“I’m sorry, but it seemed better to take Laylen since he can’t die from Stasha’s touch.” I suck in a loud breath. “And she’s your ex-girlfriend.”

“I already told you she never meant anything to me.”

“Yeah, but you clearly meant something to her—she has pictures of you two all over her house.”

He presses his lips together. “What do you want me to do?” He pauses and I can tell the way his eyes crinkle that he’s trying not to smile. “Go to her house and steal all the photos away, because I will. Just say the word.”

I shake my head, attempting to stay annoyed. “No, that’d be silly.” I pause and his smile starts to break through, so I reach forward and playfully pinch him on the side. “This isn’t funny.”

Now he’s grinning as he touches the spot where I pinched him. “It kind of is.” He brushes a strand of hair out of my face. “You’re cute when you’re jealous.”

“That’s not what this is about,” I tell him then remember what I’m really supposed to be discussing with him. “Did you know Stasha has the Mark of Malefiscus?”

The shock on his face is too real and I know right away that he didn’t. “No, she doesn’t… I’d know….”

“She does, though. I saw the mark on her wrist, and she told us she’s had it since she was born.”

“That’s not possible.” He shakes his head, gripping onto the counter. “I’d know if she did.”

I hated that he would know. “So I’m guessing that either he recently put it on her and tampered with her mind to make her think she’s had it forever, or this is another case of the butterfly effect from resetting time…” I look down at my hand and flex my fingers. “It’s time for me to go see what I can do about this.” I open my hand and the flame smolders.

“You think it’s going to work now?” Alex asks, the flame reflecting in his bright green eyes.

“There’s only one way to find out.” I march out of the kitchen without putting the fire out and Laylen, Aislin, and Aleesa all jump back. I scoop up the mapping ball and place it in my hand as they all watch. It fits perfectly and my skin begins to sizzle. Energy torrents through me, violet, passionate, untamed. My eyes snap wide as searing heat spills through my veins, gives me an indescribable power, and then sucks me into the glass.

It’s so dark it makes the air thick and heavy, bearing down on me and crushing my body. I have to be dead. There’s no way I could be alive with this much pain. But then I open my eyes and see the most beautiful sight I’ve ever seen before me, like I landed outside of the world, where the stars shine. They are everywhere. Above me. Below me. As far as my eyes can see.

“It’s so gorgeous,” I whisper in wonderment. But as I start to wander across the stars, my heart sinks in despair. There is no sign of memories or anything that will lead me to it.

But as if answering me, one of the stars just in front of my feet illuminates. I hop back as light flows out of it and casts against the darkness like a movie screen. At first it’s blank, but then people appear on it. A man probably about twenty years old with dark brown hair and violet eyes—my dad. He’s talking to an older woman with flowing auburn hair, wearing a pressed tan dress—Sophia.

“Well, I don’t see how that would be possible,” Sophia tells my father as they hike up the grassy hill toward the grey stone castle at the top. “Jocelyn’s too busy with things. And she’s supposed to be taking her Keeper’s test soon.”

“I understand your concern,” my dad replies, attempting to dazzle her with a charming smile. “But I promise you, I won’t keep her out too long.”

Sophia fixes him with a stern gaze, one that I had seen many times, not at all affected by my dad’s charm. “Well, I’ll have to think about it and discuss it with her father, but we’ll see.”

My father stops on the hill, beaming. “That’s all I’m asking for.”

Sophia gives him a curt nod and then hurries to the front door of the castle, leaving him on the hill. My father turns, picks up a rock, and chucks it into the lake, making the water ripple. He looks happy, not like someone who is about to cause the end of the world.

“He couldn’t have always been evil,’ I say. “There’s just no way.”

The scene swirls back into the star. Not the vision I’m looking for, but it was interesting to see my dad, just a normal guy, wanting to ask my mom out.

Suddenly, another star lights up against the darkness just a few feet away. On the screen, my father is the main focus, about the same age as he was in the last one. He’s sitting next to my mom who looks around the same age as him. Her makeup is done and her hair is curled up and they’re in the corner, huddled together, with a stack of books by their feet.

“I still don’t understand why you have to help him,” my mother says to my father. “It doesn’t make any sense.

My father takes her hands in his. “Everything will be okay, Jocelyn. Stephan assures me that once I help him, we can be together; that he’ll make it so your parents won’t have any problems with us wanting to get married.”

My mother swallows hard. “Julian, please don’t do this... I’m begging you”

“It’ll be alright.” My dad cups her face in his hands and leans closer. “Stephan just needs my help with something and then this will all be over. And you and I can begin our happy life together.”

She looks like she wants to say something but can’t. “Help you with what? Has he even told you?”

“He hasn’t, but I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

My mother itches at her wrist, right where the Mark of Malefiscus is now, but her long-sleeved shirt covers it up. She keeps scratching and scratching like she’s trying to claw her skin off.

“Please don’t go, Julian,” she pleads. “I’m begging you not to.”

“I have to otherwise, I’ll never have this.” And then he kisses her.

I let out a shaky breath as the picture fades back into the star. They seemed so normal and in love, not evil or marked, not about to end the world.

I move to the next star and wait for it to light up, wondering what I’m going to see next. When the screen shines across the blackness, my body tenses. Stephan is sitting at a long mahogany table, dressed in black, his hair slicked to the side, and he’s grinning. Across from him, is my dad with his arms on the table, the sleeves of his blue shirt rolled up revealing that his arms are mark free.

“I have to say, Julian, I’m surprised you showed up.” Stephan says. “Jocelyn must mean a lot to you.”

My dad shifts in the chair and then tucks his arms underneath the table, anxious. “Is it true you can create marks? Can you really mark me as a Keeper?”

I nearly fall to the ground. That’s what he wanted? He wanted Stephan to make him a Keeper?

“Hmmm...” Stephan grazes his finger across the scar on his cheekbone, musing. “Is it true there’s a way for a Foreseer to change a vision?”

My dad’s expression plummets. “I—I don’t think so.”

Stephan slants forward in his chair toward my father. “You know what I hate more than anything, Julian?” he asks in an icy tone, his eyes darkening. “People who lie. I can’t stand fucking liars.”

“I’m not lying, sir,” my dad says, his voice faltering. “I swear, I’m not.”

Stephan digs his fingernails into the wood of the table, as if channeling his anger there. “I understand there are rules that the Foreseers have that forbid you to tell me.” He scoots back and then rounds the table, halting in front of my father. “Give me your arm, Julian.”

“What?” My dad gapes up at Stephan. “Why?”

“Give. Me. Your. Arm,” Stephan repeats in a firm tone.

My dad exhales loudly then extends out his arm. Stephan retrieves a knife from the table and without warning, plunges it into my father’s forearm. “Vos es venalicium!”

My dad whimpers out in pain, his fingers moving for the knife. But it’s too late. A mark appears on his wrist as blood seeps out of his skin and dribbles onto the floor. “Why did you… I don’t understand,” my father stammers, pressing his hand to the wound.