Spiral (Spiral Series) (32 page)

“Right,” she murmured. I could tell I was losing her. “I need a few minutes to take it in,” she said, looking around. The park was the perfect country hideaway. There was a lake off in the distance and I could vaguely see ducks, or maybe loons - I knew nothing of such things - swimming around. The green grass we sat on sloped gently towards the water and the area around us was lined with trees. I felt like I had marred its beauty by telling Natalie the secret of who she was.

“So,” she said, still sitting next to me, immobile, “that’s what I am. That’s why all this has been happening. I thought I was going crazy.”

I was there instantly, putting my arms around her slim, shaking shoulders, drawing her into my chest. “No,” I told her fiercely. “Never.”

We stayed like that for a few minutes. She didn’t make a sound, but I finally felt her breathing even out.

“Are you okay?” I asked, looking down at her.

She snuffled. “I’ll be fine. I just. . . . It’s a lot to take in.”

I nodded, understanding.

“Ummm . . . ” she continued, “where are the other Spirals? Why didn’t one of them come for me?”

I took a deep breath. “There are no other Spirals. You’re the only one left.”

“And Watchfuls? Do I have them?”

“You have one, but I don’t know who it is. It’s a secret, so that he or she can keep you safe.”

“Good job at that.”

“Your Watchful is probably doing a very good job,” I said sternly. I didn’t always see eye to eye with Eric, but he had helped to keep me safe, and Natalie’s had had an ever-growing challenge lately.

“I wonder who it could be,” she said, chewing on her lower lip.

Natalie was about to ask another question, maybe even about the story I had told at the romance slam, but she didn’t get the chance.

From one breath to the next the sun was blotted out. The shadows Natalie had sensed came swooping in, like long black arms reaching out for us. The burning sensation that had been sweeping around us ever so slightly now intensified tenfold. There was so much electricity in the air I could barely breathe.

The Visioners had come for Natalie.

She screamed as dark, hooded figures materialized all around us. Without thinking I moved to put my body between her and our attackers.

We had mere seconds before we would have been overwhelmed and overmatched.

I grabbed Natalie’s hand and pointed to the tree-line.

“Run,” I cried. “Just run.”

“NO,” she cried. “Not without you.”

I put my hands on her cheeks. I couldn’t help it. “Run,” I whispered. “I’ll be right behind you.”

I knew I was lying. So did she. The Visioners came closer and I saw a bit of skin start to rip off of my forearm as I held her, amazed that her skin was still perfectly smooth.

She looked at me wildly, her eyes resting on my peeling skin, then she just took off, and I watched her in appreciation for a moment. She was fast and graceful. I remembered her mother running like that.

A snaky blast of air slammed into me and I was knocked back.

I lost my concentration as the Visioners closed in.

My eyes cast towards Natalie. The Visioners were chasing her, too. I couldn’t see their faces behind the hoods they wore; that was how they kept us from knowing who they were in daily life. For all I knew I walked past Visioners every day.

I tried to shove through the Visioners surrounding me, but they closed in.

The electrical current in the air started to pulse as one Visioner flicked his power at me. It was easy enough to avoid after the years I had spent practicing. Ducking and rolling, I landed on bended knee and instantly raised my hand to put up a shield as three other Visioners closed in.

There were a lot of them. Without help I wasn’t sure I could fight them all off. My eyes flicked to the white-haired girl in the distance, but she wasn’t running any more. Instead, two Visioners were confronting her. My heart squeezed with worry. She should be able to fight them off, but she didn’t know how.

To my total shock, Jackson was streaking in front of Natalie.

Her Watchful had come to protect her.

“Well,” I muttered. “I wasn’t expecting that. At all.”

And I turned back to the fight.

Everything happened so fast I barely registered Jackson’s strong arms circling my waist and pulling me away. At first I screamed because I didn’t know who it was, but when I saw my friend’s familiar face I stopped struggling and just stared at him, dumbfounded.

Visioners - that’s what Pierce had called them - were all around me, along with a familiar acrid stink, as if the very air was burning. Blackness came towards me in waves and I shivered in fear.

“Move,” Jackson muttered in my ear. “We need to get out of here. Now.”

“Oh, you think?” I said. “I thought we were going to have a picnic.”

“Same old Natalie,” said Jackson, shaking his head as we slammed past the nearest trees.

The second we got past the first tree I felt safer. There was now a buffer between us and the crackling air that threatened to envelop me. But we didn’t stop. We just kept running.

I don’t know how long we spent dashing through the woods. It felt like forever, but it couldn’t have been more than a few minutes.

Not used to running, I was soon forced to halt. Breathing hard with my hands braced against my knees, I said, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?” It’s hard to yell when you’re out of breath, but I gave it a try.

Jackson’s eyes widened at my anger.

“I, uh, came to. . . .”

“HELP? You’re a Watchful aren’t you?” I glared at him.

“Pierce told you?” he asked. Anger replacing his worry.

“At least he had the decency to be honest with me,” I shot back. “Which you should have done long ago.”

Jackson rubbed the back of his neck. He was sweat-streaked, and his face was red from fighting.

“Saving my life isn’t going to get you out of this,” I hissed. “How could you not tell me?”

I felt tears pick at the back of my eyes, but I fought them off. It was either anger or crying at this point.

Jackson’s shoulders slumped and he stared at the ground. “You weren’t supposed to know what you were, or what any of us were, until you were graduated. They needed to know what you could do first.”

“Who is they?” I asked dangerously. “And don’t lie to me. I think I’ve had enough of that for one lifetime.”

Jackson flinched. “Everyone. Watchfuls, Visioners, unicorns. Everyone is waiting to see what you can do.” He looked at me almost reverently. “And they picked me to keep you safe. It was the biggest honor my family had ever had.”

“Keeping me safe is an HONOR?” I said. “I’m a person. We were supposed to be friends.”

“We are friends,” said Jackson, “but there’s a lot at stake here besides that.”

“My life doesn’t mean anything to you? You just want my power? My status? My spiral who’s-a-what’s-it-WHO CARES?” I yelled, not giving him time to answer.

He stepped away from me, looking around. “We shouldn’t talk here. The Visioners will still be looking for us.”

 “We left Pierce back there alone! We have to go back,” I said, starting to move past him. I didn’t know what I could do to help, but I couldn’t just leave Pierce to fight alone.

Jackson laughed bitterly. “He can handle himself. He’s the best fighter the unicorns have ever had.”

I stared at my old, lying friend. “He is?”

“Yeah,” said Jackson. “He’s unbelievable. He’s also trouble,” he hastened to add when he saw I was going to get mad at him for that, too. “But we have to leave. It’s too dangerous here.”

“We aren’t going anywhere,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest and glaring. “You are explaining and you are explaining now.”

“Natalie, it’s not safe,” Jackson argued.

“See if I care,” I said, tapping my foot while I waited.

“Fine,” he muttered. “Yes, I’m your Watchful. Yes, I told you to stay away from Pierce, because he’s trouble. He’s been a problem for the Silves for years. He doesn’t listen and he breaks rules. He puts everyone else at risk.”

“Breaks rules? You mean like telling me about you?” I asked icily.

When Jackson didn’t answer I knew I had guessed right.

“As far as I’m concerned,” I said, pacing forward until I was right in Jackson’s face, “he can break that rule until the cows come home.” With that I spun on my heel and stomped away.

“Natalie,” said Jackson, catching up to me, “please don’t be mad at me. I was just doing my job. We get hired and trained early, and they thought it would be better if you were protected by someone your own age. Easier to blend. I’m the best.”

“Exactly,” I snapped. I had no idea where I was going, but Jackson steered me to my left, which would hopefully get us back out of the woods and away from the Visioners. “You’re supposed to be my FRIEND, not doing your job. I want to go back and help Pierce.” I shot him a warning look.

“We are not going back,” said Jackson, exasperated. “He’s fine. Believe me. The Silves have already gotten him.”

Trying to keep my voice steady, I asked, “What do you mean?” I felt like thunderclouds were rolling over my body, bringing nothing but dread.

“He’s been taken back to his tribe, the Silves. They want to talk to him about breaking every rule there is,” said Jackson. I couldn’t ignore the triumph I heard in his voice.

I gave Jackson a dirty look. “You want him to get in trouble for telling me who I was? Something that you as my supposed friend didn’t bother to do for . . . how many years?”

Jackson flinched. “It was for your own good, Natalie. Someday I hope you see that.”

I narrowed my eyes at Jackson and said, “Next time you want to do something for my own good? Don’t. And I have one more question,” I continued. “Does your reason for disappearing these past few weeks have something to do with being a Watchful?”

Jackson’s face appeared to crumple. “I knew Visioners were getting closer. So, I’ve been out looking for them whenever I could.”

“Well,” I huffed, realizing that Jackson had sacrificed everything to protect me. “Good job there.”

“I’m sorry.”

He stared after me in wonder as I stumbled away. We weren’t far from my house. Blueberry was so small was weren’t far from anything, and despite Jackson’s begging me to let him get his truck and give me a ride, I just kept walking.

“Why did the Visioners attack me now?” I yelled over my shoulder. Jackson was trailing behind me, knowing better than to get too close.

“Because you turned eighteen and you have so much hele that everyone knows where you are.”

Hele was the word that Pierce had used, but he hadn’t had time to explain much about it yet. I had hoped that would happen in the park, but instead we’d been attacked. By Visioners. Whatever they were. I was used to people hating me without knowing me, welcome to high school, but obviously none of them had tried to kill me before.

Or had they? It suddenly dawned on me that my whole life might have been different from what I thought it was, not to mention Jackson’s role in it.