“Really?” I ask, brightening.
Maybe there are benefits to going to school with the relatives of Greek gods. Something to offset all the unfortunate zapping.
“Sure.” She frowns. “Of course, there’s always the chance we won’t come back. People get lost down there all the time. And it smells like rotten eggs.”
“Great.” I flop back in my chair. “My options are: fail the class or spend eternity in the stinky underworld. I’m not sure which one is worse.”
Nicole leans across the table and places a hand on my arm. “Don’t worry,” she says. “You won’t fail.”
I am just about to let her know what I think of her reassurance by snorting when Mr. Dorcas walks up to our table.
“Miss Castro,” he says. “Headmaster Petrolas wants to see you in his office.”
Everyone in the class starts
Considering recent history, maybe I am.
“He asked you to bring your things.”
Maybe I’ve been expelled?
Hey, a girl can dream.
I quickly gather my stuff and head for the big dog’s office.
Damian is pacing behind his massive desk when I get there.
“What’s u-”
“Who have you told?” he roars.
I jerk back a little at his harsh tone. “Told about what?”
“The school. Who have you told about the school?”
He’s speaking quickly, with an urgency he hasn’t shown before.
“If you mean the Big Secret, I haven’t told anybody.”
I may have let half a detail slip to Cesca the other night, but that in no way constitutes telling the secret.
Damian runs a hand through his salt-and-pepper hair as he sinks into his chair. “Phoebe, please. This is no time for playing games.
The safety of the school and everyone on the island is at stake.”
If he sounded even a little melodramatic I might have dismissed this line of questioning as paranoid. But he doesn’t. So I don’t.
“All right.” I take a seat across from him. “In an IM chat on Sunday night I accidentally sent my best friend a line about using supernatural powers. I meant to send it to Nicole-I got the windows confused is all. But Cesca won’t tell anyone. I’m one hundred percent certain.”
Except for maybe Nola-but she wouldn’t tell anyone, either.
Only, if Cesca didn’t tell anyone, how did Damian find out? “What happened?” I ask, afraid of the answer.
Rubbing his eyes with one hand, Damian sighs. Loudly.
“The island itself is safe, protected by the gods. The shield, however, only prevents
Suddenly I feel awful for even the accidental slip-up. Eventhough I didn’t mean to do it, it still had the same result. From the way Damian looks things must be really bad, too.
“Our web scanners flagged a search from a southern California IP address.” He pushes a piece of paper across his desk.
“Oh.” It has to be Cesca. No one else would even have a clue.
But I know she did it with the best intentions. “She must have been worried after I told her I couldn’t tell her anything. We haven’t kept secrets. Ever. It probably freaked her out.”
That makes me feel better about her not responding to the millions of e-mails and IMs I’ve been sending. Even though she’s hurt that I can’t confide she’s still trying to find out what’s going on with me.
She’s a true friend.
“We cannot undo your accident,” Damian says. He sounds resigned, which makes me feel worse. “There might not be anything to worry about. We shall wait and see if there are any more incidents.”
“And if there are?”
“We will have to take countermeasures.”
“Countermeasures?” I picture Cesca, her feet encased in concrete blocks, sinking slowly to the floor of the Pacific. Maybe the Greek gods operate like the mafia.
“Nothing so dramatic,” Damian says, smiling and proving once again that he can read emotions fluently, “I assure you.”
I’m not fully appeased, but I guess I have to take his word for it at the moment. If the time comes to enact “countermeasures” I’ll warn Cesca ahead of time so she can flee the country or whatever.
For now, I just smile and nod as I gather up my backpack to leave.
“Oh, Phoebe,” Damian calls as I walk to the door. When I turn around, he adds, “Try not to accidentally reveal any more of our secrets. If you do, I just might have to try the concrete blocks method.”
My jaw drops. “Hey, you said you could only read emotions!”
Damian, cryptic as ever, just smiles and returns his attention to work. How like him.
I’m lucky I don’t keep a diary for him to read.
As I close the door behind me I hear, “Everything I need to know is stored in your hippocampus anyway.”
Because I can’t think of any better response I slam his door.
Believe it or not, I’m starting to feel sympathy for Stella. She’s had to live with him her whole life.
I only have to endure him for nine months.
“Damian and I have been talking, Phoebola,” Mom says. She’s sitting in my room, watching me try to do homework.
“Yeah,” I answer absently, wondering what Plato meant whenhe said,
Sure, I used to be afraid of the dark, but who ever heard of someone being afraid of the light? Maybe he’s being metaphorical. Light must be a symbol for something else. How about success? That would be like being afraid to win a race. It would be beyond sad if someone was afraid of winning. I start scribbling down my answer.
I can practically feel her giving me the Mom look.
“You know what I mean.” Mom clears her throat before continuing. Uh-oh. “This is all such a big change-for both of us. All of us.
It’s going to get even harder when you go away to college.”
I sit up straight in my chair, the hairs on the back of my neck standing up.
“We think it might be better for you to stay on at the Academy for another year. Maybe even attend college in the U.K. after graduation. That will give you another year to adjust and-”
“What!”
I think my scream can be heard in Athens.
