Echo Soul Seekers

pouch. Maybe I should tell her—warn her that it puts her at risk.
    I shake my head. Scrub my hands over my face. I’ve got to stop this. Got to stop making excuses to think of her, see her. Paloma’s looking after her. Chay too from what I saw earlier. She’s in good hands.
    I need to focus on protecting her in other ways.
    Bigger ways.
    Ways that truly matter.
    I stare at Chepi’s ring—a relic from my childhood I’d grown used to seeing, only now it looks different. As though it contains a whole cache of secrets I couldn’t even begin to comprehend. My head so full, my thoughts so conflicted, I’m only half listening to myself when I say, “The animals are so corrupted they’re no longer reliable.”
    My attention claimed by Leftfoot pushing away from the table. “Then we’ll have to rely on ourselves,” he says, heading toward the door and motioning for me to follow.

 
    sixteen
    Daire
    When the drive goes on for too long, when Chay continues to meander down a series of unfamiliar dirt roads, taking increasingly confusing turns, I face him and say, “I thought you said Paloma was waiting?”
    He shoots me a patient look. “She is.”
    “So—where exactly is it she’s waiting? Clearly you’re not taking me home.”
    “We’re headed for the falls,” he says, as though that makes perfect sense, when in truth it makes none.
    “Can you give me a little more to go on?” I try to quell my growing alarm, along with the nervous chill running through me. This is reminding me an awful lot of how my vision quest went down. And despite getting through it and emerging renewed, that’s not to say I enjoyed it.
    Chay reaches toward me, his eagle ring glinting when he pats me on the knee. “I texted Paloma when I saw you in Gifford’s. She told me to take you to the falls—said she’d meet us there.”
    “You guys text?” I swing toward him. I know it’s not supposed to be the part I focus on—still, I never would’ve guessed.
    Chay laughs. “Yeah, we text. We Facebook too. Though we draw the line at Twitter.”
    I shake my head. Force myself to focus, get back on track. “So, what will we do there, once we reach these falls ?”
    He looks at me. “Paloma will explain when we get there. I’m just the chauffeur.”
    I sigh. Slink toward the edge of my seat. All too aware there’s no use pushing for more. Chay and Paloma are far too tight to fall for a game of Divide & Conquer.
    A ribbon of scenery unfurls past my window—a smear of stark barren shapes in dark beiges and browns, set against a sky bleached white as bones. Despite the cold and dreary weather, Xotichl’s claim that it’ll snow by Christmas seems more improbable by the day.
    We travel for miles. Travel over unfamiliar terrain that only seems to grow increasingly rugged the farther we go. And when we finally stop just a few feet from the water, I spot Paloma’s Jeep parked near the shore.
    I ease out of Chay’s truck, watching as the two of them confer, with their heads bent together like fellow conspirators. Any chance of eavesdropping nixed by the rush of water raging so loudly it drowns everything out.
    “Are you ready?” Paloma looks at me, her expression carefully guarded.
    My eyes dart all around. Seeing a raging river and two people who may or may not have my best interests at heart.
    “Ready for what?” I ask, though I’m afraid I already know. I begged Paloma to complete my Seeker initiation, to teach me as much as she could, as quickly as she could, and this is her way of making good on her word. “You seriously expect me to go in there? Now? ” I point toward the river and shake my head. “You’ve got to be joking!” I fold my arms across my chest. “No way, Paloma. In case you haven’t noticed, it’s freezing. Not to mention, I’m not exactly dressed for it.”
    It seems like a good excuse to me, but the words are lost on her. Without so much as a pause, she says, “I brought you a change of clothes. As soon as you’re ready, you will enter at this point here—” Her arm arcs before her, fingers pointing toward the place where the water meets the dirt. “And you will head downstream and find your way to the waterfall where you will endure its deluge until you manage to merge with its power and it reveals its song to you.”
    I blink. Shake my head. Blink again. Though it’s not like it does any good. Every time I open my eyes I see them standing before me, waiting for me to quit wasting time