else’s eyes as her friends filed out of the room. They were all turning their backs on her! Or was she sending them away?
She slammed the door shut. “Fine. I can do this without you. I don’t need anyone!”
A moment later, a knock came at the door.
Ha, Kara thought. That didn’t take long.
She was certain that she would find Heather and the girls looking upset and ready to apologize for their selfishness. Instead, she was confronted by Emily.
For an instant, she felt a twinge of guilt—and worry. Had Emily or Adriane realized she’d taken the unicorn horn?
No, that didn’t appear to be it. Emily didn’t look angry, just a little distracted.
Kara bent to collect what was left of the mass of papers she’d strewn about a few minutes ago. “Emily! Good. I—we have a lot of work to do.”
“I can’t do any concert stuff tonight,” Emily said. “That’s not why I’m here.”
Kara slumped on the bed, tears threatening to spill once again. She wanted so much to tell Emily about the craziness with Lyra... but something told her to keep silent. She didn’t understand it. The moment she opened her mouth to speak about the incident, her throat started closing with panic, her chest seizing up.
Emily sat beside her. “What’s wrong, Kara?”
“Nothing. Just a weird day.”
“Listen, I’ve been reading this book we found and—”
Kara was stunned. Did Emily know what she had been up to?
“We have to be really careful with this stuff.” Emily dug into her bag. “Look, I photocopied part of the spellsinging book for you. I’ll give Adriane another part and look through the rest myself.” She handed some pages to Kara. “If this is what the Fairimental was talking about, then it’s important. We need to read it and then combine our notes, figure out what to do with it.”
“Why did they choose us?” Kara asked quietly.
“What do you mean?”
“Why did the Fairimentals have to choose us? They’ve ruined my life!” Kara wailed. “Everything was fine before I got involved with Ravenswood and this magic stuff!”
“Kara, I don’t know why it’s us… it just is,” Emily said softly. “Now it’s up to us to decide what we’re going to do about it.”
“Like how? How far is this going to go?”
“I don’t know,” Emily said truthfully. “I think about that a lot, too. You remember what Adriane told us about the Prophecy of Three?”
“Yes.” The Fairimentals had told Adriane about the Prophecy in the Fairy Glen on Aldenmor.
One will follow her heart
One will see in darkness
One will change completely and utterly
“Adriane followed her heart when she went after Storm on Aldenmor. I saw in darkness when I led us across the magic web and back home to Ravenswood...”
“So... the third one is mine,” Kara said, eyes opening wide. “One will change completely… but I don’t want to change!”
Emily took Kara’s hand. “My dad always says life is change. I think he means that we’re going to change no matter what we do, if we want to or not.”
Kara flashed on the magnificent white unicorn that had taken her to the beaches of Avalon. Fairy wraiths, the guardians of Avalon, had asked her if she was ready to become the blazing star.
“Close your eyes, child,” the wraith told her.
Kara closed her eyes. A soft breeze dried her tears.
“Now open them.”
Kara blinked and stared out across the waters. The cloud of mist shimmered in the distance, hiding whatever lay underneath.
“Do you see any difference?”
“No,” Kara said, confused.
The wraith sighed, a sound like the wind crying.
“Where is Avalon? How do we get there?”
“There are fairy maps to guide the blazing star.”
Only the blazing star could open the fairy map to Avalon—the one she had lost.
Kara blinked and looked back at her friend’s warm smile.
“Emily, something is happening to me,” Kara admitted. “How do I know what to do? What’s right?”
The healer smiled. “When I