The Prophecy (11 page)

But Meg,
always practical and over-protective, wanted to hear more. “Hold on. Maybe we
should consider what Charley has to say.”

I shrugged
off Meg’s hand and turned on her. “Are you crazy? School starts in a week. This
is my senior year. I am not about to leave behind everything and everyone I
know just because Charley has reason to believe I
might
be in danger.”

“I
agree,” David said. “Think about it, Meg. The business is here. What would we
do for work and money? I don’t want to relocate.”

“Neither
you nor Meg would have to leave your home or your business,” Charley quickly
assured my aunt and uncle. “Sarah could live with me. She could share a room
with Jasmine.”

And with
that, pandemonium broke loose:

“There’s
no way I’m sharing my room with her!” 

“I’m
not leaving! No one can make me leave! I’ll barricade myself in my room if I
have to!”

“If she
goes, so do we!”

“Speak
for yourself, Adrian! I’m not going back there either!” 

Imogene
put her fingers in her mouth and gave a sharp, ear-splitting whistle. At once, the
shouting ceased.

“That’s
more like it,” Imogene said. She turned to Charley. “I think you’d better tell
us what else you had in mind.” 

Charley
folded her hands in her lap and turned to me with what appeared to be a
satisfied smile. “If you don’t want to move to the reservation, you can
relinquish your powers as Spirit Keeper.”

The
room went ominously still, but it was Imogene who spoke first in quiet,
measured tones. “Sarah was made Spirit Keeper for a reason, even if we do not
yet understand what that reason is. For her to give up her powers now, before
we discover why Katori spared her life . . .” Imogene shook her head. “No,
Charley. There has to be some other way to ensure Sarah’s safety.”

Charley
glared at Imogene through narrowed eyes. “I think the rest of the tribe and
Council will understand that there are extenuating circumstances under which the
Spirit Keeper might choose or be forced to give up her position—”

“No one
is forcing Sarah to give up anything,” Shyla said. “Especially not her
appointed right as Spirit Keeper.”

Charley
turned a patently false smile on Shyla. “Forgive me. Maybe
force
wasn’t
the right word. What I meant was—”

“Hold
on,” I said. All eyes turned to me. “Maybe passing on my powers to someone else
isn’t such a bad idea.”

Charley
moved to the edge of her seat. “I’m listening.”

“Sarah,
think very carefully about what you’re saying,” Meg cautioned.

“I
am
thinking,” I said to my aunt. “I never wanted, and didn’t ask for, these powers
in the first place.”

“But
Sarah,” Meg said, “Your powers are a great gift. You can’t renounce them simply
because you don’t want to be Spirit Keeper. You are destined—”

“Destined
for what?” I interrupted. “Who says I was meant to be Spirit Keeper? Maybe it happened
by accident. Maybe it was all just one big fluke.”

“Sarah,”
Shyla said. “I know I said my powers got me in a lot of trouble when I was
younger, but this is something you really need to think about.”

I turned
to Shyla. “Don’t tell me you believe I’m destined for something greater, too,
because I don’t buy it. I’m free to make my own path in this life, and the
whole idea that I’m supposed to be this or supposed to do that is a bunch of
BS.

“If I
were to give up my powers,” I said to Charley, “who would I be giving them up
to?” I thought she had an elder of the tribe in mind, someone with more life
experience than I, or who was at least in better standing with the Katori
people.

Charley’s
smile widened. “Me.”

“
What?!
”
Caleb and Jasmine exclaimed in unison.

“Mom,
you can’t be serious.”

“Mom,
what are you thinking?” Caleb said, looking at her like he couldn’t believe
what she was suggesting.

“Why you?”
Imogene said. “And how would giving up her powers actually protect Sarah? We’re
assuming it’s her position as Spirit Keeper that has put her in danger, but
according to you there is no such proof.”

“Why
not
me?” Charley said, ignoring the rest of Imogene’s question. “As the head of
the Council, aren’t I the most logical choice?”

The
room fell quiet once more.

“As for
how giving up her powers will keep Sarah safe,” Charley said, “it just will.”

“But
how
,”
Imogene persisted.

“You’re
suggesting Sarah give up her powers,” David said, “but that means she would be
defenseless against Victor should he return.”

Charley
took a deep breath and refolded her hands in her lap. “I didn’t want to mention
this, at least not until I was absolutely sure, but there are others out there
who might be looking for Sarah.”

“Like who?”
I said.

“Others,”
she said ominously, with her annoying penchant for drama.

Meg
threw David a covert glance. He raised his brows and she shrugged in response.
When they caught me watching, though, they quickly looked away. I groaned internally;
just one more thing they were hiding that I would eventually have to get to the
bottom of.

“Why
would . . .
others
be looking for me?”

“If
they kill you, and the Spirit inside you, the protective barrier surrounding
the Katori reservation no longer exists. Everyone who lives on the reservation will
be vulnerable.”

“Way to
smooth the news, Mom,” Caleb said.

Feeling
like I was going to be sick, I sat and put my arms around my stomach.

“So these
others that you’re talking about,” said Imogene. “Are they the ones from the
six other tribes—the descendents of Kai?”

Charley
gave a curt nod. “Precisely.”

“I
don’t believe you,” I said. Yet I’d felt that magical current rip along my
spine. The barrier had been put in place lifetimes ago to protect the Katori
people from a very real and possible danger that once existed. Would killing me
really bring down those defenses and put them in jeopardy? More importantly,
was I really being hunted?

“If you
pass your powers to me,” Charley said, speaking deliberately as though to a
child, “I will be safe on the reservation. No one will be able to touch me
there. No one will be able to breach the barrier and harm our people, and no
one will have reason to come looking for you.”

“But
they won’t know that Sarah has relinquished her powers to you,” Meg said. “They
will still come looking for her.”

Imogene
shook her snow-white head decisively. “It’s not a good idea, Charley. Sarah is
the rightful Spirit Keeper, danger or no danger. Only time will tell why Katori
chose her.”

Charley
sighed dramatically. “I was afraid it would come to this, which is why I came
up with a contingency plan. I’m sorry to say you’ve forced my hand in the
matter.”

I
didn’t like where this was going, and from the look on everyone else’s faces,
neither did they.

“What
are you talking about?” Caleb said. There was a nervous quality to his voice
that I had never heard before. “What contingency plan?”

“I made
a few phone calls the other day. Lucky for you and your sister, there’s plenty
of space at the high school for two more students.”

Charley
reached into her pocket and pulled out a shiny bronze key. “There’s also a
furnished apartment already waiting for us.”

Jasmine
jumped to her feet, a look of abject horror on her face. “You can’t be serious!
You can’t just kidnap us and hold us hostage here!”

Charley
closed her eyes and let the hand holding the key fall to her lap. “I am your
mother, Jasmine. I hardly kidnapped you. And I’m just trying to do what’s best
for everyone.”

“What’s
best for
everyone
?” Jasmine shrieked. “This is definitely not what’s
best for
me
.”

“You
tricked us,” Caleb said. “You laid out options that you knew no one would agree
to just to push your own agenda.”

“Agenda?”
Charley laughed. “The only agenda I have is to see that our Spirit Keeper is
kept safe. And if I, as the head of the Council, have to protect her myself, I will.”

“But—”

“No
buts, Caleb. It’s settled. And I don’t appreciate your unsupportive tone,” she
added as an obvious afterthought.

“What’s
settled?” Jasmine cried, her eyes welling with tears. For once I actually felt
sorry for her. “Nothing has been settled. I just want to go home!”

Charley
sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Sarah doesn’t want to move to the
reservation and no one wants me to be Spirit Keeper, although I can’t
understand why,” she added in an undertone. “Moving here to offer Sarah
additional protection is what’s good for the tribe as a whole. Surely you can
understand that, Jasmine.”

“So,
what? You’re asking us to be her bodyguards?” Caleb said.

“I
don’t need anyone to babysit me!” I yelled.

Jasmine
turned her angry, tear-filled eyes on me. “This is all your fault!” She bolted
from the room, slamming the front door behind her on her way out.

“Don’t
worry about her,” Charley said. “She’ll be fine.”   

“I’ve
got a headache,” Meg said, sounding tired. “Obviously there’s a lot still to
talk about and, quite frankly Charley, you ambushed us.”

Charley
looked horrified at the suggestion. “Well, excuse me for wanting what is best
for Sarah.”

“That’s
just it,” David said. “I’m not sure you do.”

Charley’s
eyes widened. “How can you even say that? Sarah is my best friend’s daughter.”

I
swallowed down the lump that seemed to have become stuck in my throat. I didn’t
like Charley, and I knew she didn’t like me. She was definitely up to
something.

The
burning question was
what
?

ELEVEN

The
first day of school came much too quickly. Rolling over, I pulled the covers
over my head in denial. The door creaked open, admitting the scent of pancakes
and fried bacon. The overhead light blazed suddenly and I groaned, in no mood
for my aunt’s natural morning chipperness.  

“Rise
and shine! You don’t want to be late for your first day of senior year.”

I slowly
came out of hiding and squinted at her before slamming my hand against the
snooze button. “The reason I have an alarm is so you don’t have to come in here
every morning to wake me up. I’m not a kid anymore.”

“Yikes.
I guess someone—”

I
pointed a quick finger at her in warning. “Don’t you dare say it.”

Meg
smiled. “And I suppose, since you’re not a kid anymore, you can make your own
breakfast?”

I sat
up and yanked the band out of my hair, running my fingers along my scalp to loosen
the braid I’d slept in. I gave her a sheepish grin. “Well, breakfast would be
okay.”

“Uh-huh.
I see how it is.” She winked and closed the door behind her.

I
flopped against my pillow again, telling myself I’d get out of bed after this
snooze, or maybe the one after that. The truth was I’d been awake for the past
hour rehashing the argument Adrian and I had the night before. He’d driven
Caleb and Jasmine to the reservation a few days ago to pick up a rental truck full
of their belongings, with plans to return yesterday afternoon—early enough for
us to go out to dinner. The trouble was, he didn’t get home until well after dark.
By then it was too late, and I was starving and irritable.

“I’m
sorry,” he had said. “We got busy.”

“Busy
doing what?”

Silence,
and then: “Just busy.”

“Busy
with Jasmine?” I said unfairly, instantly regretting it. Jasmine was like a
scab I couldn’t stop picking at.

Adrian
was silent before he said in a clipped tone, “I’ll pick you up for school in
the morning.” He hung up before I could even apologize.

I
dressed and made my way to the dining room where David was scanning the funnies
and shoving oversized bites of pancake into his mouth. A bead of golden maple syrup
dripped lazily from his chin, and he wiped it away with the back of his hand. I
made a face and moved my own plate two spaces down.

“Honestly,
David. It’s no wonder you don’t have a girlfriend.”

He
looked up, his eyes blank. “Huh?”

I shook
my head and reached for the bottle of syrup. “Never mind.”

“So,
it’s your last year,” Meg said, sliding into the seat across the table. “Before
long you’ll be off to college.”

I
swirled a piece of bacon in the syrup and bit off the end, the salty-sweet
taste suddenly unpleasant. “Let’s not rush things, okay?”