“You know how nasty that sounds, right?”
“But, it’s oh, so good!”
Holding hands, we left the section of the big stone building that housed the professors’ quarters. Even though changes in weather, particularly the cold, didn’t bother me like before I’d been Marked, I braced myself against what I knew would be a wet, icy Oklahoma winter’s night, and stepped through the arched door Stark held open for me—and instantly started laughing.
The rear of the House of Night campus held an expansive grassy area that was home to huge, ancient oaks, stone benches, and a large marble statue of Nyx that was positioned across from her temple. In front of Nyx’s Temple there was a circular cobblestone drive. Someone—and I noticed right away that Stevie Rae seemed to be the orchestrator of what was going on—had pulled out a fat green hose and flooded the cobblestone area. The water was now frozen, and fledglings were sorta ice-skating. And by sorta I mean they were slipping and sliding across the frozen, homemade rink, but they weren’t wearing ice skates. They were wearing—
“Are those slippers on their feet?” Stark said.
Stevie Rae rushed up to us. “Ohmygoodness, we’re havin’ so much fun! Do you know Rephaim has never ice-skated? Not once. Ever.” She waved at Rephaim, who was tentatively sliding on the ice between Damien and Jack—obviously on standby to grab him whenever he started to fall. He waved back at her, and then they did have to steady him as he windmilled his arms and almost fell on his butt.
Stevie Rae giggled. Her cheeks were roses and she had ice in her curls, and she looked happier and more relaxed than she had in weeks. With Damien’s help Rephaim righted himself and then the three of them plowed into the middle of a bunch of fledglings as they zoomed across the ice chasing something that looked vaguely puck-like.
“What kind of puck is that?” Stark asked.
“The kind your grandma makes you from the lid of a mason jar.” Grandma Redbird grinned like a girl as she joined us. She was carrying one of the puck things, which she’d created with lots of duct tape and weighted with Goddess only knew what.
Stark looked appalled. “Grandma Redbird, do not tell me you’ve been out there with those kids.”
“Okay, rooster, I will not tell you.” Grandma winked at me.
“I’ll tell him,” said Stevie Rae. “Don’t be a fun-sucker. Grandma Redbird is like some kinda genius on the ice.”
“That is sweet of you, Stevie Rae. But I’ve forgotten more about skating than I remember.”
I hugged my favorite human tightly. “Grandma, you always amaze me.” I mentally filed away the fact that I needed to get her to a real rink so that she could give me a pointer or twelve. It’d been way too long since she and I had gone ice-skating.
“Ah oh.” Stevie Rae jerked her chin at someone behind me. “Talk about a fun-sucker. Z, please don’t let her shut this down.”
I turned to see Aphrodite, with a decidedly fun-sucking expression on her face, doing her best to hurry toward us—though her choice of thigh-high suede stiletto boots was not working for her. Between the ice and the wet she looked like a cat trying to cross a stream on slick rocks.
When she finally reached us, I intercepted her before she could say anything. “Hey, they’re just having fun. I don’t think we need to cut off anyone’s head or whatever. We can just let them skate around while we—”
“Oh, for shit’s sake, I do not care one tiny bit if any of those idiots break their necks.” She glanced at Grandma Redbird and added, “Excluding you, of course. But I watched you earlier. You have some moves.”
“Thank you,” Grandma said.
“This is way more important than the low-rent Holiday on Ice going on out there.” She waved her cell phone in front of Stark. “Is this the human woman you talked to at the park yesterday?”
“If you would hold it still I could tell you,” Stark said.
“Here! Jesus! Take it.” Aphrodite handed it to him.
“What’s this about?” I asked.
“I’ll tell you, if Bow Boy—”
“Yeah, that’s her. So?” said Stark.
“Shit. I need to sit down.” Aphrodite made her way carefully to the ice-covered stone bench near Nyx’s statue and sat heavily. Then she shivered and rolled her eyes. “Goddess, I hate ice.”
Damien slid up to us on icy slippers. “What’s going on? I can feel your stress all the way from the rink.”
“It has something to do with her.” Stevie Rae took the phone from Stark and held it so that she, Damien, and I could check it out together.
“It’s Lynette Witherspoon. Remember her?” Aphrodite said.
“Ohmygoodness, I remember her!” Stevie Rae said as she sat beside Aphrodite.
“Ah, hell. I do too,” I said.
“Who is she, u-we-tsi-a-ge-ya?” Grandma asked as she studied the photo.
“Was, not is,” Damien looked as ill as I felt.
When Grandma and Stark both looked confused, I explained. “Remember the woman who escaped the Mayo? Kalona brought her here and then she snuck off campus and returned to Neferet.”
Stark nodded. “Yeah, I remember. Neferet killed her. But I’m sure that’s who I saw in the park yesterday.”
“You’re not wrong,” said Aphrodite. “I saw her there too. Only I was a lot farther away from her than you were, but even that glimpse of her jogged my memory and I couldn’t quit thinking about her. So, I went to the damn kitchen and charged my cell, then I did a quick search of news stories from last year.”
“The internet is working?” Stevie Rae said.
“Yes, bumpkin, but it was cutting out, though I managed to download this to my phone.”
“Ah, hell!” I said as the puzzle pieces fell into place. “This is the woman in your vision, isn’t it?”
Aphrodite nodded.
“I do not understand,” said Grandma Redbird. “Was this woman not truly dead?”
“Yes. She’s dead,” I spoke slowly, feeling a soul-deep chill that the weather could never
