The Prophecy (29 page)

My eye
caught Nova’s, the young woman whose baby I’d helped once before. She smiled at
me, and I smiled back. My eyes roamed those of the other people gathered, too.
They were all there, the people of my tribe. Even Charley, looking admittedly miserable,
and I wondered if she had come willingly. Neither Caleb nor Jasmine had spoken
to her much in the last few weeks.

After
completing a full circle, Caleb stopped at my side, and I gestured for him and
the other six men to return to their spots. Turning, I held out my hand to the
pile of wood, issuing my own silent command. Small flames began to lick the
underside of the heap and thread their way to the top. Within minutes, the
entire pile was ablaze, casting a warm glow on the darkening sky and
dissipating the chill.  It was my turn to return to the circle, hoping with
each step I took that whatever I was about to do would actually work.

“Let us
all join hands again,” I said.

I took
my father’s hand in my right and Adrian’s in my left. Then I closed my eyes,
the last sight being that of the setting sun on the horizon. Daylight was
nearly gone. We didn’t have much time.

The
scent of sage was strong, and I knew Caleb was using his control over the wind
to maintain a constant wreath of smoke around the people gathered here. But it
was up to me now. I had to believe that I could remove the curse. I had to want
it, not just for Caleb and my father and Sebastian, but for all the chiefs gathered
here tonight and for their people.

Breathing
in, I let the magical, mystical properties of the earth penetrate my lungs. I
held it in, allowing it to overwhelm my soul. We were all of us family here,
descended from the Sun and Moon and the earthly children born to them. All of
us with the capacity to love and hate in equal measure.

I
released my breath and took in another lungful of air, feeling dizzy and lightheaded.
Images began to dance in the fire, images of a young man—handsome and
powerful—and of his sister—beautiful and kind.

Kamut
and Kai, one radiating a cool and calculating appeal, and the other shining as
bright as the sun itself.

What
would happen if they came together?

In the
flames I saw Kai wrap her arms around her brother Kamut. There was no struggle,
only a relinquishing of spirit and soul, as though Kamut had been waiting since
the beginning of time for this very moment, to be free himself. Kai overpowered
and consumed him as she seemed to grow larger than life. When she finally
released him, I saw he had shed the skin of a monster and was now a man—small, human,
and vulnerable in her presence.

I felt
a sudden and powerful pulling sensation at the center of my chest, where my
heart beat, as though the power that resided inside me was being drawn out
somehow. I felt it pulsing in my blood, surging in my veins and beating against
the confining walls of my body until I thought my skin would fracture and
fragment and finally explode. The feeling pulsated down my arms and into my
fingers. It felt as though my whole body were on fire.

I looked
down and gasped at the swirls of blue and red linking my hand and Adrian’s. One
by one, the magic spread down the circle, alighting each pair of clasped hands
like a beacon in the dark.

“Whatever
you do, don’t let go!” I yelled, and felt both Adrian’s and my father’s hands
immediately tighten against mine. It was the Spirit of Katori drawing strength
from each of our souls. I knew it was working! We were breaking the curse!

The
magic traveled the circle slowly until at last it linked my father’s hand to
mine. Astonished, I looked around at the bond that now connected the members of
seven different tribes in a way we’d never been connected before. In one great
rush, the Spirit that lived inside me broke free and rushed toward the center
of the circle in a great deluge of fiery power.

Flames stretched
to the sky, raining down sparks. Some of the younger children gasped in fear
and excitement, but everyone stood transfixed. Caleb raised his hand, and as he
did so, a gentle mist began to fall, tempering the flames without putting them
out completely.  

“How do
we know if it worked?” one of the chiefs shouted, when it appeared that nothing
else was going to happen.

“We
wait,” I said.

I cast
my eyes to the distant horizon where the sun had become just a sliver of red
and gold. Then I glanced at my father. He smiled, but I saw the fear in his
eyes—fear that this hadn’t worked, after all; fear for himself and his people;
fear for Caleb, his son and my brother.

If it
didn’t work, what would we do? What would
I
do? I felt like the
responsibility of freeing these people rested on my shoulders, and my shoulders
alone. And that was a pretty scary thing to feel.

A groan
and muffled cry escaped my father’s lips suddenly and he let go of my hand in
reflex, falling to his knees.

“Dad!” I
tried to put my arms around him, but he pushed me away.

“Go!”
He groaned again and clutched at his head.

“It
didn’t work!” someone shouted.

“I’m
not going anywhere,” I said to my father, even as the other men began to drop
to their knees and writhe in apparent agony. I realized then with a start that
they were going to transform right in front of our eyes.

I
looked at the members of my own tribe, some of them retreating in fear, but
most of them too scared to move, fixed in place by the terrifying spectacle
unfolding before them.

“Take
each other’s hands!” I yelled. “Don’t break the circle! You have to hold
hands!”

Slowly,
they started to do as I said and we circled around the six men once more.

And
then down the line Caleb fell to his knees, too. “No!” Charley yelled. She
tried to break free from the circle and go to him but I yelled at her to stop.

“Stay
where you are!”

I
couldn’t believe this was happening. We hadn’t broken the curse, after all, and
I had no idea what to do now. I was going on pure instinct and could only hope
what I felt in my gut was right.

Caleb rolled
to his back and clawed at his skin, the sound of his screaming agonizing to my
ears.

“Get it
out! Get it out of me!”

“What’s
happening?” Shyla yelled.

As if
in answer, the spectral form of a great wolf tore free from Caleb’s body. And in
the same moment, the ghostly form of Katori emerged from the flames of the fire.
She pulled a shimmering bow and arrow from her back and sighted the weapon at
the form of the wolf.

Then she
let go.

I held
my breath as the arrow, trailing sparks of fire, found its mark in the wolf’s
heart. It reared on its hind legs, throwing back its head to emit a ghastly
howl, and each of the men answered with a similar cry of pain.

The
wolf dissipated at once, becoming nothing more than tiny bits of stardust that
floated upward into the night sky and seemed to hang there. Katori turned to me
then, bowed, and strode back into the flames where she disappeared altogether.
The men lay silent and motionless on the ground.

I immediately
went to my father and knelt next to him. I clutched his arm, my heart beating
heavily. “The sun has set!”

He sat
up, breathing heavily, and rose slowly to his feet, as did the others around
him. “Then it worked?” His words came out choked with disbelief. “It actually
worked?”

I
smiled as stars winked into existence overhead. We could finally dare to hope.
“I think so.”

But there
was a hollowness inside of me that gave me pause. I knew what that hollowness meant,
and I felt a sudden sense of loss. I closed my eyes and tried to conjure
something,
anything
, but nothing happened. I squeezed my father’s hand
and left him to the care and questions of the others. I had to see Caleb.

“I
don’t have any abilities anymore,” I whispered, huddling next to him where he
was still on the ground.

He put
a hand to his head, still looking like he might pass out or throw up at any
moment. “Dude, I’ve got a killer headache. And what are you talking about?”

“I
don’t feel Katori’s presence in me anymore. I think she’s gone. Like, for
good
.”

Caleb’s
forehead wrinkled as he raised his hands. Nothing happened. He squinted and
tried again. “Mine are gone, too.”

“What’s
going on?” Adrian said, as he and Shyla came to join us.

I shook
my head as I rose to my feet. “I don’t know. But I think when Katori’s spirit
left my body, it left for good. I feel . . .
empty
.”

Adrian
linked his fingers through mine. “I’m so sorry. I don’t know what to say.”

But I just
looked at him and began to laugh. “You’re sorry? Don’t you see what this
means?”

Adrian,
Caleb, and Shyla stared at me as though I’d finally gone off the deep end. “Uh,
I think it means you’re certifiable,” Shyla said.

“No!” I
jumped up and down and whooped with a sudden sense of relief. “That I’m normal!
I’m
finally
normal!”

“I
haven’t known you for very long, but I’m not sure you were ever all that normal,”
Caleb said.

I stopped
jumping and ruffled his spikes with my hand. “More normal than you’ll ever be.”

“So now
what?” Adrian said, with a shrug of his shoulders.

I
looked across the clearing to where my father was talking to Imogene and David,
and where Meg was laughing about something Sebastian was whispering in her ear.

I smiled.
“I guess we live our lives.”

EPILOGUE

EIGHT MONTHS LATER

I
glanced out at the auditorium teeming with friends and parents and relatives, my
heart swelling as I took comfort at the sight before me. All the people I loved
were here, together: Meg, David, Imogene, Sebastian . . .
my father
. This
was it—the first day of the rest of my life, I thought. As cliché as it sounded,
it was also very true.

Adrian,
Shyla, Caleb, Priscilla, and I sat among our classmates at graduation, the
final performance of our high school careers. We would walk across that stage
and, in another few months, head off to college. Even if Adrian and I wouldn’t
be going to the same school, I still had Priscilla.

I found
her in the crowd of red and white gowns—no difficult feat—and she stuck out her
tongue, making a horned rocker sign with her fingers.
Yeah, baby
she
mouthed at me, thrashing her head so hard that her cap flew off and sailed into
the person sitting in front of her. I laughed and rolled my eyes as the
principal walked on stage and began with her opening announcements.

I had
done it. I had
really
done it! I couldn’t believe I had made it through
the last four years, despite all that had happened. Knowing that everything I
had worked for had arrived at last felt surreal and dream-like.

I wish
you were here
, I thought, sending up a silent prayer to my
mother and grandparents.
I wish you could see me now
.

Although
I didn’t have my mother, I now had my father. And an uncle. And a brother. And more
family than I even knew what to do with.

The
seven separate tribes were no more. Consolidated into one people, we were now
the Onondape. Caleb and I were the youngest members to sit on the newly formed
council, duly elected to give a fresh voice and perspective to the first
generation of what would hopefully be many more to come. We were proof that
people could change, that long-held prejudices and misconceptions could be cast
aside.

“Adrian
Hunt.”

I
beamed with pride as I watched him walk across the stage and receive his
diploma. He looked out at the crowd, lighting on his grandmother, and also
Victor, who’d arrived for the occasion but sat solemnly off to one side. And
then his eyes went unerringly to mine and he smiled. I smiled back. We would be
all right, Adrian and I.

“Shyla
Hunt.”

My eyes
pricked with tears as I thought about her years of struggle and how much she’d
overcome just to get to where she was today. She accepted her diploma with an
air of liberation, clinging to that one piece of paper as though it were the
golden ticket to a new life.

My mind
wandered as the other members of my class walked across the stage. I thought
about the many fights I’d had with Katie, the tears shed, and how she’d done
her best to make my life as miserable as possible. But she couldn’t touch me
anymore. She’d lost her power over me when I’d finally discovered that my own
came from within. She would never win again.

I
thought about Jasmine, how we would never be
best
friends, but at least now
we had an understanding. I thought about Charley and how, more than anything, I
just felt sorry for how bitter and resentful she’d let herself become.

And
then it was Caleb’s turn to walk across the stage, my brother for always. And then
Priscilla’s, whose mom had made the trip from LA.