Goddess Boot Camp(26)

I focus on not throwing up.

“We have got to get you under control,” she says, smoothing her twinset into place, like we weren’t just spinning in a whirlpool vortex in the living room.

Better not tell her what her hair looks like.

“What set you off ?” she asks. “What does the note say?”

I’m not sure why I don’t tell her the truth. Maybe I’m not comfortable talking about my dad with her, since her dad stepped into his place. Maybe I don’t want to suffer her inquisition over what the note might mean. Or maybe I’m just so shocked by the suggestion that there might be more to Dad’s death than I already know that I want to savor that idea without intrusion. Whatever the reason, I shrug it off with a lie.

“It’s just a joke from Nicole,” I say, forcing a little laugh. “She’s a jokester.”

From the way her perfectly tweezed brows drop, I get the feeling she’s not buying my story. When her gray eyes glance briefly at the white card clutched in my fist, I know she’s not buying my story. Darn psychospection. But, for whatever reason, she doesn’t call me out. I can see the instant she decides not to argue; she looks back into my eyes and exhales.

“Whatever,” she says dismissively. “Now that we know your powers come from the mind, I can tailor some camp exercises to meet your needs.”

Before she clomps out of the room, she tosses another look at the note. A little reminder that she knows I lied.

“Oh, and Phoebe?” she calls out over her shoulder as she disappears into the hall. “Try to control your thoughts until we get you straightened out.”

That’s going to be a problem. Now that the seeds of doubt are planted, how am I ever going to stop thinking about Dad, and what I don’t know about his untimely smoting? And worrying whether I’m destined for a smoting of my own?





CHAPTER 5




AEROKINESIS



SOURCE: ARTEMIS



The ability to control and move air and wind. This can also result in the moving and/or levitating of objects, self, or others. Useful during summer months to reduce air-conditioning costs. Only very powerful hematheos can use this power to effect noticeable changes in weather.



DYNAMOTHEOS STUDY GUIDE © Stella Petrolas





“WHAT ELSE DID THE NOTE SAY?” Nicole asks.

After the early-morning training run with Griffin, I’d showered and gotten changed for camp with more than an hour to spare. Since Griffin was on the boat to Serifos with Aunt Lili, I headed to Nicole’s dorm room.

“Here,” I say, pulling it out of the back pocket of my jeans. I tried to leave it on my desk when I left home, but couldn’t walk away. Like I was compelled to take it with me. “You can read it.”

Nicole looks at the note and then scowls. “This is the note?”

“Yeah.” I lean over and read it upside down. “That’s it.”

She looks at me like I’m crazy. “It’s blank.”

“No it’s not,” I argue. I point at the words. “Right there it says, ‘Want to learn what really happened to your father?’ ”

Nicole squints at it. Holds it up to her nose. Flips it over and looks at the back. She shakes her head.

“Seriously,” she says, giving it one last look. “I don’t see anything.”

How is that possible?

“It must be cursed,” she says, handing it back to me.

“Cursed?” I squeak, dropping the note like she’d said it was coated in the plague. I do not like the sound of that.

“Relax.” She drops back onto her bed, grabbing a black pillow and tossing it in the air. “A curse isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s just a specialized use of powers that affects only one person or a specific group of people.”

Snatching the note back off the floor, I say, “Oh, well, that’s a—”

“Of course it can be a bad thing,” she adds, ruining my moment of relief. She snorts. “A really bad thing.”

“Not helping.” I sit in her desk chair and read the note aloud again.

“What was that last bit?” she asks.

“X Sigma 597.11 FL76.” It makes no sense. It’s not even a word. “What is it? Some kind of code or something?”

“It seems familiar,” she says.

Nicole jumps up and grabs a scrap of paper and a pencil with a skull-and-crossbones eraser at the end. Handing them to me, she says, “Write it out. Exactly as it is in the note.”

When I do, she claps her hands. “I know what that is!”

“You do?”

“Yes.” She smiles triumphantly. “It’s a call number. Like from the library.”