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Shaunee
"Damien, I think I should stay ay from the stables Lenobia has had a massive overdose of fire lately" Shaunee looked from Damien to Erin The three of them had moved off with each other when Z had told theether, trying to figure out where each of theood
"That is a good point," Daon&039;s pyre You&039;ll be needed there soon"
Shaunee&039;s shoulders slu I&039;et into your element and it&039;ll be easy," Erin spoke up
Shaunee blinked at her, not just surprised that she&039;d spoken-Erin had definitely been avoiding speaking to her since they&039;d un-Twined-but surprised at her off-handed tone She was talking about burning Dragon&039;s body as if it were no on&039;s funeral will be easy, Erin With or without my element"
"I didn&039;t ht that it seemed these days Erin always looked annoyed "I just s don&039;t bother you so much But maybe you&039;re just not that into your element"
"That&039;s bullshit" Shaunee felt the heat of building anger "My affinity for fire isn&039;t any less than yours for water"
Erin shrugged "Whatever I was just trying to help you out Fro" She turned to Da from one to the other of them as if he wasn&039;t sure whether he should jump in between theo to the stables Lenobia will be glad to see water, and I don&039;t have an issue with using my element" Without another word, Erin walked away
"Has she always been like that?" Shaunee heard herself asking Da around in her mind for days
"You&039;ll have to define that"
"Heartless"
"Honestly?"
"Yeah Has Erin always been so heartless?"
"That&039;s really difficult forsoftly, as if he thought he needed to be careful his words didn&039;t bruise her
"Just tell me the truth, even if it is hard," she said
"Well, then, honestly until the two of you broke up it was mostly impossible to tell what each of you was like individually I&039;d never known one of you without the other You two finished each other&039;s sentences It was like you were two halves of a whole"
"But not now?" Shaunee prodded when he hesitated
"No, now it&039;s different Now you&039;re individuals with your own personalities" He smiled at her "The nicest way I can put this is that it&039;s pretty obvious to most of us that your personality is the one with the heart"
Shaunee stared after Erin "I knew it before, and it bugged ossipy andout with"
"Funny usually at other people&039;s expense," Damien said "Cool because she excluded others to make herself seeaze "I know I see it now Back then all I could see was that ere best friends, and I needed a best friend"
"What about now?" he asked
"Now I need to be able to like myself, and I can&039;t do that if I&039;m only one half of a whole person I&039; sarcastic or witty or just downright hateful" She shook her head, feeling sad and really old "That doesn&039;t mean I think Erin&039;s awful Actually, I want her to be as cool and funny and great as I used to believe she was I guess I&039;ve just come to realize that she has to either be, or not be, those things on her own It doesn&039;t have anything to do with ht you were," Damien admitted
"I&039;m still crap at school"
He smiled "There are other kinds of sood news for me"
"Hey, don&039;t underestiood at school if you tried a little"
"I know that sounds like a good thing to you, but I&039;m fine with the &039;other kinds of shed, and Shaunee added, "I&039; around there will help"
"Help you or the Warriors?"
"Either Both I don&039;t know," Shaunee said with a sigh
"I&039; to believe that it&039;ll help both," he said "I&039; to move around-like air I&039;ll try to bloay so to this place"
"You feel it, too?"
He nodded "I can feel that the energy here is bad Too ative has happened in too short a ti Shaunee "Now that I&039;ve considered it more, I don&039;t think you should stay away from the stables Fire isn&039;t bad You&039;re not bad Lenobia knows that Remember how you made the horses&039; hooves heat up so that we could ride theh the ice storm?"
"I rehter
"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&039;s how it&039;s wielded that&039;s i like it&039;s how fire is used that&039;s irin widened "See, I told you that you ood at school Wield is an excellent vocab word: to have or be able to use, as in power or influence"
"You&039;re hed
"So, I&039;ll see you at the stables later?"
"Yeah, you will"
Da Shaunee a quick, tight hug "I&039;lad you became your own person And if you need a friend, I&039;eneral direction of the stables
Shaunee blinked back tears and s his fluffy brown hair bounce around in his own little breeze "Fire," she whispered, "send a little spark with Dauy to make him happy, especially because he always tries so hard tobetter than she had in weeks, Shaunee walked in a different direction Her steps were slower, more deliberate than Da any forward to the pyre and the burning-she wasn&039;t Erin She couldn&039;t just shut out sadness and pain by freezing her feelings And you knohat? I wouldn&039;t want to be cold and frozen inside, even if it meant I didn&039;t hurt asherself and drawing strength from the steady warmth of her element Thank you, Nyx I&039;ll try to wield it well, hat she was thinking when the immortal&039;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&039;s Te 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&039;s black wings eainst his back This vest also didn&039;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 aorgeous Shaunee shook the thought from her mind and focused instead on what he&039;d said "Thankme your cell phone Without it Stevie Rae would not have been able to call ht be dead were it not for you"
Shaunee&039;s face ared, not sure why she suddenly felt so nervous "You&039;re the one who came when she called You could&039;ve just not answered and kept being a shitty dad" Shaunee realized what she&039;d said after she blurted it and pressed her lips together, telling herself stop speaking!
There was a long, uncomfortable silence, and then Kalona said, "What you say is the truth I have not been a good father to ood father to all ofexactly what he meant His voice sounded weird She would have expected him to be sad or serious or even pissed Instead he just seehts he was thinking were just now occurring to him She wished she could see his expression, but his face was turned away fro at Nyx&039;s statue
"Well," she began, not really having a clue what to say to hi your relationship with Rephaim Maybe it&039;s not too late to fix your relationship with your other sons, too I know ifto do with ive him a chance" The immortal&039;s head turned and he stared at her Shaunee felt jittery, like those amber eyes could see too much of her "What I mean is, I don&039;t think it&039;s ever too late to do the right thing"
"You believe that, honestly?"
"Yeah Lately I&039;ve believed it more and more" She wished he&039;d look away froed His ain "I have lost count"
"Seeood place to start in the whole I&039;d-like-to-be-a-good-dad thing"
"Knowing a thing and acting on a thing are distinctly different," he said
"Yeah, totally But I said it&039;s a good place to start" Shaunee jerked her head toward Nyx&039;s statue "That&039;s also a good place to start"
"At the Goddess&039;s statue?"
She frowned at hiaze "There&039;sfor her-"
"Forgiveness is not granted to all of us!" his voice thundered