A nurse suddenly appears and slips a plastic mask over my nose and mouth. Almost immediately my chest loosens, and I feel better.
Ms. Samson leans in close. “You tried to save Lola, and the firefighters saved you. But going into that house wasn’t supposed to be an option. We need you to control your emotions better, Jasmine.”
She’s annoyed with me. I know my actions were driven by emotion, but I couldn’t just leave Lola.
Jade perches on my bed, her eyes fill with tears of happiness. She looks good; there’s colour in her cheeks and energy in her movements. It worked. Mina destroyed the doll and freed Jade’s soul, the other half of my soul.
“I feel okay now,” she whispers, giving me a massive hug.
I lift the mask off my face for a moment. “Is Lola all right? What about Mina?” I ask.
There’s no need for anyone to answer. Even if I couldn’t read thoughts, the look on their faces tells me all I need to know: I was the only one who made it out of the house alive. Jade straightens and fixes her eyes on the floor.
I put the mask back on and breathe deeply.
In the smoke, just before I’d blacked out, someone was walking toward me. At first I thought it was a firefighter arriving. But it wasn’t. It was my guardian angel, Raphael. He saved me.
Chapter 30
I’m sitting with Mr. Khan at a table in the cafeteria, pushing food aimlessly around on my plate. Though it’s only been a couple of weeks since the fire at Sandra Smith’s house, things have changed so quickly it feels like ancient history.
“We didn’t realize Mina’s mother was unwell,” Mr. Khan says, watching me mix a spoonful of salsa into my rice. “But she became increasingly distraught about her daughters’ abilities to read minds, and decided the girls were possessed.” His face darkens. “We should’ve seen the signs: the sudden religious fervor, the way she started to isolate the girls by keeping them home from school….”
I stop playing with my food and look up at him.
Mom sent me to a therapist after Jade disappeared because of my insistence on seeing monsters. But that wasn’t the only reason she sent me. I haven’t thought about it in a long time, but I was also predicting things, and so was Jade in the year or so leading up to her disappearance. They were mainly just little things, like knowing Lola waiting for us at home when we weren’t expecting her to visit, or a surprise package arriving in the mail. Still, it must’ve been pretty unnerving, if not absolutely scary, for Mom.
“Mina was always strong-willed and impatient. She was the first-born twin. Like you.” He pauses for a moment before continuing. “That morning, when everything finally came to a head, her mother, Lucy, tried to get her in the car, but Mina refused, threw a massive tantrum, and ran away. She must’ve known what was going to happen. So I was called to go and look for Mina. Lucy said she couldn’t do it because she had an important meeting to get to.”
“How long did you know Mina?” I ask, taking a sip of my juice.
“Since her birth, though she and her family didn’t always know me,” Mr. Khan says. “I kept an eye on her until I felt it was time to become a part of her life. A Seer’s power develops around the time of puberty.” He smiles wistfully. “Mina’s mother was an educational assistant. I made sure she was assigned to work in my classroom, when it became time for me to take a more hands-on approach to being Mina’s Protector.”
I nearly choke. “You were Mina’s Protector? But you’re a man. I thought Protectors are always female.”
He nods. “I was born in a female body, Jasmine, but never felt female. Does that disqualify me as a Protector? Certainly not. It also makes me the most unique Protector yet,” he says. “Anyway, because Mina ran away that day, her life was spared. The important meeting Lucy couldn’t be late for turned out to be driving herself and Mina’s twin, Melody, into the concrete buttress of an overpass. They both died instantly.”
We sit in silence for the next few minutes. I can’t imagine what it must’ve been like for Mina to lose her mom and her twin in such a terrible way.
“Ms. Samson was horrible to Mina the first day of class,” I say, finally breaking the quiet. “Why?”
“She was trying to make Mina get past her anger and guilt about what happened. Negative emotions are dangerous, and hers were strong. Much like yours.”
Now it’s my turn to look down at an imaginary spot on the table. Maybe Mina and I had more in common than I cared to admit.
“Can I ask you a question?”
Mr. Khan nods. “About Mina?”
“About Mina,” I say, chewing nervously on the tip of my plastic straw. “Why did she go in and start the fire at Sandra Smith’s? She must’ve known it was suicide.”
“The doll needed to be destroyed,” Mr. Khan replies. “You knew that, but it would’ve been too dangerous for you to attempt to do it. Jade had a finite amount of time left. There are people that would’ve done anything to protect that doll.”
“People like Lola?” I ask.
He nods again. “Lola. Sandra Smith. Anyone who realized how strong you and Jade are.”
I raise an eyebrow at him. “How strong we are?”
“As Seers, you’re special. There are many things you’ll learn when the time is right. As for Mina, she volunteered herself. She realized that a Seer with half a soul is vulnerable, and that it might be hard for us to protect her in the future. I think it was her way of redeeming herself. A way to lift the guilt of her sister’s death off her conscience.”
“But what her mother did wasn’t her fault,” I protest. “She shouldn’t have had to die.”
“Just as it wasn’t your fault Jade was taken,” Mr. Khan says quietly. “Nor was it my fault that I couldn’t prevent Melody’s death. After all, I was supposed to be her Protector.”
We sit for a moment together. What Mina did blows my mind. She gave her life for Jade … and for me.
Mr. Khan clears his throat. “I’d like to take on the role of Protector for you and Jade. If you’ll have me,” he says. “We know there’s a definite rift somewhere between our world and the Place-in-Between. Demons are spilling through. The threat to Seers is great, perhaps greater than ever before. We need to be ready for battle, but first we need to find out why this is happening.”
He finishes speaking and begins tracing invisible circles on the tabletop with his finger, waiting for my answer.
“Of course I want you to be my Protector,” I say, reaching across the table and putting my hand on top of his. It’s an odd thing to do, but somehow it feels right. “And I’m sure Jade will want you, to be, too.”
He smiles, but the relief is only temporary. Worry immediately clouds his face again.
“Should I be terrified about all of this rift stuff?” I ask.
“Yes,” he answers immediately.
“Don’t beat around the bush or anything,” I retort, taking another sip of my drink.
“It’s very serious, Jasmine. We’ve gathered as many Seers from across the globe as possible together, but things are moving more quickly than anyone could’ve predicted. Our borders are closing, and millions could die. There’s talk that rather than just being a dark period in time, this could be the beginning of the final prophecy.”
“Final prophecy?” I say. “I take it that’s not so good either.”
“No, it’s not. If that is what we’re truly faced with.” Mr. Khan straightens up. “Right now we have Seers to train, so you’ll be ready for all of this if and when it happens.” He pushes back his chair and stands up. “You’ve come a long way from being the angry girl I met at the beginning of this school year, but there’s still quite a journey ahead.”
“Thanks,” I say, not really sure if I should take Mr. Khan’s comment as a compliment. “Can I ask you one more thing?”
He nods. “Sure.”
I chew
nervously on my bottom lip, hesitating for a moment. “Do you know what happened to Raphael? Is he ever coming back? I kind of thought he was my Protector.”
Mr. Khan regards me for a moment. “Raphael and his brothers will always be with us when the time is right. You do know he’s not like us, don’t you, Jasmine?”
I bob my head up and down. My face is hot. “I know,” I mumble.
“Then you know you mustn’t think of him as human. You mustn’t think of him as you would other boys your age. And he’s not a Protector. He can guard and guide, but cannot change the course of events.”
I’m getting a lecture from Mr. Khan on who I should and shouldn’t date. I feel sick to my stomach.
“I know,” I say, irritation edging my voice. “I just kind of miss him. Is that okay?”
“No, actually it’s not,” Mr. Khan says. “Not at all. Take my advice, Jasmine. Focus on the Seers and the threat facing us now. If anything were to happen between you and Raphael …” He trails off.
But he doesn’t need to finish. I’ve read his thoughts. It would be chaos. It could mean the demise of the human race. It must never happen.
As I watch Mr. Khan walk away, I throw my bag over my shoulder and decide whatever challenges lay ahead — demonic or otherwise — I’ll be ready.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to Mum and Dad for your love and support. A huge thank you to my editor, Shannon Whibbs; to my agent, Amy Tompkins, at the Transatlantic Literary Agency; and to Kirk Howard, publisher at Dundurn. Thank you to both the Ontario and Canadian Arts Council for their generous financial support in the creation of this work. Most of all, thank you to my students — both past and present — at Nelson Mandela Park PS and Lord Dufferin PS for teaching me about resilience and courage.
Copyright © Mary Jennifer Payne, 2016
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except for brief passages for purpose of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press. Permission to photocopy should be requested from Access Copyright.
All characters in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Cover image: © Armin Staudt/ istockphoto.com
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Payne, Mary Jennifer, author
Finding Jade / Mary Jennifer Payne.
Issued in print and electronic formats.
ISBN 978-1-4597-3500-2 (paperback).--ISBN 978-1-4597-3501-9 (pdf).--
ISBN 978-1-4597-3502-6 (epub)
I. Title.
PS8631.A9543F55 2016 C813’.6 C2016-900230-6
C2016-900231-4
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