The Circle of Lies

by Crystal Velasquez

  “But . . . but what about my aunt?” Ana searched the room desperately, tears filling her eyes.

  Doli approached, and with her free hand she squeezed Ana’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, Ana, but your aunt isn’t here. I don’t think she ever was. Maybe Anubis made your aunt speak to you on the phone to get you here. It was just one of his tricks.”

  Ana nodded, her eyes wet with tears. “I know. I guess I just needed to hear that out loud.”

  I gestured for everyone to move toward the exit and patted Ana on the back. “Look on the bright side,” I said. “They took us on and we won—again. We’re going to find your aunt and uncle and make the Brotherhood of Chaos wish they had never messed with us.”

  “Agreed,” said Doli. “But for now let’s get to the dorm so we can dress these wounds and get some sleep. We’re going to need it.”

  We had just rounded the corner of the tennis courts when we saw an even more unpleasant sight than the killer eagles: Nicole Van Voorhies emerging from the shadows.

  “What are you doing here?” I demanded.

  “Just taking a walk to clear my head,” she replied casually.

  “At two in the morning?”

  She shrugged. “I couldn’t sleep. Besides, all of you are awake too. So what have you been up to? Something that’ll get you tossed out of here, I hope,” she said with a giggle, taking in our soaking wet clothes and bloody faces. “Have you been swimming after hours?”

  I heard Ana gasp, and looked over at her. Her eyes darkened. “That’s the same giggle I heard on the phone earlier!” she hissed. “That wasn’t my aunt, was it? It was you!”

  It took a moment for me to take in what Ana was saying. Then I realized. Of course! Nicole was a hyena demon—and hyenas could mimic other animals.

  Nicole smiled sweetly. “I’m sure I don’t know what you mean . . . genius.”

  Without warning, Ana lunged for Nicole, but I caught her arms and pulled her back before she could tackle her.

  “Let me go!” Ana cried, struggling against me. “She knows where my aunt and uncle are. Don’t you? Don’t you? ” she screamed, glaring at Nicole.

  “Maybe,” Nicole said with a shrug, seeming unfazed by Ana’s outburst. She examined the nails on her right hand as if her cuticles were way more interesting than this conversation. “Maybe not.”

  “Where are they? What’s Anubis planning to do to them?”

  Nicole only tsked and said, “I hate spoilers. Takes all the fun out of it, am I right? You’ll just have to wait and see.” She punctuated each of the last three words by tapping Ana’s nose with her index finger.

  This time when Ana lunged forward, she almost managed to shake me free, and I had to grip hard around her arm. But just then Lin slid between her and Nicole. I could see Nicole’s confidence falter. Before it had come out that Lin’s parents had lost all their money, Lin had been one of the only girls in school who was even more of a queen bee than Nicole. And it seemed that Lin still made Nicole nervous.

  “It’s no use trying to get information out of her,” Lin said, talking to Ana but smirking in Nicole’s direction. “She’s just a low-level, brownnosing lackey who probably doesn’t know anything anyway.”

  Nicole clamped her lips shut, her grin disappearing instantly. Once again Lin had hit her target. I bet she would be crazy good at Battleship.

  “Let’s just go home and get some rest,” Lin continued. “Everything will look better in the morning. Except Nicole’s split ends.”

  Nicole gasped and pawed at her blond locks. I shook my head. It was amazing. Even a shape-shifting demon with a god for a boss could still be reduced to rubble by a well-timed insult to her hair.

  As for everything else looking better in the morning, I wasn’t sure if that was true, but it seemed to be exactly what Ana needed to hear. She stopped fighting us, and her arms went slack. “All right,” she said. “Let’s go home.”

  Together we moved past Nicole and headed up the path. When we were several feet away, Nicole called, “Sweet dreams, ladies.” She let out a high-pitched giggle, and when I whipped around, fully prepared to say something snide about her shoes, I saw her eyes flash yellow—like the hyena she was.

  chapter 4

  Shani

  AFTER WE GOT BACK TO the dorm that night, we cleaned and bandaged our wounds. Our heavy cat pelts had protected us from the worst of the eagle attacks. Most of our injuries were easy to treat and could be covered up with a scarf or by wearing the long-sleeved shirt of our uniform.

  Doli’s wounds required more attention, though. The gash in her side was deep, and the skin around it looked red and angry. The bleeding had slowed, but it still hadn’t stopped completely. Thankfully, she knew exactly what to do—or her parents did. “Don’t laugh,” she instructed us once we’d all gathered in our room, “but this will work.” She reached under her bed, wincing all the while, and pulled out a small box that her parents had made her bring with her from the reservation. It consisted of a burlap bag filled with different herbs and bits of plants. Doli pulled out a jar with a picture on the lid of a flat green leaf with what looked like spikes all around its edge.

  “It’s an ointment made from a mescal plant,” she explained. “Sometimes it’s used to stop nosebleeds, but it also helps to heal wounds. Ana, I know these two are a little squeamish”—she nodded her head at Lin and me—“so I’m going to need your help.”

  Under her direction, Ana cleaned Doli’s wound with water, then slathered on the ointment while Doli whispered words in Navajo that she said a medicine man would usually say.

  “You don’t think that hocus-pocus stuff is actually going to work, do you?” Lin said.

  Doli cut a glance at her as she lay down on the bed. “It isn’t hocus pocus. My family believes in a combination of Western and traditional healing. Besides, I just fought a roomful of Chaos Spirit eagles, some of which came out of my T-shirt, while I was in the form of a puma, and you’re going to ask me if I believe in magic?”

  Lin pursed her lips. “Good point,” she said. “Carry on.”

  It was a good point, but I still had my doubts about the treatment—until I saw Doli’s bleeding stop altogether.

  Later, after Ana and Lin went back to their room, Doli lay on her back with a clean bandage pressed over her wound, while I examined my own battle scars in the mirror above my dresser. Even after I’d washed the blood away and disinfected it, my ear still looked pretty nasty. That maniac ghost eagle had left a very real slice right through the top of my ear. “So much for hiding the evidence of the big fight,” I said, gently touching the edge of my ear with the tip of my finger.

  Doli winced. “That does look awful. Are you sure you don’t want to go to the hospital for stitches?”

  I shook my head. “If anybody’s going to the hospital, it should be you. You’re looking a little like Swiss cheese with that hole in your side.”

  Doli smirked. “Cute. But no, I’ll be all right. I plan to tell Coach Connolly I’m not feeling well to get out of track practice for the week. By then I’ll be fine. What are you going to do, though? You can’t exactly wear earmuffs in the desert. People are going to ask you why half your ear is missing, and you can’t say an eagle did it.”

  I thought for a moment, cataloging in my head all the ways one might slice open one’s ear, until I hit on one that might work. “I know,” I told Doli. “I’ll tell people I nicked my ear while giving myself a haircut.”

  “Haircut? But you haven’t—” Doli stopped talking when I opened my desk drawer and pulled out a pair of scissors. “Oh no . . . ,” she said.

  I grinned from ear to damaged ear. “Oh yes.”

  “Everyone’s staring at your hair,” Ana whispered as she sat down beside me in morning assembly the next day.

  “They’ll get over it,” I said. “Sheesh, you’d think I had shaved it all off or something. It’s just a little trim.”

  Actually, it was a lot more than a trim.

  T
ruth be told, I’d ended up hacking off a little more than I’d intended to. I still had the patch of blue hanging over my left eye, but now the rest of my hair fell in choppy waves just above my ears, showing off all the earrings and the battle wounds on my right lobe.

  Doli would never trim her waist-length shiny black hair, something she said was a point of pride among her people. I kept catching her staring into our dorm trashcan, shaking her head mournfully at the severed locks. But I liked the new style; it looked punk rock to me, like I should be fronting a band that performed in underground clubs, or leading a revolution.

  Of course, Temple Academy was no underground club. So it was no surprise to me that I was the center of attention.

  “She looks like a lawn mower attacked her head in her sleep,” I heard Lana Kapule whisper loudly somewhere behind me. Then there’d been Tanya Wallace, who had tried to look casual as she’d crossed in front of me on my way into the auditorium. She’d been pretending to text someone, but I’d heard the telltale snap of her phone’s camera. She’d barely hidden her giggle as she strode away. That picture of my cut was probably already making the rounds on Instagram.

  Fine, I thought. Laugh it up, you nitwits. If everyone focused on my hair, maybe they wouldn’t notice that Doli could barely stand up straight without groaning, or that Lin had an eternity scarf looped high around her neck even though it was about a thousand degrees outside. Or that Ana’s eyes were red and puffy from crying. I considered it taking one for the team.

  “Oh, who cares about your stupid hair?” Lin grumbled on the other side of me. “If anyone finds out what happened in the gym, we’ll be rocking handcuffs and orange jumpsuits. That’ll attract even more attention, and I’ll tell you right now, orange is not my color.”

  Principal Ferris took her place behind the podium and cleared her throat, halting our conversation. Her hair was styled in her usual chic French twist, but the shirt she wore was wrinkled, and her lipstick had faded, as if she’d been biting her lip. “Good morning,” she said. “I hate to start out with bad news again, but it seems I must. Last night our gymnasium was vandalized.” She paused dramatically, waiting for the gasps to die down. “The damage is extensive. We don’t know yet whether this is related to the vandalism of the temple. Anyway, as a result the following gym classes and sporting events will have to be postponed. . . .”

  Angry murmurs from players on the sports teams raised an echoing din in the hall. “No way . . .”

  “Who was it?”

  “It’s our money that paid for that gym . . .”

  “How are we supposed to get ready for the championships now?”

  Jocks . . .

  It took a moment for Principal Ferris to regain control, holding up her palms. As she began to drone on about the classes that would be postponed or canceled altogether, I tuned out, pulled my phone from my pocket, and checked my e-mail. Right at the top of the list was a message from Ms. Benitez, addressed to all four of us.

  I’ve arrived safely in Cancún. Meeting with some contacts this morning who may be able to help. Keep the faith. I’ll be in touch when I can.

  At least we still had Ms. Benitez on our side. With any luck she’d have good news for us soon. I wasn’t sure how much more bad news Ana could take.

  I scrolled down to the next message. It was from my mom. Oh good, I thought sarcastically, time for the annual check-in. I opened the message and skipped over all the usual nagging about keeping my grades up so I could get into a good college and not bring shame on the family. But then my eyes landed on a line that almost made me laugh out loud.

  Your sister Rana was accepted into Yale University. Since she will be in the United States, she will be able to keep a much closer eye on you.

  I scoffed. Did Mom even realize that Yale was in Connecticut, all the way on the other side of the country? How was Rana supposed to “keep an eye” on me from there? Mom had just as good a view of me from our home in Egypt. And why was my mother pretending to be so concerned about me all of a sudden? Since I’d started going to boarding schools, back when I was eight or nine years old, she had come to see me only once a year—twice if her appearance was requested by the headmistress or principal. She didn’t care about having family close to me; she just wanted me to know that Rana was going to Yale, just like Solaj was at Harvard, to remind me that I should stop embarrassing them and make something of myself.

  Would she think better of me if she knew that I had saved my friends’ lives last night? Would she be impressed if I told her that I had the ability to turn into a lion and was using my power to try to save the world? Probably not, I thought. Saving the world doesn’t come with an Ivy League diploma.

  I felt a sharp elbow dig into my side. “Ow!”

  “Somebody had to bring you back from La La Land,” Lin whispered. “The assembly is over. What class do you have now?”

  For a second I drew a blank. I guessed the e-mail from my mother had thrown me off more than I wanted to admit. “I’ve got Spanish. Only, Mr. Wallace is subbing for Ms. Benitez while she’s away, so basically I’ve got Uno next period.”

  It had been super-easy to convince Mr. Wallace that the card game was a legit part of our curriculum, as long as we said the numbers in Spanish.

  “Well, whatever class you’ve got, we’d better go. First period starts in a few minutes.”

  “And you need me to hold your hand?”

  Lin rolled her eyes. “Nooo. But I’m still trying to rebuild my reputation around here—convince people that I’m not some friendless loser. It looks cooler if you aren’t seen walking to class alone.”

  “Don’t look at me,” Doli said when I shot her a pleading look. “I’m going in the opposite direction.”

  “Me too,” said Ana, shrugging one shoulder.

  “See, Shani?” Lin whined. “You’re all I’ve got.”

  I sighed. “Hey, Lin. Remember back when you were supermean and wouldn’t be caught dead hanging with any of us?”

  Lin scrunched her mouth to the side. “Yeah.”

  “I kind of miss those days.”

  Lin gave me a begrudging smile and said, “Would you come on already? I have to walk with somebody. Might as well be you.”

  “I’m afraid Ms. Massri won’t be attending her first-period class,” said a woman’s voice from behind Lin. Principal Ferris! How long had she been standing there? Lin stepped aside and looked from me to the principal and back to me again, as if she were trying to make sense of the tension in the air.

  Principal Ferris turned an uncharacteristically steely gaze on me and said, “I need to see you in my office. Now.”

  “But she has Spanish class right now,” Ana said helpfully.

  “I’m sure the Uno game will keep,” Principal Ferris replied in a frosty tone. “Gather your things. I’ll be waiting for you.” With that, she stalked off toward her office.

  I looked at my friends in shock.

  “Does she know?” Ana asked. “A-about the gym? I mean, that we—”

  “Shh!” Doli said. “Can we not talk about that so loudly?”

  “I second that,” Lin said. “And unless she got a forensics team down here, there’s no way she could know we were there.”

  I shrugged. “So maybe she found out that I hacked into the airline system?”

  Doli closed her eyes and sucked in a breath through her teeth. “I told you that was a bad idea.”

  “Oh no,” Ana said, looking miserable. “If it is because of that, it’s all my fault. I’ll go with you and tell her so.” She slung her backpack over her shoulder with a wince and started walking after Ferris. But I grabbed on to her bag and pulled her back toward us.

  “Hold it right there, Cetzal,” I said. “Thanks for the show of solidarity, sister, but I can handle this myself. Besides, nothing I’ve done is your fault.”

  Ana removed the jaguar necklace she always wore around her neck and held it out to me. “Want to borrow this? For protection.”

&
nbsp; I smiled at her. “Thanks,” I said, “but I’ve already got my own.” I held up my wrist to show her the gold bracelet with the lion engraved on top that I had gotten from my grandmother. “And if that doesn’t work, I’ll just turn into a lion and scare her to death before she can kick me out.”

  All three girls paled.

  “Relax! I’m kidding . . . mostly.”

  Looking slightly relieved, Doli said, “Well, you’d better not keep her waiting.” She uttered a phrase in her native language.

  I gave her a blank look. “Does that mean ‘good luck’?”

  She shrugged. “Close enough. There’s no direct translation in Navajo, so I just wished you good health.”

  “Buena suerte,” Ana added.

  Lin chimed in with “Zhù yùnqi,” which was either “good luck” or “good riddance” in Mandarin. She claimed she wasn’t sure.

  “Thanks, guys,” I said. I turned and walked to Principal Ferris’s office, hoping my luck held out just a little bit longer.

  As soon as I sat down in the chair facing Principal Ferris’s desk, she narrowed her eyes at me and said, “Is there anything you’d like to tell me, Shani?”

  I looked left and right, as if the answer might be written on the wall somewhere. “I . . . don’t think so?”

  “Really?” She leaned forward, her jaw tightening. “Nothing? Nothing at all?”

  No, not nothing, I thought. There were a million things I could confess to. But if she didn’t already know about the airline hack, or the gym, I certainly wasn’t about to volunteer the information. Any good card player would tell you not to show your hand too early. I had to say something, though. “Uh . . . well, your French twist is looking particularly . . . French today.”

  Ferris shook her head and sneered at me. “How unfortunate,” she said. “I thought maybe if I gave you a chance, you would confess and I wouldn’t have to do this. But you leave me no other option.” She pulled a remote control out of her desk and aimed it at the TV console mounted on her wall next to the bookshelf. “I’d like to show you something.”