With tiny hands covered in hospital gloves, Laura flipped through the gilt pages of a decrepit book. “This is so cool.” Her blue eyes flashed.
“Miss McAllen.” Harlixton hovered over me. “Here’s your research topic and your gloves. Your table looks a little crowded. Why don’t you move to the one by the window?”
“Okay. If you insist.” I took the gloves and my assignment and headed over to the lead paned window that overlooked the quad out front. Something big was about to happen. Mr. Harlixton had already set out a stack of books for me on the table. Facing the window, I inhaled in a deep breath as I wriggled my fingers into the gloves. Outside, the sky darkened into shades of blue and gray. The uneven glass painted the clouds with a watercolor glow.
My eyes scanned the research topic and my heart dive-bombed into the pit of my stomach. Harlixton had assigned me the topic of firstborn bloodline powers and listed fifteen or twenty books to choose from. With shaking hands, I reached for the first book entitled, The Chosen Ones and the Line of the Firstborn. Slowly, I eased open the pages, my eyes landing on the lineage of Noah. This book said that each of the Chosen Ones was descended from one of Noah’s sons. As the Seer, I was supposedly descended from Noah’s firstborn son, Shem. As the firstborn son, Shem’s gift as the Seer was purported to be the most powerful of the Chosen Ones. The Seer could see the supernatural world of angels and demons, were said to be super strong, and could wield something called “Angel Fire.” Was that what happened at the Hard Rock Cafe?
Mr. Harlixton eased into a chair beside me. “Interesting stuff about angel fire. Right?”
I gulped and glanced behind me. All around the room, pages swished as everyone pored over their ancient tomes. Nobody paid us any attention. My heart raced, but I nodded anyway.
Moonlight from the window in front of us glinted off Mr. Harlixton’s glasses. “A little birdie told me you had a strange episode at the Hard Rock Cafe. I’m guessing it had something to do with this?” He pointed to an illustration of a man with lightning emanating from his palms.
“I—” Before I could utter another word, Harlixton cut me off.
“Not here.” He hissed. “You can tell me all about it in our next meeting. For now, just keep reading.”
“Okay” I bobbed my head again, watching him through his reflection in the window as he walked back to the rest of the class. I turned to the book in front of me, eager to devour more information.
Apparently, the Seer’s powers stemmed from a covenant with God, the one in Genesis six to be precise. A black and white drawing of a man in a robe stared back at me. He was kneeling before a great beam of light with wispy shapes of light and shadow swirling from his eyes. I blinked, then blinked harder. The picture was unmistakable. Exactly the same image as the vision I’d had in Harlixton’s class. The caption read Noah’s Covenant.
“Covenant.” The word whispered in my ears over and over again, like it came from somewhere in the room. I glanced up, but none of the students were talking and Mr. Harlixton was engrossed in a book of his own. Scouring the room with my eyes, I analyzed every nook and cranny from the stacks to the turret, even out the window. No one lurked in the corners or in the shadows. I closed my eyes, and the whispers stopped.
Turning the page, I kept reading, if only to distract myself from my own craziness. This section went into the powers of the firstborn descendants of Shem. Every descendant in the line of Shem was supposed to have special gifts. Which is exactly what Mom and Dad always told us growing up. Paige and I were raised to accept the lesser powers of the siblings of the Seer. Normal, non-Seer firstborn bloodline power could range from premonitions, a sense of knowing, or a heightened discernment between good and evil. It took years to figure out and hone these lesser gifts. And until recently, I’d resigned myself to my second born status.
Someone loomed over my shoulder, casting a shadow on the page in front of me.
Mr. Harlixton cleared his throat. “You’ll want to skip to the next section. Your assessment indicated that you already know this information. For your paper, I’ll expect a detailed study of new information you learn from these books.”
“Okay.” I gulped. “Thanks.”
Without another word, he turned the page and shuffled back to his table overlooking the rest of the class. Air clogged in my throat as I read the page heading, The Seer. Below the heading, a strange symbol of a triangle with a swirling eye in the center stared back at me. The text below detailed the prophecy of the emergence of the Seer. It read, “Once every century, one appointed firstborn descendant of Noah will emerge as the Seer on their eighteenth birthday. The Seer will emerge in the midst of great turmoil, be it war or famine or plague. The Seer will be the conduit for Divine Power of both light and darkness, angels and demons, to descend upon the earthly plane.”
Swallowing down the lump at the back of my throat, I read the last line on the page. “Before the Seer can be fully imbued with Divine Power, they must choose between the powers of light and darkness.”
My lungs froze in my chest, as if waiting to breathe until I turned the page. The powers of light and darkness were detailed on the next page, and they couldn’t be more different. If I chose to channel the powers of light, I’d literally be a conduit for angel powers. As in, the power of angels would
