Free Gravity by M. Leighton

their dark nature was meant to do.  And the reason was because they were a part of Jace, and Jace was a Raven. 
    As if I’d learned it in school a few days before, the history of the Raven appeared inside my head.  I knew instantly that they were guardians of the night and of those that ruled and hunted in the night, and I knew that Ravens were assigned and loyal to one liege.  And it appeared that Jace’s liege was Brady.
    Urgency began to build inside me.  I had no idea what to do, no idea how to stop Jace or even if I could, but I felt like I should do something to keep him from doing some very real and very permanent damage to Jeremy, even though I didn’t like Jeremy any better than the rest of them did.
    Once again, however, it seemed that fate had already taken care of the issue.  One of Jeremy’s two friends that he’d come with whispered something into his ear and started tugging on his arm, indicating that they should go.  Dazedly, Jeremy looked around at his cohort then, docile as a lamb, let his fellow wrestler lead him back the way they’d come and out of the house. 
    I watched the nearly-translucent birds pick and peck at him all the way to the door, but as soon as Jeremy stepped across the threshold, the birds gave a single, unified squawk of displeasure, released their prey and returned in a blurry swirl to Jace.  They disappeared into him as if they’d never existed. 
    But they had.  I knew they had.   I’d seen them. 
    ********
    Thankfully, things smoothed out for a couple hours after that, although I looked at each person I encountered with a very different, very critical eye.  I felt as though a second person, a mutated person crouched inside the familiar shell of all my classmates and friends, lying in wait, ready to spring forth at a moment’s notice.
    But no one else morphed into a creature that only I could see.  It seemed that the worst of the night was behind me.  At least until the eclipse, that is. 
    When I thought of the cosmic occurrence, I could feel the pressure of it as if it were a tangible force, bearing down on me.
    “Yeah, she ended up taking off all her clothes and waiting for him in his bedroom like some kind of skank.  I mean, who does that?  They weren’t even dating or anything.”
    I chuckled.  “So that would’ve made it all right—if they’d been dating?”
    Lacey rolled her eyes and sighed dramatically. 
    “No, of course not, but you know what I mean.”
    Lacey continued without missing a beat and I just smiled.  I loved to tease her.  It was part of our dynamic.  I usually didn’t stop until I drove her to the point of exasperation.  That’s when she really got animated. 
    I was listening to her talk excitedly about another similar situation when I felt a disturbance sweep through the room.  I had no idea what else to call it.  Disturbance seemed appropriate, as that’s what it felt like—disturbing.  Every hair on my entire body rose to attention and prickled in unease.  Every nerve that lay beneath my skin twitched uncomfortably.  Some part of my brain came alive with knowledge and awareness and my heart pounded with the stimulation of it all.
    I glanced about and saw a shimmery film covering nearly everyone in the room.  It was as though they were each coated in glitter and standing beneath a spotlight.  But that wasn’t the most unsettling part of it all.  It was the rush of feeling that I got. 
    And I knew exactly what it was.
    Age old mutations and curses and abilities were coming to life in my classmates, in my friends, as they had in my brother and the people I loved most on the planet.  I could feel it all at war within me, as it was at war within them.  It was fighting to take over, to be set free, to consume us—as individuals, as a group, as humans, as…something else.  And for one moment, for the space of one short, shaky breath, it almost got me.
    I felt overwhelmed with sensation, overwhelmed with the