The Secret of Spruce Knoll by Heather McCorkle Page A

a scalding rush. It made the pressure between them almost unbearable. Sylvia cursed and suddenly the heat was gone, blown away as though a breeze had whipped through the room, or like Sylvia had pulled the energy back into herself. No, that was crazy thinking. Eren wondered if she was a bit delirious. That would explain a lot.
    “Eren honey, tell me about the Sistine Chapel,” Sylvia insisted as she went to her knees beside her.
    Eren wasn’t sure she had heard her right. It didn’t make sense. Couldn’t her aunt see that she was sick? What a bizarre thing to ask.
    “Come on Eren, it will make you feel better. What are some of the paintings called? Tell me!” she demanded, no longer her gentle, bubbly aunt. Now she was commanding and powerful.
    It made Eren think about the paintings. The moment she did the disorienting feeling began to fade. It no longer felt like she was going to explode. When she started thinking about the names of the paintings even her nausea began to go away. She rattled off the names and found she could sit up. Weird.
    “That doesn’t make sense. How did that make me feel better?” she asked.
    Sylvia took a deep breath and settled into a more comfortable cross legged-position. From the look on her face Eren knew she wasn’t going to like the answer.
    “It helped ground you. You’re starting to come into your power,” Sylvia said.
    She’d never heard anyone refer to puberty as ‘coming into your power’. Maybe it was some weird ancestral saying. Or maybe her aunt just didn’t know how to phrase it. After all, she didn’t have any children and had never had to have this talk before.
    “Because it’s a thought that reminds you of mundane things,” her aunt sighed.
    Reluctance wrinkled her brow and her eyes were filled with a grudging acceptance. Eren liked that look about as much as she liked Sylvia’s reasoning. She looked like she was about to tell her that she was dying from an incurable plague.
    “Your parents should have been the one’s to tell you this, to help you through it. And I know they wanted to. Things don’t always work out the way people plan them though,” Sylvia said.
    There were tears in her eyes now. Her head fell into her hands and she sniffled. Eren reached out tentatively and touched her shoulder. Then she realized she could not only see Aunt Sylvia’s pain, she could feel it. Her hand began to tremble. She was quickly becoming freaked out.
    “Tell me Aunt Sylvia,” she said, not liking the way her voice trembled.
    “Okay, but this is going to sound crazy, and it’s going to freak you out,” she warned her.
    That would be a short trip. She was pretty much already there. Eren did her best to look brave. Maybe this had something to do with her parents’ deaths. What else could have Sylvia so upset and saying such strange things?
    “You’re sensing the energy of other people and living things,” Sylvia stopped, looking as though she wasn’t sure how to go on.
    How could she know that? Then a simple—completely wrong—explanation occurred to Eren. Sylvia must have this cold or virus already and knew its symptoms. Eren nodded.
    “Your parents took you from Spruce Knoll so you could be raised among normal people. It was the only time in your life that you’d have a chance to really be a part of their world, to feel like you belonged in it. They wanted you to experience that,” Sylvia paused again.
    Eren dropped her hand from her aunt’s shoulder and sat back. The bizarre twist this conversation had taken was making her uncomfortable. As much as she wanted to believe Sylvia was joking, she looked completely serious. The tears and anxiety on her face were definitely real. Sylvia clearly believed what she was saying.
    “When our kind reach puberty, they come into their power. Being around so many of your own kind probably sped up the process. Once we’re able to feel the energy, we can never truly belong in the civilized world again,” Sylvia