Marked (34 page)

"You might have won tonight, but this isn't over," she told me. She made me feel really tired.

"I wasn't trying to 'win' anything. I was just trying to make things right.”

"And that's what you think you did?" Her eyes darted nervously back and forth from me to the path that led to the gazebo, as if someone had followed her. "You don't really know what happened here tonight. You were just being used—we were all just being used. We're puppets, that's all we are." She angrily wiped at her face and I realized she was crying.

"Aphrodite, it doesn't have to be like this between us," I said softly.

"Yes it does!" she snapped. "It's the parts we're supposed to play. You'll see…you'll see.…" Aphrodite started to walk away.

A thought drifted unexpectedly from my memory. It was of Aphrodite, during her vision. As if it was happening again, I could hear her say, They're dead! No. No. That can't be! Not right. No. Not natural! I don't understand…I don't…You…you know. Her scream of terror echoed eerily through my mind. I thought of Elizabeth…of Elliott…the fact that they had appeared to me. Too much of what she said made sense.

"Aphrodite, wait!" She looked over her shoulder at me. "The vision you had today in Neferet's office, what was it really about?”

Slowly, she shook her head. "It's only beginning. It's going to get much worse." She turned and suddenly hesitated. Her way was blocked by five kids—my friends.

"It's okay," I told them. "Let her go.”

Shaunee and Erin parted. Aphrodite lifted her head, shook back her hair, and marched past them as if she owned the world. I watched her walk over the bridge, my stomach clenching. Aphrodite knew something about Elizabeth and Elliott, and eventually I was going to have to find out what it was.

"Hey," Stevie Rae said.

I looked at my roommate and new best friend.

"Whatever happens, we're in it together.”

I felt the knot in my stomach release. "Let's go," I said. Surrounded by my friends, we all went home.

[end]

v1.0

[Scanned & Proofed by slaingod from dt. I lost some of my proof notations from the first half of the book, so I apologize that this isn’t up to my usual quality. I am also ironing out the kinks of a new scanning procedure with a different OCR app which has more issues with optional hyphens, and other punctuation.]