"I'd rather not say." He shrugged and gave me a look that said that even though he might think I was hot he also might think that I had lost my mind, but he did as I asked and walked over to where Shaunee was standing in the southernmost part of the circle--the area from which I called the element fire. He stopped in front of her. Shaunee looked around him at me. "Take the candle from him," I called across the circle to her, concentrating on how cute Lermer looked so that I wouldn't be thinking about fire at all. Shaunee shrugged. "Okay," she said. She took the red candle from Lermer. I was watching her closely, but I hadn't needed to. What happened was so obvious that sev eral of the kids standing around the outside of the circle gasped along with Shaunee. The instant her hand touched the
