Hidden

She was right. I did need her gift, but I also needed to know I could trust her judgment. “Okay, so, let’s start. How about you keep your eyes open? Let me know if you see anyone’s color changing.”

“The first one I want to report is Nicole. Erik told me about her. I know she’s been real bad in the past. But the truth is in her colors, and they say she’s changing.”

“All right. I’ll keep that in mind.” I raised my brows at her. “Speaking of keeping stuff in mind—I’m not being mean or anything like that, but you need to keep an eye on Erik. He’s not always—”

“He’s arrogant and selfish,” she interrupted me, meeting my gaze steadily. “He’s gotten by on how hot he is and how talented he is. Life’s been easy for him, even after you dumped him.”

“Did he tell you I dumped him?” I couldn’t tell if she was being bitchy or not. She didn’t sound like it, but then again, I didn’t know her very well. It did seem like every time I saw her, I saw Erik. Not that I cared. Seriously. It wasn’t jealous. It was more like I felt responsible for warning her.

“He didn’t have to tell me. About a billion other kids beat him to it,” she said.

“I don’t have any hard feelings toward Erik. I mean, he can be with whoever he wants. If you like him, that’s no problem at all with me.” I realized I was having a bout of verbal IBS, but I couldn’t seem to stop talking. “And he doesn’t want to be with me anymore, either. That’s way over. It’s just that Erik—”

“Is a dickhead.” Aphrodite’s voice saved me. She walked past us, yawning, and stuck her head in one of the fridges. “And now you’ve heard it from two of his ex-girlfriends. Ex being the most important part of that sentence.” She came over to the table and put a jug of orange juice and a bottle of what I guessed was super expensive champagne down in front of the empty chair beside me. “Of course, Z didn’t call him a dickhead. She was being nice.” As she spoke, Aphrodite went back to the fridge and got into the freezer. There was the sound of glasses clanking against each other. When she came back to the table she was holding a frosty crystal glass that was long and slender, like you see people drinking out of at New Year’s Eve parties on TV. “Me, I’m not so nice. Dick. Head. That’s our Erik.” She popped the champagne cork, sloshed a tiny bit of orange juice in the glass, and then filled it to almost overflowing with bubbly champagne. She gri

“I know what Erik is,” Shaylin said. She didn’t sound pissed. She didn’t sound pleased. She sounded sure of herself. “I also know what you are.”

Aphrodite raised one blond brow at her and took a long drink of her mimosa. “Do tell.”

Uh-oh, I thought. I suppose I should’ve done something to stop what was going to happen, but it was a little like standing on train tracks and trying to push a car out of the way. I was more likely to get smashed than to get the car out of trouble—so I gawked and drank my brown pop instead.

“You’re silver. That reminds me of moonlight, which tells me you’ve been touched by Nyx. But you’re also a buttery yellow color, like the light of a small candle.”

“Which tells you what?” Aphrodite studied her well-manicured fingernails, clearly not caring about Shaylin’s answer.

“Which tells me that, like a little candle, you could be easily blown out.”

Aphrodite’s eyes narrowed and she slapped her hand against the tabletop. “That’s it, new kid. I have been through too much battle-against-Darkness crap to put up with your mouth or your know-it-all attitude.” She looked like she was getting ready to go for Shaylin’s throat. I was considering ru

“Hey, y’all! ‘Mornin’!” she said around a big yawn. “Man, I’m tired. Is there any Mountain Dew left in the fridge?”

“Oh, for shit’s sake, it’s not morning. It’s sunset. And why the hell is everybody awake?” Aphrodite threw up her hands.

Stevie Rae frowned at her. “It’s polite to say mornin’ to people, even if it’s not technically correct. And I like to be up early. There’s nothin’ wrong with that.”

“He’s a bird!” Aphrodite said, pouring herself some more champagne.

“Are you drinkin’ already?” Stevie Rae asked.

“Yes. Who are you? A bumpkin version of my mom?”

“No, if I was any version of your momma I’d be okay with you drinkin’ your breakfast, ’cause your momma is seriously messed up.” Stevie Rae put the can of Mountain Dew back in the fridge. “And now that I think about it, drinkin’ pop for breakfast probably isn’t a great idea, either. I’ll bet there’s some Lucky Charms around here somewhere.”

“They’re magically delicious,” Shaylin said. “And if you find them I’ll have some, too.”

“Count Chocula.” Since it didn’t look like Aphrodite was going to kill anyone (at that moment) my voice was working again. “If you see a box of that, I’ll take it.”

“What the hell’s wrong with mimosas?” Aphrodite was saying. “Orange juice is for breakfast.”

“What about the champagne part? That’s alcohol,” Stevie Rae said.

“It’s pink Veuve Clicquot. That means it’s good champagne, which cancels out the alcohol part,” Aphrodite said.

“Do you really believe that?” Shaylin asked.

Looking at me and pointedly ignoring Shaylin, Aphrodite said, “Why is it speaking to me?”

“I have a headache, and we haven’t even left for school yet,” I told Aphrodite.

“The stables almost burned down and our High Priestess was outed for being a murderous demi-goddess. I think we can all miss school today,” Aphrodite said.

“Nuh uh,” Stevie Rae said. “We gotta go to school because of all that. Thanatos is go

That even shut up Aphrodite. She continued to drink while Stevie Rae poured herself and Shaylin some Lucky Charms (which is a lesser cereal than Count Chocula, even though it does have marshmallows), and we all just looked generally gloomy.

“I’m go

“You got to actually see them reunited, didn’t you?” Shaylin asked, wide-eyed.

“We all did,” I said, smiling.

“It was beautiful,” Stevie Rae said, sniffling and wiping her eyes.

“Yeah,” Aphrodite said softly.

Shaylin cleared her throat. “Look, Aphrodite, I didn’t mean to sound so bitchy before. What I said was wrong. I shouldn’t use my gift like that. You do have a flickery yellow light inside your moonlight light, but that’s not because you’re going to blow out. It’s part of your uniqueness—your warmth. Here’s the truth—it’s small and hidden, because you keep how warm and good you really are hidden most of the time. But that doesn’t change that it’s still there. So, I’m sorry.”

Aphrodite turned cool blue eyes to Shaylin and said, “It puts the lotion in the bucket.”

“Oh, boy,” I said. “Aphrodite, just drink your breakfast. Shaylin, that’s a good example of what you and I were talking about before. I don’t question your gift. I don’t doubt it. I do have an issue with your judgment in deciphering it.”

“I deciphered it perfectly,” Shaylin said, sounding upset and defensive. “But Aphrodite pissed me off. So I messed up. I said I was sorry.”

“Apology not accepted,” Aphrodite said, and turned her back on Shaylin.

Which was when Damien came rushing into the room, holding his iPad and looking more disheveled than he usually looked when he emerged from what he liked to call his beauty rejuvenation period. He hurried straight to me, lifted his iPad, and said. “You guys have to watch this!”

I was only mildly curious at first as I saw the Fox 23 evening news anchor, the totally to-die-for gorgeous Chera Kimiko talking. We hearted us some Chera. Not only was she vampyre-level beautiful, but she was actually a real person, versus the usual plastic talking heads news anchor types.