Betrayal

by Amy Meredith

  She took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and walked over to the table where Jess and the others were working. She gave Jess a tentative smile as she picked up a star and a glue stick. Jess didn’t smile back, and Eve was almost positive that Jess had seen her.

  Her heart squeezed. She and Jess had never had a fight that had lasted overnight. They hardly ever got in fights at all, and if they did have a disagreement, they got over it in a few hours. She shot another look at Jess. Jess was staring at the star she was working on like she was performing life or death surgery.

  Eve began running her glue stuck over one section of the 3D star. When she finished, she sprinkled the section with silver glitter. Why am I standing here doing this? Jess clearly doesn’t want me here. But Eve couldn’t walk away. If she stayed, maybe Jess would get that Eve wanted her prom to be special. And that she owed Eve an apology.

  ‘Jess!’

  Eve looked over her shoulder. It was Peter. Had Jess told him about the fight? She got busy spreading glue over another piece of the star, deciding to wait and see how he acted towards her.

  ‘Jess, Mom told me to give this to you.’ Out of the corner of her eye, Eve saw Peter thrust a sheet of paper at his sister. ‘Permission slip or something.’

  ‘Thanks,’ Jess told him. She glanced at the clock. ‘You’d better hurry if you’re going to make it over to the middle school in time.’

  ‘Mom gave me a note in case I ended up being late. I think it might have taken me a while to find you,’ he answered cheekily. ‘I might have had to check Java Nation, where I might have had to buy a cinnamon scone so I’d have the energy to keep looking.’

  ‘Get out of here,’ Jess told him, but she was smiling, and her voice was full of affection.

  ‘I’m going, I’m going,’ Peter told Jess. Then he glanced over at Eve and smiled. ‘Did you find what you were looking for the other day, Eve?’ he asked.

  ‘What? When?’ Eve didn’t know what he was talking about.

  ‘Monday. You said you had to find something in Jess’s room,’ Peter said.

  ‘Monday! This Monday?’ Jess exclaimed.

  ‘I wasn’t at your house on Monday,’ Eve told him. ‘You must be thinking about one of the times I was over with Jess.’

  ‘No, it was definitely Monday. I remember I was starting to feel sick, and I stayed home Tuesday. I don’t know where you were when she came by, Jess,’ Peter replied. He gave a shrug. ‘OK, I’m heading out. If I’m too late, the note won’t cover me. But I think I have time for one of those doughnuts.’ He headed for the snack table that had been set up near the benches.

  ‘You were at my house after school on Monday?’ Jess burst out. She was looking at Eve now, her eyes blazing.

  ‘Uh, no. I don’t know why he said that. I was with you on Monday, remember? At Ola’s,’ Eve replied.

  ‘You said you had to go back to school to turn in a report. You had time to get to my house before you showed up at Ola’s.’

  ‘Huh?’ Eve said. ‘Why would I do that?’

  ‘I knew you were jealous, but I never thought you’d do something so horrible. Never!’ Jess cried.

  It took Eve a second to get it, just because it was so outrageous. ‘Wait. You think I went to your house and destroyed your dress?’ she yelped. ‘That’s insane.’

  ‘My dress was fine when I left for school on Monday. Then, right after you were at my house, it was shredded,’ Jess shot back.

  ‘I didn’t go to your house. I came back to school to give in my history report.’ Eve’s fingers began to tingle. She curled her hands into fists, crushing the paper star she still held. She wasn’t going to let her power loose now, in front of everyone.

  ‘Of course you’d lie about it,’ Jess snapped.

  Half the people in the gym were listening, although some of them were pretending not to. But Eve didn’t care about any of them. She only cared about Jess. ‘Jess, you’re my best friend. Why would I do that?’

  ‘Because you’re jealous. You’re so jealous I get to go to the prom and you don’t!’ Jess yelled.

  ‘I’m here, aren’t I? I’m helping decorate, because I want the prom to be perfect for you and Seth.’ Eve tried to keep her voice steady and calm so Jess would really listen to her words.

  ‘I didn’t ask you to help. This is supposed to be for people going to the prom. Which is why you’re here, shoving your way in,’ Jess snapped.

  Tremors ripped up and down Eve’s body, her power raging. ‘Fine. I’m leaving.’ She turned and rushed towards the door. She was moving so fast that she almost ran into Luke, on his way in.

  ‘I’m so glad you’re here!’ she told him. All she wanted was to feel his arms around her, but when she reached out, he stepped away from her. Stung, Eve let her arms drop to her sides, the hot tremors of power increasing. ‘What’s wrong? Are you still mad that I didn’t feel like researching yesterday? I just—’

  Luke didn’t say anything. He just held up one of her silver earrings, the one with a long dangly chain of linked hearts. ‘Where d’you find that?’ she asked.

  ‘So it is yours,’ he said.

  ‘Uh-huh. I didn’t even realize I’d lost it. Where did you find it?’ she asked again.

  ‘Where do you think?’ he retorted, and his voice was like ice, hard and cold.

  ‘I don’t know. That’s why I asked you.’ What was with him? Him and Jess. Eve still could hardly believe that Jess thought Eve slashed her dress. How could her best friend believe such a thing? How could her boyfriend be looking at her with such coldness in his eyes?

  Anger began to burn inside her, and Eve felt her power racing, racing, racing. It wanted out.

  ‘I can’t stay in here,’ she gasped. ‘I need out.’

  She’d only managed to take one step when the sound of shattering glass filled the gym. Eve whirled towards the sound, staring in astonishment at the birds smashing through the big windows high in the walls. Eve was hit with so many different impressions so fast, it was hard to take them all in. Safety glass raining down on the prom decorators. A lot of birds. Black. Huge. With wrinkled faces and dripping folds of flesh. Vultures.

  They hissed as they began circling the room. Green bile dripped from their curved beaks. Their eyes glowed yellow and had no pupils.

  They’re not regular vultures, Eve realized. They’re demons.

  ‘Luke, get everyone out!’ Eve yelled. People were scrambling for the doors, and the exit was already jammed. ‘Jess! Help Luke get this place cleared. I’ll deal with the rest.’

  ‘OK. I’m calling Alanna too,’ Luke announced as he headed for the side doors.

  Alanna. Didn’t he even trust Eve to handle it? She was the one with demon-fighting powers, not Alanna.

  Her power didn’t need any time to rev. It was right there waiting. Eve chose one of the demon birds as a target, then thrust her hands out at it. Her lightning flew from her fingers – straight and fast. The creature gave a shrill squawk, and Eve could smell singed feathers.

  The demon wheeled in the air, then dived at Eve. Another demon vulture came at her from the other side. Eve aimed one hand at each and threw her power at them. She got the first one again and it plummeted, hitting the wooden floor of the gym with a dull thud. ‘Got you! Yeah!’ Eve shouted. All that anger she’d been feeling had a place to go now. It felt good to let her power fly at the demons.

  The other demon bird kept coming at Eve, raking her arm with its talons and then zooming away before she could blast it again. Eve felt the scratches like hot lines of fire in her flesh, but she didn’t have time to think about that.

  The sound of hissing grew louder, and Eve saw that more vultures were streaming in through the windows. The air above her was a mass of swirling black. It felt like the birds had sucked all the oxygen out of the air.

  ‘Peter, come on!’ she heard Jess yell. ‘You can’t stay here.’ Eve spotted her over by the doughnut table, trying to pull her brother to his feet. But he stayed crouched
on the gym floor, using both arms to protect his face. Eve wanted to race over to him and Jess, but she knew the best way she could help them was to deal with the demons.

  This time, Eve didn’t bother aiming. She focused on her power, and when the bolts slammed from her fingers, she managed to keep them connected to her. She flung her hands over her head and it was as if she was controlling two zigzagging lasers.

  Eve spun in a circle, hitting as many birds as she could, pushing the power out so hard that the long bolts of light cracked and spit sparks. A few birds dropped to the floor. One struggled to stay aloft with most of the feathers burned off one wing.

  The other demons retaliated. They swooped down at her, one after the other. Eve curved her arms over her head as they attacked with their talons and beaks, biting and scratching as if they planned to strip off her skin bit by bit.

  And they would if she didn’t fight back. Blood was already streaming down her arms, soaking into her hair. At least the adrenaline rush was keeping her from really feeling the pain. Eve kept one arm around her head, and gave short lightning blasts with the free hand. Methodically. Blasting at one bird until it went down, then moving on, trying to ignore the pain of the continuous jabs and rips from the other demons.

  There’s only five of them now, that’s all, she told herself. She aimed, fired. Four left, just four.

  When she had gotten the demon count down to two, her head jerked back suddenly. One of the creatures had managed to tangle a talon in her hair and tear a clump free. Eve spun and used both hands to zap it. While she was attacking it, the last of the demon vultures, the biggest one, closed in on her. It pinched a piece of her upper arm in its beak. It shook its head like a dog with a bone, and Eve’s arm jerked, sending her power shooting wildly across the gym.

  The bird wouldn’t release her arm. Fine. She’d use that. She grabbed it with one hand and let her power fly directly from her fingers into its body.

  The last demon exploded. So did the dead creatures at her feet. Black feathers and bloody pieces of wrinkled flesh flew into the air.

  It’s over, Eve thought as the feathers began to slowly drift back down. I did it! She’d taken them all on – and won. She pushed her long hair away from her face and a couple of fingers came back wet and red with blood from the spot where the bird had yanked out her hair. Her body was hurting in too many places to register, but she was OK.

  She surveyed the gym. Pretty much everyone had made it out. Jess was crouched next to Peter. Luke and Alanna were standing blocking the closed doors of the main entrance. Eve hadn’t noticed when Alanna showed up. It must have been pretty fast, though. The whole battle had only lasted minutes, even though it had felt endless. Was Alanna keeping tabs on Eve? Was that why she’d managed to get here within minutes of Luke calling her?

  That didn’t matter right now. Eve rushed towards Peter and Jess. ‘Is he OK?’

  ‘How could you do that to him?’ Jess demanded. Peter had his head buried in his hands.

  ‘I zapped him?’ Eve cried, horrified. The back of his shirt had a large burned spot, but the skin below it looked unharmed. Relief flooded through Eve. Her power had always had a different effect on humans. She’d even managed to heal some people after the demon Malphus had made them insane. But she’d never zapped a non-demon before.

  ‘I didn’t mean to,’ she said. ‘There were so many of them coming at me. And one really latched on to my arm and yanked. That must be when I hit him.’ Eve touched the spot gingerly. It still hurt. ‘I was aiming at the bird, but when my arm moved, the shot went wild. I didn’t know it got Peter.’

  Jess didn’t answer. She just stared at Eve as though she’d never seen her before.

  Eve felt a cold pit settle in her stomach. ‘You don’t think I did it on purpose, do you?’

  ‘I don’t know what to think,’ Jess told her. ‘If you’d asked me last week whether you could have ruined my prom dress, I would have said no way. Clearly, I don’t know you like I thought I did.’

  ‘I didn’t—’ Eve began.

  Luke strode over, interrupting her. ‘Why did you take the sword? If I’d had it, I could have at least helped you fight those things.’

  Eve felt like she’d slipped into some alternate universe, where the people looked the same, but were completely opposite inside. ‘What are you talking about? I didn’t take the sword.’ She turned to Jess. ‘And I didn’t do anything to your dress. And I didn’t hurt Peter on purpose. I’d never hurt him or any of you. How can you not know that?’

  ‘I found your earring caught on the edge of my bedspread,’ Luke said. ‘Right where it would be if it came off while you were grabbing the sword from under my bed.’

  He turned to Jess. ‘What time did the kung-fu class end?’

  ‘We didn’t end up going,’ Jess answered.

  ‘So you had plenty of time to go into my room while I was out jogging,’ Luke accused. ‘You weren’t very careful, Eve. You forgot to put the blind back up, besides leaving your earring.’

  He sounded so sure, like it was the only logical explanation. Jess, of course, didn’t jump in to defend her. Alanna didn’t comment, just watched from a metre or so away. But she was staring at Eve the same way Luke and Jess were – as if Eve was … God, it was like they thought she was evil.

  Eve had to get away from those eyes. She turned and ran, almost falling as her foot slipped on a piece of vulture skin. She shoved her way through the double doors that led out to the playing fields, and kept on running.

  I should check the portal, she thought. That has to be where those disgusting things came from.

  But she didn’t turn in the direction that would take her to the Medway mansion where the portal was. Instead, she ran towards the station. She needed to get away, far away, out of this town, now that there was no barrier to keep her in. If everyone thought she was so horrible, they could take care of Deepdene by themselves.

  ‘Everybody was in such a panic, they just ran straight out. I don’t think anyone saw Eve use her juice,’ Luke told Jess. They lingered in the quad, even though the first bell was about to ring. Alanna had taken off, and the school had sent a clean-up crew in to deal with the gym.

  ‘Except Peter, but he’s seen it before.’ Jess couldn’t stop thinking of the expression on her brother’s face. Shocked and almost lifeless. She’d had her mom come and pick him up, making up a story about how he’d fallen and hit his head on one of the benches. She figured a concussion would explain how out of it Peter was. ‘I don’t know if he’s going to get over it this time,’ she added.

  ‘I know how he feels,’ Luke said.

  He sounded as shocked and lifeless as Peter had looked. Jess probably did too. She could hardly think because nothing made sense any more. ‘Maybe I should have told my mom I got a concussion too,’ she said. ‘I don’t know if I can function enough to get through the day. Eve … Eve’s been my best friend since practically for ever. I just don’t …’ A salty lump formed in her throat and she could hardly choke out another word. ‘I feel like she’s gone.’

  ‘Did you notice …’ Luke hesitated.

  Jess swallowed hard. ‘What?’ she prompted. She needed to talk. She needed help understanding.

  ‘Eve was especially upset right before those demon birds crashed through the window,’ he said.

  Jess nodded. ‘Her face was all flushed and her fingers were twitching the way they do when her power is gearing up. For a second I thought she was going to shoot out some lightning, the way she did in my room.’

  ‘Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about. It seems like she’s having a harder and harder time controlling herself. Her power. When she gets angry …’

  ‘Kapow,’ Jess said softly.

  Luke leaned towards her, and when he spoke, his voice was hardly more than a whisper. ‘Alanna thinks maybe the demon part of Eve is getting stronger: that’s that why she’s changed so much and why she keeps losing control. The timing of those birds really bothers m
e. It’s like they showed up right when she was so upset that she could hardly keep it together.’ He shoved his fingers through his hair. ‘I feel like I shouldn’t be saying that about her. Even after everything she’s done. She stole the sword, Jess! And ruined your dress.’

  Jess nodded. ‘She’s changed. So, so much.’ She hesitated, then continued. ‘Do you think maybe she made them come here, those hideous birds? Like Peter said, maybe she draws demons. Or, God, could she have called them with her power?’ Jess brought one of her fingers to her lips. She’d broken herself of nail-biting in the seventh grade. But now she really, really wanted to.

  ‘I’m thinking all kinds of bad things,’ Luke admitted. ‘I don’t want to, but, well, you saw her that day in the forest. It’s not a very big leap to go from that kind of destruction to calling up demons, is it?’

  ‘But she fought against them,’ Jess reminded him. ‘They were attacking her. You saw the blood on her.’

  ‘Maybe the demon part called the other demons up, but then the Eve part managed to take control and fight them.’ Luke looked down at Eve’s earring in his hand. He’d been holding it the whole time they’d been talking, but it seemed like he’d forgotten what it was until that moment. ‘That demon the two of you fought, the slimy one? How was Eve feeling before it showed up?’

  Jess thought back. ‘She was really upset when we first got to my house. She thought both of us were against her. That we were siding with the Order about the force field.’

  ‘The force field.’ Luke shook his head. ‘You know, Eve was right about that. They did put it up to control her. They wanted to observe her, and they sent Alanna here to check the situation out and let them know if Eve was a threat.’

  ‘A threat?’ Even after what had happened, it was almost impossible for Jess to think of her best friend that way.