Hidden: House of Night: Book 10

and cool to hang out with.”
    “Funny usually at other people’s expense,” Damien said. “Cool because she excluded others to make herself seem better than everyone else.”
    Shaunee met his gaze. “I know. I see it now. Back then all I could see was that we were best friends, and I needed a best friend.”
    “What about now?” he asked.
    “Now Ineed to be able to like myself, and I can’t do that if I’m only one half of a whole person. I’m also tired of always having to say something sarcastic or witty or just downright hateful.” She shook her head, feeling sad and really old. “That doesn’t mean I think Erin’s awful. Actually, I want her to be as cool and funny and great as I used to believe she was. I guess I’ve just come to realize that she has to either be, or not be, those things on her own. It doesn’t have anything to do with me.”
    “You’re smarter than I thought you were,” Damien admitted.
    “I’m still crap at school.”
    He smiled. “There are other kinds of smart.”
    “That’s good news for me.”
    “Hey, don’t underestimate yourself. You might actually be good at school if you tried a little.”
    “I know that sounds like a good thing to you, but I’m fine with the ‘other kinds of smart’ part.” Damien laughed, and Shaunee added, “I’m gonna head to the pyre. Maybe hanging around there will help.”
    “Help you or the Warriors?”
    “Either. Both. I don’t know,” Shaunee said with a sigh.
    “I’m going to believe that it’ll help both,” he said. “I’m going to move around—like air. I’ll try to blow away some of the Darkness that’s clinging to this place.”
    “You feel it, too?”
    He nodded. “I can feel that the energy here is bad. Too much negative has happened in too short a time.” Damien cocked his head, studying Shaunee. “Now that I’ve considered it more, I don’t think you should stay away from the stables. Fire isn’t bad.
You’re
not bad. Lenobia knows that. Remember how you made the horses’ hooves heat up so that we could ride them through the ice storm?”
    “I remember.” Shaunee did, and the memory made her feel lighter.
    “Then go to the pyre—help there—but go to the stables, as well. Remind everyone that fire can do a lot more than destroy. It’s how it’s wielded that’s important.”
    “I’m guessing you mean something like it’s how fire is used that’s important?”
    Damien’s grinwidened. “See, I told you that you might be good at school. Wield is an excellent vocab word: to have or be able to use, as in power or influence.”
    “You’re making my head hurt,” Shaunee said, but she also laughed.
    “So, I’ll see you at the stables later?”
    “Yeah, you will.”
    Damien started to walk away and then turned back to her, giving Shaunee a quick, tight hug. “I’m glad you became your own person. And if you need a friend, I’m here for you,” he told her, and then he hurried off in the general direction of the stables.
    Shaunee blinked back tears and smiled, watching his fluffy brown hair bounce around in his own little breeze. “Fire
,
” she whispered, “send a little spark with Damien. He deserves to find a hot guy to make him happy, especially because he always tries so hard to make others happy.”
    Feeling better than she had in weeks, Shaunee walked in a different direction. Her steps were slower, more deliberate than Damien’s, but she wasn’t dreading where she was going anymore. She wasn’t looking forward to the pyre and the burning—she wasn’t Erin. She couldn’t just shut out sadness and pain by freezing her feelings.
And you know what? I wouldn’t want to be cold and frozen inside, even if it meant I didn’t hurt as much,
she decided silently.
    Shaunee was centering herself and drawing strength from the steady warmth of her element.
Thank you, Nyx. I’ll try to wield it well,
was what she was thinking when the immortal’s voice intruded.
    “I have not thanked you.”
    Shaunee looked up to see Kalona standing near the big statue of Nyx that stood before the school’s Temple. He was wearing jeans and a leather vest, one that looked a lot like what Dragon used to wear. Only this vest was bigger and it had slits through which Kalona’s black wings emerged and then tucked against his back. This vest also didn’t bear the insignia of the Goddess on it, but that was hard to think about when he was staring at her like that with his otherworldly amber