“It won’t,” Cameron and I said in unison. I smiled up at him, having caught a glimpse of his world, now knowing a miniscule amount of what he knew. The things he must have seen. The miracles he must have witnessed his whole life. I almost envied his heritage at that moment before I realized what lay on his shoulders. It was bad enough being the prophet that was supposedly going to stop the coming war. I hated war. I hated even worse that so much was riding on my paltry abilities. But to have to be responsible for so many, to have been created for such a specific purpose.
“It’s okay,” Cameron said to Granddad. “Whatever kept the light at bay is gone. But it took a lot out of him. The repercussions of such a trip into darkness could very well be long and lasting. It may take him a while to come back to us. I just hope he hurries. We clearly don’t have much time.”
With Cameron’s assurance that Jared would be back to normal when he woke up, we moved him to the spare bedroom on the first floor of our house. Mrs. Strom came over to clean and bandage Jared’s wound, while Grandma and I bathed him with cool washcloths.
“You were amazing,” Grandma said.
I let a breathy laugh escape me. “Cameron was more amazing.”
“But he couldn’t have done it without you. I just—” Her eyes watered as she glanced down, embarrassed.
“Grandma,” I said in surprise, “I—I wish you would trust me more.”
“I’m so sorry, pix.” She hugged me to her and I let her, even though I still wanted answers.
“My turn,” Granddad said from beside us.
I smiled and let him hug me, too.
“We’re so proud of you, pix. What you did—”
“Was probably stupid. I’m sure I’ll look back on it and cringe.”
He chuckled and set me back from him. The sheriff came in then, regarded Jared a moment, then placed a hand on my shoulder. “That was kind of magnificent.”
“Hey, why is she getting all the attention?” Glitch said, frowning as he brought in more water. “She always gets all the attention.”
“She does,” Brooke agreed, following him in with an armful of towels. “I think we should strike.”
“I think you should get to bed,” Brooke’s mom said. Her parents had stuck around the church to help clean up the mess compliments of one Jared Kovach. Man, he could tear stuff up. The archive room would never be the same. Then they came over to check on things here.
Mrs. Prather had gathered bedding and was slipping a pillow under Jared’s head. She handed me back the jacket I’d left at the church. “He’s something, isn’t he?” she said, eyeing Jared with both reverence and appreciation. “What happened was not his fault, Lorelei. I hope you know that.”
I thought back to the picture, the one of Brooke’s seventh birthday party. She had hardly changed at all.
I wished I could tell her where her brother was. I wished something good would come of my visions instead of just darkness and fear and impending doom. I hated impending doom.
“I do. Whoever did this is very powerful.”
“Yes, but so are you,” Grandma said, and my reservations came crashing to the surface again. They had such hope. Dang it.
Still, there was something in her eyes. In Granddad’s, too. A fear. An apprehension. They were still planning on sending me away. The first chance they got. I could see it. Feel it. And I didn’t trust them as far as I could throw them.
“Can we have a note excusing us from homework tomorrow?” Brooklyn asked.
I laughed softly. She had a good point.
“I think you kids should stay home from school until we know exactly what is going on,” Mrs. Prather said.
At first, the thought gave me a snuggly, happy feeling. We could sleep late and drink hot chocolate and
I could pet Jared. Then Brooke and I glanced at each other, a knowing expression on each of our faces.
“We can’t,” Brooke said.
“Not now.” I sat on the bed beside Jared. “With Jared out of the picture for goodness knows how long, we have to try to figure out what is going on. Why some of the kids at school are acting so strange. What is going to happen that required Jared be taken out of the picture. We need to know.”
Cameron nodded from his seat in the corner. Brooke kneeled beside him to administer first aid to him.
He had some nasty cuts and bruises as a result of the most recent smack-down. “She’s right. We need to get back in the thick of it all.”
“I don’t know,” Grandma said, a worried expression lining her face. “Don’t you think today was enough? We need to lie low awhile.”
Lie low? First texting and now lie low? Who was this woman?
“I agree with Cameron,” Sheriff Villanueva said. “These kids are our best shot at figuring this out.”
“I like the lie-low idea,” Glitch said, casting his vote.
“Bill,” Grandma said, fixing a beseeching expression on him. “We can’t just send them back out there.”
“No, we can’t, but pix doesn’t seem to care what we can and can’t do.” He turned to look at Brooke’s parents. “Maybe you’ll have better luck with Brooklyn.”
“I’m going,” Brooke said, a hand on her hip. “I’m in this, Mom. You guys keep saying that if this war is what we think it is, we’re all dead anyway. So what does it matter?”
The Prathers supported the Order of Sanctity and its mission 100 percent, so I wasn’t terribly surprised when Brooke’s mom gave in with a nod. “Okay, but you kids need to get some rest.”
“I think we need to get some pizza,” Glitch said.
Cameron brightened with the thought.
Mrs. Prather turned to the sheriff. “I need some kind of guarantee Cameron can stay with them all day.”
“I’ll see to it.”
I wondered just how he was going to manage that, but the last thing I wanted to do was leave Jared.
“Can I stay down here with him?” I asked Granddad, taking a long, meandering gaze at Jared.
He bit down, clearly not wanting me near him even now. “For now, until we get something warm inside you kids.”
“Like pizza?” Glitch asked.
Mrs. Prather smiled. “I was thinking soup, but pizza it is.”
“Sweet,” Glitch said.
Soon, all the adults were gone and we sat in the room in relative silence. I had the sudden urge to collapse into a heap that may or may not have resembled a washed-up, redheaded jellyfish.
I couldn’t stop staring at Jared. Sometimes it was so hard to remember he was a supreme being. And that he had just tried to kill me. He looked like a little boy. His breathing was deep and rhythmic. His face softened by the solace of sleep.
I leaned in and whispered into his ear. “I really like you, Azrael.”
“You realize he kissed Tabitha Sind,” Brooke said.
With a satisfied smirk, I said, “But he was under a spell of darkness. Why else would anyone kiss her?” I gave her my best look of bravado even though I couldn’t help the niggling in the back of my mind, the one that said she was better for Jared than I was.
Brooklyn, who was sitting on the arm of the chair Cameron was reclining in, holding an ice pack to the back of his head, asked him, “Would you kiss Tabitha Sind if you were under a dark spell?”
I looked back at him, my brows raised in interest.
He cleared his throat. “No. No way. Tabitha who?”
We chuckled and Brooke socked him on the arm. He feigned injury, rubbing it.
Glitch rose to his feet, averting his gaze. “I’m going to check on the pizza.”
As Glitch left, Brooke leaned over and kissed Cameron on the cheek. “That’s for saving all our lives.”
When she went to pull away, he wrapped a hand around her neck and placed his mouth on hers. I was a little shocked, but she let him.