The Prophecy by Melissa Luznicky Garrett Page A

gave way, and he collapsed to the
floor in front of me.
    “Omigod!”
I yelled, instinctively grabbing at him. 
    The
room quieted and Charley rushed over at once. She knelt next to Caleb, putting
a hand on his shoulders. “Seizures,” she explained calmly to me. “He’s suffered
from them his entire life, but they’ve been coming more frequently lately.”  
    After a
few agonizing moments, Charley helped Caleb to his feet and returned him to his
seat, where he sat with his head bowed. “He’s fine,” she assured the crowd,
though her own voice was shaky. “Please. Let’s continue.”
    I
wasn’t so sure that was such a great idea, but apparently the others were used
to Caleb’s seizures. In fact, no one in the audience seemed to be overly
concerned.
    To be
honest, the meeting wasn’t proceeding exactly as I’d envisioned. I had expected
that we’d congregate around a campfire at sunset and be enveloped within wood-smoke
and magic. Or maybe a small number of us would gather in a ceremonial hut where
one of the tribal elders would call forth the spirit of our ancestors, and we’d
pass around a peace pipe.
    Priscilla
would accuse me of being racist, but what did I know? My entire family had done
a really good job of keeping me in the dark about anything having to do with my
heritage and people.
    Charley
clapped again, disturbing my musings, and motioned for me to find my seat. “As
you all know,” she said, “a singular event fractured our tribe just over
seventeen years ago. Some of you remember that day—”
    “She
should never have been allowed here!” someone shouted suddenly.
    Another
voice rang out, “She’ll bring trouble to the tribe!”
    At
first Charley just stood there, and I wondered if she was going to put a stop
to the heckling. Finally, she raised her hand and said, “Sarah is a very
special girl. You’ve seen proof of that already.”
    At that
point Charley began to recount the whole sordid tale of the night my father, in
wolf form, entered Katori land and subsequently killed one of their own. The
story certainly didn’t help my case, and the angry muttering and jeering
continued. My face burned as I wondered exactly where she was going with this.
    “It was
clear to all present that the wolf was the creature that had impregnated Melody.”
Charley spat out the word creature, making what my mother had done sound sick
and twisted.
    “He was
defending himself,” I blurted out. Heads swiveled in my direction.
    “What
was that?” Charley said, as though she hadn’t heard.
    I rose
from my chair. My legs wobbled, and I felt suddenly lightheaded. I turned to
Adrian and was stunned to see the anger in his eyes as he carefully focused his
attention elsewhere. Given all the times he had assured me he didn’t blame me
for his mother’s death, I hadn’t expected to see that look on his face. I
turned back to Charley. My mouth worked, but no sound came out at first. Taking
a deep breath through my nose, I continued.
    “I
don’t mean to minimize their loss,” I said, gesturing to my left at Imogene,
Shyla, and Adrian, “or to make light of the pain that was caused because of
what happened. But from the stories I’ve heard, I believe my father was only
trying to defend himself. Wouldn’t you? Try to defend yourself, I mean.”
    My
question was met with stony silence, but I watched as the members of the
audience turned to their neighbors, shrugging and nodding. Of course they would
try to defend themselves. I cleared my throat and tried again. “If someone were
to come at me with a weapon, I . . .”
    At
this, I fell quiet. Someone had come at me with a weapon. I flashed back
to that afternoon in the woods when Adrian’s dad Victor had chased me down with
a knife, intent on killing me. And all because my father—a father I didn’t even
know—had accidentally killed his wife.
    “Look,”
I said. “I’ve never met my father, and I obviously wasn’t there to witness the
attack