Unmarked Read online

  I unfolded the paper, and my heart felt like it stopped beating. The black ink was smeared, but I still recognized the image—and who had drawn it.

  Jared.

  In the center of the page, he had drawn a black dove. Exactly like the one tattooed on his arm.

  Black Eyeliner Girl gestured at the drawing. “So what does it mean?”

  “Where is he?”

  She crossed her arms, indignant. “Are you gonna tell me who he is?”

  I stepped closer, stopping only inches from her face. “Where is he?”

  The girl shrank back against the wall. “Relax. Did you skip your meds today or something? He’s behind Anderson Hall.”

  I pushed past her and raced down the hallway.

  Nineteen days had passed since the last time Jared and I saw each other, but it felt like forever. I thought about him every day, and every day I fought the urge to take off and look for him. But now he was here.

  Finding him was the only thing that mattered.

  By the time I reached Anderson Hall, my wet clothes were clinging to my body like a second skin. Behind the dormitory, the woods stretched into a sea of black. But for the first time since the night I spent hidden in the back of my mom’s closet as a kid, my chest didn’t tighten from the surrounding darkness.

  My only fear was not finding Jared.

  “Jared?” I whispered. “Where are you?”

  Please be here.

  Between the rain battering the roof and the wind rustling the leaves, I couldn’t hear anything except the sound of my heart pounding in my ears.

  “Kennedy?”

  I spun around and collided with Jared’s chest. My feet slid out from under me and he caught my wrist. It started to slip through his wet hand, the same way it had nineteen days ago as we ran from the crumbling prison.

  But this time I didn’t fall.

  Jared lifted me and slid his hands under my arms, his thumbs pressing against the tender flesh just below my shoulder bones. I let my hands trail up his arms, the muscles tense beneath my touch. He stared down at me, his blue eyes even paler in the sea of black around us.

  For a moment, neither of us moved.

  “I found you,” he whispered, bringing his hand up to touch my face.

  The words wouldn’t come. I reached out and grabbed the front of the heavy, green utility jacket he was wearing on top of his army jacket, clenching it up in my fist. Jared’s hand slid down my jawline and through my hair. When his fingers reached the base of my neck, he pressed gently, urging me into his arms.

  “Talk to me, Kennedy.”

  I let my forehead drop against his chest and choked back a sob.

  “Just tell me if you’re okay,” he pleaded.

  “As close as I’m going to get.”

  Jared lifted my chin, and I could make out the faint outline of his face. His strong features and long eyelashes, the scar above his eye, and the boyish good looks hidden underneath a Fight Club exterior. His lips grazed mine, tentative at first. My breath caught, and he pulled me onto my toes deepening the kiss.

  I felt everything at once—the happiness of seeing him again and the shame for allowing myself to feel it, the pain of missing him and the fear of losing him.

  He leaned his forehead against mine. “God, I missed you.”

  “Me too.”

  Jared guided me toward a cluster of towering evergreens, and we ducked beneath them.

  “How did you find me?”

  “Elle helped us.”

  “Elle?” I hadn’t spoken to my best friend since the day I called her weeks ago and told her about the Legion, and my role in it. That was before I released Andras and the prison fell, before my aunt had me shipped off to Winterhaven.

  Jared wrapped his arms around me, tucking my head under his chin. “She tried to get your aunt to tell her where she sent you, but the only thing Elle could get out of her was that you were somewhere in Pennsylvania. Luckily, it was enough to get Lukas started. He hacked into the admissions records of every boarding school in the state until he found you.”

  “There must be dozens.”

  “Seventy-four. That’s why it took so long.” He sounded apologetic, as if this was somehow his fault instead of mine. “We started with the most logical schools, then Luke hit them alphabetically. None of us thought she’d send you to a place like this.”

  “My aunt thinks I ran away.”

  Jared took my hand. “Then let’s prove her right and get out of here.”

  I stiffened. “I can’t leave.”

  “Don’t worry. We’ll be more careful this time.”

  “I’m not afraid of getting caught.” I closed my eyes, dreading the next part. “I don’t belong with the four of you.”

  The real members of the Legion.

  “You belong with me. No matter what,” he said.

  “I could’ve gotten you all killed. And who knows how many people Andras has hurt already. Dozens by my count.”

  “It’s not your—”

  “Then whose fault is it?” My voice rose. “Because someone let him out, and I was the only person in that cell.”

  “You didn’t decide alone. All five of us were there, and we told you to put the Shift together.” Jared’s hand tightened around mine. “Come on. You’re not staying here.”

  I wanted to leave with him more than anything, but the stakes were too high. What if I made another mistake and Jared or one of my friends paid the price?

  A sick feeling settled in my stomach. “You guys have to find a way to stop Andras. If I screw up again, someone could get hurt.”

  Or worse.

  Jared let my hand slip from his. “There’s something I need to tell you, but I don’t know how.”

  “You can tell me anything.”

  Jared didn’t say a word for what felt like minutes. When he finally spoke, his voice sounded far away. “Your mother’s death was a mistake. It never should’ve happened.” He still couldn’t forgive himself for accidentally leading the demon to my mom and the other Legion members.

  “It was an accident,” I said. “You have to let it go.”

  “You don’t understand,” he said quietly. “You were right all along.”

  He wasn’t making any sense. “About what?”

  “Your mother was never a member of the Legion.”

  4. DEMON SLAYER

  The ground seemed to shift beneath my feet.

  “You’re wrong.” I doubted the words, even as they left my lips. “A vengeance spirit killed my mom on the same night the other Legion members were murdered. And she died exactly the same way.”

  “I wrote your mother’s name on the list with the other Legion members. That’s the only reason Andras hunted her down. It’s my fault.” Jared slammed his fist into the tree next to him. He punched it over and over, a hit for each word. “Everything. Is. My. God. Damned. Fault.”

  I caught his arm. “You’re not making any sense. Where is this coming from?”

  “We figured there had to be a reason why you didn’t get your mark after you destroyed Darien Shears’ spirit. Lukas started digging and realized I made a mistake. When I found your mom’s name and she fit the profile of the missing member, I stopped looking. But there was someone else. Lukas found a birth certificate.”

  It felt like I was rubbing salt on my wrist and staring at my unmarked skin, all over again. I had doubted my mom’s involvement from the beginning. I still remembered the first time Lukas and Jared told me she was part of secret society—and that I was destined to take her place.

  “At least we know why I didn’t get a mark.”

  Because I don’t belong.

  Even though I’d spent the last nineteen days repeating those words in my head, I wasn’t ready to say them out loud.

  “Listen to me.” Jared grabbed my shoulders, looking down at me. “You didn’t get your mark because the fifth member is still alive. It’s someone else in your family.”

  “But the
re’s no one—” The words slipped away from me, as the realization untangled itself in my mind. If my mom wasn’t a member of the Legion… that only left one possibility.

  It can’t be him. Anyone but him.

  My knees buckled. “She can’t be dead because of him.”

  “Who?” Jared sounded confused.

  “My dad. He left when I was young and we never heard from him again.” The words came flooding out, my thoughts struggling to catch up. “It killed my mom and broke her heart.”

  And mine.

  “Shh. Listen to me.” Jared cradled my face in his hands. “It’s not your father. My uncle said the missing member was a woman.”

  “There’s no one else, Jared. My Aunt Diane isn’t capable of keeping a secret like this. There’s no way she’s part of a secret society. And my dad’s parents died before I was born.” I fought to hold myself together, but I felt the seams I’d stitched together over the past nineteen days, tearing. “He’s the only family I have left.”

  “Your father has a sister.”

  It was another mistake. “If he had a sister, don’t you think I’d remember her?”

  “Not if you’ve never met her. You said he left when you were young, right? What if she’s been hiding all this time?”

  “Hiding from what?” My voice rose, and Jared glanced at the back of the building as if he was worried someone would hear me.

  “No one knows why the fifth member fell off the grid. But my dad used to say a person who disappears without leaving a trail, is someone who doesn’t want to be found. Take a look at this.” Jared took something out of his pocket and handed it to me, along with his cell phone. “Use the light.”

  I held the phone over the page. It was a photocopy of a birth certificate.

  “Alexander Madigan Waters,” Jared recited the information from memory. “Born in the District of Columbia, to Lorelei Ann Madigan and Caleb Quinn Waters.”

  “A copy of my father’s birth certificate? That doesn’t prove anything.”

  “It does if you compare it to this one.” Jared handed me an almost identical sheet of paper. The District of Columbia seal was stamped at the top of this one, too. “Lukas searched DC public records to find out if your mom had a female blood relative she could’ve chosen as her successor. Turns out, your dad is the one with the secret family member.”

  I scanned the document and found the baby’s name: Faith Madigan Waters. Born in the District of Columbia, to Lorelei Ann Madigan Waters and Caleb Quinn Waters, two years after my father.

  I held the proof in my hand, trying to reason it away. How could my father have a sister I’d never met? Did he abandon her, too?

  “If Faith Waters is the fifth member of the Legion, she might know how to stop Andras,” Jared said.

  No one wanted it be true more than me. The last few minutes I’d spent in Darien Shears’ cell replayed themselves in my head every day. His story about a Legion member giving him the final piece of the Shift to protect. The look on his face as he lay in the Devil’s Trap, begging me not to assemble the Shift. I could still hear his voice.

  The Shift doesn’t destroy Andras. It frees him.

  It was the decision that would change everything—destroy a demon, earn my mark, and save the world, or unleash a demon and his wrath. If only I had made the right choice.

  “There’s something else,” Jared said. “While Lukas was hacking into school servers looking for you, Priest and Alara spent days dissecting and translating the journals. None of us had ever read our journals cover to cover, except Priest. My dad and uncle never let those things out of their sight. Then our family members died and suddenly, the four of us were the Legion. We were so focused on finding Andras and destroying him before he crossed over that no one knew if the journals explained what to do if it actually happened.”

  “Do they?” A flicker of hope fought its way through the darkness.

  “We’re still looking.” Jared took a deep breath. “But we figured out what Andras wants now that he’s here.”

  “What?” I braced myself for the answer.

  Jared shifted nervously, the leaves rustling under his boots. “Remember the original entry in Lukas’ journal? The one where Markus wrote that Andras wanted to open the gates of hell? He meant it literally.”

  I thought about some of the vengeance spirits we had encountered and the violence they had been capable of—the girl in the yellow dress and Millicent Avery at the bottom of the well; electrocuted prisoners and Darien Shears; and the dybbuk wearing the magician’s skin. I couldn’t imagine what was waiting in hell.

  “You have to find Faith Waters.” I thrust the documents into Jared’s hands. He reached for me, but I stepped back. “I’m staying here.”

  “Wait.…” Jared stared at me, his expression blank. For a moment, he was silent, and I wondered if he heard me.

  Please don’t make me say it again.

  Fear flickered in his eyes, and he fumbled with the papers, trying to shove them back in his pocket. He raked a hand through his wet hair. “Kennedy, please. Don’t ask me to leave you again. I can’t do it.” He took a step toward me erasing what little distance I’d created between us, and rested his forehead on my shoulder.

  I wanted to wrap my arms around him, but it would only make it harder to walk away. “I’ve screwed up enough already. If something happened to Alara, Priest, or Lukas because of me. If something happened to you—” A knot formed it in my throat.

  “Something already did,” he whispered. Jared took my hand and slid it under the bottom of his damp thermal, guiding it across his bare skin.

  My fingers hit a strip of tape.

  I yanked up his shirt and ran my hand over his stomach until I found the bandage taped above his hipbone. “Oh my god.”

  “I’m okay.” Jared moved my hand away.

  “Then why is there a half a roll of gauze on your stomach?”

  “It could’ve been a lot worse.” He shrugged. “We were taking down a full body apparition in an attic. One of the windows was shattered. I was distracted and I didn’t notice. The spirit had a piece of the glass, and I got cut.”

  His explanation didn’t add up; in a situation involving a paranormal entity, Jared’s focus bordered on obsessive. “You can’t afford to be distracted in that kind of situation. What the hell were you thinking about?”

  He turned away.

  “Jared.” I grabbed his sleeve, wheeling him around to face me. “What were you thinking about?”

  For a moment, he didn’t respond. “You,” he finally said, softly. His eyes moved up my neck slowly until they found mine, and suddenly my heartbeat sounded so loud I was sure he could hear it, too. Jared ran his finger down the side of my face, lingering at my jawline to tuck a wet strand of hair behind my ear. “I can’t explain it. But when you’re not with me, I can’t stop wondering where you are, and if you’re okay. Andras is out there somewhere, and I keep imagining what will happen if Andras finds you.”

  Me too.

  But I couldn’t admit it to Jared, not when I was trying to persuade him to leave me here. Not when all I could think about was the way his touch made me dizzy. “That’s crazy.”

  “Call it whatever you want, but it’s not something I can just turn off.” He hooked his fingers through the belt loops of my jeans and pulled me against him. “I’m safer with you than without you. And you’re safer with me. I know you’ve heard about the missing girls, Kennedy. Are we going to talk about the fact that they all look like you?”

  I swallowed hard. “Why me? I’m not even a member of the Legion.”

  “I don’t know, but I’m not letting you out of my sight until we figure it out.”

  The backdoor of Anderson Hall banged open, and a path of depressing, florescent light cut through the rain.

  One of the dorm mothers squinted into the darkness. “Who’s out here?”

  Come with me, he mouthed, tugging my arm.

  For nineteen days, Jared
had lingered at the edge of my every thought. Wondering if he was safe, and worrying he wasn’t. That fear had terrorized me in a place even the nightmares couldn’t touch.

  I pictured a jagged piece of glass slicing into Jared’s abdomen, and his bloodstained hands clutching the wound.

  He was thinking about me.

  Jared’s blue eyes pleaded silently.

  Even if I wasn’t part of the Legion, I had to find a way to keep him safe.

  When we reached the edge of the woods, I heard voices.

  “No one touched your precious demon slayer belt, Buffy.” Elle’s voice carried over the rain, irritated and unmistakable.

  “Just keep your idle little hands off my stuff,” Alara snapped.

  I squeezed Jared’s hand. “Elle’s with you?”

  He smiled, and I took off through the trees.

  “Ladies, let’s spend more time worrying about not getting arrested and less time arguing.” Priest leaned over the front seat of a beat-up, black Jeep Commander, trying to referee.

  Lukas’ arms were crossed on the steering wheel, and his head was buried in the crook of his elbow, like a kid who had fallen asleep on his desk during class.

  “Elle,” I called.

  With the windows rolled down, it only took her a second to hear me. She spun around, her red hair swinging over her shoulder.

  “Kennedy?” She scrambled out of the car and threw her arms around me. “You’re okay. I thought they were giving you shock treatment or something in there.”

  “It wasn’t like that.” I returned her death grip of a hug.

  Elle was exactly the same—from her skinny jeans and vintage leopard print jacket that only looked cool on her, to the red hair and killer smile that drove guys crazy, everything about her was unrestrained and unedited. Two qualities I had always envied. Now the idea of possessing either seemed dangerous.

  “Well, you look like hell.” Alara had one hand on her hip and an elbow propped up on Priest’s shoulder. The hood of her fitted, black parka was pulled over her wild, brown waves. She’d added a stud next to the silver ring in her eyebrow, undoubtedly piercing this one herself, too. Her leather tool belt, stocked with a plastic soda bottle filled with holy water, and an EMF, among other things, hung low on her hips over a pair of the army surplus cargos I remembered. The black eyeliner that usually winged out at the ends to create the perfect cat eye was smudged. Otherwise, Alara was still the prettiest and the toughest girl I’d ever met.