S w i m m i n g i n t h e l a k e

I try to get back to the mattress room but - of course - I get lost. It was inevitable, really, but with my mind so focused on the things I'd just read I didn't pay attention to where I was going. Somehow, by pure chance, I end up in the courtroom that Lucas had taken me to. I go through the courtroom door, the door we didn't go through last time. There are stairs leading down from either of the walls beside me, this is where the people would sit. A set of stairs moving forward from where I am looking lead to a long desk, with a few chairs behind it. I'm guessing the judges would sit here. Slowly, I step up the stairs, then I reach out to touch the desk. My fingers barely brush the surface when I hear a voice behind me.

"Out for a midnight stroll, are we?" Lucas drawls.

I put a hand to my chest. "Holy crap you scared me."

"You shouldn't be here," his face hardens.

"Why not?" I challenge.

He scoffs. "Cause you shouldn't. Out there is fine but this room is out of bounds. For everyone."

"Then why'd you show me this place?" I don't know why, but I am suddenly very defensive.

"I showed you out there. I didn't take you in here because we're not allowed," he emphasises the last few words.

I walk down from the stairs and stalk past him and out of the room, but he grabs my wrist and pushes me up against the wall, his face mere centimetres from mine. He twists my arm so that I can't move, but I am not in any pain. Yet. My heart, however, hammers against my chest and I hope he can't hear it. Or at this distance, feel it.

"We. Are not. Allowed. In there," he speaks slowly.

"Why do you gotta tell me this pushed up against a wall?" I gasp, not used to being this close.

He stares into my green eyes with his deep black ones.

"I don't. I just want to. Don't you?"

He smirks, then lets go of my arm, and turns away. I am suddenly scared of him. A rush of cold air moves in between us, and I suddenly miss the warmth of his body.

"Let's go back," he growls.

"Are you mad at me?" I ask.

"No. Not exactly. I'm mad at myself."

"Not exactly?" I question.

"I'm not."

He walks back at an odd fast-walking pace, and I have to jog at times to keep up with him.

"Slow down," I gasp, and he only does when we are back at the room. We go onto our mattresses and I lie there without another word.

I can't fall asleep now. What was that all about?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We wake up in the morning, my head and thoughts still a mess from everything I read and did last night.

"Morning guys," Cecilia says brightly, and everyone else seems as happy as her, except for Lucas.

"Morning," he scowls.

"Someone got up on the wrong side of the bed. What happened to you?" Casper asks.

"Nothing."

Casper looks over to me, and nods thoughtfully. Mia joins in. "Ahh, I see," she says.

"Don��t," I say, knowing it'll make everything worse. And honestly, I don't wanna deal with their teasing right now. "Just don't."

They stop talking, and we sit in uncomfortable silence for a while, when it is interrupted by Matthew.

"When's breakfast?" he mumbles.

"Let's go down now."

Over breakfast, we plan the day. It'll be perfect weather for swimming, so we decide to go out to their lake. We pack towels, clothes, and food, then walk the kilometre down to the lake.

The water is crystal clear, and it starts off shallow then gradually gets deeper. The middle is around two to three times my height. A small river leads into the lake, a small waterfall forming where they join.

"What are we waiting for? Get in guys!"

Everyone strips down to their swimmers, and we jump in. I look over at the others, and catch a glimpse of something that makes my blood chill.

What was that on Lucas' arm? To be exact, his right upper-arm?

Could it be?

I look over again and can't see anything, so I think it's just my imagination. I hope. However, this time I find myself looking at his body, his muscular arms, his broad chest. I quickly look away, blushing furiously.

We dive into the water, but some people choose to stay near the edge.

Matthew refuses to come further than waist-high, and Cecilia and Amelia are shoulder-deep. They never were a huge fan of water. The rest of us go in deeper, into the middle of the lake, and dare each other to touch the bottom.

Finally, I give in and dive down. I can hold my breath for a while, so I'm not worried, and I stay down there for a while to scare everyone. After a minute or so down there, I grab a shell as proof from the bottom and swim up, glad to be able to breathe in air again.

"You scared me," Mia gasps, splashing me with water.

I cough, and splash her back. "That was the point."

We spend a long time in the water, swimming until our fingers get wrinkled. I try to enjoy myself as long as possible, but I can't get my encounter with Lucas out of my mind, or what I read, and I can tell that he can't either. Once everyone starts to get out, we stay in for the longest, and I swim closer to him in order to speak without being heard by anyone else.

"Can't stop thinking about that, can you," I snarl.

He snarls back. "That and something else."

"Like what? The mark on your arm?"

His eyes go wide with shock but he recovers quickly, his face morphing into anger.

'What mark," he seethes.

"It's true then. I wasn't sure, but this confirmed it."

"Hey guys, everything okay?" Alexa calls from the shore. Lucas immediately turns his face neutral, so that they can't tell we are talking about something.

"Yeah," he calls back, his voice casual. "Casper, we're going to that cave for a while, 'kay?"

In response, Casper waves his hand and winks. I breathe out through my teeth. Lucas turns back to me.

"Let them think that for now. Follow me."

He leads me down through a tunnel under the water, and out into a small cave lit up by glowing moss, and we walk out of the water onto the sand. The only way in is through the tunnel, and we'll be able to tell if someone's coming.

I look at Lucas. His face is livid, I have never in my fourteen years of knowing him seen him this angry. I don't know what to do, Lucas is normally such a casual person.

"What do you know?" he asks.

"Huh?"

"What do you know? About magic?" he repeats.

"Oh. It's not true," I say.

He raises his eyebrow, getting his anger under control.

"What did you read then?"

I tell him about the History of Magic book, and everything that I read about, I don't know why because I am mad at him.

Regardless, I tell him about the introduction to the book, the warning. I tell him about the story of the war, the king and his evil brother, the sisters whose names were the same as my friends. The magical families of which one was the name of his house. And finally, the Devil's Demon, the horrifying tattoo that scared me to death.

He only nods when I finish, thinking over all I've said.

"Let me ask you a question," he says, after a pause of consideration.

"Is magic true, or false?"

"False. Duh," I answer without hesitation, but inside my mind is screaming at me. I'm getting a headache from all this information.

I look at him. "Why, do you think it's true?" I ask, ignoring my brain.

He doesn't say anything, only jumps back into the water and swims away. Just before he starts swimming back to shore, I ask him, is your mark real? He doesn't answer, and as we walk out on shore, I can't ask him anymore because the others will hear.

They tease us for a while, asking how our 'one-on-one' time with each other went, what did we talk about.

Lucas and I endure all this with a straight face, and I don't correct or change anything they say. When we walk back to the manor, Lucas pulls my arm back and whispers into my ear,

"Yes, I believe in magic."

"What about the second question?" I ask in return, but he still doesn't answer.

I stay still for a bit, watching my friend's retreating backs, and think about it.

If he believes in magic, then he believes the Lucifer guy is real, which means that he hates all Devil's Demons, which means that that would be the reason why he reacted that way.

Besides, he can't be one of them because one, it's not real, and two, he would be a killer if he was.