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road.
    "I have no intention of harming you," Caelan said, startling me. "And I will tell you everything, though you will not believe." I considered all that had happened in the last twenty-four hours, and beyond that, the last two years. "You'd be surprised what I would believe."
    I hated hearing the words aloud, how crazy they sounded. Scott would have flinched if he'd been here, another good reason for keeping him in the dark, at least for now. I'd always thought people who were unbalanced should've been able to recognize and adjust that quality about themselves, if only by the negative 38
    Stacey Klemstein
    reactions of those around them. But from personal experience, I now knew that disapproval and condemnation only intensified your convictions, instead of changing them.
    A long moment of silence passed. Then he said, "Here is the truth–you are the only hope for our freedom against Nevan, which is why he fears you. You are the one prophesied to bring about his downfall, and I have been searching for you for nearly two years." Little bits of a bigger picture, like the glass beads that melted to form a stained glass window, began rolling together in my mind. The dreams, Nevan...I forced a laugh. "You're kidding, right?"
    His silence answered that question.
    "Oh, come on." I started to get angry. "Somebody told you about my little dream problem, and you decided to–"
    "What dream problem?" He turned his head sharply to look at me.
    "Nothing. Never mind." I shifted uneasily in my seat behind the wheel. He didn't know about me and the dreams. His reaction was way too...intense. "So what else? You said something about freeing you. Free you from what? You guys are on a research mission, right?" Bait, bait, bait. Here fishie, fishie. He didn't bite. "It is not that simple," he said.
    "Okay, so then tell me what's really going on. Are you planning to take over the world, kidnap humans, and use them as slaves, what?" The conspiracy chat rooms I belonged to had come up with every possible scenario.
    I felt him watching me. His stare raised the hairs on the back of my neck.
    "I will tell you the truth, but you are not yet ready to hear it," he said.
    "Hey, I came with you because you said you would tell me what you knew. I'm here, so follow through on your end of the bargain."
    39
    The Silver Spoon

    "You came with me because you recognized that I spoke the truth when I told you of Nevan's desire to see you dead." Without thinking I took one hand from the wheel, and started to point an accusing finger at him. "Now, look..." Pain arced up through my chest, making nausea swirl inside me. In my anger, I'd forgotten the injury, most likely one hell of a bruise on my ribs, which had dulled down to a slow burn. Even if Caelan was crazy with this whole prophecy thing, Nevan apparently thought he was onto something.
    "Nevan will continue his attempts to eliminate you until he succeeds," Caelan said, as if he'd read my mind.
    "Why? I've never even met one of you until tonight. And I have to say, based on this experience, I hope I never do again."
    "You will bring about the end of Nevan's power. He fears that."
    "Right. Did you not see the guy?" I asked. "He was ready to turn my head into a twist-off lid."
    When Caelan didn't respond, I started to explain, "It means he could've killed me with little or no eff–"
    "I understand what you mean from your thoughts, if not your words," he said.
    "You can read my mind?" My fists tightened on the wheel again as I attempted to stave off the surge of panic pouring through my veins.
    "Some, but not all. Usually it is only your uppermost thoughts," he said. "But if I touch you–"
    "Keep your hands to yourself," I said immediately. He let out a soft breath of air, something close to a sigh, probably of exasperation. Tough. He wasn't the one being led around on this wild ride, I was.
    "We don't know exactly how the prophecy will unfold. Only the end is clear," he said, returning to our earlier