"But we don't want you to die," Erin finished, looking equally upset.
"I'd just die if you died," Jack said, sniffling. Then he reached for Damien's hand.
"Well, then, you're gonna have to get over yourselves and be the buddy-buddy dork pack again," Aphrodite said.
"Since when have you cared whether Zoey lives or dies?" Damien said.
"Since I'm working for Nyx, and not myself. And Nyx gives a shit about Zoey; therefore, I give a shit about Zoey. And it's a good thing I do. You're supposed to be her best friends, and a secret or two and some stupid misunderstandings have made you freeze her out." Aphrodite looked and me and snorted, "Hell, Zoey, with friends like them, it's a good thing we're not enemies."
Damien turned from Aphrodite, shaking his head and looking more hurt than angry. "What really confuses me about all of this is that it's perfectly clear you're telling her the things you won't tell us."
"Oh, please, gay boy. Don't get your panties all in a big bunch over me taking your dorkish place beside Zoey. It's simple why she tells me stuff. Vamps can't read my mind."
Damien blinked in surprise. Then, eyes widening in understanding, he looked at me. "They can't read your mind either, can they?"
"No, they can't," I said.
"Oh, shit!" Shaunee said. "You mean you think telling us things is like telling everyone?"
"It can't be that easy for the vamps to read fledglings, Z," Erin said. "If it was, then a bunch of kids would be in trouble all the time."
"Wait, they overlook things like fledglings sneaking off campus or PDA," Damien said slowly, as if he were putting two and two together as he spoke. "The vamps don't really care enough about a little broken rule here and there just as long as it's only typical teenage stuff, so they don't 'listen in' or whatever you want to call their psychic eavesdropping all the time."
"But what if they thought something was going on that was more than a little broken rule or two, and they had an idea about a certain group of fledglings who might know something," I said.
"They'd focus their thoughts on that group of fledglings," Damien concluded for me. "You really can't tell us certain things!"
"Damn," Shaunee said.
"Sucks royally," Erin said.
"Took you guys long enough," Aphrodite said.
Damien ignored her. "This has something to do with Stevie Rae, doesn't it?"
I nodded.
"Hey, speaking of," Shaunee said.
"What happened to her?" Erin asked.
"Didn't shit happen to her," Aphrodite said. "She found me. I un-freaked when I finally got my Mark back, and then I came back here."
"And she went where?" Damien asked.
"Do I look like a damn babysitter? How the hell am I supposed to know where your bumpkin friend went? All she said was she had to go because she had issues. Like that was a big shock."
"You're gonna have issues with my fist in your face if you start talking shit about Stevie Rae," Shaunee said.
"I'll hold her skinny ass for you, Twin," Erin said.
"Do you two share a brain?" Aphrodite said.
"Oh. My. God! Enough!" I yelled. "I might die. Twice. Some weird ghostly thing messed with me today, and now I'm feeling scared crapless about it. I'm not sure what the hell's going on with Stevie Rae, and Neferet has called a Council Meeting probably to go over her plans for wara war that is totally not the right thing to do. And you guys can't stop bickering! You're giving me a headache and pissing me off."
"You better listen to her. I counted two real cuss words and one almost cuss in that little speech. She's serious," Aphrodite said.
I saw the Twins actually have to stifle smiles. Jeesh. Why is my not liking to cuss such a big deal?
"Okay. We'll try to get along," Damien said.
"For Zoey," Jack said, giving me a sweet smile.
"For Zoey," the Twins said together.
My heart squeezed as I looked at each of my friends. They had my back. No matter whatthey would still stand beside me.
"Thanks, guys," I said, blinking back tears.
"Group hug!" Jack said.
"Ah, hell no," Aphrodite said.
"That's one thing we can agree with Aphrodite on," Erin said.
"Yeah, time to go," Shaunee said.
"Ah oh, Damien, we gotta go, too. You told Stark we'd check to be sure he was settled in before the meeting," Jack said.
"Oh, that's right," Damien said. "Bye, Z. See ya soon."
He and Jack followed the Twins out of my room. Calling goodbye to me, they filed down the hall, then went on chattering about the hottiness of Stark, leaving me with Aphrodite.
"So, my friends aren't so bad, huh?" I said.
Aphrodite turned her cool blue gaze on me. "Your friends are dorks," she said.
I grinned and butted my shoulder into her. "Then that makes you a dork."
"That's what I'm afraid of," she said. "Speaking of me being in hellcome to my room. There's something you have to help me figure out before we go to the Council Meeting."
I shrugged. "Okay by me." Actually, I was feeling pretty good about myself. My friends were speaking to me again, and it seemed that everyone might actually have a chance of getting along. "Hey," I said as we walked down the hall to Aphrodite's room. "Did you notice that the Twins said something nice to you before they left?"
"The Twins are symbiotic, and I hope very soon someone takes them away to perform science experiments on them."
"That attitude is not helping," I said.
"Could we just focus on what's really important?"
"Like?"
"Me, of course, and what I need you to help me with." Aphrodite opened the door to her room, and we walked into what I liked to think of as her palace. I mean, jeesh, the place looked like she'd decorated it out of a Guide to Gossip Girl Design magazineif there was such a thing. Which, sadly, there probably was. (Not that I don't adore Gossip Girl!)
"Aphrodite, has anyone ever told you that you might have a personality disorder?"
"Several overpaid shrinks. Like I care." Aphrodite walked across the room and opened the door to the hand-painted (probably antique and majorly expensive) armoire that sat in front of her hand-carved (for sure antique and majorly expensive) four-poster canopy bed. As she rummaged around in it, she said, "Oh, by the way, you have got to find a way for the Council to make it okay for you and, tragically, me andas much as I hate to say ityour nerd herd, too, to be allowed off campus."
"Huh?"
Aphrodite sighed and turned to face me. "Would you please keep up with me? We have to be able to come and go so we can figure out what the fuck is going on with Stevie Rae and her nasty friends."
"I already told you that I'm not gonna let you talk bad about Stevie Rae. Nothing is going on with her."
"That's up for discussion, but since you refuse to sanely discuss it this particular time, I'm talking about the freaks she's hanging with. What if you're right and Neferet wants to use them against humans? Not that I particularly like humans, but I definitely don't like war. So I'm thinking you need to be checking into that."
"Me? Why me? And why do I have to figure out a way to get all of us in and out of the school?"
"Because you are the superhero fledgling. I'm just your more attractive sidekick. Oh, and the herd of nerd are your dorky minions."
"Great," I said.
"Hey, don't stress about it. You'll think of something. You always do."
I blinked in surprise at her. "Your confidence in me is shocking." And I wasn't kidding. I mean, she really looked like she thought I'd figure out this mess.
"It shouldn't be." She turned back to searching through the cluttered armoire. "I know better than just about anyone else how gifted you've been by Nyx. That you're powerful, blah, blah, whatever. So you'll figure it out. Finally! God, I wish they'd let us have housekeepers in here. I can never find anything when I'm forced to clean up after myself." Aphrodite emerged with a green candle in a pretty green crystal glass and a fancy lighter.
"You need me to help you figure out something about a candle?"
"No, genius. Sometimes I really wonder about Nyx's choices." She handed me the little gold lighter. "I want you to help me figure out if I've lost my affinity for earth."
CHAPTER 8
I looked from the green candle to Aphrodite. Her face was pale and her lips were compressed into a thin bloodless line. "You haven't tried to evoke earth since you lost your Mark?" I asked gently.
She shook her head and continued to look like her stomach hurt.
"Okay, well, you're right. I can help you figure this out. I should probably cast a circle."
"That's what I thought." Aphrodite drew in a deep shaky breath. "Let's get this over with." She walked over to the wall that was on the opposite side of the room as her bed. She stood there, holding up her candle. "This is north."
"All right." Resolutely, I went to stand in front of Aphrodite. Turning to the east, I closed my eyes and centered myself. "It fills our lungs and gives us life. I call air to my circle." Even without a yellow candle representing the elementand without Damien and his air affinityI felt the instant response of the element as a soft breeze smoothed against my body.
I opened my eyes and turned to my right, moving deosil, or clockwise, around the circle to the south, where I stopped. "It heats us and keeps us safe and warm. I call fire to my circle." I smiled as the air around me warmed with the second element.
Moving again to my right, I stopped next in the west. "It washes us and quenches us. I call water to my circle." Right away I felt the cool of invisible waves against my legs. Smiling, I moved to stand in front of Aphrodite.
"Ready?" I asked her.
She nodded and closed her eyes and raised the green candle that represented her element.
"It sustains us and surrounds us. I call earth to my circle." I flicked the lighter and held the little flame to the candle.
"Ow, shit!" Aphrodite cried. She dropped the candle as if it had stung her. It shattered against the wood floor at her feet. When her eyes lifted from looking at the ruined glass and candle mess, I saw that they were filled with tears. "I've lost it." Her voice was little more than a whisper as the tears spilled over and down her cheeks. "Nyx took it away from me. I knew she would. I knew I wasn't good enough for her to gift me with an affinity for something as amazing as the element earth."
"I don't believe that's what's happened," I said.
"But you saw it. I'm not earth anymore. Nyx won't let me represent the element," she sobbed.
"I don't mean that you still have your earth affinity. What I mean is I don't think Nyx took it away from you because you're not worthy."
"But I'm not," Aphrodite said brokenly.
"I just don't believe that. Here, let me show you."
I took a small step back from her. This time without Aphrodite's candle, I said, "It sustains and surrounds us. I call earth to my circle."
The scents and sounds of a spring meadow instantly surrounded me. Trying to ignore the fact that what I was doing was making Aphrodite cry even harder, I walked to the center of my invisible circle and called the last of the five elements to me. "It is what we are before we're born, and what we eventually return to. I call spirit to my circle." My soul sang within me as the final element filled me.
Holding tightly to the power that always came to me when I evoked the elements, I raised my arms over my head. I tilted my head up, seeing not the ceiling over me, but imagining through it to the velvet darkness of the all-encompassing night sky. And I prayednot the way my mom and her husband, the step-loser, pray, all filled with fake humbleness and with lots of decorative amens and whatnot. I didn't change who I was when I prayed. I talked to my Goddess just like I would talk to my grandma or my best friend.
I like to believe Nyx appreciates my honesty.
"Nyx, from this place of power you have given me, I ask that you hear my prayer. Aphrodite has lost a lot, and I don't think that's because you don't care about her anymore. I think there's something else going on here, and I really wish you'd let her know that you're still with herno matter what."
Nothing happened. I drew a deep breath and centered myself again. I'd heard Nyx's voice before. I mean, sometimes she actually talked to me. Sometimes I just got feelings about things. Either would be okay right now, I added that little part of my prayer silently. Then I tried to concentrate even harder. I closed my eyes and listened so hard within that I was squidging my eyes and holding my breath. Actually, I was listening so hard, I almost didn't hear Aphrodite's shocked gasp.
I opened my eyes, and my mouth flopped open along with them.
Floating between Aphrodite and me was the shimmering silver image of a beautiful woman. Later, when Aphrodite and I tried to describe to each other exactly what she'd looked like, we realized we couldn't remember any details except that we both said she'd looked like spirit suddenly made visiblewhich really wasn't any description at all.
"Nyx!" I said.
The Goddess smiled at me, and I thought my heart would pound out of my chest with happiness. "Greetings, my u-we-tsi-a-ge-ya" she said, using the Cherokee word for "daughter," just like my grandma often did. "You were right to call me. You should follow your true instinct more often, Zoey. It will never lead you wrong."
Then she turned to Aphrodite, who, with a sob, dropped to her knees before the Goddess.
"Do not weep, my precious child." Nyx's ethereal hand reached out, and like a beautiful dream given substance, she caressed Aphrodite's cheek.
"Forgive me, Nyx!" she cried. "I've done so many stupid things, and made so many mistakes. I'm sorry for all of it. I really am. I don't blame you for taking away my Mark and my earth affinity. I know I don't deserve either of them."
"Daughter, you misunderstand me. I didn't remove your Mark. It was the strength of your humanity that burned it away, just as it was the strength of your humanity that saved Stevie Rae. Whether you like it or not, you will always be more sublimely human than anything else, which is part of why I love you so deeply. But do not think that you are only a human now, my child. You are more than that, but exactly what that means, you must discoverand choosefor yourself." The Goddess took Aphrodite's hand and lifted her to her feet. "I want you to understand that the earth affinity was never yours, daughter. You simply held it in safekeeping for Stevie Rae. You see, the earth could not truly live within her until her humanity had been restored. You were who I trusted to keep that precious gift safe, as well as the vessel through which Stevie Rae's humanity was returned to her."