Away From the Sun (16 page)

“It’s nothing to get excited about,” he says. “But I’ve been doing a lot of thinking since we last talked. I think you’re a Starborn and afraid to tell anybody.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I say, starting to walk away.
 

“Oh come on,” he says. “The way you were asking questions to me the other day. It was pretty obvious. You can either read people’s minds or see the future. And now I’m pretty sure you have to touch the person to do either.”

My silence is my answer.
 

“Which is it?” he asks. “I haven’t told anyone. I’m not going to tell anyone. I’m just curious. Having studied your kind, I’m simply fascinated by you.”

I look back at Ethan again and let out a sigh. “The future,” I admit to Jeremiah.
 

He nods and smiles.
 

“At least, a possible future,” I continue. “I can change it, though.”

“Well, no doubt,” Jeremiah says. “If you couldn’t then it wouldn’t be much of a Starborn power, would it?” His face turns serious like a flash. “Why were you trying to see my future?”

“I have a plan to see everyone’s,” I say. “Ethan and I are trying to determine if and when Shadowface will be here. If so, we can be better prepared.”

“You can choose when you see?”

“That’s the problem,” I say. “It feels random, but they have all involved me except one.”

“May I ask?”

I hesitate. It feels weird to tell him about Ethan, but I do anyway. “Ethan gets shot. I don’t know when. I don’t know why. I’m not sure where. But in the vision, I’m nowhere near. Nobody is. I can’t even determine where the shot comes from.”

Jeremiah takes another long drag on his cigar. The puff of smoke that he lets out engulfs him almost completely. “It has
something
to do with you,” he says finally. “A Starborn’s power is always meant to help the Starborn in some way or another. It becomes even more helpful if you can control it. I’m guessing you can’t control it yet.”

“I can’t.”

He nods. “Then it will affect you in some way or another. Perhaps you are part of the vision, but you just never saw yourself. You might just be too far away when it happens, but you still see it.”

“I don’t know,” I say. “I wish I did. Then I could do more to stop it, but I feel clueless.”

“You’ve seen a lot of visions before?”

“Yes,” I say. “Like I said, I’ve only been able to change one. All the others have happened exactly as I saw it.”

“Interesting.”

I think about Ashley. I want to tell him what I saw, but is that wise?

“So, what have you found out, anything?”

“I touched Stephen and saw a glimpse of the future,” I say. “I think I can confirm that Shadowface will be here. There was no way for me to tell when it will happen, only that we need to be ready.”
In more ways than one,
I think. “Would you be willing for me to touch your hand?” I ask.
 

Jeremiah looks at me for a moment, seemingly thinking about the prospect. Finally, he shakes his head. “I don’t think so,” he says.

“But what if I see something that
you
should avoid?” I ask.
 

“What if you see something that makes you think I should be killed?” he comes back.

I can feel myself getting hot despite the cold. “Why would I see something like that? Are you planning to betray us?”

“Of course not,” he says, “but the future is a tricky thing. What if you see me killing your boyfriend over there? You’re going to want to kill me before I do that, right?”

“He’s not my boyfriend.”

Jeremiah waves me off. “But what you didn’t see in that vision of yours, is that Ethan killed everyone on my team. Ethan is an agent working for Shadowface. Ethan has planned to kill you since the day he met you. Then you would have killed me and the enemy will destroy you. Like seeing only the corner of a painting, a short glimpse into the future hardly lets you see the whole picture. Things aren’t always as they seem.”

Jeremiah is right, and I don’t like it one bit. “Forget I asked.” I turn and start walking away toward the building. My first thought is of Ashley. What if she’s trying to get the blood because it will save us? There’s no way for me to know what her true motives will be. All I know is what I saw in the short span of just a few seconds.

Before I reach the door, I turn to Jeremiah. “Please don’t tell anyone about me.”
 

“As long as you promise you aren’t going to run all over the place, secretly gathering people’s futures.”

“Deal,” I say.
 

The answer seems to satisfy Jeremiah. He nods at me and turns the other way to finish his cigar. But my answer is a lie. I’m not going to stop until I know what’s going on around here. I want to know everything in our futures. That means I’m going to see a glimpse from Ashley, Lydia, and Stephen again if I have to. And maybe I’ll even find a way to corner Jeremiah.
 

If I can see the future, I can at least be better prepared for it, even if I can’t change it. I walk past Ethan, ignoring his questions as I storm down the hallway. I don’t even hear what he asks me because I feel a new urgency, maybe a freedom to do what my Starborn ability has enabled me to do. I shouldn’t hide from it. This is who I am now. And as far as I’m concerned, if Jeremiah doesn’t want me to see into his future, then he’s got something to hide. Nothing is going to be hidden from me anymore.

I turn to Ethan. “Go stay up in your room. You won’t be shot there. I need to do something.”

“What?” he asks.
 

“I’m going to talk to my sister. She needs to know what I can do.”

I love my little sister. I always have and I always will. But this past week has been weird for us. I guess that’s because when we were little kids, we were best friends. We did everything together. Sure, I’m a few years older than she is, but that didn’t stop me from dressing up in pink princess outfits and pretending to be the supreme ruler over some enchanted land—a place with fairies, elves, and handsome knights. We were that way until I got into middle school and my sister suddenly became uncool to be around. From that day forward, Waverly and I had a pretty rotten relationship. We fought constantly and I remember telling her in more than one fight that I wish she was dead.

Things got better when I went to college, probably because we weren’t around each other. And really, it wasn’t until the outbreak that I realized how much I truly loved her—how much I missed her company. For the last three years, I’ve thought she was dead along with my parents. I thought I was the only one left in our family. So, when I saw her here in Elkhorn, a flood of emotions poured through me. I hate it when floods of anything flow through me, so I was uncomfortable. Happy, but uncomfortable.
 

It was like I was just starting to get used to surviving on my own (not with the help of Paxton), and then I was slapped in the face with a new responsibility:
Waverly
. Because I once loved her, because she is my family, I have to stay with her. I have to be here for her. I feel like I have the duty to forsake whatever I was doing before and focus on her. The only problem? I don’t know her anymore and she doesn’t know me. We are completely different people that haven’t talked to each other in three years. And we haven’t had anything more than a shallow conversation in at least four years.
 

Over the past week, I’ve tried to hang out with her a little, but she has been busy with Ethan, and Gabe and I have been helping Stephen set up Elkhorn’s defenses. Waverly and I have done our best to make time for each other, but it is forced. Honestly, I hate it.
 

It comes as a surprise to me when she walks into my room and tells me that she has to talk about something important.
 

“What’d you do, kill somebody?” I ask as she closes the door behind her.
 

“I might have to,” she says.
 

I thought she was joking, but the seriousness in her expression doesn’t switch to a grin or laugh. She stands in front of me awkwardly.
 

“I’m a Starborn,” she says.
 

My insides turn cold. She’s got it, too. In a way, I’m not surprised. I look away from her, thinking about my own ability. I wonder if hers is the same thing. I stare at the ground, wanting to tell her that I know what she’s going through, but I can’t bring myself to say it.
 

“What can you do?” I ask.
 

“Oh,” she says.
 

“Oh what?”

“I just…I thought you would be more shocked. Surprised.”

“I am,” I say, though not convincingly. I am surprised, but I suppose that it just makes so much sense to me because Waverly and I share the same blood. “What can you do?” I repeat.
 

“I can touch someone and see into their future.”

“A palm reader?” I shake my head. “You could make some money doing that. Not that money would do you any good now.”

“Not a palm reader,” she says. Her face is starting to turn red and I instantly know that my sarcasm is going to set her off if I continue.

“You’re telling me that I can reach out and touch your hand and then you can tell me my future?” It hits me that that’s why she wouldn’t touch me when we first saw each other.

“I can’t control what I see,” she says. “When I touch someone I see a future that somehow affects my own. I don’t always know what to do with it.”

“That’s why you’ve been so distant.”

“I’m sorry,” she says. “I didn’t want to be. I just don’t know that I want to see your future. I don’t want it to be bad.” She takes a step closer and I can see that she has tears in her eyes. Something inside me wants to break, but I set my jaw firm and I look away from her.
I don’t want to cry.

“I understand,” I say. “Seems like a pretty heavy load to know the future.”

“You have no idea,” she says. “Did you ever meet Hattie’s son, Lucas?”

“I’m not sure,” I say. “I remember that he existed but that’s about it.”

“I traveled with him ever since the outbreak. For three years,” she says.
 

I look up at her. My stomach starts to turn in knots because I know she’s going to tell me that he died. I hate those stories. But who
doesn’t
have them?
 

“I learned of my ability a couple of weeks ago. I reached out for Lucas’ hand and saw that he was about to be shot by a raider. Since it was the first time, I didn’t know that it was a warning—a premonition to let me know that I might have been able to do something about it. I decided not to act, and now he’s dead.”

I wrap my arms around my belly, hugging myself to try and stop the sick feeling. I never wanted Waverly to have to go through stuff like this.
 

“Then there was Hank. Then there was Gilbert. Scarecrow, and now, Ethan.”

Gilbert.
This isn’t the first time she has mentioned the name. It’s not the first time that I’ve wondered if it’s the same Gilbert I lost contact with about a year ago.
 

“You’ve seen Ethan die in a vision?” I ask.
 

“Yes. But I’m doing my best to stop it. And we’ve come up with a plan about Shadowface.”

“What’s that?”

“I’m going around to every person that I can find, and I’m touching them in some way. I’m sure that at least one vision will enable me to see if there is a future with Shadowface in it.”

“Who have you gotten to so far?”
 

“Only Stephen,” she says. “But it was enough to be disturbed.”

This time the feeling of shock is in my chest. “What did you see?” I ask standing now.

“Ashley. She has me, Lydia, and Stephen in a room. She’s demanding that I take them to my room to give the vial of Starborn blood to her. Once I do, she knocks Stephen out, and that’s the end of the vision.”

“Wow,” is all I can think to say.
 

“So I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know if Ashley is working with Shadowface or not.”
 

I shake my head. I’m not sure what she should do. I want so badly to tell her about my own power, but what good would that do? I can’t fully trust her to keep her mouth shut about it, and I don’t particularly want that creeper, Jeremiah and his son, Mitch, to learn about it either.
 

“Who else knows about you?” I ask.
 

“Ethan,” she says. “I guess Gabe knows too. And I told Jeremiah.”

“What? Why him?”

She shrugs and lets out a sigh. “Because he knows so much about the Starborns. I’m scared. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”

“How could you be so stupid?” I say. I know it’s too harsh when the words come out, but I keep going. “Did it not occur to you that he works closely with Ashley, and that he might just tell her what you saw?”

“I didn’t tell him about the vision,” she says. “I simply asked him if it was all right for me to look into his future to try and see if Shadowface is coming. His answer was really weird though.”

“How so?” I’m rubbing my eyes now. I just can’t see how she thinks of Jeremiah as trustworthy. No one here is trustworthy except Gabe as far as I’m concerned—though he never told me that my own sister is a Starborn!

“He said that the future is tricky and that a short glimpse isn’t enough to give me perspective. He gave an example of killing Ethan, which I thought was a little disturbing given that Ethan is supposed to die soon. He said that if I saw him killing Ethan, I would become angry and might try to stop him, not realizing myself that Ethan had betrayed us all.”

“This conversation is nuts,” I say.

“Tell me about it.”

There is a brief silence between us. I’m not sure where she wants to go from here or what she expects me to say. I shrug. “You know I’m here for you.”

“I was wondering,” she asks. “Have you ever felt any strange power? Something supernatural like this?”

I can feel the color drain from my face. I don’t want to lie to my sister, but I don’t want to tell her the truth about me. It feels so personal. But that’s just it. If there is anyone that I
should
trust, wouldn’t it be Waverly?