The Prophecy of Shadows by Michelle Madow Page A

her arms. “Now we’re basing our ideas off of Google searches.” She rolled her eyes, her upper lip curled. “Great.”
    “Do you have any better ideas?” I asked.
    “Not ideas, but I do have a question,” she said. “If what you and Blake are saying is correct, then what does that make you? This says there are ‘five representing each part of the world,’ but there are only four elements.”
    “There are actually five elements, and I think Nicole is the final one,” Blake spoke up again. “Aether. It also means spirit, or power of life. The prophecy says ‘the Aether will ignite them,’ so ‘them’ must be the four other elements—the elements we can control. Under the comet we felt an electric shock. That could have been when our new powers manifested.”
    “So the comet gave us these powers,” Chris said. “And it was ignited by the Aether. Which is you.” He pointed at me, his eyes serious. “But have you been able to use ‘the spirit of life’—whatever that means?”
    I looked around at all of them and took a deep breath. It was now or never. “You all saw what happened in homeroom this morning—when the glass broke?” I asked.
    Everyone nodded, which I took as a sign to continue. Even Danielle crossed her legs and faced my direction, looking mildly interested in what I had to say.
    “A shard of the glass got into my arm,” I said, glancing down at my wrist. “I panicked and took it out, and when I was putting pressure on it to stop the bleeding, I imagined it healing.” I held my hand over the same spot on my arm, remembering how easy it had been to fix. “It worked.”
    Danielle uncrossed her legs and placed her hands on her knees. “Let me get this straight,” she said. “You healed a gash on your arm in less than a minute?”
    “I don’t know how long it took…”
    “It was about ten seconds,” Kate said.
    “Okay.” I smiled at her in thanks and turned back to Danielle. “Ten seconds. That could be what ‘the spirit of life’ means—the power to heal.”
    Danielle nodded and sat back in the couch. If I didn’t know any better, I might have thought she was impressed. By me .
    “So we’ve gone over most of the prophecy,” Blake said quickly. “But we haven’t talked about the last line—the one about the Journey and the Shadows. Do any of you have an idea about what it could mean?”
    “No clue.” I shrugged and looked around to see if anyone else had an idea. No one spoke up.
    “I’m as stumped as the rest of you,” Chris said after a few long seconds. “And I’m also hungry. Why don’t we go to Sophie’s and talk about it there? Maybe a change of scenery will help us think.”
    I looked at him and tilted my head. “Who’s Sophie?” I asked.
    “Sophie’s Diner.” He laughed. “Open 24 hours, got the best food around.”
    My stomach growled with the thought. “I haven’t been there yet,” I told him. “And food does sound amazing right now.”
    “Then we definitely have to go.” He stood up and headed towards the stairs before anyone could disagree, and we piled into our cars to head to Sophie’s Diner, which Chris swore had the best burgers in the state of Massachusetts.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
     
    The delicious smell of greasy food filled my nose the second I walked inside Sophie’s Diner, making my mouth water. The sea foam green booths looked welcoming, and the mini-jukeboxes on the walls gave the place a fun fifties vibe. Even though I hadn’t tried the food yet, I already loved it here.
    “Table for five?” the hostess asked, grabbing menus from the stack on the stand.
    “A booth would be great,” Blake said smoothly.
    We followed her to a booth in the corner, which wrapped around in a semi-circle, and got ourselves situated. The menu had tons of options, but I ultimately went with a burger, since Chris said they were the best.
    The waitress brought our drinks out first. The hot chocolate smelled amazing, and I took a sip without