Free The Prophecy by Melissa Luznicky Garrett Page A

people, didn’t make sense. That he even possessed these mystical powers
at all was mind-blowing.
    I
absently rubbed my right arm at the memory of Jasmine’s paintball digging into
my skin the afternoon before. Our team had ultimately won, no thanks to me, but
not before Jasmine had cornered me and got off three rounds at close range. One
of the bullets had hit my thigh. I was pretty sure I’d be wearing jeans for at
least the next week. The second bullet hit my arm. And the third . . . it had inexplicably
exploded in a mess of paint mere seconds before slamming into my chest.
    I’d
looked around, confused, but the only other person in sight had been Caleb.
Before I could question what happened, Adrian had appeared from out of nowhere
and got off a few rounds of his own, taking Jasmine down.
    I
looked at Caleb out of the corner of my eye now. “You stopped that bullet
yesterday, didn’t you? You didn’t have to do anything at all, and I would never
have known.”
    “At the
meeting,” he said. “You . . . felt something. Between us.”
    “Yes,”
I said carefully, not knowing what he was getting at.
    Caleb
shrugged. “Stopping that paintball . . . it was pure instinct.  But maybe I’m just
tired of keeping secrets, you know? Maybe I’m tired of no one knowing.” He turned
to me then, a deep sadness in his dark eyes. “And maybe I’m just tired of being
alone.”
    Before
I could respond, Caleb rose and jogged off, not looking back at me. I almost
called after him but let him go.
    “What
was that about?”
    I spun
around to see Adrian in the doorway. “How long have you been there?”
    The
line of his jaw hardened as he studied me in silence. “Long enough,” he finally
answered.  
    “What
did you see?”
    Adrian’s
eyes narrowed. “Is there something I wasn’t supposed to see?”
    If
Adrian saw what Caleb had done with the fire, he would have said something.  I
shook my head. “No. Nothing.”
    Caleb’s
fire was still smoldering. Little wisps of smoke and ash drifted up. I stood
and stamped it out with my foot, trying to ignore the look that Adrian was
giving me.
    “The
others are getting up,” he said, somewhat tersely. “Come in for breakfast when
you’re ready.”
     
    We left
soon after we ate. No one came to tell us goodbye or to say how much they had enjoyed
seeing us or that we’d be missed at all. It was almost as if we didn’t exist. As
much as I wanted to remain estranged from these people— my people—there
was part of me that also craved their acceptance. To what lengths would I have
to go in order to earn their approval?
    “Don’t
worry about it for one minute,” Imogene had said to me as we packed up the cars.
“They’ll come around in time.”
    “Or as
soon as I prove myself to them,” I said, only half-joking.
    As we drove
along the road leading away from the reservation, walking toward us were
Jasmine and Caleb. Shyla blared the horn, honking it in wild spurts, and
swerved as if she meant to cause a hit-and-run. I silently vowed never to get
in the car with her again.
    Adrian
rolled down the window to shout something obscene, and Caleb spun around as we
passed and waved his arms over his head. He was laughing. So was Adrian, who
was leaning so far out the window I thought he might actually fall. Shyla
hooked a finger around the belt loop of his jeans and yanked him back.
    Turning
in my seat to watch Jasmine and Caleb fading into the distance, I suddenly realized
that although Caleb was waving at all of us, his eyes were fixed only on me.

 
    NINE
    Priscilla
pumped her arm in the air and bounced on the balls of her feet, turning a full
circle next to me. “I’m winning! Omigod, I can’t believe I’m actually winning!”
    “I
don’t understand why my score’s not going up,” Meg complained as she performed
a slight variation of the same move. Her dancing wasn’t nearly as good as
Priscilla’s.
    “Time out,”
I said after a moment, discovering Meg’s