The Prophecy (20 page)

“You
are my brother’s blood—
my
blood, too. That is reason enough.”

Suddenly,
my eyes welled with tears and I blinked hard to clear my vision. I did not want
this stranger to see me cry. “I am seventeen years old,” I said, as my nose
began to run. I lifted my arm and dabbed at it with the cuff of my hoodie.

He
nodded. “I am aware.”

I
raised my chin a fraction of an inch. “And in seventeen years my father has
never tried to find me.”

He leveled
his gaze at me. “And how would you know that?”

That
brought me up short. I relaxed my arms and took an automatic step forward. “You
mean he has?” Sebastian only shrugged, but I took it as affirmation. “Then why
are you here instead of him?”

“Because
his love for you and your mother almost got him killed once before.”

“If he
loved me, he would let nothing stop us from being together.”

He
laughed. “You don’t live in a storybook world, Sarah. This is real life, and
real life is never that simple.”

I began
crying. If my father loved me and my mother, like Sebastian said, it
was
that simple.
In my world—storybook or not—that’s what love was about,
what it meant. Being together.

A sympathetic
look came over Sebastian’s face then. He lowered his eyes and spoke quietly. “Trust
me, Sarah. Sometimes it’s better to love from afar.”

I
looked at the ground, my thoughts suddenly going to Adrian. Maybe the best
thing for us would be for me to let him go. Let him date Jasmine if he wanted with
no interference from me. And if he decided to be with me after all . . .

I
lifted my head and saw he was watching me. “Does my father even know you’re
here?” I asked.

Sebastian
shook his head. “I came on my own. I had to be sure. And now I am.”

“Sure
about what?”

He opened
his mouth as though he wanted to say something more, but then shut it.

“Sure
about
what?
” I insisted.

“My
brother’s wishes be damned,” he said under his breath, through clenched teeth. He
met my eyes then. “Do you want to meet your father?”

My
heart stuttered in my chest. “More than anything.”

He held
out his hand. “Give me your phone.”

“There’s
one other thing,” he said as he programmed his number into my phone. “I need to
speak to the one they call Caleb Moon.”

That
brought me up short. “What does Caleb have to do with any of this?”

“Quite
a lot,” Sebastian replied, handing me back my phone. “Seeing as how he is your
brother.”

EIGHTEEN

My
throat tightened and I gulped convulsively for air, like I was suddenly
starving for breath. “What did you say?”

“Caleb
Moon is my brother’s son,” he enunciated, raising his voice as though I were
hearing-impaired.

I shook
my head slowly back and forth as if to refute what he’d just said. “But I am my
mother’s only child. Aren’t I?” I added uncertainly. I didn’t think I could
handle any more shocking news today.

“Caleb
is your half-brother,” Sebastian clarified. He took a step forward and reached
out to steady me, but let his arm fall back to his side without actually
touching me.

“Does Caleb
know?”

Sebastian
shook his head. “No. Not unless his mother told him. She brought him to the
reservation once, when he was younger.”

“Caleb
met our father?”

“Caleb
saw
your father. From a distance.”

“From a
distance. What is that supposed to mean?”

Sebastian’s
eyes flicked to the darkening sky and I sensed we didn’t have much time. 

“Shortly
before your mother’s passing, Charlene brought her son to my reservation.”

I felt
a sudden, renewed loathing for Charley Moon. I understood exactly why she’d
done it. “She hoped to take my mother’s place.”

“There
was a time when my brother felt a certain fondness for her, but she was never
more than a friend to him. You have to understand that he never gave up hope
that he would one day be able to claim you and Melody as his wife and child.”

“Is
that why Charley hates my mom? Is that why she hates
me
, because she
knew that my father loved us like he didn’t love her?”

“He
loves both you and Caleb, as any father should,” he said, without really
answering the question.

“So
what now? You can’t expect me to go back home and pretend like we never had
this conversation.”

Sebastian
shook his head. “Times have changed and things are different now. I believe it
is up to you and your brother to bridge the gap between the seven tribes once
and for all.”

I
stared blankly at him. “Bridge the gap? What are you talking about?”

“You
have it within you, Sarah.”

I clenched
my fists, growing more agitated at his talking in code. “That’s not a real
answer.”

“And
yet it is the only answer I have for now.” His eyes flicked toward the sky
again and he turned to go.

“Wait!”
I called out. He stopped and turned to look at me again. “When will you take me
to see my father?”

“Soon,”
was all he said.

I
watched him walk away then, disappearing into darkness. Only after he was out
of sight completely did my hands and legs begin to shake. I lowered myself to
the ground to the sound of a wolf howling, and waited for the trembling to
stop.

*****

Meg
knocked on my door several times asking if I was okay, but I just sent her
away. She didn’t even bring up the fact I’d gotten in a fight with Jasmine—Coach
Wally had called, of course. I’d gotten nothing more than a disapproving look. Maybe
she thought Jasmine deserved it, too.

I couldn’t
get my mind off Caleb and how I would have to confront him sooner or later,
this time as his half-sister. But first I had to put things right with Adrian.
I called his cell, but it went straight to voicemail. I tried him at his
grandmother’s house.

“I’m
sorry, Sarah, but he’s out. Try him on his cell phone.”

My
stomach clenched. “I did. You said he’s out?”

“That’s
right.”

“Who
with?”
Please not Jasmine.

“I
don’t know, honey. He just said he was going out. I assume he’s with Caleb.”

I
didn’t think for one minute that Adrian was with Caleb. He was mad at Caleb probably
even more than he was mad at me.
If he was out with Jasmine
. . . but he
wouldn’t do that. Would he?

Adrian
supposedly loved me, so how could he just give up on me? How could he just
throw away what we had, as well as everything that was supposed to be?

Restless,
I got up and went to the kitchen where Meg was busy making dinner.

“Did my
mom ever talk about my dad?”

The spoon
Meg was using to stir the spaghetti sauce stilled in the pot. Without turning
to me she said, “Why do you ask?”

I grabbed
the salt and pepper shakers and held them out to her. She always
under-seasoned. “Why
shouldn’t
I ask? Don’t I have the right to know?”

Meg stirred
in the spices and then replaced the lid on the pot, placing the spoon in the
spoon rest with what I thought was exaggerated care. She turned to me and drew
a deep breath.

“Of
course you have a right to know. But I have to be honest, I don’t know much.”

Leaning
against the counter, I snagged a carrot and bit off the tip. “Do you know his
name?” Sebastian hadn’t told me, and in my general surprise, I hadn’t thought
to ask.

She
nodded. “Lucas.”

“Lucas
what?”

She
shrugged and sighed. Loudly. “Lucas. Just . . .
Lucas
. I don’t know his
last name.”

“Well,
what tribe does he belong to?”

“I
don’t know,” Meg said, impatiently. “Your mother never mentioned that.”

“Where
does he live? Somewhere close to the Katori reservation, obviously. Or maybe
not,” I said to myself. “I suppose wolves can cover a lot of ground.”

Meg
shrugged again. My questioning was obviously making her uncomfortable. “I don’t
know, Sarah. I really don’t know. You forget I was very young when all of this,
you know . . .” She let her voice trail off and turned to rinse the colander of
lettuce leaves.

“Did my
mom ever mention anything about a guy named Sebastian?”

Meg,
who’d been giving the colander a vigorous shaking under the running water,
stopped abruptly. After a moment, she shut the water off and turned slowly to
face me. Her eyes narrowed. “How do you know about Sebastian?”

I stood
up straighter and returned the look. “How do
you
know about Sebastian?”

Meg gave
the strainer another good shake and dumped the contents into a ceramic bowl.
Then, choosing a red bell pepper and turning for the sink once more, she took a
painstakingly long time washing and drying it. Finally, she selected a paring
knife and resumed her spot at the cutting board. All the while I was biting my
tongue in order not to scream at her to just tell me already.

“Shortly
after your mother died,” she said without looking at me, “a man named Sebastian
paid me a visit.”

“Sebastian
came around?”

“Sometimes
it seems that Sebastian is
always
around,” she said with a humorless
laugh.

This
was news to me. “Uh, I think I might have noticed a strange man lurking in the
shadows.”

“If he
had wanted you to see him, you would have. That doesn’t mean he’s not there.”

The
blood drained from my head and I reached for the counter. I swallowed hard. “Do
you
see him?”

She
shrugged. “Sometimes. I try to ignore him. Which he can make extremely
difficult.”

“Well
what did he want?”

The
knife in her hand made a sharp
snick
against the cutting board. I saw
her swallow. “At first? He wanted to take you away.”

I
blinked. “Take me away? Why would he want to do that?”

She placed
the knife on the counter and turned to me. “I was young, Sarah. David was even
younger. We knew nothing about raising a child, and yet all of a sudden we had
a child to raise, and without the benefit of a tribe. He wanted to take you
back to his people. To be reunited with your father.”

I
blinked again. “Why didn’t my father come for me himself?”

Meg
laughed again under her breath, a sinister sound. “He did once. I told him he
wasn’t welcome in my home, and that was that.”

“Are
you crazy? He’s my father!” My voice pitched up in anger with the realization that
he could have been a part of my life all along if not for Meg’s meddling.

“He
cost us everything! And he had a hand in your mother’s death, even if not
directly.”

“That’s
not fair!” 

“And
what happened to your mother wasn’t fair!”

Her
eyes blazed with fury. She turned away then and took a deep breath. When she
had finally gotten her emotions under control, she said, “Sebastian came here,
apparently without your father’s knowledge. He wanted permission to take you
back to his tribe.”

“Permission
which you denied.”

“Sarah,
you were eleven years old. The only family you’d ever known was your mother and
grandparents, and David and me. Do you honestly think I would willingly hand
you over to Sebastian and Lucas? Your mother hadn’t seen or spoken to Lucas
since that day at the reservation, before you were even born.”

“That
you know of,” I said. “How would they know how to find us otherwise?”

“She
didn’t,” Meg insisted, but she seemed less certain now. “Regardless, I have a
hard time believing she would have wanted you anywhere but here, with David and
me.”

I
turned away from her, my chin quivering. I knew if I spoke I would dissolve in
tears. To think that I could have known my father all this time.

He
wasn’t some mythological creature. He was human, and he was real.

And he had
wanted me.

“When
did you meet Sebastian?” Meg said with suspicion, as though it had only just
now occurred to her to ask the question.

I
swallowed hard, making an effort to control my anger. “I first saw him the
other day at school. I was on the track. He was watching me.”

The
crease between her eyebrows deepened. “You
first
saw him. Do you mean to
tell me you saw him again?”

“In the
woods. Twice. He, uh. He told me some stuff.”

Meg closed
her eyes and breathed in deeply. She seemed to want to say a lot of things at
the moment, but she settled on just one question. “What sort of stuff?”