Struck by Jennifer Bosworth

moment she set foot on American soil, she fell to her knees, struck by a vision.”
    Shuffle .
    “She began a reading, using every card in this same deck. The reading went on for a full day and night as she laid out the cards in a circle around her. At the end of the reading, she told her people she had seen the end, the destruction of the world and of humankind, and that it would begin here, in the New World.”
    Shuffle .
    “She said there would be signs to warn us, that one of the last signs would be an earthquake that would lay low the towers of a great City of Angels … all but one. And a false prophet would rise to power on a tide of destruction.”
    Shuffle .
    “But there would be a way to prevent the ultimate end of this world. My ancestor formed the Circle of Seekers to gather people with the Spark when the time came, and to build an army to fight the false prophet. But when she finally traveled to the City of Angels she had seen in her vision, she knew the end would not come for over a hundred years, because the towers that would fall had not even been built. But she knew where they would be built, and she went there.”
    Shuffle .
    “When she came to the area where the towers would rise and fall, she felt the charge in the earth. The power. She was once again struck by a vision of the end.”
    Katrina stopped shuffling.
    I stopped breathing. Even my heart seemed to pause between beats.
    “Before she died,” Katrina said, “she told her children what she’d seen.”
    “What was it?” I asked, hating the breathless sound of my own voice.
    “A girl standing atop the last tower, surrounded by a raging storm and lightning made of blood.”
    I remembered the dream I had after I touched Jeremy’s hand, the red lightning, and the chills living on my spine raced over the rest of me.
    “The arrival of this girl would be the final portent before the end. She said we would know her because her skin would be marked, and she would always draw the Tower card.”
    Katrina tilted her head and considered me, eyeing my gloves. My turtleneck. “Or the Tower would choose her.”
    I stood frozen as Katrina set the deck of cards down on a nearby desk. She cut the deck and moved the bottom half to the top.
    “Choose,” she said.
    I shook my head. “Parker, we’re leaving. Come on.”
    I didn’t wait to see if he followed. I bolted for the door, but Parker caught up to me before I could turn the knob.
    “Mia, wait.” He grabbed my arm. “What if it’s true?”
    I shook him off. “You know how long people have been saying the world is about to end? Since the beginning. I’m sick of hearing about the end of the world.”
    “But—”
    “Parker.” I took hold of his shoulders and spoke gently but firmly, like Mom did when she had a point she wanted to get across for the last time. “They’re a cult. They’re no different from the Followers.”
    “We are nothing like the Followers,” Mr. Kale growled.
    “I wasn’t talking to you,” I growled back. We sounded like a couple of guard dogs.
    His expression hardened, and I felt a sort of tingling in my head, like I’d stood up too fast.
    Watch your tone, Miss Price. I’m still your teacher .
    The voice that spoke inside my mind did not belong to me.
    Kale’s eyes narrowed on mine.
    I know who you are. I know what you are. And I know about the lightning .
    I felt my eyes getting bigger. I shook my head, like I could shake Mr. Kale loose.
    “No,” I muttered, covering my ears. “No, no, no. This isn’t happening.”
    It is happening. It’s all connected, Mia. It’s energy, and it’s everywhere. You can’t escape it .
    “Mia?” Parker’s brows drew together. “What’s wrong?”
    Is it really so hard to believe? There have always been people who could do inexplicable things. Psychics and healers. Mind readers. People who can move objects or start fires with their thoughts. People who have visions of the past or the future. These people had the Spark,