“What’s behind the bush?” Kyrian asks as he walks up.
Instead of answering, PT waggles his fingers at me before he disappears.
“Who was that?” Kyrian asks, baffled.
But I’m too busy checking out the bush Prometheus pointed to. I walk over to it, trying to see what’s up in the dark. The leaves rustle as I get closer, then a loud, high-pitched call erupts from the depths of the bush.
“Forget the guy,” Arjun says. “What was that?”
“I don’t know.” I move forward and start rattling the leaves a little. At least until a giant peacock comes running out of the bush and knocks me flat on my butt.
It squawks again, louder and more aggressively, before running toward the tree line as fast as it can.
“Is that what I think it is?” Arjun asks.
But Fifi’s eyes have already found mine, and it’s obvious she’s thinking about the same thing I am.
“The woman with the peacock feather!” we both shout at the same time.
“Uh, I hate to break it to you, Penelope,” Kyrian says. “But that definitely wasn’t a woman.”
“That’s not what we mean. She’s—”
I break off as the ground beneath us starts to rumble in a way that has becoming depressingly familiar to me. “Hang on!” I yell.
“Why?” Arjun asks.
I start to answer, but it’s too late. Because the ground is already shaking and we are already spinning.
55.Hera Today, Gone Tomorrow
THIS TIME IT SEEMS TOtake forever before the spinning stops.
When it finally does, I sit up cautiously, only to find my friends clinging to the bench and a nearby tree like they are the only things keeping them from falling off the planet.
I know I should feel bad for them, but I must be a terrible person, because it feels just a little nice to see them freaked out by something I’ve had to deal with several times since I got to this school.
“That is what happened to me on the first day of school and why I showed up soaking wet to the amphitheater. And that is also what happened to me when I went missing that day.”
“Oh my gods!” Fifi exclaims as she struggles to her knees.
“Exactly!” I tell her, then scoot over to help her up. Just because I feel vindicated doesn’t mean I actually want my friends to suffer. “Here, take my hand.”
She does, then climbs cautiously to her feet. “It’s not going to do that again, is it?”
“No, once it stops, it usually stays that way for a while.” I glance around for the others, only to find Arjun puking behind a tree while Kyrian is looking around like he doesn’t trust anything that he sees.
“How does this happen every night and none of us feel it?” Kyrian asks suspiciously. “Because I feel like that would wake me up.”
“I don’t know. All I know is when I’m at the dorm, in bed, I never feel it. But when I’m not, this happens.” I gesture to the mud on the knees of my dress tights. After four days of nonstop rain, the ground is more than saturated.
“So what do you think we’re doing here anyway?” He gestures to the practice and learning fields we’re currently standing in the middle of.
“Okay, look, Mr. Fifty Questions,” Fifi butts in before I can answer. “You may think you have a right to all of Ellie’s attention, but that ismybest friend you’re talking to and I have no idea who you are.”
“Sorry.” Kyrian holds his hands up. “No offense meant.”
“Yeah, well, offense taken. I don’t care how adorable you are. I need some more information.”
