Revealed

me humane? Or did it make me too damn dense to ever be a decent High Priestess?

“Zoey? Is everything okay?”

I hadn’t heard Aurox approach, so it was a shock to look from the thunderclouds to his moonbeam eyes. I blinked and shook myself, trying to refocus and at least do this one thing right.

“Yeah, everything’s fine. I just needed to talk to you. Is now a good time?”

“Of course.” He gestured toward the bench beside me and nodded, “Oh, yeah, go ahead and sit down.”

He sat and I tried not to fidget or pick at my fingernail polish.

“It looks like it’s going to rain,” I said. “And I think I just heard thunder off in the distance.”

“The scent of lightning is in the air,” he agreed.

I relaxed a little. That was definitely not something Heath would have said. “I never thought about lightning smelling like anything, but you’re probably right. Thunder and lightning go together.”

“Zo, what’s up?”

My eyes went to his. Yep. Heath was definitely in there. “I can’t drink your blood again.”

“But you want to,” he said.

“Aurox, no one gets everything they want.”

“But this isn’t everything, it’s just a small part of everything.”

“If I really drank your blood, we’d make love. We’d probably Imprint. That wouldn’t be a small thing to me or you or Stark.”

“It’s Stark, then. He’s the reason why you won’t be with me,” Aurox said.

“No. It’s me. I can’t be with two guys at the same time.”

“And you will not choose me over Stark because I am not Heath.”

“I won’t choose you over Stark because I’m already committed to Stark,” I said firmly.

“It’s because I’m not good enough for you—because of how I was made—what I can be.”

I put my hand over his. “No, Aurox. Please don’t think that. You’re not to blame for any of that, and I don’t think about that when I’m with you.”

“What do you think about?”

I smiled, even though I felt sad, and continued to tell him the truth. “I think about how glad I am that you’re here. I also think you and Heath make a really good team.”

“You know we love you,” he said.

“I know.” I spoke softly, and pulled my hand from his. “I’m sorry.”

“Where do we go from here?”

“I want to be friends,” I said.

“Friends.” The word sounded so flat when he repeated it.

“Yeah, and Stark’s not going to act crazy around you anymore,” I said.

“Zo, that’s because he doesn’t have any reason to.” Aurox leaned over, kissed my cheek, and then sounding completely defeated, said, “Would you let Kalona know I am going to check the perimeter again?”

“Yeah, sure…” I said to his back as he sprinted away toward the school’s stone wall.

I stood, feeling heavy and super, super tired. Well I told him the truth, but it definitely sucked. Trying not to think about anything but sleep, because the last thing I needed was for Stark to be awake and asking where I’d been and what had made me feel so crappy. I retraced my way into the field house and down the hallway that led to the entrance of the basement. Kalona wasn’t standing there. I sighed and stuck my head into the field house. He wasn’t there, either. Guessing that he was in the basement doing a quick check on the sleeping kids, I padded back toward the stairway.

“Yes, I’ve been watching Zoey like I said I would.”

At first when I heard my name I stopped because I was surprised. The voice drifted from the stable area, coming from the half-opened door that separated the hallway between the field house and the barn.

“And? For shit’s sake, do I have to ask you everything?”

Then I realized who was talking about me, and I crept closer, listening in disbelief.

“And her colors got super crazy during the funeral. But I think I know why, and it doesn’t have anything to do with her losing control of her temper or her powers.”

“Shaylin, you’re making my ass hurt. Just tell me what you saw.”

There was a long pause. I heard Shaylin blow out a long breath and then my insides went cold as the Prophetess told Aphrodite, “I saw her looking at Aurox. A lot. Her colors were crazy. That made me think—so when she and Aurox went to the cafeteria together after the circle casting, I followed them.”

“Shit, Shaylin! You’re not a Prophetess, you’re a super spy!” Aphrodite said, laughing. “Tell me that Z and Bull Boy did the nasty.”

I bit my lip to keep from screaming.

“Almost. The two of them are definitely all into each other. She sucked blood from his finger.”

“That’s practically doing it for Zoey, and oh crap. That’s too fucking close to what I saw. Then, let me guess, her colors went crazy? All confused and frustrated and pissed?”

“Totally. Especially after she—”

I’d heard enough.

“Shut up!” I yelled. My chest was burning as hot as my face as I slapped my hand against the door, making it fly open and smack against the wall.

“Uh-oh,” Aphrodite said.

“Zoey! This isn’t what you think!” Shaylin said, backing away from me as I came into the room.

“Really? How is this not what I think it is when I hear you telling Aphrodite that you’ve been spying on me!” I didn’t think. I reacted. Fisting my hand around the burning Seer Stone, I lifted my other hand and thought about how badly I wanted to knock Shaylin on her butt.

A ball of blue fire burst from my hand, knocking Shaylin off her feet. She landed on her back, out of breath, gasping and crying.

I didn’t care about her bawling. It felt good to put her on her butt. Shaylin deserved it.

“Stop it. Now!” Aphrodite stepped in front of me.

I narrowed my eyes. “You were talking about me behind my back!”

“And I’ll tell you why in a second. First, you need to check yourself. Get control of whatever crazy bullshit you’ve got going on and calm it down, right now.” She glanced over her shoulder at Shaylin. “You go back to the basement, right now.”

Still crying, Shaylin scrambled to her feet and ran past me.

“So, what is she, your own little private Prophetess?”

Instead of answering me, Aphrodite watched Shaylin go, and then she planted her hands on her hips and faced me. “Seriously? You’re trying to talk shit to me after you used that fucking stone to hurt Shaylin? You have lost your damn mind.”

“Stone?” I blinked at her, and then looked down at my chest, realizing I had been holding the Seer Stone so tightly that it had pressed painfully into my palm. As soon as I felt the pain the stone went cold. I dropped it. Feeling disoriented, I tried to keep my focus on what had pissed me off—Shaylin spying on Aurox and me. “I’m not talking about the stone, and I’m not talking shit. I want to know what the hell you think you’re doing having me followed around.”

“I had a vision. It was from your point of view. You were doing some of what Shaylin saw you doing with Aurox.”

“When did you have this vision?”

“A couple of days ago. That doesn’t matter. What’s important is—”

“It doesn’t matter that you kept a vision about me from me for days?”

“No, what’s important is why. Why is because I also saw you losing your fucking temper and not able to control that fucking stone. Which is exactly what just happened.”

“No, that’s not what just happened. I controlled the fucking stone. I wanted to