Chapter One

Mara looked longingly back at her parents car before turning to face the imposing facade of Spenser Academy. Squaring her shoulders and hoisting her bag more firmly onto her shoulder she walked up the steps and into the large red brick building. Following the office signs, she soon found herself in the Headmaster's office.

"Welcome to Spenser, Miss Blake. Our standards are high, but judging from your grades I feel you will have no difficulty keeping to them. We do now require you to participate in one athletic extracurricular. You may speak with you Physical Education teacher about your options in that regard. You have your schedule, map of the school , and room assignment. I'll have one of our office volunteers show you to your room. You have today to unpack and get your bearings, tomorrow you will be expected in class. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir."

Mara waited as the Headmaster stood and led her out of the office.

"Mr. Garwin. Wonderful," said the headmaster addressing a tall boy, my age with shaggy blonde hair. "This is Miss Blake. Show her to her room and give her any assistance she may need for the rest of the day."

"Sir, my time's over next period."

"Wrong, Mr Garwin. Your time's over when Miss Blake no longer needs your assistance."

Mara watched as the headmaster disappeared back into his office leaving her alone with 'Mr. Garwin.'

"Hi," I said nervously.

'Mr. Garwin' swiveled his head to look at me. "Well come on then," he said grabbing my duffel from my shoulder and striding out the door.

I followed him out of the office and across the grounds.

"You just came from the administration building. It houses the administration and English classes. Over there is the Higgs building. It has math and science mostly. That is the gymnasium housing everything to do with any of Spenser's sports programs. Behind it are all of the athletic fields. On that side of the courtyard is the Marshall building. History and most extracurricular's are there. All of the teachers have offices on the top floor of the building they teach in. And here," he said as we arrived in front of yet another tall dark-bricked building," is one of the housing units. This is Allmans over there is Bertram. This building is mostly single rooms with a few doubles sprinkled about. Bertram is all doubles."

I continued to follow him as he shouldered open the door holding it with one arm as I passed.

"What's your room number?"

"272."

I followed behind yet again as he turned left and headed up a flight of stairs.

As we came out onto the second floor the vision hit.

Thunder rolled overhead as orbs of energy flew from the hands of five dark figures. They were aimed across the clearing at seven other imposing figures. Power crackled as the energy orbs met a separate energy from the seven figures. The world swirled and the five dark figures drew closer. Two had black hair, one dark and one pale, two brunette, and one blonde. Their hair plastered to their heads from the rain, droplets running down their faces.

Lightning flashed revealing black eyes and the world turned yet again. This time to the fives' opponents. All were dark-haired with pale skin and storming eyes.

"Come on , Sleeping Beauty. Open those eyes."

Head pounding, I cracked one eye open to find myself staring into pale blue-gray eyes.

"The curtains."

The pain receded slightly as the curtains were pulled shut, blocking out the midmorning sun.

I sat up slowly, internally auditing each part of my body, looking automatically for breaks or sprains. Finding none, I pushed myself all the way up to find those haunting blue-gray eyes intensely focused on me.

"So what was that new girl?"

"My name is Mara."

"Reid."

From there silence ensued as Reid waited for me to explain.

"I know what you are."

"What are you talking about?" His moves were careless, but rigidly controlled as he turned to study the clock hanging on the wall.

"I know what you can do. I know about the Power."

At this he spun around and leapt forward crowding me back against the headboard.

"What the hell do you think you know," he asked, his voice soft over lightly veiled violence.

"Who are the others?"

"What others?"

"There are five. Two brunette, two with black hair, and you. Who are the others?

"What do you know," he asked again, impatience clear in his voice and his face.

"You're all in danger. I need to know who the others are."

"For me to tell you anything you're going to have to be a little bit more open," he said before pulling away and standing in front of the window.

I looked around the room. It was a double, with a large entertainment center on one wall, desks against the other wall separated two double beds. One of the shorter walls held what I assumeed were bathroom and closet doors and the opposite held bookshelves equally over run with books and trophies.

"Where am I?"

"My dorm room."

"Will anyone interrupt us here?"

"I put a note on the door for them to knock first."

His voice was cold. He was truly angry, but not with me I suspected, or not completely with me.

"I'm a seer."

"What."

"I know you both heard and understood me. I'm not going to repeat myself."

"Okay. So why do you think we're in danger?"

"I know you're in danger. Everything I've ever seen has come true. I saw the five of you fighting someone. A group of seven."

"Fighting how?"

"You were using the Power. They were using...something else. Similar to the Power, but different."

"What does that even mean?"

"It's far off, a couple months at least, and not very clear yet. It'll get clearer as it gets closer."

"Who were the seven?"

" I don't know. I didn't see them close up. And it was raining. All I know is that there are seven with power different, but similar to yours."

"I have to tell the others. You'll come with me. Are you up to it?"

"Yes."

Reid grabbed his jacket from the chair he had thrown it on and pushed his arms into it. As he settled it over his shoulders he turned to me slowly.

"You said there were five of us."

"Yes."

"There's only four. The fifth is gone."

"Apparently not."

"Splendid. Caleb will be so happy."

I rose from the bed and walked over to stand next to him. "Before we go wherever it is we're going can I drop my stuff in my dorm and change. It's chilly out and I'm wearing a skirt."

"Fine, but don't take forever."

"I'll do my best," I replied sarcastically and walked by him out into the hallway. Then I realized I still didn't know here I was going so I turned and fixed him with an impatient stare as though it were his fault.

He was dialing his phone and looked up at me. "Left," he said before returning his attention to his cell phone.

I turned left and walked almost to the end of the hall before coming up to 272. I pulled the key the Headmaster had given me out of my pocket and opened the door. The room was sparsely furnished. It held the new double bed my parents had sent, a solid wood nightstand, dresser, book case, and desk. On the left wall was a small bathroom and closet doors. Where the back and right wall met, my bed was pushed into the corner. The desk and book case were on the front wall to the left of the door. I moved over as Reid dumped my bag on my bed and then sat on the desk. I quickly pulled some jeans, a green henley and a calico button up shirt from my bag and headed into the bathroom. As I stripped out of my skirt and blouse I reflected on Reid's earlier words about the fifth. I was curious as to what had happened to cause such negative feeling toward him, whoever he was. I pulled my jeans on and slipped the henley over my head. i then pulled the button up top over that and buttoned it up, then rolled the sleeves up to my elbows. I picked up my discarded clothes as I shoved my feet back into my brown flats and turned to find Reid staring at me through a crack between the door and jamb where the wood had warped.

"You perv," I spat as I pushed through the doorway and threw my dirty clothes onto my desk.

"What does it say?"

"I have no idea what you're referring to. Now let's go."

"Oh yes you do. I'll get it out of you eventually, or maybe I'll get a little close up peek."

"Come on perv. Time's a wastin'."

"Alright." I grabbed my coat from the bed and my purse as he walked out the door. I followed, locking the door behind me before turning and running to catch up with him halfway down the hall. We stopped at his dorm and waited as he rapped on the door.

A boy slightly shorter than Reid with a pale face and black hair that was slightly spiked walked out the door. He wore brown cords, a navy shirt and a black wool coat, in his hand was a set of keys.

"Pogue and Caleb are already on their way with the girls. We'll get there last."

"Fine with me. Bit of dramatic effect."

I followed the two boys as they began to bicker between them who would drive. The dark-haired boy apparently won as he was the one who slid into the drivers' seat of the large black Hummer. Reid leapt into the passenger seat leaving Mara, who was only 5'4", to climb into the back seat.

"My name's Mara," I said as he pulled out of the parking lot at a rather high speed.

"Tyler Simms," he replied, seeming distracted. "So what's this all about anyway."

Before I could answer Reid said, "You'll find out with everyone else. No need to repeat everything twice."

"Okay."

The rest of the ride was silent as we drove farther from town and into the deep woods of the country. We finally pulled up to an old stone house at the end of a long dirt road.

I glanced around, subconsciously memorizing my surroundings as the other's got out of the Hummer.

"You comin'," Reid called.

"Yeah sorry," I muttered as I jump from the vehicle.

I followed them around to the side of the stone house and down some steps into a dark basement. Inside was a tall man with dark skin and hair, the leader I had seen in the vision. With him was one of the brunettes, the one with hair that hung to his shoulders. They were deep in conversation in a far corner. Sitting together by the fire in the center of the room were two girls. One pale-skinned and blonde, the other with mocha skin and black hair.

The girls looked up as we entered, but the two other boys didn't even notice our arrival.

"Hi," the blonde said as the three of us settled by the fire. At her words the two other's turned. For a moment I felt them watching me before stepping close to the fire. The dark-haired boy at the obvious head of the circle while the brunette sat on his right hand.

"So what's going on Reid," said the dark-haired one before settling his forearms on his knees and clasping his hands together.

"This is Mara," Reid replied, seemingly unconcerned with the urgency of the situation. "This is Caleb Danvers, Pogue Parry, Sarah Wenham, and Kate Tunney." As he introduced them he pointed to each. Sarah and Kate both waved while the boys merely stared. Caleb's face betraying his impatience.

"You called the meeting Reid. You said it was urgent. What's going on."

"Mara you take it from here," he urged, before leaning back.

"My name's Mara...Blake. I just started at Spenser today. Umm...I'm a seer. I've had the ability as long as I can remember, though it wasn't until about seven that I began to understand them. Today, while Reid was showing me to my dorm room I had another vision. It's the third I've had pertaining to you. The first was almost four months ago. The second last month. It was much clearer and I was able to track you down, with a little help. My visions so far have been the same. Five of you facing a group of seven. You are using the Power, but they are using something different. Like Power that had evolved differently or something. You fight and the scene swings and I get a close-up of your faces and then it swings back toward the group of seven. After that everything goes dark."

"What about the other visions?" This question came from Pogue.

"The first was very disoriented and I barely got a look at you. In the second one I got a close-up of you, Caleb, and saw the school crest on your uniform. It's how I found you. I researched the crest and found a picture of Caleb from the State Finals last year. Then I transferred here and was planning on tracking you down tomorrow but I ran into Reid first. I didn't see him in the vision so I didn't know who he was until I had the third one in the the dorm."

"How long," inquired Caleb, he face was grim.

"Two months at least. Three or four if we're lucky."

"Why at least two?"

"Just experience with my visions. The future changes rapidly for the most part. The first vision wouldn't have come to me until the seven decided to come here. If it were closer than a couple months there would be more details. I'd get a better look at the seven, for example, or even an impression of a time or day. Right now all I can be sure of is that it's a full moon and on a weekday. Although the weekday things is just based on the fact that in the vision your wearing your uniforms."

"It's the middle of the season. We wear our uniforms to competitions, it could be any day."

"Oh. Well, then disregard the weekday thing. It is a full moon though. I definitely saw that."

After my last statement there was silence, then Caleb stood.

"You said five. There's only four now."

"That's what Reid said, but he must not be gone. And whatever you think happened to him is wrong. My visions don't lie."

"It has to be him Caleb. There's no one else," said Pogue.

"We always knew it was a possibility Caleb when the firemen didn't find anything," added Sarah.

"What other details can you give us. I've told you everything, though there maybe be details I don't realize are significant. The more I learn about you and the Power, the better I'll be able to interpret this and future visions."

"Okay. Well, meeting adjourned I guess. Reid and Tyler, give her a crash course on the family history, the Power, and Chase on the way home. And see if you can track down a picture of Chase to show her."

"What are you gonna do?"

"Go home and see if there's anything in the family library about others with the Power."

Everyone stood and began to make their way out of the basement. I grabbed Reid jacket sleeve as he turned and told him to give me a couple minutes with Caleb.

He was standing over in the far corner again. Though this time he was pulling out a few books from the shelves there.

I approached his backs slowly and whispered his name.

He turned deliberately and fixed me with a cold stare. "What?"

His voice was impatient and barely contained the anger I could see in his eyes.

"I'm sorry I had to bring you such terrible news," I replied. "I know this isn't what you want. You're tired of fighting."

"It was right for you to find us. I don't blame you."

"I know. But it's okay to be mad. I know I was given this vision for a reason. I think I'm supposed to help you find a way to win. And I think you might be the only ones who could."

"What do you mean?"

"The feeling I have during the visions. It's as though the fight with you is only step number one. Getting rid of obstacles before the war really starts."

"So they're after more than just us."

"I think so."

"I'm glad you're here Mara. I know you'll do everything you can to help us."

"I will."

Caleb turned back to the shelves and I laid a hand on his shoulder, squeezing gently before going back up and joining Reid and Tyler in the Hummer.