Free The Prophecy of Shadows by Michelle Madow Page A

voice. “All you have to do is use white energy. It’s the strongest color out there, but it’s the hardest to harness. If you can do it, and if you direct it properly, it can take spells off of objects. The tricky part is knowing what objects have been tampered with. And it’s difficult to remove the energy if someone more powerful than you put it there. But you’ve got natural talent. Even Darius is impressed.”
    I ripped off a piece of clay from the chunk on the table and rolled another coil. “White energy,” I repeated. “What about concentrating on a few colors at once? I did that with three of them and it helped.”
    “Since combining all of the colors makes white energy, I guess three might do something,” he said. “And if it worked, that means you’ve got as much power as Danielle—maybe even more.”
    “So you admit it was Danielle!” I smiled in triumph.
    His jaw tensed, and he looked down at the table, refusing to meet my eyes.
    “I won’t tell anyone,” I said. “I promise.”
    He studied me, like he was trying to figure out if I was trustworthy or not. “Good,” he finally said. “Because if Danielle found out that I was trying to help you, she might take it out on you. And while I doubt she would do anything too terrible—after all, you’re one of us— I don’t want you getting hurt.”
    My cheeks heated, and I feared they were turning bright pink. Why would Blake go behind his girlfriend’s back to help me? I wanted to think that he was just as attracted to me as I was to him, but I didn’t want to get my hopes up. Because he and Danielle were still together. So Blake and I couldn’t be anything more than friends.
    I looked down at the table and focused on rolling another coil. My emotions were probably splattered so much on my face that they would betray me completely.
    “So, have you thought any more about the night of the comet?” I asked to fill the silence.
    “Constantly,” he said, his hands moving faster as he worked. “I don’t know why—or how—but my abilities have changed since that night.”
    “What do you mean?” I asked.
    “I can’t show you here.” He glanced around the room, as if afraid of someone listening. “At least not without freaking everyone out and getting in trouble with the Elders.”
    “Okay,” I said. “But can you at least tell me?”
    “No,” he said. “This is something that needs to be seen. Come with me after class and I’ll show you.”
    His eyes darkened, and my breath caught with the realization that whatever he was planning on showing me was serious—and that for whatever reason, he was choosing to come to me with it. He trusted me.
    And even though I knew I shouldn’t, I trusted him, too.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
     
    The rest of ceramics class dragged on forever.
    “Are you ready for what I’m about to show you?” Blake asked after the bell finally rang.
    “After all of this build up, it better be good,” I joked, although I was only halfway kidding.
    We gathered our stuff and headed out of the classroom. “Come on,” he said, walking the opposite way down the hall—toward the back of the building. It led to a dead end, but I followed anyway, trusting that he knew where he was going. He stopped at the door to the back stairwell, opening it and tilting his head for me to go first.
    My arm brushed his as I walked through, a rush of heat flowing from his skin and into mine. My breath caught in my chest, and I pulled away, moving aside to give him space to enter. The stairwell was dim and unfinished, and he inched the door shut, closing out the rest of the world.
    The chattering of the last kids walking down the hall quieted, and it was just the two of us. Alone. My heart was pounding so hard that he could probably hear it, and even though I’d wanted to be alone with Blake since the moment I first saw him, I needed to control whatever I was feeling for him. Nothing could happen between us. At least not right now, while