Betrayed

Then Damien sucked air and his face split into a huge grin. "Stevie Rae has an affinity for earth!"

"Huh?" I said brilliantly.

"No way," Stevie Rae said.

"Try this," Damien went on, his excitement growing by the second. "Close your eyes, Stevie Rae, and think about the earth." He looked at me. "Don't you think about it."

"'Kay," I said quickly. His excitement was contagious. It would be fantastic if Stevie Rae had an earth affinity. Having an elemen­tal affinity was a powerful gift from Nyx, and I would definitely love it if my best friend had been blessed like that from our God­dess.

"Okay." Stevie Rae sounded breathless, but she closed her eyes.

"What's happening?" Erin said.

"Why's she have her eyes closed?" Shaunee said. Then she sniffed the air. "And why does it smell like hay over there? Stevie Rae, I swear if you're trying out some kind of bumpkin perfume I might have to smack you."

"Shhh!" Damien put his finger to his lips and shushed her. "We think Stevie Rae might have developed an earth affinity."

Shaunee blinked. "Nuh uh!"

"Huh," Erin said.

"I can not concentrate with y'all talking," Stevie Rae said, opening her eyes to glare at the Twins.

"Sorry," they muttered.

"Try again," I encouraged her.

She nodded. Then she closed her eyes and screwed her fore­head up in concentration while she thought about the earth. I did not think about it, which was actually pretty hard because within a couple of seconds the air was filled with the smells of freshly mowed grass, and flowers, and I could even hear birds chirping like crazy and—

"Ohmygod! Stevie Rae has an affinity for earth!" I blurted. Stevie Rae's eyes sprang open and she covered her mouth with both of her hands, looking shocked and thrilled.

"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 gri

"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 gri

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 gri

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.