Mom was a little weird that way, always talking about gods and goddesses as if they were real and not just characters in the mythological stories that she’d read to me when I was a kid. Ares, Athena, some warrior chicks named Nike and Sigyn. Mom called all the gods and goddesses by name, like she knew them on a personal basis or something. Yeah, it was totally embarrassing whenever she said something about the gods in front of my friends, but I loved her too much to be mean and tell her so. Most of the time, anyway.

“I’ll stay here and deal with the doctors,” Grandma Frost said. “You go help that poor girl, Grace.”

My mom nodded and turned back to me. “Bye, baby. I’ll be home tonight as soon as I can.”

She touched my cheek, and once again, I felt the warmth of her love wash over me, taking all my troubles with it. My mom smiled, then left the room.

Grandma Frost stayed with me in the hospital. The doctors wanted to run some more tests, mainly brain scans, to try to figure out why I’d had such a freak-out in the locker room. Of course, Grandma couldn’t exactly tell them the truth—that my Gypsy gift had made me see something so awful that my brain had basically been overloaded with pain and gone haywire. They’d probably want to scan her brain then, if she started talking about my psychometry.

Mom and Grandma didn’t hide the fact that we were Gypsies who had magic, but they didn’t exactly advertise it, either. We used our gifts, but we didn’t explain them to people or brag about the things we could do. The magic was just a part of us, along with our violet eyes and the Frost family name, and no one had ever really asked many questions about our powers—except me.

It took some arguing on Grandma Frost’s part, but since the doctors couldn’t find anything wrong with me, they eventually discharged me that afternoon.

Grandma took me to her house, which was located a few streets over from the downtown district in Asheville. I stayed with Grandma on the nights that Mom had to work late, so I had my own room there. Grandma insisted that I stay in bed for the rest of the day, but she let me call Bethany.

“Gwen!” Bethany shrieked in my ear. “Are you okay? What was wrong with you?”

“I’m fine,” I said. “I’m at my grandma’s house. The doctors think I had a seizure or something. They ran some tests, but they said I’ll be fine. I’ll be back at school tomorrow. I don’t even get a day off.”

“Well, whatever it was, it was freaky,” Bethany said. “Especially since you kept right on screaming even after you passed out. You were yelling and thrashing around like you were possessed or something the whole time. Everyone at school’s talking about it.”

I winced. “They are?”