Marked By Pain (The Marked #2)(22)

I look around the table, seeing all my loved ones surrounding me, but something is missing. Someone is missing. We're all eating dinner, forcing smiles and laughing, but something is so wrong.

Someone's eyes are sad. Someone else is looking over at the door constantly, as if waiting for him to come in. My heart feels like it's shattered, and I don't know how I will ever heal fully. A hand links in mine, and I turn to face the man I've been in love with since we were kids. He squeezes my hand and lays a kiss on my forehead comfortingly.

“I love you, Kenzie. It'll get better, just give it time,” he whispers. I feel the teardrops rolling down my face, I taste them when they cross over my lips, the salty tang sticking to my tongue. Maybe he's right, but right now, it's not time to feel better. The wound is still too fresh, and it burns me deeply, cutting me straight to my core.

“I love you too, East,” I whisper. I'm so relieved to have him and the others here today here to support me. I don't know what I'd have done if I'd lost them all. They kept me going through all the destruction my twelfth mark caused.

“I know you do,” he says with a small smile. He runs a hand through his hair, looking every bit the picture of perfection. A warm hand rests on my shoulder and I turn around to face him.



Blinking open my eyes, I look up at the white ceiling for a moment, before immediately shutting them again. The light is way too bright.

“She's awake,” an unfamiliar voice shouts loudly, hurting my ears.

“Can you keep it down,” I grumble. A hand touches my shoulder, and I recoil away in pain. Noises are too loud. Lights are too bright. The slightest touch sets every nerve in my body on fire. Everything is too much. “Too much,” I whisper.

“Get another healer in here. Get Kelly!” I hear a familiar voice demand. The demand is followed by muffled whispers. “No, I don't care if she’s still recovering, Miss Crowe is in agony. She will come in here and help her,” he growls. I can hear the absolute franticness in his tone. I've never heard Mr Daniels like that, not to this level. He really does care... I can't let him bring Kelly to help me, not when she's hurt.

“N-no,” I mumble, trying to force my eyes open again, but my body won't follow orders, and my eyes stay shut. “Don't get Kelly,” I manage to whisper, before passing out again.





Chapter 13





Mr Daniels





“I don't care what you have to do, you will make her fucking better. I don't care if you have to grab every fucking healer in this camp, you will do whatever it takes,” I snap at the doctor who has been monitoring Kenzie. I haven't left her side since she passed out again half an hour ago. I'd debated going to get Kelly, but I didn't want to go against her wishes. Not unless I have to. If the other healers can't do the job, she will. Miss Crowe’s wishes be damned.

“We are doing everything possible to ensure Miss Crowe's wellbeing, we just need some more time so we can heal her. We won't let anything happen to her,” he says.

“Bullshit,” I say, grinding it out between my clenched teeth. They won't let anything happen to her? They already have. I knew we should have left yesterday, but no, we planned for tonight. Looking at Kenzie lying comatose on the bed, I know we won't be leaving tonight as planned. Fuck. I need to call the council. And now I know I need to get Verity out of here first. My body tenses as I think of my sister. She did this. She caused Kenzie this pain. Maybe what Kenzie saw at the school was true, but I don't want to believe my sister is completely gone. The good in her has to be there still. I would get her away from here, and in time, she would realise her mistakes. I just have to hope that Kenzie will forgive me for needing to save Verity too. My sister is all that is left of my family, and I don't intend to lose her too. Stroking a hand down the side of Kenzie’s sleeping face, I’m lost in my thoughts.

Kenzie doesn't understand Verity like I do, she doesn't know what she has gone through, what happened to her as a child. I hold Kenzie's sleeping hand tighter as I remember what one of my fathers did, how he used the pain mark on her when she was only a toddler. I wish I could kill him, but my other dad did that for me, for all of us. I know she isn't evil inside, she was so sweet before it happened, but ever since then, the trauma changed her, the magic changed her. She manifested her pain mark before ever stepping into the waters at the academy, not that we ever revealed that to anyone outside of our family. The kind of attention that marked anomalies give you is always the bad kind.

A hand rests on my shoulder and I shrug it off. “Fuck off,” I mutter.

“Cut the shit, Daniels. We're all worried about her,” Enzo says, and then he leans down to whisper. “Get your crap together and play your part properly. He can't know how deeply you care for her, not for this to work,” he whispers harshly, but I know he's right. Letting go of her hand, I swallow and stand up, heading for the doctor.

“You know we need her alive for what her mark does; if she dies, we have nothing. You fucking have her awake and healed by morning, or you'll never wake again. Do you understand me?” I snap. He nods frantically, and I swear I hear one of the twins chuckle. “Do you think this is funny?” I turn around, snapping at Locke. He points at Logan next to him. “You then, asshole, do you think this is funny?” I growl.