"I thought I had lost you for today," I snapped back, turning and walking away from him.
"When will you stop to realise you can't keep walking around on your own?"
I felt the anger swell up within me, sick of his efforts to control my life, "What would you have me do then? Call you each time I have to go out in public?"
His blue eyes fixed on me, as he grabbed my arm to stop me from walking away.
"I don't think so," I scoffed.
"You need to stay protected," he insisted.
"And you think you're the person to do that?"
He was about to open his mouth to agree, but I cut him off, "What about your fiancé? What is she sees us?"
His hand squeezed harder around my arm.
I pushed him away from me, "If she sees us, it would put us all in danger. So why are you here?"
He closed the distance between us again, his eyes taking in every part of me.
"I don't trust anyone else to look after you."
I opened my mouth to argue back but the serious look in his eyes stopped me.
His hands squeezed hard around my arms as he looked at me, "Aaron might not be openly hunting you anymore but what the Grimstaw family seems to have forgotten is that it's not the only way to kill someone."
I stayed silent, studying his face and for a second I thought I actually saw fear dance across it.
"I guess you could walk me home," I let the words hang in the air, the closest to a truce we would ever reach.
We turned the corner to my street, thankfully Lucas had been wise enough to walk me home in silence. My fingers closed around the keys in my pocket at I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye. His demeanour had a hint of tension to it, as if he was waiting for something to happen.
"What did you mean by what you said earlier?" the question had slipped out before I could stop myself.
"Cara, I have told you over and over how dangerous this situation is," he sighed.
"What's changed?"
"Nothing's changed," he cut off.
I looked at him for a moment, searching for an answer in his stone like face. There's no point in trying to understand him. The look he was wearing was telling me I better drop it.
"So I'll see you around," I threw the words over my shoulder as I unlocked the door.
Lucas spun me around, his eyes pinned me down as he breathed, "Call me before heading out on your own."
It was an order, not a request and from his facial expression I could tell that he expected to be obeyed.
I shrugged my shoulders and backed towards the door, as I closed it behind me I heard his words echo, "I'm not joking."
~*~
The steam from the shower hung in the air like a protective mist around me as I let the warm water run down my back. My mind was calmed by the warmth, a steady feeling of resolution bloomed within me. Today was going to be a good day. I was going to get this done today.
I stepped out of the shower, wrapping the towel around me and reaching for the hairbrush. As my hands were moving on their own accord through my hair, my mind was making a list of all the things I should do for work today. I felt my hands freeze as I glanced over my shoulder, seeing the mark on my shoulder blade. It didn't look like it had grown, but with Lucas worry about safety multiplying by the day... Why haven't I figure this thing out yet? Today is a good a day as any. I put down the hairbrush and went off to grab my mobile phone.
I listened to the dial tone as I used my free hand to flip through the hangers in my wardrobe, in search of today's outfit.
"Hello?"
The warmth in his voice instantly made me smile, "Hi Taylor."
"What's up?"
"I just wanted to see if you had heard anything from Mr. Liu about the mark?"
"You know what, I haven't spoken to him in a while. Let me call him and check," and with those words he had hung up.
I stared down at the phone for second, before dropping it on my bed and returning to my wardrobe.
As I pulled on the cardigan, a text from Taylor lit up the screen.
"He's got news."
A mixture of nerves and excitement fluttered through my stomach.
"Can we go and see him now?" I dropped my phone back on the bed after pressing send and started to pack my handbag. I can't believe he has answers. There must be some kind of logical explanation for the mark.
His reply flashed back up on the screen, "I can't today. I'm needed in court."
My shoulders tensed and my heartbeat increased, I took a deep breathe and tried to be rational, "That's okay. I can go on my own. Could you let Mr. Liu now?"
I stuffed my phone into my handbag without waiting for a reply. Mr. Liu had the answers I needed and there was no reason for me to wait for Taylor to take me there. I know where his place was, it was just a short tube ride away. That's not a problem. Just go to his place and talk to him. My stomach twisted around but I didn't allow myself to change my mind.
I looked up at the lanterns, creating a web of red glow in-between the buildings, they waved at me in the wind. My eyes swept across the busy street, as I waited at the corner. It was riskier down here, I knew Aaron's men had followed me and Taylor here once before and the last thing I wanted was to have a repeat of last time. Pausing for a moment, closing my eyes and feeling the atmosphere around me, trying to pick up on any waves of magic. I opened my eyes. Nothing. Before I could hesitate any longer, I hurried along the busy street towards the door of Mr. Liu's place. Slipping in and running up the stairs, as I turned the corner and locked my eyes on the door to his room, he opened it.
"Come in Cara," his voice was low and unaffected, as if he had known exactly when I would arrive.
"Thank you," I replied as I tried to regain my breath from the sprint.
I slipped past him into the room, as he closed the door behind us.
"Go ahead, have a seat."
I sat down on one of the cushions, waiting for him to speak.
He sat down opposite me, an air of calmness surrounded him, as if us sitting in silence was so common it was unremarkable.
"Would you mind showing me the mark?" he asked with that casual tone, as if was the most ordinary of questions.
I felt my checks blossom with heat and fingers instantly started to fiddle with the edge of my cardigan.
"Sure," my voice was shaky and I stood up, turning my back to him. I pulled down the cardigan and pushed down the strap of the tank top, revealing my shoulder blade to him. The silence was unnerving, whatever his reaction was there was no way for me to tell.
The cold air in the room wrapped around my exposed back and the seconds felt like they were dragging on forever. I bit my lip, slowly counting to fifteen before pulling up my cardigan. I wasn't going to stand here with my exposed mark all day and if Mr. Liu wasn't going to give me a signal, I guess it was up to me to take charge. I turned around my eyes searching his face for any clue of what he thought.
"So?" I raised my eyebrows in a question.
"Hmm," he scrunched up his forehead, grabbing a book from the table flicking through the pages.
"Do you know what the mark means or not?" my words were sharper than intended. Clearly, feeling like an anomaly was getting to me again.
"Cara, you have to understand..." Mr. Liu started.
"That no one has ever meet a Vortex before," I finished off for him.
His eyes meet mine, a small sparkle of empathy shining through for a second.
"I'm doing what I can, Cara."
I nodded slowly and sunk down on the cushion. He sat down opposite me, still furiously flicking through the pages of the old book. The yellowed pages were wavy with age, looking like one rough touch would crumble them.
"Here," Mr. Liu handed the open book over to me.
I grabbed the leather cover, holding the heavy book over my lap.
"This is the only mention I could find which applies to your situation."
My eyes fixation on the line Mr. Liu was pointing at.
"Power holds consequences. The Vortex was created to balance the flow of power. Thus the vortex will briefly endure the consequences of crossing into the magical world."
I stared at the sentence, feeling my fingers dig into the pages. Mr. Liu gently pried the book away from me.
A jagged breathe past through my lips and I felt as if the room was spinning. What does this all mean? I was so sick of the pulse drumming in my ears panic that my life had become.
"Cara!" Mr. Liu's voice snapped me back into reality. His eyes fixed on me, "We don't know what this means. It's too early to tell."
"So what do we do then? Just wait and see what happens?" My fear was welling up as anger and a storm of thoughts raged through me. Why is it always me?
"I didn't realise that your mark had symbols incorporated into it," he continued gently, ignoring my angry outburst.
"Yeah, so?" I snapped back.
"So that means I have something to go on. I have not seen a symbol like that before, but it must have a meaning to it..." his voice died out as he drifted into deep thought.
I bit the inside of my lip until the metallic taste of blood filled my mouth, I focused on that, trying to drown out the hopelessness.
"I think I should head off," I got up from the cushion.
"Of course," Mr. Liu snapped into action, getting up from his cushion and walking me over to the door. Just as I was about to grab the handle, his hand closed around my wrist.
I looked into the intense darkness of his eyes.
"Cara, please be careful with using magic. We don't yet know what the outcome could be..."
I released my hand from his grip and headed out, not bothering to reply to his comment. Briefly endure the consequences... What does that even mean?
The wind brushed past me carrying the spices of the restaurant in the building next to me with it. I took a deep breath focusing on the sights and sounds of where I was, trying to repress the worry gripping my stomach. I shook my head as if trying to avoid thinking about the worst possible outcome of those sentences.
I walked around the corner, past the little gazebo and down past the Korean beauty shop, on a different day I would have been tempted to go in and grab some sheet masks. But not today, I pushed past the crowd of people. My feet were steering me towards the closeted tube station. All I wanted to do was go home. Go home, go to bed and forget what I had just been told. How am I meant to interpret that? That little mention in that old book doesn't prove anything? If it doesn't prove anything, then why am I feeling like this? I moved onto the main street, when a car slowed down next to me. I glanced over and froze when I saw who was behind the steering wheel.
Author's Note: Finally - back to regular Thursday updates :) Thank you for taking the time to read and vote. I really appreciate it. Today Magic's Mark was ranked #92 in Fantasy. Thank you so much for getting it there :) It would be wonderful to see this story get even higher in the rankings so please take a second to vote/share this story :)
For those of you who are also reading my other story Steel: The Transformation. New chapter will be up on Sunday :)