Part 7 (1/2)

Aphrodite turned her cool blue gaze on me. ”Your friends are dorks,” she said.

I grinned and b.u.t.ted my shoulder into her. ”Then that makes you a dork.”

”That's what I'm afraid of,” she said. ”Speaking of me being in h.e.l.l-come 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 att.i.tude 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 magazine-if 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 and-as much as I hate to say it-your 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 f.u.c.k 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! G.o.d, 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 gla.s.s 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 EIGHT

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 element-and without Damien and his air affinity-I 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, s.h.i.+t!” 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 gla.s.s 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-encompa.s.sing night sky. And I prayed-not 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 G.o.ddess 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 her-no matter what.”