Fire Stones - By Kailin Gow Page 0,10

closed, I saw before me the same visions that had so entranced me that Saturday morning...visions of the beautiful Vesta and her proud, cold beauty, of Mars in all his splendor and power, visions of those five glimmering gemstones that burned brighter in the palm of my hand than the stars in the night sky. When my eyes closed, I felt his lips on mine once again, his hot and cinnamon taste; I felt my blood prickle and burn with longing for Chance. And yet I could not get Varun out of my head. Why – why was he so insistent? His intensity frightened and repelled me – but I could not forget it. His dark-blue eyes seemed to know some secret that I did not. I could never imagine leaving Chance for Varun – but once, Vesta had done it; once she had escaped the love of Mars and run instead into Neptune's arms. How could I have done such a thing? I asked myself. Could I really have betrayed the one I loved like that – could I really have abandoned Mars? The thought disturbed me. Feeling as I felt about Chance now – even being apart from him for mere hours was torment...how could I have ever chosen to leave him forever?

Was I really Vesta?

I tried to ignore my concerns, burying myself in schoolwork and swim practice in the hotel pool. I turned off my cell phone, ignoring calls from Varun and Chance equally. Right now I needed to work, needed to think. Luckily, by Monday morning, my strength had returned to me. I wasn't quite ready to face Varun again, but I was certainly ready to get back into the swing of things after my attack. I was pleased, though not surprised, to note that Alice was absent from Monday morning's First Period wrestling class. I had reported her attack on me to Antonio Cutter – now that I knew that the frail, bird-like Alice was in fact the Embodiment of the strong-man Hercules, I wasn't about to take any risks. Whatever Alice wanted with me, she wouldn't hesitate to take; as long as there was a chance I was Vesta, I was in danger. But it wasn't Alice who worried me now. Whether she was in detention or in Cutter's custody I did not know – but at least she was accounted for. What worried me was the other attacker, the one I had not been able to unmask....

Any one of the girls or guys around me could have been the one, I thought, my face flushing with worry. Any one of them could have attacked me. I felt my heart began to beat faster as I looked around the room – Misty in the corner, Charles and Haven on the sidelines...any one of them could be plotting to stage another attack at this moment? I shook my head. No, Misty, at least, was trustworthy – she was an oracle, and Chance put his faith in her. But what about Brandon?

I turned my head to see Brandon smiling at me from the sidelines. He was new to the wrestling class – he appeared to have taken Alice's place on the team. I remembered him from the swimming pool party we'd held at the hotel a few weeks earlier. He'd casually asked me out on a date, but hadn't seemed particularly bummed about being turned down. I liked him, I thought – even if I wasn't interested in adding another man to my roster just now. I hoped he hadn't been behind the attack in the locker rooms.

But his jocular smile as he approached me seemed to dissuade any such doubts. “Fancy seeing you around here, Mac,” he said with a grin, “Never would have pegged you as one for wrestling.”

I shrugged off his concerns, smiling back at him. “Old story,” I said. “I enrolled late. When I got here, it was the only class open that filled the Phys Ed requirement.” I sighed. “I was pretty dire when we started. But now I'm getting okay – it's turning into one of my favorite parts of the day.”

Brandon laughed. “I was doing Martial Arts before,” he said. “But I got tired of all the 'young Bruce Lee' comments. Being the only Asian guy in school – I started to feel like a stereotype. I thought I'd try something a little different.”

“It's a post-Erosion world,” I said. “There isn't even that much of Asia or Europe, anymore.”

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