Free Struck by Jennifer Bosworth Page B

the body. Did you know every thought you have creates an electrical impulse in your brain? Imagine if you have a hundred times more electricity in your body than a regular person. Or a thousand times. A hundred thousand! Get it? You can learn to use the energy by will alone. Imagine what you could do with a single thought!”
    Parker and I shared a glance, and I knew he was thinking about what happened in Lake Havasu City before we fled. I looked away first.
    “Let’s say this Spark actually exists,” I said. “What does it have to do with saving Los Angeles? It’s a little late for that, isn’t it?”
    “The Puente Hills Quake was a warning,” Quentin said. “You’ve heard of the seven seals from the Book of Revelation?”
    I’d heard more about the Book of Revelation lately than I cared to. It seemed to be the only book in the Bible that Rance Ridley Prophet was interested in.
    “Well, they’re not actual, physical seals,” Quentin said. “They’re signs. Portents. White horse, red horse, black horse, pale horse, and pale rider. These stand for war and famine and death and all the other badness that’s going on in the world. And in this city.”
    “What’s the fifth?” Parker asked.
    Quentin and the others shared a guarded look. “That would be the, um … vision of martyrs.”
    “What do martyrs have to do with the end of the world?”
    Mr. Kale cleared his throat. “That’s not something we talk about with those outside our circle. If you choose to join us, we can tell you more.”
    “What about the sixth seal or sign or whatever,” Parker asked, obviously fascinated. “Can you tell us about that one?”
    Quentin spoke again. “In the Bible it says when the sixth seal is opened, the sun will turn black, and the stars will fall from the sky, and there’ll be a mighty wind, and every mountain and island will be moved, which is another way of saying there’s gonna be a catastrophic storm followed by an even worse earthquake.”
    I suppressed a shudder, thinking of what I’d felt when that breeze pushed its way into the room. That a storm was coming. Another storm.
    “But there already was a storm,” I reminded them. “And an earthquake. Doesn’t that mean the sixth seal is already open? And, look, we’re still here. The world hasn’t ended.”
    Mr. Kale fixed me with a hard gaze. “When the sixth seal is truly opened, it won’t merely affect Los Angeles. The entire world will feel it.”
    “And the seventh?” Parker asked, sounding like he wasn’t sure he wanted to know.
    “The seventh is the end, the destruction of the earth and the annihilation of all who inhabit it.”
    “To stop that from happening, we’ll need every person we can find who has the Spark,” Katrina said. “And we’ll need you, Mia. Show them the card you drew.”
    My fingers felt numb as I pulled the card out of my back pocket and laid it down on the desk.
    “The Tower,” Mr. Kale said.
    Schiz and Quentin stared at me, eyes wide.
    “She drew it twice in a row,” Katrina said.
    “What does that mean?” Parker asked.
    “It doesn’t mean anything,” I said, though chills were running up and down my spine. “It’s a stupid tarot card. It’s a game. And what do tarot cards have to do with Bible revelations anyway? One has nothing to do with the other.”
    “That’s where you’re wrong, Mia.” Katrina picked up the card on my desk and inserted it back into her deck. “Everything is connected. Absolutely everything. There are no straight lines, only circles that go round and round and always end up back where they began. And we’re all points on that circle. Even you, Mia.” She shuffled. The soft cards whispered. “Let me tell you a story,” she said.
    I glanced at the clock. Was Mom okay?
    Katrina continued shuffling.
    “This deck belonged to my ancestor, the founder of the Circle of Seekers and the most powerful seer of her time. She traveled across the ocean with her Romany tribe, and the