Free Tribe (Tribe 1) by Audrina Cole Page B

you had nothing to do with it. Because I don’t think you can.” He waited a moment, and after being met with my silence, he tore his gaze away, surveying the park and all its frolicking inhabitants who were out to enjoy the warm spring day. “I’ve been racking my brain, trying to figure out what happened. My parents think it’s a miracle. And maybe it is.” He looked back at me. “But not in the way they think…is it?”
    Silence ensued as he locked his gaze with mine. For the first time, my own anxiety faded enough for his emotions to intrude. He was confused and desperate for answers. I felt the joy of his improving health, but it was overshadowed by something, most likely the desire to know the truth, laced with a heavy dose of concern. I imagined that he was worried that his remission was only temporary. I also felt his determination. He was positive I knew what had happened, and his fierce determination to discover the truth would never waver. I could feel that.
    I couldn’t understand why he was so sure I was involved. Most people weren’t supposed to know. They weren’t supposed to feel healed, because the process of full healing took time. That’s what I had always been told. When I healed Ellen, the lady with the heart failure, my parents told me the reason she noticed the difference right away is because her breathing improved so dramatically. That’s something that is easily noticed, when a person is used to fighting for every breath. But Alex? How would he notice anything? Other than a reduction in pain, what would he have noticed? And even if he felt more, what would make him connect that to me? I didn’t have the answers.
    But his eyes pleaded with me for the truth. I didn’t know what to do. He wasn’t buying any of my lies. If I continued to plead ignorant, he could go to my parents. That wouldn’t help matters. What if he went to his doctors, or the media? They may not take him seriously at first, but when he had scans taken for years that show cancer progressively riddling his body, then another scan showing it gone overnight, they might pay attention, if for no other reason than it would make a great human-interest story.
    I was screwed no matter what I did.

10
    “ W ell ?” Alex folded his arms, waiting. “I know it was you, Ember. I don’t know how you did it, and I don’t even know how I know it was you…but it was. I can feel it.”
    That startled me. Normal people do have intuition and empathy, but in such minute amounts compared to Healers, that it was unusual to hear the average person claim to really feel something is true with any certainty. I’d heard people say it before, but often it was said euphemistically—and it was not something I wanted to hear in that context. I would much prefer it if Alex were as clueless as the average joe.
    Maybe my healing has gotten a lot more powerful now that I’m older, and I zapped him with way too much energy.
    Over my anxiety and Alex’s determination, I could feel River getting antsy in the car. He knew things weren’t going well, and as I looked over toward the car, I could tell he was contemplating getting out. He sat upright in his seat, his face almost pressed against the glass, pale beneath his light-brown mop of wavy hair. I could imagine his hand paused on the door handle, as he debated whether or not I’d be mad. There was uncertainty, worry, and fear all rolled into one. I tried to give a subtle, dismissive wave. That didn’t seem to relax him, so I forced my heart rate to slow, and that seemed to appease him a little. He sat back slowly, but continued to watch. I suspected the radio was no longer on.
    Alex glanced back at the car, then at me. “What’s wrong?” He’d caught my little exchange with my brother.
    “Nothing,” I sighed. This guy was a little too observant for my comfort. Maybe that was why he’d noticed the changes so quickly. I realized this situation wasn’t going away, no matter how much I