The Prophecy (15 page)

Priscilla’s
head swiveled toward me and I felt the heavy weight of her stare.  “What do you
mean, you’ll make them?”

“I
haven’t forgotten about that little slap in the lunchroom last year, you know.
I’m not entirely defenseless now.”

“So you’re
talking about revenge.” It wasn’t a question, and I didn’t exactly detect her
approval.

I raised
my chin. “Maybe.”

Priscilla
threw her head back and laughed. “Revenge is so not your style, Sarah.”

“Maybe
it’s because I never had a way of fighting back before. But now I do.”

Priscilla
suddenly stopped laughing gave me a stern and very parental look that I didn’t
exactly appreciate. “You’re supposed to use your powers for good, not evil.”

I
rolled my eyes. “I’m not some superhero. I’m not out to save the world.” And
then I smiled. “Or maybe I am, by ridding it of the likes of Katie and
Jasmine.”

Priscilla
grinned. “You do have a point, I suppose.”

“It
would feel so good to put them in their rightful places,” I said. “Just once.”

“Yeah,
but you do it once and it becomes a habit. And then it gets out of hand, and
instead of teaching a lesson, you start to hurt people.”

“Since
when did you become the voice of reason?”

“Since
you started talking nonsense.”

The
bell rang, and we gathered our trays and began making our way inside to dump
them. Priscilla grabbed my arm with her free hand, a genuine look of concern on
her face.

“Seriously,
this is our last year. Whatever you do, don’t screw it up for yourself.”

FOURTEEN

It took
some cajoling, but I finally convinced Caleb to meet me alone after school. When
Adrian suggested we hang out that afternoon, just the two of us, I had to tell
him I had too much homework. I would have rather bit off my own tongue than
lie, and I sincerely hoped I wouldn’t have to do it often just to spend time
with Caleb.

“So why
haven’t you told Adrian about what you can do?” I asked. Things would be so
much simpler if he was in on the secret, too.

Caleb tossed
a stick underhand into the creek where the current quickly picked it up and
carried it downstream. He had his shoes off and pant legs rolled up to wade in
the water, but he was obviously cold. I could see goosebumps freckling the
exposed skin of his arms even from where I was sitting. I pulled my knees to my
chest and watched him as I waited for his answer.

“Adrian
and I have been best friends for as long as I can remember,” he said. “I don’t want
him to look at me any differently.”

“And
yet you told me.”

“Your
point?”

I
rolled my eyes to the sky for patience. “My point is that it doesn’t make
sense, Caleb.”

He broke
another stick in half and sent each piece flying. “We’re the same, you and I. I
had to tell you.”

He
turned around then, a grin on his face. He thrust his hands in his pockets and
began pacing through the water, just deep enough to soak the rolled hems of his
jeans.

“Adrian
is jealous, you know.”

I put
my chin on my knees and tapped the toes of my sneakers on the ground. “He
shouldn’t be. He knows how much I love him.”

Caleb
laughed. “Yeah, well. He’s always been an insecure dude. Shyla has more balls
than he does.”

“And
you obviously like messing with him,” I said, not very kindly.

Caleb shrugged.
“If he opened his eyes he’d see I’m not interested in you. At least not that
way.”

“Don’t
worry about it,” I said. “I’m not interested in you that way, either.”

“Fine. Now
that we have that settled, let’s get to the point of this little meeting. You
brought me here for a reason. Why?”

My
heart thundered in my chest. I got to my feet then and brushed off the back of
my jeans. A gust of wind ruffled the hair off my neck, and I shivered and
pulled my jacket tighter around me. I leveled my gaze at him.

“Okay,
have you ever had a feeling that something is about to happen?”

Caleb shook
his head. “What kind of something?”

I
hesitated, my mouth working soundlessly. “I don’t know. But something . . .
big.
Something important. Something that you have to be ready for.”

The
side of his mouth turned up. “Well, there was that time with Holly Lightfoot
when I was sixteen, and we almost—”

I held
up my hand. “Stop. I don’t need to hear the rest.”

“Needless
to say, her mom called my mom and I was—”

“I said
I don’t need to hear it!” I clapped my hands over my ears and waited until he
stopped laughing.

“Ever
since Victor . . .” I said, shaking my head. “I’m constantly looking over my
shoulder, you know? When he took off, I knew that wasn’t the end. I knew he
would be back. And now he’s calling Adrian and telling him he wants to meet and
talk.”

“So
what’s that got to do with me?”

I
squared my shoulders as I cleared my throat. “For whatever reason, you and I
are more alike than not. Don’t you think we should work together to, I don’t
know, combine our powers?”

“Combine
our powers?” He laughed under his breath, obviously not taking me as seriously
as I hoped he would.

“Well .
. . yeah.”

“Why?”

“Victor,
for one. What if there’s trouble . . . or something?” I ended lamely. There was
more to it than that, though, but I didn’t quite know how to explain what I was
feeling.

Caleb
studied me, one corner of his mouth finally lifting. “Combine our powers?”

I
smiled back. “Don’t tell me you’ve never thought about it.”

He
shrugged. “I haven’t. All I wanted was a friend. Someone who understood what I
was going through.”

Caleb
turned and paced through the water for a few moments before lifting his head to
me once again. “Let me tell you how this is going to play out. Victor will eventually
show his cowardly face and we’ll nab him.” He snapped his fingers. “Just like
that.”

I shook
my head, unconvinced at the simplicity of this scenario. “I don’t know. It’s
not just Victor. I’ve been thinking about my dad a lot lately and—”

“Your
dad?” he said in surprise. “Do you think he’s coming after you?”

“No, of
course not. It’s just that when your mom started talking about the others . . .”
I waved my hand, irritated that I couldn’t articulate exactly what I wanted to
say. “It doesn’t hurt to be prepared. That’s all I’m saying.”

Caleb
bent and scooped up a handful of small stones that he began hurling into the
creek. “So you want to combine our powers to combat the forces of Evil. Okay,”
he said, slowly nodding his head as he contemplated it. “Let’s start now.”

“Oh! Okay,”
I said, surprised he’d agreed so easily. I rubbed my hands together in
anticipation and then stopped. I had no clue where or how to start. “Any
ideas?”

“You’re
asking me? I thought you had all of this planned out.”

I
grinned sheepishly. “Not really. I’m sort of winging it here.”

“All
right,” Caleb said. He turned and swept his hand out in front of him, sending a
foot-high wave of creek water swelling into the opposite bank. “Can you do
that?”

My
stomach hit the ground. He made it seem so effortless. He was definitely a lot
better than I was. “Uh, not exactly.”

“Then
what
can
you do, because everyone seems to think you’re pretty damn special.
Prove it to me, hot shot.”

I
turned to the creek, gritting my teeth in a sudden fit of defiance, and cast
out my hand the same way Caleb had. Nothing happened, though; not even a
flicker of a wave.

Caleb laughed
under his breath. “Now that’s what I call talent,” he said.

I shook
out my hands. “You’re just making me nervous.”

One of
his dark brows rose. “I’m making you nervous? Maybe that’s just an excuse to
cover up the real problem.”

“Which
is?”

“That
you don’t know what the hell you’re doing.”

I had walked
right into that one. “I do so.” Turning, I cast my hand out again, hoping as
hard as I could that something would happen. But nothing did.

Caleb
ran a finger under his nose, trying to hide his amusement. “Impressive.”

I
fisted my hands at my sides. “A little encouragement, please?”

“Come
on, Sarah. Show me what you’ve got. Do something to wow me or I’m leaving. I
don’t have time for this.”

“That’s
not exactly encouraging.”

“What
do you want me to do, hold your hand?”

My fingers
tingled. “I’m
trying
.”

“You’re
obviously not trying hard enough or you would have done something by now. Maybe
you’re not all that great. Maybe the Great and Wonderful Katori got it wrong
when She decided a seventeen-year-old nobody should be the tribe’s next Spirit
Keeper. Maybe—”

“Shut
up!” I yelled with a fury that surprised even me. “Or, I’ll—”

“Or
you’ll what? You’re just a weakling. A nobody. A little girl who doesn’t fit in
anywhere she—”

Flinging
my hands out in front of me, I sent Caleb soaring backwards. He landed with a
thud ten feet from where he’d previously been standing, the air from his lungs
rushing out of his body as he hit the ground with an audible
thud
.

“Now
that’s more like it,” he said with a grimace.

I
rushed over to him and knelt by his side. “Omigod! Are you okay?”

Caleb
lay there for a moment, unmoving. “I’m fine. I think.” He held out his arm and
sucked in his breath through his teeth. A long gash ran from elbow to wrist.

I wrapped
my hands around his arm without thinking. Closing my eyes, I concentrated on
sending a ribbon of warmth into his flesh. When I opened my eyes again, the
gash on his arm had completely healed.

“Thanks,”
said Caleb. He gave me a funny look. “That’s weird.”

I sat
down next to him and drew my knees to my chest. “What’s weird?”

He
shook his head. “I’ve seen you control Fire and Spirit with very little effort
at all, and yet you say you can barely control Water, Wind, and Earth.”

“So?”

“It’s
the opposite for me.”

“Really?
Prove it.”

He held
out his hand to a pile of twigs, which struggled to catch fire. I held out my own
hand in demonstration and, doing little more than simply thinking the word
fire
,
it immediately burst into flames.

“Hang
on,” Caleb said. He turned to the creek and waved his arm, and a wave of water washed
over the bank and doused the flames before they could spread.

“What do
you think it means?” I said.

“I
don’t know. But there’s one other thing.”

“What?”

“I
think your powers to control the elements, at least some of them, might be hardwired
to your emotions. You can’t seem to control them unless you’re pissed off.”

I
laughed. “That’s so not true.”

“Whatever.
When you healed my arm just now,” he said, “it was like second-nature to you.
You didn’t have to think about it at all. You just did it.”

I
gathered a few fallen twigs and dried leaves and then flicked my wrist, setting
the small pile on fire. Insubstantial as it was, the heat coming from the
flames was a relief to my frozen fingers.

Caleb’s
expression softened as he looked at me. “For the record, I really do think
Katori knew what She was doing when She made you Spirit Keeper.”

I eyed
him with suspicion. “You were trying to provoke me all along, weren’t you?”

Caleb
grinned. “Maybe.”  

“You’re
rotten.” But I smiled, too.

“Anyway,”
he said, letting his long arms dangle over his knees. “I think you’re right
about practicing. If Victor, or anyone else, comes around, you need to be
prepared.
We
need to be prepared.”

“It’s
not just Victor or the others I’m worried about.”

“What
do you mean?”

I
looked into Caleb’s questioning gaze, knowing I should have kept my mouth
closed. How could I tell him that I didn’t trust his own mother?

“It’s
like I told you before,” I said. “I just have a feeling.”

And it
wasn’t a lie. I could feel something on the horizon—whether it was a threat or
not—but I didn’t know from what direction it was coming.

“I
don’t know,” I said. “Maybe I’m just being paranoid.”

Caleb
continued staring at me. I could tell he didn’t completely believe me.

“Come
on,” I said, getting up again. I stomped on the small fire to smother the
flames. “I’m starving. Wanna get something to eat?”