Heart's Reflection Read Free

tossing his bigger brother to the ground. Then Liam turned to me as
Keagan stood.
    "Tara—"
Liam began only to be interrupted.
    "Are you all
right?" The coach crouched in front of me. He started to place a hand on
my chin, probably with the intention of examining me, but I didn't want to take
the chance of another vision...this time of his death.
    "Don't,"
I cried, reeling back to evade his touch.
    "Okay,"
he said, leaning away. "But where's the pain? Is it your head?"
    Keagan yelled at
the field. "Somebody get the school nurse and call an ambulance."
    "She doesn't
need a nurse or an ambulance," Liam said, shoving his brother hard with a
hand to the chest.
    "Just because
I suggested it?" Keagan shook his head. "You really are pathetic,
man."
    "He's right.
I'm fine." I struggled to rise to my feet without touching anyone. My
breath chugged in and out. The air felt like gravel in my lungs. "There
was a...a bee. It didn't sting me. I'm sorry I overreacted but I'm really
allergic."
    "I didn't see
a bee." Keagan scowled, eyeing me up and down.
    "If she said
there was a bee, there was a bee! A'ight?" Liam shouted getting up into
his face.
    "Now
boys," the coach said. "Calm it down or I'm going to have to call campus
security."
    "Call
'em," Liam said. "They'll be too late to save this jerk."
    Keagan didn't back
away. He just stared Liam directly in the eyes. When he spoke the words came
out as a growl. "You wanna fight bro? Let's go."
    "Aghhhhhhhhhhh,"
I screamed. "This arguing is driving me crazy. I can't take it."
    The three of
them—Liam, Keagan and the coach—all turned to me in concert. The
expressions on their faces couldn't have registered more shock if I'd sprouted
horns. Come to think of it, my outburst was sort of like a fluffy bunny turning
into a charging bull.
    "Just go
ahead and kill each other. I can't stop you." My voice broke on the last
word with the strain of the volume and the emotion.
    As they all
continued to gawp at me, I whirled and ran without really knowing in what
direction. The only requirement was to get away.
    * * * * *
    "It was
horrible," I said. "Liam lying there with his neck broken and then
the two of them fighting...I knew where it would end. With Liam dead."
    As I spoke, head
resting on our kitchen table, my voice came out sadly muffled. But my
grandmother heard. She reached over from her seat opposite me and placed a hand
on my shoulder. The combination of patting and massaging didn't have its usual
comforting effect.
    "Oh honey.
I'm sorry."
    Sometimes I used
to rail to my Gran about why a banshee could never see anything but death. I
couldn't foretell babies or marriages or...well anything happy. Just another
person's end. But bitching about my
talent wouldn't change anything.
    "Gran, what
am I going to do?" I asked, lifting my head.
    "I know what
you're feeling, Tara. Believe me, I know," Gran said. "But there
isn't anything you can do. It's fate."
    My head shook so
hard the hair fell into my face. "No. I saw Liam's death before. For seven
years he's been fated to die of old age. Now, suddenly, he's gonna die on
Friday night?"
    "Sometimes
that happens. There's a fork in the road." Gran smiled sadly. "He's
passed over the fork and his destiny's changed."
    My phone pinged,
signaling a text. Pulling it out of the purse I'd dropped on the floor at my
feet, I examined the face and found a message from Liam: Cum2 dinA @ my hous
2nite. I promiS 2b gud.
    Like lightning,
another text followed. This one was from Keagan: Won't promiS 2bgud but promiS
no fyts w/bro or my MFF.
    Keagan's text
almost made me crack a smile. I knew the MFF was a less than polite reference
to his father. For Keagan that pledge was huge.
    Keagan and Liam.
The two brothers. Each with a tragic future.
    Placing the phone
on the table, I glanced up at Gran. "If Liam's fate could change, then it
can change back. I can do something to change it back."
    "What?"
Gran asked.
    "I don't
know," I said. "But I can't be responsible again for