Revelations by Carrie Lynn Barker Page A

goner, man,” he said.
    Jonas gave me only the briefest of looks before giving Starch his full attention. “I’m okay,” he said.
    “You sure?” Starch asked.
    “I’m all right,” Jonas said, trying to assure him.
    Starch was a little skeptical and curious. He leaned against the porch rail, facing Jonas and me.
    “I’m fine,” Jonas growled.
    “Okay,” Starch said. “I just thought….”
    “Yeah,” Jonas said, “I thought the same thing for a little while there.”
    Starch left it at that. The rest of the day went pretty much like any other day, except Jonas had to answer for his renewed health. Nobody questioned it really. Hermione said it must be her tea that was the ultimate cure. I only rolled my eyes when she wasn’t looking. The worry left the house and everything was okay. It was over quickly and it really was that simple.
    Though everyone was kinda pissed when I commandeered the remote control and took over the TV for the night. Cadence did what she always did; she retreated to her room with a book; she almost hates TV with an ultimate passion. Pete and Patty tolerated my flipping channels for a while. Starch, still holding onto his confusion, but not voicing it, went to bed early. Philip, who returned from his business trip to find everything in chaos, relished the quiet that settled over the household since Jonas’s seemingly miraculous (there’s that word again) recovery. Philip was sitting in the kitchen eating a late dinner with Alendra, who liked her steak as raw as she could get it. Humbolt and Hermione vanished into their usual domain.
    Jonas alone knew what I was looking for on the television.
    I did not see Christian again. Not for a long time. Not after a lot had happened. I continued to channel surf until I fell asleep. Jonas carried me off to bed and slept beside me. Waking in his arms gave me just about the greatest feeling I’d ever had— next to being kissed by him for the first time and every other time he kissed me after that. It was still late, and I lay awake for a long time, running my finger along the line of his hard jaw, tracing the path of his scaled skin. Gods, I never knew I could love someone so much.
    While I lay awake, dawn very far away, I heard her calling me again. That was a call I knew I could not deny, so I went outside to a private conversation with my new friend, Alendra.

Chapter Nineteen
    She sat outside on the ridge overlooking the Commune, the place where Jonas and I so loved to sit, only because there was a big, flat rock up there to sit on. In the dark, barefoot and not worried about thorns or cactus needles digging into my feet, I climbed up the side of the hill, guided only by the dim light of the waning moon. She was wolf, and she sat on her haunches, staring out at the desert beyond with her back to the Commune. Her tail once again swished the ground.
    Her first question caught me off guard. “ Do you have faith, Christiana?”
    “ In what?” I asked, having no idea how I should answer this.
    “ In anything,” she said. “ In yourself? In others? In humanity?”
    I thought about it for a moment, but there was only one way I could answer. “ I don’t think so.”
    Her wolf eyes met mine. “ Not even in yourself?”
    I shook my head, feeling honesty was best. “ Never have ,” I told her.
    She angled her head, looking at me sideways then turned her attention back to the desert. “ You can read minds, Chris. You know the truth about people. You can know the truth about everyone. And yet you have no faith? I know you don’t believe in God, but you must believe in something .”
    I looked at her even though her eyes were focused elsewhere. “ Alendra, how much did you read from my mind?”
    “ Not enough,” she said. “ And I won’t pry now. I was just curious.”
    “ Well,” I said, “ what about you? What do you have faith in?”
    “ I, at least, have faith in myself .”
    I smiled wanly as her eyes darted my way. “ People died