! The teacher was going on about how powerful your divination skill must be the whole way down to the first aid room!”

  “I glowed?” she asks, awe in her voice.

  “You did,” I answer, smiling brightly at her. Happy that although she only has two gifts, one of them is already proving to be so strong.

  “Not many seers glow, Kenzie,” she says, bobbing up and down in excitement. She is right about that. I only know of one other Marked that can glow, and she has a seat on one of the councils. Kelly’s parents are going to be so proud of her.

  “I know, it’s so damn cool!”

  “How long have I been in here?” she questions, suddenly looking a little more concerned as she takes in the sorry excuse for a first aid room.

  “
Um,” I glance at the clock on the wall, as tradition it’s symbolized with the twelve marks, rather than numbers. “About forty minutes,” I answer.

  “Why didn’t they use a healer to wake me?” she asks sceptically.

  “Mr. Lindeman tried to, but you woke for a second and then went back out. The healers decided to allow you to wake naturally after that. They suspected the vision exhausted you, so they were letting you rest,” I answer softly.

  “That’s kind of scary,” she whispers. “We were holding hands during the vision, what did I see?” I go to answer her, and explain the whole story, when a feeling in my gut strikes me.

  “Nothing much really. It was me, and some other people. I think maybe in a class or something. I think that it was the fact the vision was so clear and intense feeling that it wiped you out,” I lie smoothly, shooting her a smile. She frowns for a moment, before shrugging and leaning back in her seat.

  “I guess that could be it,” she says.

  “Must be,” I reply. There’s no need to stress her out about what she saw in that vision. She’s already stressing enough. I can figure out whatever it means on my own.

  “You did wake up for a second and said “the portal will open”, do you remember what portal?” I ask her, knowing she might hear from the other students about what she said as they all heard.

  “Portal?”

  “Yep,” I nod.

  “I remember seeing fire and something blue,” she says, going a little pale again.

  “It doesn’t matter. Let’s just leave it for now, okay?” I ask, and she nods.

  “Am I allowed to leave?” she asks.

  “Yup, healer said as soon as you felt okay to, we could go. She did take a look over you while you were unconscious, and she couldn’t find anything wrong. Just told me to make sure you take it easy,” I answer.