The Prophecy (30 page)

“Sarah
Redbird!”

The
words jolted me from my reveries, and my heart raced as I made my way down the
aisle and concentrated on not tripping over my feet. Meg, of course, would flip
when she saw that I’d ditched the heels she’d bought me in favor of my ratty
sneakers, but I knew there was no way I would manage otherwise. I was who I was,
and I would never be anyone else.

I made
my way across the stage, floating as if in a dream, and shook hands with the
principal. “Congratulations,” she said to me. “And good luck to you.”

Looking
out into the audience to see Meg clapping wildly, her face contorted with
emotion, I locked eyes with my father. Now that he was just a man and I was
just me, we would have all the time in the world.

As I
returned to my seat I thought about how I’d grown up wondering about my father.
And when I found out
what
he was, I’d refused to believe that he was the
monster everyone claimed him to be.

Maybe
it was my own faith in him, the knowledge that he was a good man, that had
finally released him, and everyone else, from the curse. But I would never know
for sure.

What I
did know was that now we had a second chance, all of us. And I was going to
take mine. I had to believe that this is what my mother would have wanted—to
see us finally together, our people united.

Finally
at peace.