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.This isn’t as easy as I thought it was going to be, especially since I really want to touch her.I want to just sit here and hold her and kiss her and not think about all the dark stuff going on inside and around me.“It knows about the power and things just happen, like all of a sudden I’m super strong.Stronger than I ever was before.And I’m so sick of these powers.I just want things to go back to the way they were.” But I don’t, not really.Before, I didn’t know.Krystal and I thought my mom had left me because she wanted to.“I don’t understand.How can the raven talk to you? I guess that sounds strange coming from the one who sees and talks to spirits.But why you? Both me and Sasha have been attacked by the birds, but never any kind of verbal contact.”“I don’t know why,” I say and realize with a start that I’m still lying to her.Why? I should be able to trust her with all of the truth, not just bits and pieces.But I can’t.What will she think of me if she knows I have evil in me? Will she still want to be my girlfriend?“What about your powers? You said you’re stronger.Is there anything else, like something new you can do?”Did she want the long or short list?“Along with the super strength is this super speed and you already knew I was starting to move things with my mind.Well, that’s even magnified.I can move bigger things now, people and cars and stuff.And I just feel different, stronger, like indestructible.”“Wow,” she says.“Well, that’s good, I guess.That means all of us are coming into our full powers.We’ll be able to fight whatever this is when we do.”“But how do you know what we’re fighting, or if we’re even fighting on the right side?”“Fatima says—”I don’t even let her finish.“I don’t care what Fatima says.She never really says anything.”Krystal’s eyes get big as my voice rises and I sigh.“Sorry.I’m just getting tired of not really knowing.” But I do, at least now I do.“I don’t know how we, four teenagers with powers we’ve only really used for a few months, can fight this evil or why we were even chosen to do so.”“It doesn’t matter,” she says.“You have to have faith.”“What?”“Faith is believing in things unseen, unheard and unknown.It’s trusting that all things will work out for the good.”“Who told you that?”“I learned it in church.”“It figures.” I sigh again.“What does that mean?”She’s offended, I can tell.That’s not what I meant to do.“I’m just saying these are two different circumstances.”She shakes her head.“No.I don’t think so.I think that we were given these powers for a reason, from some higher being.Why should we question that? Why can’t we just take the powers and do with them as we were meant to?”“Are you serious?” I look at her, asking because Sasha and I were the ones to convince Krystal that she needed to embrace her powers just a few months ago.“I’m dead serious, Jake.I’ve had a lot of time to think about this.We all have a purpose to fulfill on this Earth, a destiny, I guess.”Destiny? Charon said something about fulfilling a destiny.“I just wish we knew what we were supposed to do.”“Maybe we’ll know when it’s time for us to know.” Krystal reaches out then, her fingers touching my cheek the way she does so often.In that second nothing else matters.I don’t want to think about Charon or Styx or these powers or anything else.I just want Krystal.I don’t know if this is what she expected to happen when she touched me, but I scoot closer to her on the bed and lean my face into hers.She blinks at first then gives me a half smile which I take as permission.Next my lips are on hers, soft and warm is the kiss.Just the way I expected.But then something shifts inside of me and my arms are going around her body, pushing her back until I’m lying on top of her.I can feel her heart beating against my chest, or is that mine? I don’t know, all I know is that I love the taste of her, the feel of her.She squirms beneath me and every nerve in my body goes on end.I can’t breathe and then again I can, but the scent is all Krystal.She’s seeping inside me, occupying every lonely space I’ve ever had, pouring into the heart that’s been so empty for so long [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]