Priscilla’s face wilted. “You know I won’t tell anyone!”
“I know, but I wouldn’t want anyone to know my secret.”
Priscilla tilted her head and grinned. “So you’re saying it’s a secret like yours?”
I shrugged, biting off the pointed tip of my pizza. “I’m not saying anything.”
“All right. Let’s play Twenty Questions and I’ll guess. Then you won’t have to come right out and tell me.”
I considered that. “I guess that would be okay.”
“All right.” Priscilla fixed me with a glare. “Animal, vegetable, or mineral?”
I swallowed the bite of pizza and nabbed another fry. “Uh, I don’t think any of those apply.”
Priscilla groaned. “Then just tell me.”
“Oh, all right.” I fidgeted on the step, not totally comfortable with what I was about to do. “So here’s the deal. When I was at the reservation something happened.”
Priscilla leaned in closer, rubbing her hands together in anticipation. “This sounds juicy. What kind of something are we talking about here?”
I flicked my hand at my paper napkin lying on the ground beside my foot and it instantly caught fire.
“That sort of something.”
Priscilla’s eyes grew wide. She fumbled for her bottle of water, twisted off the cap, and poured half its contents over the fire to douse the flames.
“Are you crazy, you little pyro?” she half shrieked, looking around to see if anyone had noticed. She took a deep breath and pushed the hair out of her eyes. “So you started a fire?”
“No, you dum-dum!” I threw my hands up in exasperation that I actually had to come right out and say it, after all. “Caleb did.”
“You mean Caleb Moon?”
I rolled my eyes. “How many other guys named Caleb do you know?”
She continued staring at me as if she didn’t quite believe what I was saying. “Are you sure?”
“I know what I saw. And he didn’t even try to cover it up or explain it away. He just did it. Right in front of me. He wanted me to know.”
“But why?”
I took another bite of pizza. “I think he needs someone to commiserate with, you know?”
Priscilla took a deep breath. “This is way too freaky. Does anyone else know?”
“Just his mom and sister. Anyway, I was sort of thinking that we could practice together.”
“Practice what?”
“Practice tying our shoes,” I said sarcastically. “You know . . . whatever it is we can do,” I ended lamely. There was a part of me that still felt incredibly silly admitting out loud that I had magical powers.
“Oh. Speaking of magical powers,” Priscilla said, obviously not feeling ridiculous at all. “How are yours coming along?”
“No comment.”
Priscilla groaned. “You can’t keep ignoring what you have. The only way you’ll get better is if you actually practice.”
“You sound like Meg.”
“Well, she does have a point.”
I sighed. “I know. I almost lost control in the locker room this morning. Jasmine made me mad and my hands started tingling. That’s the main reason why I want to talk to Caleb and see if maybe he can teach me a few things about how to better control it. I figure two heads are better than one, right?”
“And Adrian doesn’t know about Caleb?”
“Nope.”
“So how is it even possible he can do the weird things you can? Does that mean he’s a Spirit Keeper, too?”
“I have no idea. That’s something I have to find out. But he’s keeping his powers secret from everyone else for a reason, and I want to know why.”
“Man, if I had that type of magic, I’d definitely flaunt it.”
“Well, I can’t. Not unless I want people to know that I’m a complete freak.”
“You’re not a freak. You’re just unique.”
I grinned. “That’s a very diplomatic way of putting it. So,” I said, changing the subject. “Tell me what you think about Jasmine.”
Priscilla snorted. “No comment.”
I laughed. “I don’t think she likes me.”
She gave me a duh look. “You’re the one who stole her man. And what’s the big deal? You don’t like her either.”
“Adrian was never her man,” I said a little more angrily than I’d intended.
“She seems to think he was.”
“That’s because she’s delusional. Adrian says I have nothing to worry about.
“In case you didn’t miss it, she’s insanely gorgeous. Of course you have something to worry about.”
I stared at her, the French fries in my stomach feeling suddenly very solid and indigestible. “Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence.”
I hadn’t missed the fact that Jasmine was a lot prettier than any fifteen-year-old had the right to be, but I wasn’t about to publicly acknowledge it either. What if Adrian was lying to me? What if he and Jasmine used to have a thing for each other? If he had a girlfriend, any girlfriend, before we met, I couldn’t hold that against him. But did it have to be Jasmine? The thought of the two of them kissing made my blood boil.
“Looks aren’t everything,” Priscilla said. “You win based on personality alone.”
I gave her a look. “Thanks,” I said. “I think.”
THIRTEEN
Sliding into the seat next to Adrian’s during third period the next day, I leaned over to kiss his cheek, but he barely responded. I squeezed his arm, and still he just sat there. What had I done this time? His mood swings were starting to make me crazy.
“So you’re not talking to me today?”
He seemed to finally notice that I was there. “Do you think I’m mad at you?”
“Aren’t you? We haven’t exactly been on the same page lately.”
Adrian shook his head. “I’m not mad at you.”
Something was up, though. By the way he’d started digging at a gouge in his desktop, I knew he was definitely keeping something from me.
“Are you sure you’re not mad?” I asked when he didn’t elaborate.
“Positive.” He looked at me then and took a deep breath. “It’s not you at all. My dad called last night.”
I wasn’t sure I’d heard him correctly, and at first I did nothing more than stare. I leaned in and whispered, my voice shaking. “Your dad? What did he want?”
“To talk.”
“Talk?” I certainly hadn’t expected him to say that. “Does Victor seriously think he can just waltz back into your life and expect you to give him the time of day? He almost killed you, Adrian.”
“Keep your voice down,” he said as he looked around the room. But nobody had heard. They were too absorbed in their own little worlds to notice.
Adrian resumed picking at the desk, and I reached over and laid my hand on top of his to make him stop. His breath came out in a heavy rush, but he finally turned to look at me.
“He said . . . he said he wants to see me.”
I blinked. “Well, did you tell him that whatever he has to say, he can say over the phone?”
Adrian nodded. “Yeah, but he said it was something he needed to say face to face.”
“What did you say to that?”
Adrian shrugged in a gesture of complete helplessness. “I told him I had to think about it, and then I hung up before he could say anything else. He’s called five times since then. I just let it go to voicemail.”
“Did you tell anyone?”
“No. I don’t want Gran to worry, and Shyla won’t understand.”
I’m not sure I understood. I sat back in my chair, catching my bottom lip in my teeth. “You know I don’t trust him.”
The muscles of Adrian’s forearm tightened in reflex, and his voice came out in a furious hiss. “You think I do?”
His anger took me by surprise. “No, but I think you want to. I think—”
“You think that just because he calls I’m
gonna go running back—”
I put my hand on his arm to stop him. “Adrian. I don’t think that at all.”
His shoulders slumped suddenly and he shook his head. “I’m sorry, Sarah. You know I will never let him hurt you.”
“I know you won’t,” I said, offering him a small smile.
“And if that means I have to ignore him, that’s what I’ll do.”
The bell rang as Caleb slumped into the seat next to mine. He nodded to us as he dropped his bag on the floor with a noisy thump. “Yo,” he said.
I turned back to Adrian and squeezed his hand. “I know you won’t let Victor, or anyone else, hurt me,” I said in a low voice. “But it’s not your job to protect me. I have to fight my own battles.”
“What’s going on?” whispered Caleb as he leaned toward us.
“It’s not just your battle,” Adrian whispered back. “It’s mine and Shyla’s, too. It’s the entire tribe’s.”
“Yo. What’s up?” came an impatient hiss from my right.
I closed my eyes and breathed out. “Victor didn’t say why he wants to talk to you?”
Adrian shook his head. “No. I purposely kept the conversation brief.”
Caleb waved his hands at us. “Hello. Am I invisible here?”
Mr. Wigley appeared suddenly in front of us. “Class has started. Am I going to have to separate you three?”
“No,” Adrian and I said at the same time, turning in our desks to face the front.
Caleb raised his hands in a shrug. “Apparently I’m not a part of this, so don’t look at me.”
Mr. Wigley eyed us severely. “You do understand this is AP History?”
“Yes,” Adrian and I answered together.
“And that means you’re expected to show up and be prepared to listen and work, not conduct your own private affairs. Take care of that on your own time. Not mine.”
Mr. Wigley clamped his lips together and gave each of us a final hard look before turning toward the front of the room.
I fingered the pendant around my neck as I bided my time. When Mr. Wigley was occupied writing columns of dates and names on the whiteboard, I leaned across the aisle toward Adrian and whispered, “Is your dad here? In town, I mean?”
“I don’t know,” he answered. “Caller ID said only ‘cell phone.’ There was no number, so I don’t know where the call originated from. Knowing him, he could be anywhere.”
I chewed my bottom lip and thought for a moment. “Do you think he’s gone back to the reservation? Without Charley there, maybe he feels free to go back instead of wandering around—” I flapped my hand, “wherever he’s been wandering around for the past few months.”
Mr. Wigley slapped his notebook on his desk and stormed over to us. He pointed at Adrian. “Take your things to the back of the room. And from now on, you and Miss Redbird may not sit together in my class.”
The entire classroom erupted with ooohs and stifled giggles. My face flamed as though a match had been lit underneath my skin. I met Adrian’s eyes and mouthed sorry.
Mr. Wigley slapped his palm flat on my desktop, making me jump in my seat, and yelled for everyone to be quiet, that this was a serious class and he expected us to behave accordingly or get out. I held my breath, not even daring to blink or breathe. This was going to be a very long year.
When Mr. Wigley finally turned toward the whiteboard once more, Caleb leaned over. “I doubt Victor would go back to the reservation,” he whispered.
I glanced at Mr. Wigley to make sure he wasn’t watching us and then met Caleb’s gaze. “Why not?” I whispered from the corner of my mouth, as quietly as possible. I did not want to start the year off with a detention.
“He’s not dumb. The Council knows what he’s done. There’s no way they’d just let him come back, as though nothing had ever happened. And if someone saw him, they would have told my mom about it. She hasn’t said anything to me.”
“Maybe she doesn’t want you to know.”
Caleb cupped his hand around his ear and shrugged. I sighed and glanced at Mr. Wigley to make sure he was still busy at the board, and then ventured a little more loudly, “Maybe she didn’t tell you that he returned because she doesn’t want you to know.”
“Why wouldn’t she want me to know?”
“Because she knows you’d tell me.”
His forehead smoothed. “And that you’d freak out,” he said.
I shrugged noncommittally, not really knowing myself what I was getting at, but knowing for sure Charley Moon wasn’t the least bit concerned whether or not I might freak out.
I opened my mouth to say something more when Mr. Wigley said, his back still turned to us, “I hear voices. The talking will cease now or I’m going to start handing out detentions.”
I zipped it pretty quickly after that and didn’t look at Caleb for the rest of the period.
After class, I waited for Adrian in the hallway. “What were you and Caleb talking about?” he said as we began walking.
I clutched my books to my chest. “Nothing.” I didn’t want to talk about Victor, and I didn’t want Adrian to even think about him.
“It sure didn’t look like nothing much from where I was sitting.”
I linked my arm through his and smiled up at him. “You’re not jealous are you?” I said, picking up at once on his.
He looked down at me. “Jealous of Caleb? Hardly.”
I laughed. “Is that any way to talk about your best friend? Maybe you should be jealous of him.”
The crease between his brows deepened, and the arm around my waist tightened. “I should?”
I laughed again and shook my head. “Why are we even talking about this?”
“Then tell me what we should be talking about.”
We had reached the end of the hallway and veered off to the side to finish our conversation. We had approximately two minutes before the bell rang. I sighed in resignation. When would we get back to being a normal couple without all this extra stuff coming between us?
“Fine. If you must know, Caleb said he doubts your dad would return to the reservation. He thinks the Council, knowing what he’s done, would never welcome him back.”
Adrian leaned a shoulder against the wall and pulled me toward him so that we were standing only a few inches apart. The heat coming off his body was intense. I wanted to stay in that one spot, forever.
“Caleb’s right. They wouldn’t.”
“Are you sure about that?”
He tucked a stray strand of hair behind my ear, and his hand lingered at the base of my neck. “How many times do I have to tell you that you’re one of us? Don’t forget that. You are the tribe’s Spirit Keeper. Who do you think they would choose to protect?”
The bell rang and Adrian kissed the top of my head. “I’ve got to go.”
I pulled away from him with a groan of frustration, not for the first time wishing we had more than just one class together. School was putting a serious crimp in my boyfriend time.
At lunch Priscilla and I took our trays outside, where I quickly recounted what Adrian had said to me, about his dad calling and wanting to see him.
“Sounds fishy to me,” she said.
“I know.”
I pushed my tray to the side and leaned back on my elbows, raising my face to the crystalline sky. The weatherman had said a cold front would be blowing in soon. I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to the sun and hello to the cold, dreary weather, even if it was just temporary.
“Remember when things used to be easy?”
Priscilla laughed. “In what lifetime was that?”
I laughed, too. “Yeah, I suppose you’re right.”
If having Victor back in the picture again wasn’t enough to give me an ulcer, I now had Katie and Jasmine to blame for my persistent stomach aches.
“They were chumming it up again today.”
“Katie and Jasmine?”
I squinted through the sun at Priscilla and smiled. Only a true best
friend could read your mind. “Yeah. Someone’s really got to put a stop to them.”
“I don’t know. Katie’s actually not so bad this year.”
“Ha! That’s so not true. It’s only the second day of school and already they’re up to no good. Jasmine purposely tripped Shyla in the locker room this morning, and Katie just stood by and laughed. Then they high-fived each other. Talk about immature.”
Priscilla made a gagging sound in the back of her throat. “God, that’s so immature. What did Shyla do?”
“She pretended like it was an accident and walked away. She doesn’t want to start anything. All I know is that if they don’t stop it, I’ll make them.”
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.
The Prophecy Page 10
