AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Her eyes went to the ceiling and she stretched an arm over her head. I looked away, searching for anything else to focus on.
“I know,” she murmured. “I know.”
We sat wordlessly for ten minutes, and I nearly told her about Morgan, about the prophecy, at least as many times. I’d finally decided to get it over with when she slid the toe of one shoe under the heel of the other and kicked off her right sneaker. The other one followed, and I looked back in time to see her slide toward me, push me backward and lean into my chest.
“It feels like this is the only place I have anymore,” she whispered, and the words were so low I had to strain to hear them. I was certain she’d feel the tension in my chest, though, the way my heart rate changed, and know I was hiding something.
Her fingers curled to trace small circles on my tee shirt over my breastbone.
My right hand reached over and grabbed her wrist, gently but in earnest. I had to tell her. I had to tell her now.
She looked up at me, not taking her cheek from its place.
How had things gone so far off track? It was only a night ago we’d lain like this talking of her sister. When Emily’s biggest worry was her mother’s warning of the Division. And the thought stopped me.
Something was wrong. Their mother had known, she’d hidden Emily and used Brianna as a distraction. So why was the prophecy so important, why did she caution her against the Division more than any other danger?
“What is it?” Emily asked.
I leaned forward, keeping her close as we sat up together. “The prophecy,” I said, “the one about the Taken, the Division.”
Her expression unclouded, suddenly aware of my concern.
“Tell me.”
She nodded. “I always had trouble remembering… It was, ‘the Taken will die at the hands…’ no, wait.”
“In the old language,” I said. “Tell me how she told you.”
And she did. And then she was gasping and grappling for her footing as I pulled her off the bed.
“What are you doing?”
“We should go,” I said. “Now.”
She bent to grab her shoes, following as I dragged her behind me to gather my own things. “Why, Aern? What did it say?”
“It doesn’t mean what you think, Emily. It means we should leave. It means you were right, we should never have come here.”
She yanked her arm hard to bring me around to face her, jaw tight. It was evident from her stance she didn’t intend to move until I’d explained further.
“It doesn’t mean she will die at the hands of the Division. It says she will dieinDivision’s hands.”
She waited.
“‘As the prophet is revealed, so die the others.’”
Emily’s face went pale. She’d heard the words before, she knew I was right. She was sick, and I could only imagine her thoughts centered on what was about to happen, what it was probably too late to stop. What she could have prevented if she’d believed her mother, if she’d acted on her gut, if she’d only done one thing differently. And then I wondered if they were her worries or my own.
“I should have listened to you,” I said. “I should have known.”
She swallowed hard, and then moved to open the door so we could find Brianna.
