The Spirit Keeper

by Luznicky Garrett, Melissa

  “Come on,” I said as I held out my hand. I pursed my lips tighter and thrust out my hand again and again. But no matter how much I focused on the paper, nothing happened. Not even a slight ruffle.

  I swiped the paper off the desk, sending it fluttering to the floor. “Figures.”

  There was a knock at the door, and I took a deep breath. “Who is it?”

  “It’s Adrian.”

  I opened the door with a slight cringe, feeling a delayed sense of embarrassment for the way I’d acted earlier. “Hey,” I said.

  “Are you okay?”

  I shrugged and rolled my eyes. “Yeah. I mean, I will be. I suppose I really have no choice in the matter, right? I just need some time to let it all sink in.”

  I opened my mouth to say something more but closed it, remembering the first part of the Conditional Blessing. The fate of our relationship had been pretty much set in stone, and I couldn’t help the blush that crept up my neck and into my cheeks.

  “I have to go now,” Adrian said.

  “Already?”

  My stomach, or maybe it was my heart, tightened at the thought of him leaving. All I knew was that I couldn’t stand the idea of being separated from him now, not when we had so much to talk about. Not when we had days of being apart to make up for. I could have kicked myself for spending the last half hour moping in my room when I could have been spending it with him.

  “Just so you know, I’m going with Shyla back to Gran’s house for a few days. We’ve got some family stuff we need to, uh, sort out.” The corners of his mouth turned down in apprehension, and I realized then it wasn’t just my life that had changed.

  “I’ll be close by if you need anything or, you know, just want to talk,” he said. “Here’s the number where you can reach me.” He pressed a folded piece of paper into the palm of my hand and closed my fingers around it. But instead of letting go, he brought my hand to his lips and kissed it.

  “Call whenever you want, day or night,” he said. “That’s my private cell, so it doesn’t matter.”

  There was a long moment of silence as we stared into each other’s eyes, and all I could think about was how much I wanted him to kiss me, to pick up right where we had left off the other day at the creek before Shyla interrupted us and everything changed forever.

  As if reading my mind, he bent down and grazed my cheek with his lips. Then he pulled me close, wrapping his arms around me. I closed my eyes, reveling in the warmth of his hands as they pressed against my back, molding me to him. This was where I wanted to be, for as long as our forever might last. I knew there would never be another guy for me.

  “I’m really glad you’re okay,” he whispered into my neck.

  “If you hadn’t convinced your sister to come back, I’d probably be dead right now.”

  He pulled away and looked down at me. “She had already made up her mind, Sarah. I didn’t have to convince her of anything. But still, I couldn’t sit around and do nothing. I couldn’t watch you die. You are the most important person in my life now.”

  I craned my face to his and inhaled the scent of his skin, faintly musky and very guy-like. I closed my eyes and trembled under the weight of the emotions coursing through my body. “When will I see you again?”

  “Tomorrow,” he said. “I promise.”

  There came the sound of a throat being cleared, and we both turned to find Shyla hanging back with just her head poking around the corner. “Gran’s waiting. She says to come on.”

  “Will I see you tomorrow, too?” I said, wondering if she’d overheard our plans to meet and thinking it rude not to invite her, too, in case she had.

  But the truth of the matter was I wasn’t sure I wanted to see Shyla again so soon. She might have saved my life, but she’d given me a whole other set of problems to deal with. Still, I knew I didn’t have a choice in the matter. I was now bound to Shyla and the tribe just as surely as I was bound to Adrian. I understood it, but I didn’t like it.

  “We can go to the creek,” I suggested, squaring my shoulders.

  “Are you sure you want to go back there?” Adrian said.

  “Yeah . . . maybe that’s not such a good idea,” Shyla said, coming fully into view. She lowered her eyes and shifted from one foot to the other. “It’s just that, you know. I don’t want it to bring back any bad memories or anything.”

  “It’s okay,” I said. “If we’re going to do this, we have to make a fresh start of it.”

  “Then it’s settled,” Adrian said, bending his head to kiss the top of mine.

  “What will you tell your dad about going to stay at your Gran’s? What do you think he’ll do?”

  “I’ll stop by my house to pick up a few things,” he said, “but I have nothing to say to him. As far as I’m concerned, he’s the source of all this trouble.”

  “I’ll wait for you outside,” Shyla said to Adrian, squeezing his arm and giving me a faint smile before walking away.

  “Don’t worry,” he said to me once we were alone again. “I’m going to talk to Gran and see if she can convince the Council to step in and do something about him. But I swear to you, Sarah, he’s not going to hurt you. I won’t let him.”

  “Maybe we should call the police and get a restraining order.”

  “I don’t know exactly how those things work,” Adrian said, “but I don’t think he’s technically done anything to warrant one. And anyway, a piece of paper is not going to stop him. When he gets an idea—” He broke off when he saw the expression on my face. “Don’t worry.”

  He smiled then and started to laugh.

  “What’s so funny?” I said, looking up at him.

  “We’ve known each other not even a month,” he said. “When we first met, did you think we’d end up right here?”

  I laughed, too. “Well, I had hoped, but I never imagined this.”

  Adrian smiled again and leaned down to kiss me. The feel of his lips on mine set my skin on fire. And if his arms hadn’t already been wrapped around my waist, I might have collapsed to the floor. He moved his hands to my face and pulled back so he could look me in the eyes.

  “In case you didn’t know, Sarah, I love you.”

  The blood thumping in my ears was like a raging river, and I was certain Adrian could hear the frantic beating of my heart. “I love you, too,” I said, feeling the truth of it in every molecule of my body.

  “You don’t know the power you have over me,” he said, his eyes half-closed. “It’s insane. If it’s not magic, I don’t know what is.”

  I laughed at that. “There’s no magic involved. It’s the same power you have over me.”

  Imogene’s snow-white head popped around the corner just then. “All right, you two lovebirds. It’s time for us to go.”

  Adrian opened his eyes, looking slightly embarrassed that his grandmother had caught us in such an intimate moment. He stared at me with a longing that mirrored my own before leaning in and whispering in my ear, “This is going to be the longest night of my life.”

  “Mine, too,” I whispered back.

  “It’s torture,” he said, bending down to kiss the curve where my neck met my shoulder.

  “The worst kind,” I said, wrapping my arms around his back and threading my fingers through his hair.

  “I’m still standing here,” Imogene said.

  Adrian and I jumped apart, but he held firmly to my hand. “I’ll see you tomorrow. At noon.”

  He finally let go and backed away, keeping his eyes on me until the last possible moment.

  I turned around then to face my empty room, a satisfied smile on my face. I went to my nightstand and tucked the slip of paper with his cell number under my phone before stooping to clean up the mess on the floor. I shoved everything in the drawer, promising myself I’d sort it out later.

  With that done, I chewed the inside of my cheek as I wondered what to do next. On a whim, I picked up the phone and dialed Priscilla’s number. Laura Beth answered on the third
ring.

  “It’s Sarah. Has Priscilla gotten home yet?” I was pretty sure she would call the minute she crossed the border into town and got her cell back, but it was worth a shot.

  “Hey, Sarah. No, but they’re due back this evening. I’ll make sure she gives you a call as soon as she gets home.”

  “Actually, can you tell her to call me in the morning? It’s been a long day for me. I’ll probably go to bed early.”

  “Not a problem,” Laura Beth said.

  There was so much to sort through, and a big part of me wanted to unload some of the burden onto Priscilla. But there was also a part of me that wondered if my best friend would even believe anything I told her. I still couldn’t believe it myself!

  “Sarah?” I turned at the sound of Meg’s voice to find her standing in the doorway attempting to dry her hands on a damp dish towel. “How are you doing?”

  “Okay, I guess.”

  She stepped into the room. “It’s a lot to take in, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah. But it’s sort of exciting,” I said, shrugging unapologetically.

  What I didn’t admit to Meg was that I was beginning to consider these yet-unharnessed magical powers, whatever they turned out to be, a definite perk. Senior year could prove to be a real turning point for me. Maybe I could finally give Katie a taste of her own medicine. And then some.

  My expression must have given something away. The furrow between Meg’s brows deepened. “Being Spirit Keeper is a great honor, Sarah, but it’s also a huge responsibility.”

  “So I gathered,” I said. Meg’s lips tightened at the sarcasm in my voice, so I hurriedly followed with a question. “How will I know what to do?”

  Meg laughed. “You’re definitely asking the wrong person. What I do know is there’s no way the Council or the tribe can ignore you now.” She looped her arm around my shoulder and put her head to mine.

  “You’ll have Imogene and Shyla to help you out and answer your questions,” she said. “But in my opinion, you should try to go on with your life as if none of this ever happened . . . at least until we meet with the Council and have a better idea what will happen next.”

  I felt a cold fear begin to creep under my skin at the idea of standing before a tribe that had ultimately turned its back on my family. Even if they saw that I was no one to fear, there would always be some who would remain prejudiced against my mom and, therefore, me. How would I deal with that?

  “So, do you feel any different?” Meg asked, noticing my silence.

  I shrugged out from under her arm, going over to my dresser to tinker with my collection of snow globes. “Not really. Maybe a little.”

  “So you don’t feel a warm, glowing sensation inside?”

  My face went all hot, and an uncomfortable laugh escaped my lips. I bowed my head so she couldn’t see my answering smirk.

  “What?”

  “Nothing,” I said, trying in earnest to wipe the smile off my face.

  I wasn’t about to confide to my aunt that the only time I’d ever felt any sort of warm, glowing sensation was when Adrian’s lips were pressed against mine. That was one thing Meg did not need to know. But what she said had me curious.

  “How do you know what I’m supposed to feel?”

  “I remember Aida once explaining that being Spirit Keeper felt like having an ember of fire inside, right in the middle of your chest.” She pressed her fisted hand over her heart when I turned to her, and she said, “Like a candle waiting to spark to life.”

  “I definitely don’t feel that,” I said, finding the whole thing a little hokey.

  Meg was persistent, though. “Close your eyes and concentrate. You might be surprised.”

  I rolled my eyes but closed them, if only to humor her. I stood up straighter and crossed my arms over my chest.

  “Okay,” Meg said. “Um, think about something that makes you happy.”

  I opened one eye to peek at her and snorted. “Seriously? Doesn’t that sound a little, oh, I don’t know, Peter Pan-ish. Think a happy thought, and fly?”

  Meg rolled her eyes, too, but smiled. “I suppose it’s the same concept,” she said. “Now be quiet and close your eyes.”

  The corner of my mouth twitched, but I closed my eyes again. “All right. Now what?”

  “Are you thinking a happy thought?”

  I nodded, biting back the grin that was threatening to escape. For a moment, I saw only diffused daylight shining behind my closed eyelids. But then I pictured Adrian and the first time we had ever spoken to each other. I’d felt the attraction from the beginning. I then recalled with delightful clarity that day in the cafeteria when he’d stood up with me against Katie. I felt a rush of happiness ripple through my body, like a jolt of electricity that immediately made my fingers and toes tingle.

  “Whoa!” My eyes snapped open.

  Meg’s own eyes were wide. “What? Tell me!”

  “I felt . . . something.”

  “Try it again,” Meg encouraged.

  I closed my eyes and conjured a mental image of Adrian’s face. I imagined us together on the fallen tree at the creek and remembered the electric anticipation as he moved slowly toward me until our lips were finally touching. The warmth was more intense this time, and it spread quickly through my chest, swirling into my legs and belly until my entire body felt molten. I recalled the smooth sound of Adrian’s voice as he told me he loved me, and the glow spread to my face until my cheeks felt like they were burning.

  But then I remembered Shyla in the woods that day, too, and how she’d set my shirt on fire. I thought about the days I’d spent sick in bed certain I was going to die. The warmth fled my body, leaving me chilled in its absence, and I shuddered.

  “I lost it,” I said, opening my eyes.

  Meg’s smile faded, but she patted my shoulder. “You did well for your first time. Amazing, in fact.”

  David knocked on the door then and poked his head into the room. “Someone’s here to see you.”

  Meg and I looked at each other, a silent question between us, and followed him out of the room and down the hallway. My heart skipped a beat when I caught sight of Priscilla’s orange hair, and I took off running, a huge smile on my face.

  “Oh my goodness, Sarah!” she said. “It’s been ages. Literally.”

  “It’s only been since Saturday,” Mr. O’Malley said, shaking his head in exasperation.

  “Ages,” Priscilla insisted, poking her father in the ribs.

  “When did you get back?” I said. “I just called Laura Beth, and she said you wouldn’t be home until this evening.”

  “We made good time,” Priscilla said.

  “I hope we’re not intruding,” Mr. O’Malley said to Meg. “I’m sure it’s no surprise to you how, uh, persistent Priscilla can be, but seeing Sarah was all she could talk about. She made me come here first before going home.”

  “Would you like to stay for dinner? I was thinking about ordering a few pizzas,” Meg said. “You’re more than welcome.”

  Mr. O’Malley waved his hand. “We didn’t stop by to impose on your hospitality. Priscilla wanted to drop off a few souvenirs she picked up for Sarah. To tell you the truth, I’m exhausted.”

  Priscilla thrust a plastic bag with a picture of a big boat on the front into my hands. The Maid of the Mist, it read.

  “It’s not much,” she said. “Just your obligatory t-shirt, poster of Niagara Falls, and snow globe to add to your collection. You wouldn’t believe how cheesy and touristy it all is. It’s freaking awesome! We had such a blast.”

  I hugged Priscilla, genuinely happy she’d had a good time with her dad. “I can’t tell you how glad I am to see you.”

  “So you didn’t go out and find another best friend while I was away?”

  I gave her a playful shove and stuck out my tongue. “Not a chance.”

  Priscilla laughed and then turned to Meg. “What time do you need me tomorrow?”

  Meg and David looked at each ot
her and then shot a quick glance at me. “Don’t worry about it,” Meg said. “We’ve actually closed down the shop for a week of vacation, so you two are free to hang out.”

  “Adrian and his sister are coming over tomorrow,” I said to Priscilla. “You should definitely come, too. I’ll pack a lunch, and we’ll make a picnic of it.”

  Priscilla narrowed her eyes and gave me a side-long glance. I knew exactly what she was thinking. She was wondering what had happened while she was away to make Meg and David change their opinion of Adrian. “That sounds . . . fun . . . I guess,” she said.

  “Come around noon,” I said before she could ask any questions.

  After another few minutes of small talk in which Priscilla’s dad thanked Meg profusely for giving his daughter a job and keeping her out of trouble for the summer, I walked Priscilla to their car. For the first time in days, I felt the warmth of the summer breeze and late-afternoon sun on my skin. I stretched my arms over my head and sighed with contentment.

  “You look really good, by the way,” Priscilla said. “I think being in love suits you.”

  “It’s the hair,” I said, twirling a strand around my finger.

  “It’s not the hair,” Priscilla said, eyeing me with a critical gaze. “You look more relaxed, I think. And just, I don’t know . . . different.” She wiggled her fingers at me and winked. “I like this new-and-improved you, not that there was anything wrong with the old model.”

  I watched her get in the car, and then she rolled down the window and stuck out her head. “I’ll see you tomorrow. It’ll be fun.”

  “Just don’t be late.”

  “I’m not making any promises,” she said with a wink.

  I watched as their car backed slowly out of the drive and then disappeared from view. Then I stood at the edge of the sidewalk staring at the house across the street. The door began to swing inward, and I felt a brief flurry of excitement as I thought maybe Adrian hadn’t yet left for his grandmother’s house. But then I realized Adrian’s car wasn’t parked out front like it usually was, and he wasn’t home at all.

  Victor stepped out from his house and, although the distance was too great to clearly read the expression on his face, I was certain he was not happy to see me.