Betrayed

'Stevie Rae, that's amazing!' Damien said, and in seconds all of us were congratulating and hugging her while she giggled through happy tears.

Then it happened. I had one of my feelings. And this time it was (thankfully) a good one.

'Damien, Shaunee, Erin—I want you guys to take your places in the circle.' They gave me questioning looks, but must have rec­ognized the tone of my voice because they instantly did what I told them to do. I wasn't exactly the boss of them, but my friends respected that I was in training to someday be their High Priest­ess, so they obediently walked to the place in the circle that I had assigned to each of them weeks ago when it had only been the five of us, and I was casting a circle to try to figure out if I really had a Goddess- given affinity, or if I just had very little sense and an overactive imagination.

As they took their places I looked around at the kids who were already in the rec hall. I definitely needed outside help. Then Erik walked into the room with Jack, and I grinned and motioned them over to me.

'What's up, Z? You look like you're going to explode,' Erik said, and then he lowered his voice, and for my ears alone added, 'And you look as hot in that dress as I thought you would.'

'Thanks, I love it!' I did a quick little twirl that was partially flirting with Erik, and partially pure happiness at what I was al­most sure was getting ready to happen. 'Jack, would you please go over to Damien and get the tray of candles he's holding and bring them back here to the middle of the circle?'

'Yep,' Jack said and scampered off to do as I asked. Okay, he didn't actually scamper, but he was very perky.

'What's going on?' Erik asked.

'You'll see.' I grinned, barely able to suppress my excitement.

When Jack was back with the candles I put the tray on Nyx's table. I concentrated for a second, and decided my instincts were telling me fire would be the right choice. Then I picked up the red candle and handed it to Erik. 'Okay, I need you to take this candle over to Shaunee.'

Erik wrinkled his forehead. 'Just take it over to her?'

'Yeah. Hand it to her and then pay attention.'

'To what?'

'I'd rather not say.'

He shrugged and gave me a look that said that even though he might think I was hot he also might think that I had lost my mind, but he did as I asked and walked over to where Shaunee was standing in the southernmost part of the circle—the area from which I called the element fire. He stopped in front of her. Shaunee looked around him at me.

'Take the candle from him,' I called across the circle to her, concentrating on how cute Erik looked so that I wouldn't be thinking about fire at all.

Shaunee shrugged. 'Okay,' she said.

She took the red candle from Erik. I was watching her closely, but I hadn't needed to. What happened was so obvious that sev­eral of the kids standing around the outside of the circle gasped along with Shaunee. The instant her hand touched the candle there was a whoosh noise. Her long, black hair began to lift and crackle as if it was filled with static electricity, and her beautiful chocolate skin glowed as if she had been lit from within.

'I knew it!' I cried, practically jumping up and down with ex­citement.

Shaunee looked up from her glowing body to meet my eyes. 'I'm doing this, aren't I?'

'You are!'

'I have an affinity for fire!'

'Yes, you do!' I yelled happily.

I heard lots of oohs and ahhs from the ever-increasing crowd, but I didn't have time for them right now. Following my gut feel­ing I motioned for Erik to come back to the center of the circle, which he did with a huge grin on his face.

'That may be the coolest thing I've ever seen,' he said.

'Just wait. If I'm right, and I think I am, there's more.' I gave him the blue candle. 'Now take this one to Erin.'

'Your wish is my command,' he said with an old-time flour­ish. If anyone else bowed like that in public they would have looked like an utter dork. Erik looked like an utter hottie—part gentleman, part bad boy pirate. I was thinking about how yummy Erik was when Erin and Shaunee let out twin squeals of happiness at almost the same instant.

'Look at the floor!' Erin was pointing to the tile floor of the rec hall. In a circular area around her the tile floor was rippling and it appeared to be lapping against feet, even though nothing was actually getting wet, making it seem that Erin was standing in the middle of the ghost of an ocean shore. Then she looked up at me with shimmering blue eyes. 'Oh, Z! Water is my affinity!'

I grinned at her. 'Yes, it is!'

Erik hurried back to me. This time I didn't have to prompt him to pick up the yellow candle.

'Damien, right?' he said.

'Totally right.'

He headed to Damien, who was fidgeting at the easternmost part of the circle where the element air should manifest. Erik of­fered the yellow candle to Damien. Damien didn't touch it. In­stead, he peered around Erik to me. The boy looked scared to death.

'It's okay, go ahead and take it,' I told him.

'Are you sure it's going to be okay?' He glanced nervously around at what was now a large crowd of fledglings watching him expectantly.

I knew what was wrong. Damien was afraid he would fail, that he would be left out of the magic that was happening to the girls. In Soc class I'd learned that it was unusual for a gift as strong as an affinity for an element to be given to a male. Nyx gifted men with exceptional strength, and their affinities usually had to do with the physical, like Dragon, our fencing instructor, had been gifted with exceptional quickness and visual accuracy. Air was definitely a female affinity, and it would be nothing short of in­credible for Nyx to gift Damien with an air affinity. But I had a calm, happy feeling deep inside me. I nodded at Damien and tried to telegraph confidence to him. 'I'm sure. Go on. I'll be busy thinking about how cute Erik is while you're calling air to you,' I said.

As Erik grinned over his shoulder at me Damien drew a deep breath, and looking a lot like he thought he was grabbing on to a live bomb, he took the candle from Erik.

'Superb! Glorious! Wondrous!' Damien made use of his large vocabulary while his brown hair lifted and his clothes flapped crazily in the sudden wind that surrounded him. When he looked at me again happy tears were running down his cheeks. 'Nyx has given me a gift. Me,' he enunciated carefully, and I knew what he was saying in that one word—that he realized Nyx found him worthy even though his parents didn't, and even though much of his life people had made fun of him because he liked guys. I had to blink hard to keep from bawling like a baby.

'Yes, you,' I said firmly.

'Your friends are spectacular, Zoey.' Neferet's voice carried above the excited noise of the kids who were now converging on the four newly discovered talents.

The High Priestess was standing just inside the entrance to the rec hall, and I wondered how long she'd been there. I could see that there were a few professors with her, but they were in the shadow of the doorway and it was difficult to make out exactly who they were. Okay. You can do this. You can face her. I swal­lowed hard and forced my thoughts to focus on my friends and the miracles that had just happened to them.

'Yes, my friends are spectacular!' I agreed enthusiastically.

Neferet nodded. 'It is only right that Nyx, in her wisdom, has thought to gift you, a fledgling who has such unusual powers, with a group of friends who are also blessed with impressive powers of their own.' She dramatically swept out her arms. 'I prophesy that this group of fledglings will make history. Never before has so much been given to so many at the same time and place.' Her smile included all of us and she truly looked like a loving mother. I would have been as taken in as everyone else by her warmth and beauty if it hadn't been for the glimpse I got of the thin red line of a newly healing cut that marred her