I'm so sorry, guys :( This update has taken forever because I have been so stressed with exams and stuff.

I hope you can forgive me ^_^

Here it is: enjoy

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The incessant ringing of Damien's alarm clock on a Monday morning woke us both at 7am. With a curse, Damien pulled back the covers and stumbled his way to the bathroom.

"I hate Mondays," he mumbled.

I grunted back in response, feeling like a grumpy Garfield as I pulled Damien's covers over my head and buried myself deeper in the cocoon I made. After what felt like mere seconds, Damien ripped the covers off me. Instinctively, I curled into a ball when the cold air hit my body.

"Abby! Get up. We're going to be late."

I smothered my face with the pillow. "Don't care," I mumbled back. 

It was a hectic past week and I never seemed to be able to catch a good night's rest. I didn't know if it was fear of seeing Hunter again in my dreams or Nana's obsessive behavior was what kept me up. Whatever it was, waking up on a Monday morning with a splitting head ache made me more inclined to bunk school and go back to sleep than to get up. 

Damien grabbed my arm and pulled me up into a sitting position, ruining any thoughts I had of going back to La La Land. I opened one bleary eye and scowled at him. "I want to sleep."

He sighed. "Don't we all." Suddenly, his eyes widened and his mouth dropped open.

"What?" I said, following his line of vision to my arm. I let out a petrified scream and clutched my arm to my chest.

"Why is my arm glowing," I whispered, unable to mask the wobble in my tone. All the sleep in me vanished instantly, leaving me wide awake and somewhat unsatisfied. 

Damien looked at me, worry creasing his brow. "Let me see it again." I let him pry my arm away from its vice like grip around my chest and we both gazed at my appendage.

The dark outline of the Mark appeared to be covered in an iridescent hue that moved through the flower like strawberry milkshake up a swirly straw. I stared at it, transfixed, watching the swirling colors change as it went through. Eventually all the colour faded away, and I was once again left with the dark flower.

"What the hell was that?" I questioned.

After a week of having the Mark, I was kind of used to it, but the flair up was a new thing and it caught me off guard.

Another thing I need to remember when I search through Nana's witch books.

Damien shrugged but his eyes hardened - a tell-tale sign that he was hiding something.

"What?"

"Nothing," he said, standing up and dragging me to the bathroom.

I kept quiet, letting it go for now. We were running out of time it was, and if I questioned him, we'd run the possibility of being late to school.

After I nabbed a quick breakfast bar from the kitchen, Damien and I yelled a 'bye Nana' and rushed out of the door. Neither of us wanted to use mum's car so we'd left extra early to give us more time to walk to school.

Linking arms with my brother, we started our journey.

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Walking into Cederwood High's busy cafeteria during lunch time was like being slapped in the face. The thick wooden doors contained most of the sound, so on the outside, it appeared as though all was well. Open the doors and BAM: people screaming, laughing, and yelling to be heard over one another.

The moment Kat and I crossed the threshold; all the students stopped what they were doing and watched us. I froze, unsure if I really wanted to subject myself to all the gawping for another week.

"Come on," Kat said, wrapping her slim fingers around my wrist and dragging me behind her. Well, that settled that, then.

Awkward silence filled the room as I followed her to the front of the room to get our food. The walk seemed endless, on and on we went until finally, we reached the front. I could understand their interest, I really could. I mean, I was the new kid after all, and I did have three huge ass scars on my cheek. But it was seriously misplaced; I was not a very interesting person.

As expected, Damien already wore out his newbie status and was kicking it with some guys outside, and aside from our joint biology lesson in the morning, I hadn't seen him since. Maybe the attention was still on me because I wasn't such an open book like Damien was. Either way, I hated it and couldn't wait for something else to catch their attention.

The hum started up again once Kat and I got our lunch and sat down at a free table towards the back of the cafeteria. Kat chose Mac and Cheese but I'd opted for a tuna baguette because the Mac and cheese had more cheese than actual macaroni and I honestly didn't want to die from some kind of cardiovascular disease.

It wouldn't look good on my tombstone:

Here lies Abigail Winters,

Beloved sister and daughter,

1997-2015

Death by Mac and Cheese (too much cheese, not enough mac.)

The noise was above deafening and I had to scream for Kat to hear me. I swear, I was going to lose my voice before the end of the year. We were the only ones eating lunch today, her friends -well, Becca- had some sort of rehearsal for a musical she was performing in and the other girls decided to go for moral support. Kat chose to stay with me; after all, we had the exact same timetable. I clicked with her more than the other girls and I was grateful she stayed with me.

I preferred it when it was just the two of us, anyway. She must have somehow sensed that I was damaged but she never pried, not even once since I met her. I liked her for that. I couldn't say the same for the others. That's why I felt more comfortable with her, she knew something was up but let me be. It was my secret, and she knew I'd tell her when I trusted her.

Kat put her fork down and pushed her whitish- blue hair behind her ears. "Wow," she breathed, a dreamy sigh escaping her. I looked over my baguette and raised an eyebrow at her.

"Three o'clock, your side," she mouthed.

I kept my body still and tilted my head slightly to the side to see what caught her attention.

When I saw it, my tuna sandwich slipped through my numb fingers and fell to the floor.

I turned back quickly, giving myself whiplash in the process. "You like Hunter, too?"

"No! I like the guy behind-wait what? You like Hunter?"

"No, no!" I yelled, backtracking. I absolutely did not like Hunter Wilde.

"I don't like him," I told Kat. "I just think he looks good...and smells good..." I didn't know who I was trying to convince more, Kat or myself. Given that Nana just recently started teaching Damien and I how to deal with magic, it was odd that I was somewhat sensitive to it. Nevertheless, I was half convinced something witchy was going on. Hunter in my dreams and Hunter in real life just didn't add up.

But something about him...tickled my heartstrings and I couldn't seem to forget about him, no matter how hard I tried. I blamed it mostly on the odd dreams, and the fact that he wasn't in the past week that made me like the idea of him. No one that good looking was a sweetheart in real life, they always sucked at something, I just needed to figure out what it was. Then I could forget about him properly.

We didn't move all the way to Arizona for the same thing to happen as back home. No relationships, no boys, nothing. It would do me good to remember that. Hell, the last thing I needed was a repeat of last time.

I slyly looked in his direction again. He was sitting about four tables down from us with a group of what I assumed were his friends. From my position, I could see his side profile only. He lifted his fork, holding a mouthful of Mac and cheese inches from his face, before letting it splodge back down on the plate.

"Which one did you say you liked?" I asked.

When Kat didn't answer, I turned to face her. She pulled her short hair forwards, trying to cover her scarlet cheeks and failing miserably. "His name is Romero."

Smirking, I said, "Romero, huh? Which one is he?"

She nodded towards the largest one in the group, and I sneaked another quick look. Hm, he was a looker, if you liked the treeish, scary, I'm-going-to-murder-you type. I'm sure he was a nice guy and all but damn, he looked like he had the strength to send me flying from a mere flick. And that huge scar on his face did nothing to lessen the danger vibe coming off him, even from my distance.

But if that was what Kat was going for, there was no way in hell that I was going to stop her.

After all, what happened to me was proof not to judge a person by their looks. He was the most charming, smart, suave guy I'd ever met. And yet he left me bloody and beaten, abandoned, in the middle of nowhere. All for freaking magic. Magic that I didn't know I had, but still. He had no right to do that. I trusted him.

Now wasn't the time to think about the past. I had Kat's love life, or lack of thereof, to deal with.

"Hubba hubba," I said, wiggling my eyebrows up and down at her. "How long have you known him?"

A half smile flitted across her lips. "Since we were kids. We were best friends ages back, then we grew up. He made new friends and so did I."

"Aw, how cute," I said. "Have you guys ever...?" I left the question hanging, she could make of it as she willed.

Suddenly her eyes dulled and she stared forlornly at the table. "No. Becca and the others don't approve," she said as she poked her congealed mac and cheese with her fork.

"What, why?" I said, annoyed. Who the hell did they think they were? It was none of their business if Kat wanted to date the guy.

Kat reached for her bottle of water and took a swig. "The people he hangs out with...they're always out doing stuff during school time. No one knows what they're up to but no one questions it. Even the teachers are scared of them."

"Scared of them?"

"Yeah, I'm sure you noticed Hunter missing all of last week."

I nodded. "I thought he was ill or something."

"Or something! They don't get ill."

That was odd. "None of them?" I asked, curious. And why was she referring to them as 'they'? It sounded creepy, like they were part of some sort of cult.

"And Becca doesn't want you with Romero because of his reputation?" I said, just to clarify.

She nodded, muttering something under her breath that sounded suspiciously like, "What they don't see is that I'm just like them."

"Hm? Did you say something?"

She looked at me and smiled, "Nopes."

She was hiding something, I could tell. But I'd show her the same courtesy and let her open up when she was ready and let the subject drop.

"Hunter, huh?" Kat said, copying me from earlier. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Nothing to tell," I muttered, embarrassed. "I don't like him."

"If you don't like him, why do you keep checking him out?" she said, raising her eyebrows.

My mouth fell open but no sound came out. She had me there.

Kat gasped. "Omg, he's coming this way!"

"Who is?"

"Hunter," she said, excited.

"Are you sure? Maybe he is going to get seconds?"

"This school doesn't do seconds!"

Oh crap! I paled, wishing I could turn around and see how far he was. As I was about to move, Kat kicked me with her foot.

"Don't look!" Kat covered her mouth with her hands, trying to muffle a laugh.

"This isn't funny!" I fumed. My heart beat furiously in my chest and I felt beads of sweat build on my back.

"For you, maybe." She giggled, clearly enjoying herself.

Someone cleared their throat close behind me. I half turned, wary as to what I'd find.

I was met with Hunter's evergreen eyes boring into mine.

"Hi," I squeaked, waving my hand inches from him face.

He ignored my awkward greeting. "We need to talk. In private."

When I didn't move, he added, "Now."

"Okay..." I stood up slowly, shooting Kat looks of 'help me'. She smirked, giving me a quick thumbs up when she though Hunter wasn't looking.

Hunter wrapped his hand around my wrist, similar to what Kat did to me on our way in, and led me out of the cafeteria. A spark of electricity jolted up my arm and to my heart the moment his warm, calloused palm wrapped around my wrist.

Ignoring the feel of his warm hand, and what it did to my body, I glared at his back. "Why does everyone seem to be dragging me today?" I huffed.

"Because you're slow," he retorted.

"Am not," I shot back, disgruntled.

He didn't respond. Within minutes, he'd dragged me to a door that appeared to be locked.

"Uh, I don't think we should go in there," I pointed out helpfully.

Hunter faced me, dropping his hand from my wrist, and leaned against the door, "And why is that?"

I gave him a 'duh' look. "Because it says cleaning closet. And last I checked, neither one of us are cleaning supplies."

A faint smile pulled up on the corner of his lips. "Glad you figured that out."

"So what are we doing? We have about thirty minutes." My next lesson was biology and I really didn't want to miss it.

"We are going to go inside and talk," he said.

Warning bells started to ring in my head. "About what?"

He pulled up the sleeve of his grey hoodie. "This!"

I stared at his arm, aghast. Peeking out of his hoodie was a black mark that appeared to be tattoo like. But I knew what it was. I had one. The other half, it looked like.

"Your face says it all," he said, pulling open the door effortlessly and shoving me inside. The door slammed shut, blocking out the fluorescent light of the hallway and plunging us into darkness.

Uh-oh. What did I just get myself into?

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For your viewing pleasure, (and to make you forgive me) I added a pic of what Hunter looks like up there ^^

*dreamy sigh* 😍This guy is so bloody hot I wish he was mine :)

Do you agree? comment below and we can fangirl over his hotness together

Don't forget to like and comment. Your interest means to world to me ❤️❤️