I tried to play cool. “It’s not that amazing.”
“Yes, it is.”
I searched my mind for a way to move off this subject since my being “extraordinary” or whatever had to do with the star, which I was supposed to be keeping a secret from Nicholas.
“I’ve got to go ask Laylen something,” I announced and started for the doorway.
He caught me by the arm and the smell of lilacs and rain blasted my nostrils “You didn’t tell me who it was?”
“Who what was?” I played dumb.
“The person who could sense you in the vision?”
“I…um, don’t know who he was. He was just some guy” Man, sometimes I could be a real mastermind at lying.
Not.
Nicholas gave me a doubting look. “You don’t know who he was?”
I shook my head, and then tugged my arm away from him. “I have to talk to Laylen,” I said, then bolted out of the room.
Nicholas didn’t follow me, which I thought was kind of weird. I mean, I had left suspiciously, but for some reason he stayed in the living room. This was a good thing, though, because I needed to talk to Laylen about what had happened. And not just about Stephan sensing me. No, I was more interested in the mark Demetrius and Stephan were talking about. And the name…Malefiscus…I think that’s what they had said.
I found Laylen alone in his bedroom, lying on the bed, reading a book. He had his head down; his eyes glued to the pages.
“Hey,” I said, sounding breathless because I had run all the way up the stairs.
He looked up from his book. “Hey, what’s….” His bright blue eyes went huge when he caught sight of me. “What happened? You look upset.”
I nodded. “Something bad happened when we went into a vision. And Nicholas is getting suspicious that there might be something wrong with me?”
“You think he knows about the star’s power?” Laylen said, setting his book down, and then climbing off of the bed.
I shook my head. “I don’t think he knows what exactly it is, just that there’s something…different about me.” I almost choked on the word “different.”
“Okay, well, as long as he doesn’t know exactly what it is, then I think we’re okay.” Laylen paused.
“Although, I’m not really sure it’s so great that he knows about your special Foreseer thing.” I nodded in agreement, but then shook my head, remembering I had bigger problems to discuss then Nicholas. “There’s something else I need to tell you about. It’s what I just saw in the vision.” Laylen walked over and stood in front of me. “Which is what?”
I shivered as I remembered the sight of what the Death Walkers cold had done to a once bright and sunshine-filled city. “The end of the world.” It got so quiet, I swear, I could hear our hearts beating. Or at least mine, anyway. I wasn’t sure if Laylen had a beating heart or not.
“The end of the world,” Laylen said, aghast.
“Covered in ice,” I added with another shiver.
His blue eyes went wider than they already were.
“Then the portal opens up.”
I nervously glanced out into the hall, and then shut the door. “At least from what I saw, it does” Laylen went over and sank down on the bed. “So that’s it then. The portal opens and the world ends.” I sat down on the bed beside him. “I guess…unless we change it…somehow.”
“How, though?” Laylen’s eyes were still wide, staring off into nothingness. “How are we supposed to stop something that’s already been seen? It’s not supposed to work that way.”
“It’s not?” I questioned. “Because I’ve been told for the last few days that my whole life has been centered on trying to do just that.”
“Yeah, but are we even sure about that anymore. I mean, no one knows for sure why Stephan really wants the stars power? Or maybe,” Laylen turned to me, “he doesn’t want it at all. Maybe he’s trying to get rid of it.”
I tapped my fingers on my knee, thinking. “If he didn’t want it, though, wouldn’t he of just killed me or something to get rid of it, instead of sending me away to live with Marco and Sophia? Why keep me alive?
And put all that effort into keeping me unemotional?
What’d be the point?”
“The point.” He twisted his lip ring from side to side as he contemplated this. “Who knows what the point is. This is Stephan we’re talking about.” I thought about the vision, and Demetrius and Stephan’s conversation. “Who’s Malefiscus?” Laylen’s jaw just about hit the floor. “Where did you hear that name?”
“In the vision,” I said. The horrified look on Laylen’s face caused goose bumps to sprout on my skin even though it was nowhere near cold. “Demetrius and Stephan were talking and they—”
“Wait a minute.” Laylen cut me off. “ Theywere there—both of them were there.”
I nodded. “Yeah, I was in Vegas, only it didn’t look like Vegas anymore. There was ice covering everything and there was no one in sight. Well, no one except a few Death Walkers and Stephan and Demetrius. They were talking to each other and Demetrius said something about Stephan’s scar once being the Mark of Malefiscus, but his parents cut it off when…” The look on Laylen’s face made me trail off. “What’s wrong?”
Laylen looked utterly shocked. “So what you’re saying is that the scar on Stephan’s face used to be the Mark of Malefiscus?”
“Yeah, but what’s the mark for?” I asked. “I mean, who gets it?”
The fear in Laylen’s eyes had me worried. Well, more worried than I already was after seeing the world frozen at its end. “It’s the mark of evil.” Why did that revelation not surprise me? “So Stephan has the mark of evil. No wonder he’s probably trying to make the world end.” Laylen shook his head. “No, Gemma. The Mark of Malefiscus isn’t just the mark of evil. It stands for so much more. Malefiscus is also a man.” He shifted uncomfortably on the bed, and then leaned in so we were huddled together and dropped his voice.
“There’s this story that’s told among the Keepers, kind of like a bedtime story.”
“A bedtime story,” I repeated, dumbfounded. “The Keepers tell bedtime stories about a man who’s evil?”
“An evil man the Keepers destroyed,” he explained.
“But anyway, the story goes that Altamium, the very first Keeper to ever be born, fathered two sons—twin sons, Hektor and Nikon. Apparently right before they were born, a Foreseer told a vision about these sons.
He said that one of the sons would grow up to be a great warrior, and the other would grow up to be jealous of the other one. And that jealousy would become so great that it would turn into hatred.
Eventually, that hatred would bare a mark no one had ever seen before. The mark of evil. Or the Mark of Malefiscus as Nikon would later name it after he changed his name to Malefiscus, which means evil in Latin.”
“So the vision came true?”
“Yes, the vision came true.” Laylen took a deep breath, loud enough that I could hear the shakiness it held. “And if what you saw is true, then it means Stephan bares the Mark of Malefiscus, which isn’t good at all.”
“Yeah, that is bad, but I think we already knew he was evil without the mark, didn’t we?”
“No, it’s a lot worse than him just being evil.” Laylen leaned in even closer to me, his weight sinking the bed in, causing Laylen’s leg to bump into mine. “After Nikon—or Malefiscus got the mark, he began causing havoc all over the place. He joined forces with the Death Walkers, who up until then had been living in hiding for hundreds and hundreds of years.” Laylen shook his head. “And things continued to get worse.
The number of Death Walkers seemed to be multiplying and taking to the streets. It would have probably ended up being the ice age all over again if it wasn’t for Hektor.”
“Malefiscus’s brother?” I asked, checking to make sure that I was keeping up.
Laylen nodded. “Hektor eventually defeated Malefiscus, but couldn’t bring himself to kill him so the Keepers sentenced him to a place…I’m not really sure where it was. In fact, I think no one knows, which was part of the point…so no one can find him and set him free again.”