Margot had asked if Josh cared whether they had an audience or not. The general consensus had been yes, but if anyone started to get too intense that was going to change. Josh had watched a little bit of the excitement drain out of Sara's eyes and he gave the stipulation, but it was just a little bit of the excitement.

  Everyone was gathered around the island in the kitchen, with Josh seated on a bar stool and Margot standing in front of him. Connor stood on the other side of the island and watched with his usual level of calm. Sara was standing on the other side of Margot, not willing to fully put the island between her and the most interesting thing happening in the room. No one's position really changed the fact that Josh couldn't take his eyes off of Margot's arm. The wide spiral he saw was transfixing. It wasn't moving, but the thought that it would be hypnotic if it did wouldn't leave his mind.

  "You have one last chance, Josh," Margot said carefully. "I don't think anyone would be upset. Disappointed, maybe. But if there was ever really a point of no return, this is it."

  "Don't—" Josh started, shaking the thought of backing out from his head "—don't tell me I can back out now. That ship sailed like, weeks ago. The second I knew something strange was happening I was doomed. I know that now. And it's not like whatever is haunting my dreams is going to go away if I just leave."

  Margot scrunched her face, the resulting expression a bunching of indecipherable conflict. "I know. I know you want this. And I don't want to scare you or convince you not to do it. But I want to be very clear, Joshua Hall. This will change you. Forever."

  "Just do it," Josh groaned in impatience. "I don't want to think about this any more."

  "Hold out your arm," Margot commanded.

  Josh obliged, holding out his left arm with the pale white underside up and his fingers closed into a loose fist. But the longer he held his arm out, the tighter the fist became. Margot mirrored him with her own left arm, only with the underside down.

  "Do you accept this mark?"

  "Yes," Joshed breathed. It was barely audible, but everything else in the room had grown so quiet that it felt like thunder.

  Margot nodded and pressed her forearm against his as she commanded, "bear your possibility well."

  As she said it, her arm erupted into a burst of white light. The light was more than a glow, more than a light, really. It was bright light a fluorescent bulb at maximum wattage. Josh didn't remember the light being quite so intense when Margot had given Sara her mark, but then again there was something stranger about himself that seemed to be connected to this. Something Sara hadn't experienced and Margot didn't have answers for. As he looked up from the light to her face, she seemed less certain that he had expected her to be. Her eyes were squinting against the light her own arm was generating.

  And then she began to turn her arm.

  The light suddenly sent a wave of white hot pain through Josh's arm as Margot's forearm began to circle his. He was about to yank his arm free when Margot's right hand caught hold of his wrist and held him firmly in place. Unable to move, though grateful for it, Josh let out a scream of pain. In the moment the scream didn't register as his own voice. And as he struggled to try to keep his left arm in place, his right flailed wildly across the kitchen island. That flailing was stopped when a solid object was thrust into his open hand.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Connor had put a wooden spoon into Josh's hand and was quickly guiding it to Josh's mouth.

  Josh could barely register Connor's stern instructions to "bite down hard."

  It didn't stop the pain, and the spoon tasted like plain white rice in the worst way possible, but it helped to narrow Josh's focus back to what was happening. Back to what mattered. There was a black ribbon appearing on his own skin. It wasn't growing wildly and out of control like the accidental mark had done. And it didn't feel wrong, like the mark in his dreams. But it certainly didn't feel good. It felt like Margot was spreading butter across his skin with a white hot poker.

  All at once, the light shut off. The room felt like it was submerged in darkness, even with the lights still on. Margot let go of Josh's arm and stepped back before slumping down into a sitting position on the floor. And Josh just looked down at his arm.

  It felt like minutes of silence before anyone said anything. But when someone did speak, it was Sara.

  "Does it hurt?"

  "It feelsh—" Josh spit out the wooden spoon "—it feels warm. I think?"

  "In a bad way?" Connor asked, a hint of genuine concern creeping through his normally calm demeanor.

  "No?" Josh wasn't sure himself. And as he poked and prodded at the mark on his arm he began to lose track of where he was. He wasn't sure how long it had been before he looked up and realized that everyone else was still staring at him.

  Obliged to end this new silence, he asked "So, that wasn't normal. Right?"

  Connor nodded. "Not how it happened for me."

  "Same," Sara hummed.

  Margot finally spoke up from her spot on the floor with the worst reaction she could probably give. "That was the most intense mark I've ever seen anyone give and I feel like I need I massive injection of adrenaline to get myself back on my feet after that."

  "Oh, shit. Are you okay?" Sara's concern switched immediately to her mother.

  It hadn't fully registered for Josh that it had, or that it even could be, draining for Margot. She had been just fine after giving Sara her mark, but that had also been a normal situation. This was about as abnormal as it got.

  The sudden onset of attention definitely seemed to make Margot uncomfortable, but she didn't do anything about it. To Josh's horror, it appeared that she couldn't. Sara had to loop her arm under her mother's to lift her up. As soon as it became clear what was happening, Josh and Connor were right there with her trying to help and mostly hovering helplessly to the side.

  "I swear, if one of you two grabs my ankles like you're trying to get rid of a dead body, I'll make you into a dead body," grumbled Margot as her legs gave out.

  Connor was faster to respond and caught her by the other side.

  "Come on, mom," Sara started with a grunt of effort, "let's get you into a bed."

  "Let's get you into Josh's bed," Connor added on. "After all, you decided to wear his clothes. Might as well get back at him for sapping your life force out of you too."

  "He didn't sap my life force!" Margot protested as her daughter and student carried her down the hallway and Josh lingered helplessly at the entrance to the living room. "That one just took a lot out of me."

  Josh looked down at the mark on his arm again. It didn't look different from the marks that the rest of them had. The color was the same, so was the size, and the spiral pattern itself looked like a perfect match. The texture felt like normal skin and it had even cooled down completely in so short of a time. And as he thought about why it had been so different, why it had taken so much out of Margot, a new thought began to plant itself and eat away at the back of his mind.

  "What if it took more energy than normal because I'm not supposed to have this?"