The Spirit Keeper (19 page)

Adrian got up and waded into the shallow end of the creek, sighing as the water licked his toes and ankles. “If it’s your Spanish final, I’m sure you did fine. You had that thing memorized forward and back. Heck, I probably could have taken it for you, with all that studying I helped you do during lunch.” He laughed and then pointed at me. “You didn’t wear your suit?”

I shrugged, looking down at my shorts. “I didn’t feel like getting wet today.”

The truth was I couldn’t find my one-piece, and I wasn’t exactly ready to stand half-naked in front of Adrian in my bikini. A public pool was one thing, but there was something a little more intimate about the creek, secluded as it was. 

Adrian didn’t seem to share my inhibitions. He pulled his shirt over his head, then balled it up and flung it to the bank behind him. He’d come prepared wearing his swim trunks, and they hung so low and loose on his hips he kept having to hike them up. He waded deeper into the water, inching closer to me.

“Do you mind if I come over there? I promise I won’t splash this time.” By the smirk on his face, I knew he was going to come to me whether or not I wanted him to. And I very much wanted him to.

I nodded, unable to find my words. I hadn’t been born yesterday, obviously, and I was incredibly aware of the water rippling off his bare skin. 

He sat down on the tree beside me, letting his feet tangle with mine under the water. He tickled the bottom of my foot with his big toe, making me giggle despite my nervousness.

“Do you know how beautiful you are?” he said suddenly. He reached up and tucked a piece of hair behind my ear.

I laughed and made a sort of unattractive choking noise to cover my embarrassment. “Yeah, right.”

Adrian traced the line of my jaw with his finger. “You don’t believe me?”

I rolled my eyes, clenching my teeth together to stop their nervous chattering. “You’re the only guy who’s ever said that.”

Adrian trailed his finger down my arm, making my skin break out in goosebumps. “Well it’s true,” he said. His eyes met mine and lingered. He licked his bottom lip. “Sarah, I really want to kiss you. I’ve wanted to kiss you for a very long time.”

I swallowed hard, struggling to catch my breath. My voice was barely a whisper when it came out. “Really?”

My heart was thumping in my chest. I couldn’t believe this was actually happening!

All of a sudden I was hyperaware of everything around me: the smooth texture of the worn log beneath me, the coldness of the water rushing against our feet and the reflection of the sun dancing off the surface, the jackhammer noises of a woodpecker close by and the caws of scavenging crows, the earthy smells of mud and decay and the slightly fishy odor of the creekwater.

And then there was Adrian: the scruff of his unshaven face, the cowlick that made his hair stick up slightly in front, the pressure of his thigh against mine, the incredible heat radiating off his entire body, the pounding pulse under the delicate skin of his neck telling me his heart was beating just as quickly as mine.

All of this I became aware of in the span of one breath, and yet it felt like time had stopped so that I could memorize every little detail about this moment and preserve it in my mind forever.

Adrian had closed his eyes and tilted his head to the side, so I immediately closed my eyes and angled my head in the opposite direction. Less than two heartbeats later I felt his lips on mine, warm and incredibly soft. I shuddered reflexively, a thrill of delight traveling up my spine.

Adrian scooted closer, closing the gap between us. He put his hand on my back, and the only thing I could think to do with my awkward arms was to wrap them around him. His tongue touched the inside of my top lip and I nearly fainted. I felt lighter than air, like I could float away from being so happy.

But faster than I would have liked, Adrian pulled away. 

“Is everything okay?” I asked, my breath ragged. I didn’t dare look at his face. I just couldn’t.

He tilted my chin up with his fingers, forcing me to look into his eyes. “Everything is great.”

He let go of my face, and I looked down at my lap again. “It’s just that, I don’t know, I haven’t had much practice.”

Adrian leaned in to kiss me for the second time, and it was just as good as the first. It felt like the most natural thing in the world, and I didn’t want it to end.

“I can’t stop thinking about you,” he said. “You’re like a song stuck in my head, but in a good way.” We both laughed, our breath mingling in the small space between us.

We sat quietly kissing for a few minutes, getting to know each other in this very different way, before I pulled back and took his hands in mine. The time to get answers was now, before I let myself get more involved with him than I already had.

“Adrian, we need to talk.”

His forehead creased, but he squeezed my hands. “I know,” he said, resignation in his voice.  

I lowered my head and shook it back and forth, at a loss for words. “I don’t even know where to begin.” I took a deep breath and looked him in the eyes. I was scared I might lose him, but I had to do this.

“Remember that day in the greenhouse when you said you were on my side? What did you mean by that?”

Adrian let go of my hands and rose to his feet. He walked away a few paces and stood with his back to me, head bowed. When he finally spoke, he didn’t look at me.

“A long time ago, when I was just a baby, a wolf entered our land and attacked my father. When my mother tried to help, the wolf turned on her. She died later that night.”

“I’m so sorry,” I whispered.

Adrian turned and offered me a small, sad smile. “I don’t remember her at all.”

I was almost afraid to ask, but I had no choice. “Do you blame me for your mother’s death?”

Adrian came back to where I was still sitting on the fallen tree, and he knelt in the water in front of me, looking me in the eyes. “Why in the world would I blame
you
?”

I twisted my fingers in my lap, my eyes stinging with tears. “I grew up not knowing where I came from, Adrian. I always wondered, but it was never spoken of in my home. No matter how many questions I asked, they always went unanswered.”

“And now?” Adrian said when I couldn’t go on.

I gazed into his dark eyes, so deep I was sure I would drown in them. “And now I know the truth. Meg explained everything to me—the story of Ka-mut and Kai, the history of the Katori people, how my mother went missing one day and . . .”

My voice trailed off, and I took a deep breath before going on. “The white wolf was my father. He is a descendent of Ka-mut, which means so am I. It was my father that killed your mother.”

Adrian rose and sat down again on the tree next to me. He put his arm around me to draw me close. “I know, Sarah. I’ve known it for as long as I can remember.”

I looked up at him in surprise. “Then how can you not hate me?”

“How could I? You are one of the sweetest, most beautiful people—inside and out—that I know.”

I shook my head. “If you think that, why did you come here?”

Adrian laughed under his breath and brought my hand to his mouth. His lips grazed my knuckles, sending shivers up my spine and making the fine hairs at the nape of my neck stand on end. “Because I wanted to,” he said.

I pulled my hand from his—gently, so as not to give him the wrong idea. “I’m glad of that, but what I meant was, why did you come
here
? To this
town
?”

Adrian didn’t respond, and all I heard was the distant cry of a blue jay in the silence. I took a deep breath, trying not to get discouraged, and opted for a different approach.

“Why didn’t you tell me you have a twin sister?”

He gave me a sharp look before his face relaxed into a mask of resignation. “You know about Shyla.”

“Of course I know. I told you that Meg told me everything. When Priscilla and I were at the mall yesterday, we saw her.”

He opened his mouth to say something, but I held up a hand. “This isn’t exactly a big town, Adrian. We were bound to run into each other sooner or later.”

“Did you talk to her?”

“Not really,” I said. Adrian raised a brow, and I cleared my throat. “I mean, she um . . . she told me to watch my back.”

Adrian’s eyes went wide, and his nostrils flared. “She
what
?”

His hands curled into fists, but then they relaxed again on his thighs after a moment. “I don’t know what her problem is. We used to be so close when we were little. But then . . .” He didn’t say anything more.

“She said you two have a complicated relationship.”

Adrian huffed. “Complicated doesn’t even begin to describe how things have been between us lately.”

“What do you mean?”

He sat quietly for a moment, seemingly evaluating if he really wanted to open up about that aspect of his private life. “The fire, you know the one that killed your family?”

“I know the one,” I said with a wry note in my voice.

“Well, when word about it arrived on the reservation, rumor spread that it was Shyla who started it.”

My heart began pounding in my chest. “Oh?”

“If Meg told you everything, then you know Shyla can control the elements,” he said casually, like it was no big deal at all. I nodded and he said, “Well, Shyla has a particular affinity for fire. Not to mention a temper the size of Texas.”

I swallowed hard and nodded again.

“Shyla had it rough growing up,” he said. “She was different than everyone else. But she didn’t see herself as being special at all, and she hated what she could do.

“Some kids were teasing her at school one day, and she got so mad she almost burned down the building. Dad brought us here to stay with Gran for a few days, just until things cooled off. He had to practically beg the Council to let Shyla come back to the reservation. They thought she was too dangerous. They wanted her to stay with Gran permanently.”

“What happened then?”

“It was when we were visiting Gran about a year later that the fire,
your fire
, happened. Of course, no one on the reservation had forgotten about the fire at the school, or other smaller fires she’d set. And when we got back home, the Council questioned her.”

“What did she say?”

“She denied having anything to do with it, but I guess the evidence was pretty incriminating. They sent her away to live with Gran. This time for good. She was only twelve.”

“Do you think she did it?”

Adrian shrugged. “I don’t want to believe something so horrible about my own sister, but it’s kind of hard not to.”

“Do you hate her?”

Adrian turned to me, his expression grim. “She’s my sister, Sarah. I could never hate her.”

I brought my knees to my chest, feeling all of a sudden very cold.

“Well, if she didn’t have the motive
then
, she definitely has it now,” I said. “She told me to watch my back, remember? She might as well have drawn a finger across her neck.”

Adrian made to protest, but I put my hand on his arm. “Even if she didn’t set the fire, she probably holds my family responsible for not only your mother’s death, but for having to leave the reservation.”

Before he had a chance to say anything, Shyla slipped from the shadows of the woods, appearing like a ghost before us. Adrian and I shot to our feet. I stood rooted in place, too stunned to move, but Adrian splashed back to the bank to confront his sister.