Tempted

Stevie Rae pulled me up, careful to keep her hand under my elbow while I swayed slightly before finding my balance.

“What happened to you, Z?” Damien asked as he studied me.

What was I supposed to say? Was I supposed to admit to my friends that I’d had an incredibly vivid memory of a past life where I’d given myself to our enemy of today? I hadn’t even had time to wade through the maze of new emotions the memory had caused within me. How was I going to explain them to my friends?

“Just tell us, child. The truth spoken is always less frightening than supposition,” said Sister Mary Angela.

I sighed and blurted, “The tu

“Scared you? Like, there’s something in there?” Damien had finally quit staring at me and was peering nervously into the dark opening.

The Twins took a couple steps farther into the root cellar and away from the tu

“No, there’s nothing in there.” I hesitated. “At least I don’t think so. Anyway, that’s not what scared me.”

“You expect us to believe you fainted because you were scared of the dark?” Aphrodite said.

They all stared at me.

I cleared my throat.

“Hey, y’all. Maybe there’s stuff Zoey just doesn’t wa

I looked at my best friend and realized if I didn’t say something about what had just happened to me I wouldn’t be able to face what I needed to do about her.

“You’re right,” I told Stevie Rae. “I don’t want to talk about it, but you guys deserve to hear the truth.” I let my gaze take in the rest of the group. “That tu

“You mean because there really is some of A-ya inside of you?” Damien asked softly.

I nodded. “I’m me, but I’m also, somehow, still a part of her.”

“Interesting…” Damien breathed a long sigh.

“Well, what the hell does that mean for you and Kalona today?” Aphrodite asked.

“I don’t know! I don’t know! I don’t know!” I burst out, the stress and honest-to-goddess confusion about what had just happened boiled over inside me. “I don’t have the damn answers. All I have is the memory and zero time to process it. How about you guys back off just a little and let me get the mess inside my head straight?”

Everyone shuffled around and mumbled okays, sending me she’s lost her mind looks. Ignoring my gawking friends, and the unanswered Kalona questions that were almost visible in the air around me, I turned to Stevie Rae. “Explain to me exactly how you made the tu

I could tell by the question mark in her blue eyes that she was worried about my tone. I hadn’t sounded all “Crap! I just fainted and need to change the subject ’cause I’m embarrassed by being a reincarnated chick.” I’d sounded like a High Priestess.

“Well, it wasn’t really that big of a thing.” Stevie Rae looked nervous and uncomfortable, like she was trying too hard to be nonchalant because she was feeling the exact opposite. “Hey, are you sure you’re okay? Shouldn’t we go up out of here and maybe get you a brown pop or somethin’? I mean, if this place gives you flashbacks, talkin’ someplace else sounds like a good idea.”

“I’m okay. Right now I just want to hear about the tu

I could sense the other kids, as well as Sister Mary Angela, watching us with curiosity mixed in with their confusion, but I kept focused on Stevie Rae.

“’Kay, well, you know the Prohibition tu

I nodded. “Right.”

“Also, remember that I told you I’d been doin’ some reco

“Yeah, I remember.”

“Okay, so, I found that kinda half-covered tu

“Responded? Like it shook or something?” I asked.

“More like it moved. Like I wanted it to. In my head.” She paused. “It’s kinda hard to explain. But what happened was the dirt that had sealed the tu

“And this old tu

Stevie Rae smiled and nodded, her blond hair bouncing around her shoulders. “Yeah! And instead of heading downtown it pointed to midtown.”

“It came all the way here?” I tried to guesstimate in my head how many miles that was and could no way do the math. Of course, I am math impaired, but still, it was a ways.

“Nope. What happened was that once I found the dirt tu

“How could you tell that?” Damien interrupted her. “How could you even guess where you were heading?”

“Easy-peasy for me! I can always find north, you know, the direction of my earth element. Once I find it—I can find anything.”

“Hmm,” he said.

“Go on,” I said. “Then what?”

“Then it ran out. Just, well, stopped. Before you slipped me the note about meeting you here at the sisters’ place, that’s where I stopped, too. I mean, sure, I was pla

Into the silence that surrounded Stevie Rae’s explanation, Sister Mary Angela’s voice sounded utterly normal and reasonable, which made me heart her even more than I already did. “Remarkable, isn’t it? Stevie Rae, you and I may disagree upon the source of your gift, but I am nonetheless in awe of its vastness.”

“Thank you, Sister! I think you’re pretty awesome, too, ’specially for a nun.”

“How did you see down there?” I asked.

“Well, I really don’t have a problem seeing in the dark, but the other kids aren’t as good at it as I am, so I brought some lanterns from the depot tu

“Still, it was a long way,” Shaunee was saying.

“Seriously. It must have been dark and creepy,” Erin said.

“Nah, the earth really isn’t creepy to me, or to the red fledglings.” She shrugged. “Like I said, it was no big deal. Actually, it was super-easy.”

“And you managed to get all the red fledglings here safely?” Damien said.

“Yep!”

“Which all?” I asked.

“What do ya mean, which all? That doesn’t make any sense, Z,” she said. “I brought all the red fledgings y’all met before, plus Erik and Heath. Who else are ya talkin’ about?” Her words sounded normal, but she ended with a weird, nervous laugh and wouldn’t meet my eyes.

My stomach clenched. Stevie Rae was still lying to me. And I didn’t know what to do about it.