Free Betrayed by Kristin Cast, P.C. Cast

had been showing an unusual amount of interest in the newscast. “And before you ask, yes, he is as cute in real life as he was in his picture.”
    â€œDamn shame when something bad happens to a cute brother,” Shaunee said, shaking her head sadly.
    â€œDamn shame when something happens to any cute guy—no matter what color, Twin,” Erin said. “We shouldn’t discriminate. Cuteness is cuteness.”
    â€œYou’re right, as usual, Twin.”
    â€œI don’t like marijuana,” Stevie Rae piped in. “It smells bad. I tried it once and it made me cough my head off and burned my throat. Plus I got some of the weed in my mouth. It was just nasty.”
    â€œWe don’t do ugly,” Shaunee said.
    â€œYeah, and pot’s ugly. Plus it makes you eat for no good reason. It’s a shame the hottie football players are into that,” Erin said.
    â€œMakes them less hottie,” Shaunee said.
    â€œOkay, hottie-ness and pot are not really the point,” I said. “I have a bad feeling about this whole disappearance thing.”
    â€œOh, no,” Stevie Rae said.
    â€œWell shit,” Shaunee said.
    â€œI really hate it when she gets one of those feelings,” Erin said.
    All any of us could talk about was Chris’s disappearance and how bizarre it was that he had last been seen so close to the House of Night. In comparison to a kid being missing, my little drama-trauma with Loren seemed insignificant. I mean, I still wanted to tell at least Stevie Rae about it, but I couldn’t seem to concentrate enough on anything but the sucking black feeling that had filled me since I’d seen the news.
    Chris is dead
. I didn’t want to believe it. I didn’t want to know it. But everything inside me said that the kid would be found, but he’d be found dead.
    We met Damien in the dining hall, and everyone’s conversation was centered around Chris and theories about his disappearance, which ranged from the Twins’ insistence that “the hottie probably had a fight with his parental units and he’s off drinking cheap beer somewhere” to Damien’s firm belief that he might have discovered homosexual tendencies and had taken off for New York City to fulfill his dream of being a gay model.
    I didn’t have a theory. All I had was a terrible feeling, which I wasn’t willing to talk about.
    Naturally, I couldn’t eat. My stomach was killing me. Again.
    â€œYou’re picking at your excellent food,” Damien said.
    â€œI’m just not hungry.”
    â€œThat’s what you said at lunch.”
    â€œOkay, well, I’m saying it again!” I snapped, and was instantly sorry when Damien looked hurt and frowned down at his yummy bowl of Vietnamese noodle salad called Bun Cha Gio. The Twins raised one eyebrow each at me, and then went back to focusing on using chopsticks correctly. Stevie Rae just stared at me, silent worry clear on her face.
    â€œHere. I found this. I have a feeling it’s yours.”
    Aphrodite dropped the silver hoop beside my plate. I looked up at her perfect face. It was weirdly expressionless, as was her voice.
    â€œSo, is it yours?”
    I reached up automatically and touched its mate, which was still in my ear. I’d forgotten all about that I’d dropped the damn thing so that I could pretend to find it while I eavesdropped on Aphrodite and Neferet. Crap. “Yes. Thank you.”
    â€œDon’t mention it. Guess you’re not the only one who has
feelings
about things, huh?”
    She turned and walked out of the dining hall through the glass doors and into the courtyard. Even though she was carrying a tray with her uneaten dinner on it, she didn’t even pause to look at the table where her friends sat. I noticed that they glanced up as she passed, but then they looked hastily away. None of them met her eyes. Aphrodite ate outside in the dimly lit courtyard