I found myself smiling at the picture. I crept out of bed and padded softly over to him. I didn’t try to wake him right away. I just stood in front of him, taking in his pale skin, the silver lip ring looping his bottom lip, and the mark of immortality on his arm. God, he was beautiful. Although, he could snore like no other.

I lightly tapped him on the shoulder, figuring I would wake him up and see what was going on…and why he was snoring in my room?

He jumped, startled, and let out a loud snort.

“Sorry.” I covered my mouth to stifle a laugh. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

His bright blue eyes were huge and he pressed his hand to his heart. “You scared that crap out of me.”

“Sorry,” I apologized again. “But why are you sleeping at my computer desk?”

“I was on Gemma duty.” He sat up and dropped his feet to the floor, his black boots hitting the carpet with a thud.

I raised my eyebrows questioningly. “Gemma duty?”

“Yeah, Gemma duty.” Laylen fiddled with his lip ring. “You’ve been out for almost three days and we were getting a little worried about you…that maybe the rush was too much for you.”

“What rush?” I asked, picking up a CD case from off the computer desk. I turned it over in my hands. Alkaline Trio—hadn’t listened to them in a while.

“Yeah, the rush,” Laylen said, swiveling in the chair. “It’s what we call the rush of adrenaline you get when your Keeper’s mark first appears.

My arms went limp, and the CD case fell from hands. “My Keeper’s mark? I don’t have a Keeper’s mark.”

He smiled, but it wasn’t a happy kind of smile. “Yeah you do…on your shoulder blade.”

I shook my head as I rushed over to the mirror and yanked down the upper part of my black t-shirt. “Holy…” Circling the center of my shoulder blade was a ring of fiery-gold flames.“Wait?” I gave him a suspicious glance. “How did you guys find the mark on me?”

He gave me a sneaky smile. “How do you think?”

I picked up a pillow from off my bed and threw it at him.

He caught the pillow effortlessly. “I’m joking. We just checked the obvious places—the arms, the ankles, the shoulders. If we wouldn’t have been able to find it, we would have waited for you to wake up.”

I wondered who he meant when he said “we,” but didn’t ask. I touched the mark on my shoulder. “God, I can’t believe I’m a Keeper.”

“You didn’t think those awesome fighting moves came from nowhere, did you?” Laylen joked, cocking an eyebrow at me.

“So, you knew what was going on back at the castle?”

“I assumed as much.”

I picked up the CD case and set it back on the desk. “So what’s been going on for the last few days while I was out?”

“Not much,” he said. “In fact, it’s been pretty quiet.”

I glanced over at the window, at the green grass lining the yard, kissed with the early morning’s dew. That was one thing about the summers in Afton, they were very green. “What about my mom.” My voice was barely there. “How’s she doing?”

He hesitated, fiddling with a loose string on the pillow he was still holding. “Everyone thought it would be best, including herself, to lock her up until we can figure out what to do with her. I mean, we don’t want her sneaking off and doing something like what she just did.”

“It wasn’t her fault,” I said quietly. “It’s the mark’s fault—she can’t help it.”

“I know it is.” Laylen tossed the pillow aside. “But we have to be careful.”

“Well, can’t we try and figure out a way to remove the mark?” I asked “Maybe with magic, like what we were going to do with…Nicholas.”

“Aislin’s already on that,” he explained. “She’s been searching the internet like crazy for the last few days, but no luck yet. The problem is we don’t know who to trust. After everything, she can’t just go walking into a witch store and ask how to remove the Mark of Malefiscus.” He stood up, went over to my shelf, and examined the row of CD’s. “Aislin also went pretty spell crazy—she put like a ton of spells all over the house, trying to keep us protected.”

I sat down on my bed as he skimmed my CD titles. “That was smart of her.”

He nodded, sliding out a CD.

I sat in silence, feeling uncomfortable. Being in here, it was weird and it felt…Well, it felt wrong.

“What’s up?”

I blinked up and found Laylen staring down at me, with a puzzled look on his face.

“You look like something’s bothering you,” he said, concerned.

“No…” I paused. “It’s just that it’s so weird to be in here again.”

His eyebrows dipped down. “In your room?”

I nodded, eyeballing my old stuff. “It doesn’t feel that way, though. Nothing about this room feels like me.”

He gazed around my room, taking in the bareness. “Well, maybe that’s because this room isn’t you. I mean, all those years you spent here—were you ever really you?”

I shrugged. “I don’t think I really know who I am yet.”

“And that’s okay.” He wrapped his arm around me and pulled me in for a hug. “You’ll figure out. Just give it time.”

I sure hoped he was right.

He pulled me up from the bed and we headed out of the room to announce that I was indeed alright and hadn’t died from an adrenaline overdose, which Laylen told me was actually a rare occurrence in the Keeper’s world.

“So have you already explained to Aislin and Alex who Aleesa is?” I asked once we were out in the hall.

“I kind of had to,” Laylen said, as we trotted down the stairs.

“And how did they take it?”

“Pretty bad at first, but I think she’s growing on them.”

“And how’s she doing?” I asked, thinking of her life stuck in the basement. I didn’t know what was worse; being emotionally hollow for most of your life, or being locked away in a torture room, strapped to a rack.

“She’s…okay.” Laylen pointed back over his shoulder. “She’s sleeping in the guest room right now….she sleeps a lot. And eats a lot. I don’t think Stephan was feeding her that well.”

I paused at the bottom of the stairs. “Why would he do that? Why would he lock her away and starve her…and torture her.”

“For a few reasons, probably.” Laylen said. “One, being that he didn’t want anyone to know about her, considering what she is. And I’m also guessing it probably has something to do with the fact that he purposely secluded me from the living, drained you of your emotions, and taught his son to emotionally shut off.”

“What about Aislin?” I asked in a low voice, leaning in.“It doesn’t seem like he’s done anything to her.”

He raised his eyebrows at me. “Hasn’t he? I mean, she’ll practically do whatever he says.”

“Not anymore, though.”

“No one does what he tries to get them to do anymore,” Laylen pointed out.

“Yeah, I guess so,” I said as we entered the living room.

Aislin was sitting cross-legged on the floor with a laptop resting on her lap, and Alex sat on the sofa, watching TV. Hmmm….what was wrong with this picture? Oh, yeah, it looked normal.

Upon closer look, I noticed Aislin was searching the web for mark removal spells, and Alex was sharpening a sword as he stared blankly at the TV. Yeah, that seemed more fitting.

“Oh, thank God.” Aislin pressed her hand to her heart and let out a relieved sigh when she saw me. “I thought you weren’t going to wake up.”

“You guys always think that,” I joked. “Yet, I always do.”

Aislin clicked the computer mouse. “Wow, you seem in a good mood.”

I gave her a funny look. “Do I?”

“It’s because of the lingering adrenaline from the rush.” Alex turned around and gave me a lingering look that made my skin hum. “So you’re a Keeper after all.”

“I guess so,” I said, trying not to squirm under his intense gaze. But, God, it was so intense, and suddenly I wanted to lean down, run my hands through his messily-in-an-intentional-kind-of-way hair, and press my lips to his.

Whoa.

“So,” Laylen said, changing the subject. “What’s our next move?”

He sat down on the floor beside Aislin and I took a seat in the chair behind them. Across from me Alex sat, still looking at me with way too much heat glowing in his bright green eyes. Was he trying to kill me or something?

“Has anyone talked to my mother?” I asked. “I mean what happened? Or could she even tell you?”

“After we made the same Blood Promise with her as we did with Nicholas, then yeah, we got some information out of her.” Alex raised his hand showing me a fresh cut on the palm of his hand.

“You didn’t tie her to the garage ceiling and beat her up first, did you?” I asked, half joking, but half serious.

Alex let out an amused laugh and shook his head. “No, Gemma, I didn’t beat your mom up.”

“So what did she tell you?” I brushed my hair out of my face. “Did she say how she ended up at the Keeper’s Castle?”

Alex’s face grew grave. “He called her.”

“But my mom doesn’t have a phone?” I pointed out. At least I think she didn’t, since she just got out The Underworld a few days ago, and I’m pretty sure reception down there is nonexistent.

“No, he called her,” Alex said, setting his sword on the table “As in he summoned her.”

I leaned back and folded my arms. “Summoned?”

“Apparently, Stephan can summon people with the Mark of Malefiscus,” Laylen said, looking over Aislin’s shoulder as she typed something on the computer.

“How exactly does that work?” I asked.

Laylen glanced at Alex. “We have no idea, and neither does Jocelyn. All she said was that she suddenly felt compelled to go to the castle, so she did.”

I tapped my foot anxiously. “How do we know he’s not going to summon her right now?”

“We don’t know,” Alex said straightforwardly. “But we’ve got her locked up and we took away her Key of Malefiscus.”

I frowned. “Key of Malefiscus. He has his own key now.”

“He’s had one all along,” Alex said with this bitter/sarcastic tone. “Apparently, as Stephan marked each one of the Keepers’ with the Mark of Malefiscus, he also gave them a key, so when he touches his scar, they can take the key, trace a door, and Walla—they’re at the castle.”

“What the…” I shook my head in astonishment. “So Nicholas had one of these too. And Marco and Sophia.”

Aislin gasped when I mentioned Marco and Sophia’s names. I gave her a funny look, but she avoided eye-contact with me.