Intuition (2 page)

He looked at Sera and shook his head.

Then he ran.

Sera stayed close on Luke’s heels, and when
they reached the guy they were both gasping for breath. Luke got
there first, then stepped aside for Sera to see.

The guy was tall, looked fit, and had short
black hair. His face was screwed up in pain, and he was clutching
his left leg as he sat at the base of the huge smooth boulder. She
couldn’t see his knee because he wore jeans. But she didn’t need
to. The pain on his face told her enough.

Luke took a swig of water and handed the
bottle to Sera as she came up to them. She drank, took a deep
breath.

“You okay?” Sera said to the guy.

He winced as he turned to her. “My knee just
gave out,” he said, his voice tight.

Luke nodded. “Maybe we can help you get down
the mountain.”

“I can’t put any weight on it.” The guy shook
his head, then sized them up. “And there’s no way you two could
carry me down. I’m going to have to call for help, but I forgot my
phone in the car. Do you have a cell?”

Sera met Luke’s eyes. Of course they had
their cell phones, but they weren’t going to call a rescue crew up
the mountain unnecessarily. She looked at the guy while she
fingered her necklace, a special silver pendant she never took
off.

She nodded, and said, “Yeah, but why don’t we
help you move over to this rock to sit on first? I think you’ll be
more comfortable. Then you can call.”

“Yeah, okay, that’d be good,” the guy said.
He smiled painfully. “Thanks, I’m Ben.”

“Sera, and this is my brother Luke.”

Luke reached out for Ben and ducked under his
outstretched arm while Sera got on the other side of him. As soon
as her hands touched Ben, heat raced down her arms. She could see
his body fill with bright white light that centered hotly on his
left knee. She glanced at Luke, his grey eyes met hers, and he gave
a quick nod. He could see the healing light, too. But Ben
couldn’t—no one else could. Only she and Luke. It was always just
the two of them—in this and so many other things.

As they helped Ben to his feet, his face
relaxed, his body became less tense with pain. His knee still
glowed with the healing light, but it had started to fade. They
gingerly moved him over to the rock and helped him sit down. Sera
rested her hand on his shoulder until the light had left his knee
completely, then she took a step back. Her hand sought her necklace
again. Just as it always did.

“Better?” she said.

Ben paused, tilted his head to one side, and
frowned.

“What?” Luke said. “Is it worse?”

Ben looked up at them, shook his head as he
looked from Luke to Sera and back again.

“No,” he said. “It actually...doesn’t hurt
anymore.” He straightened his leg and then bent it again. His face
crumpled in confusion. “This is so weird. It hurt like a
son-of-a-b—” He glanced at Sera. “Uh, gun. And, now...” He reached
a hand toward Luke. “Will you help me stand up?”

Luke grasped his hand, pulled him to his
feet. Ben slowly put weight onto his left leg, looking ready to
wince. But as he straightened up his face broke into a huge
smile.

“Okay, this is going to sound crazy, but it’s
better. It’s gone.”

“Your knee?” Sera laughed.

“The pain.” He took a few steps, shaking his
head, wonder on his face.

This was what she loved about healing people.
This moment. The utter joy. Amazement. Euphoria. It was
contagious—she could feel Ben’s happiness permeating her whole
being. She was grinning like an idiot, but she couldn’t help it.
Healing did that to her sometimes.

Ben stopped and looked at Sera and Luke.
Hard. “Did you...? No.” He shook his head. But he looked at them
again. “Did you do something?” he said quietly.

Sera’s smile froze, chills scuttled over her
skin. Why would he—
How
could he possibly jump to that
conclusion? No one ever had before, and no sane person would think
of that. Even if it was right. She shook her head, took a step
back. Could he have felt the healing? Was it possible he’d seen the
glow?

“What do you mean?” she said.

“I don’t know. Nothing, I guess.” He looked
back and forth between them. “It’s just, I felt this incredible
warmth when you were helping me and then my knee suddenly stopped
hurting. And now I can walk on it again. It’s crazy, I know.”

Oh, no. No. This couldn’t happen. He couldn’t
find out about her, about them. Their secret could not get out.
Sera stepped toward him, reached her hand toward his shoulder like
she was comforting him. As her hand touched him, she immediately
pushed an idea into him.
Your knee was never hurt.

“Maybe you just tweaked it,” Luke said. “And
resting for a few minutes made a difference.”

“I’m sure you’re right,” Ben said, but he
still looked confused. “But you know what’s strange? My knee
doesn’t hurt at all now. It feels better than it has in years.”

Luke shot Sera a look. “Well, maybe something
popped back into place.”

“Maybe,” Ben said.

Sera swept her hand toward the trail, raised
her eyebrows at Luke, and said, “Would you like us to walk with you
back to the parking lot? Just in case?”

Luke nodded and started down the trail in
front of Ben.

“No. It’s okay. My knee feels fine now.” Ben
laughed. “You know, it’s been bothering me for years, so perhaps I
just overreacted a bit. I think I can get myself back to my car and
I don’t want to interrupt your hike. You two were so nice to stop
and help, but I’m fine. I’ll be fine. But if you find me on your
way back down...” He laughed. “No, I’m kidding. I’m fine.” He waved
them off and trudged down the path.

Sera and Luke watched him go in silence. He
glanced back a couple of times, but kept going. Once he was out of
sight, Luke let out a big breath.

“Holy—”

“—crap,” Sera finished for him.

“Yeah, right? Do you have to heal people so
well? I mean, couldn’t you heal whatever was just injured? Do you
have to heal years worth of pain and injury too?”

Sera stared at Luke for a second. “I can’t
control it, Luke. The light heals what it finds. I can’t stop
healing halfway through and hope it’s enough. It doesn’t work that
way.” She shook her head. “I can’t believe you’re blaming me for
this.”

“I’m not. It’s just— How could he tell?”

“I have no idea.”

“That ever happen before?” Luke said.

Sera shook her head. “No.” She looked down
the trail where Ben had disappeared. “No,” she said again. Okay,
yeah, once in a while kids figured it out. Little kids who still
believed that everything imaginable was possible. They could see
the truth of her healing power and marvel at it without thinking
she was evil or some sort of freak. And she knew no adult would
take the kids seriously if they talked about it.

But this was different. This was an adult
with all his childhood illusions long since gone. The reality of
his world made it impossible for him to understand what she’d just
done. Or, for that matter, say it out loud, let alone believe
it.

And yet he had.

Sera looked at Luke again. Their gifts had to
remain their secret, as they had for so long. If people found out
it could rip their lives apart. Like with their grandmother, who
hadn’t wanted anything to do with them since they showed her what
they could do when they were six. Eleven years ago. Yeah, they’d
already had a taste of what happens when people find out. It wasn’t
something they ever intended to repeat.

Well, at least she’d been able to influence
him, make him believe his knee hadn’t been hurt. Thankfully that
had worked.

“So, do you think you can still hack it?”
Luke said, and waved at the trail heading up the mountain. “Or do
we need to turn back for you, too?”

Sera rolled her eyes and laughed. It was
okay. Everything was okay. She didn’t need to worry about this
anymore.

She hoped.

“All right, all right,” she said. “Let’s
go.”

Sitting on top of a mountain cleared Luke’s
mind, and filled his body with a calm he experienced nowhere else.
The air seemed cleaner, more vibrant up here. And the view? The
view was amazing. All of Vermont spread out around them, and in the
distance, the Adirondacks.

He sat on the boulder next to Sera and stared
out at the fall colors splashed across the trees. It felt so big up
here. Earth. The world. But it didn’t make Luke feel small—he felt
as if he were a part of it all. Connected. Necessary.

And his heightened senses only made it
better. He could get used to this, he thought. In fact, he was
starting to thoroughly enjoy it. He might even have to rename the
feeling something other than
impending doom
.

He turned and reached for a granola bar in
the backpack behind him, and the world disappeared.

Luke was in a room that looked like it was
carved out of a mountain. A cave. Walls made of blood-red rocks. It
was massive. The biggest cave he’d ever seen. And empty. Why would
he have a vision about an empty cave?

He turned, saw someone lying on the ground
halfway across the room. Still. No sign of life. As he slowly
walked toward the person, chills spread over his skin. The shoes.
Why did those shoes look familiar?

He ran forward, fear gripping him. Damn it,
why wasn’t the person moving? And where had he seen those shoes
before? Whose were they? He was about to yell when he saw the blood
pooling out on the floor, and his voice, his breath, flew out of
him in a whoosh.

Luke gasped and fell backwards, his head
hitting the huge rock he was on. He lay there for a moment, holding
his breath. He didn’t want Sera to know he’d had a vision. He
didn’t want to tell her about this one. Not yet.

Holy crap. He’d just had a vision that
someone died.

His head throbbed where he’d knocked it and
his eyes fought to focus. Clouds floated serenely in the sky above,
in complete contrast to the panic raging inside him. He had to pull
himself together before he looked at her. He breathed in short,
quiet bursts. He needed to slow his heart, calm his breath, wait
for the look of irrational fear to leave his eyes.

Except it wasn’t irrational. It wasn’t
irrational at all. The thing about his visions? They always came
true. Always. And he’d never had a vision like this before. Someone
was killed. He was sure that’s what he’d Seen.

Sure as he’d ever been of anything in his
life.

“Luke?” Sera had turned to look at him, a
slight frown on her face. “You okay?”

No. He wasn’t. Not until he found out who
that vision was about. Oh, and figured out that small matter of how
to stop it from coming true. Holy crap. He
had
to stop this
one.

He tried to make his voice sound normal. “I’m
checking out the clouds.” He didn’t answer her question. He
wouldn’t lie to her outright.

She lay back, her head near his and looked up
at the sky with him. “You looking for dogs and bunnies?” She
elbowed him gently.

Luke smiled, started to relax a little. Maybe
he’d missed something in the vision, misinterpreted it. “Yup. And
butterflies.” He lowered his voice. “I also figured the fairies
might come out to join us if we’re really quiet.”

Sera laughed, turned to look at him. “I can’t
believe you remember that. You remember waiting for them in the
yard?”

“Under the apple tree where you built those
fairy houses out of sticks and leaves?”

“And flowers. Fairies like flowers. At least
that’s what the book said.” Sera sighed, shifted her head. “We
waited day after day after day.”

“And they never came.”

“Nope, they never did.”

They were quiet a moment. Luke’s heart had
slowed. The vision wasn’t complete enough to really panic. Yet. And
maybe—just maybe—he was wrong about it. It was possible he could be
wrong once. Right?