Untamed

tongue extended.

'No!' I cried, scrambling back from it, keeping a tight hold on my hissing cat. 'Get away!' I turned and ran.

It caught me then. I could feel its horribly cold hands hook on my shoulders. I screamed and dropped Nala, who crouched at my feet, snarling up at the creature. Its horrible wings unfurled on either side of me, holding me there. I felt it lean into my back in a mockery of an embrace. Its head craned over my shoulder so that its beak hooked around my neck, resting against the place my pulse beat frantically in my throat. It stayed there, and its beak opened just enough to let the thing's red forked tongue slide out and taste my neck, like it was savoring me before it devoured me.

I was absolutely frozen with fear. I knew it was going to slice open my throat. Aphrodite's vision was coming true, only it was a demon who was going to kill me and not Neferet! No! O Goddess, no! My mind shrieked. Spirit! Find someone to help me!

'Zoey?' Damien's voice was suddenly in a questioning wind whirling around me.

'Damien, help me . . . ,' I managed in a broken whisper.

'Save Zoey!' Damien shouted.

A violent blast of air knocked the creature from my back, but the thing was still able to slide its beak across my throat. As I fell to my knees, my hand went to my stinging neck, expecting to feel the wetness of my life's blood pouring hot and thick, but there was nothing there except a raised line that hurt like hell.

The sound of flapping wings regrouping behind me had me jumping to my feet and whirling around. But this time the wind that smoothed against my skin wasn't frigid and rank with death. It was familiar and filled with the strength of Damien's friendship. The knowledge that I wasn't alone—that my friends hadn't deserted me—cut through the paralyzing mist of panic that had clouded my thoughts like a goddess's avenging sword, and my frozen mind began to work again. Spirits or monstrous birds or minions of Neferet's twisted desires—it didn't really matter. I knew something that would handle all those things.

I quickly oriented myself, facing the direction I knew was east. Then I raised both my arms over my head, closed my eyes, and blocked out the evil mockery of twisted bird calls. 'Wind! Blow hard—blow strong—blow true —and show these creatures what it is to attack someone who is beloved of a Goddess!' I hurled my hands outward toward the creatures that had overtaken the night. I saw the one closest—the one who had tried to slit my throat, caught first in the gale. The wind lifted it up and away and threw it against the stone wall that ringed the school grounds. It crumpled and then seemed to dissolve into the ground, completely disappearing.

'All of them!' I cried, my fear lending power and urgency to my voice. 'Blow them all away!' I flung my hands out again and was grimly pleased when the mocking calls of the creatures that lurked in the trees turned to shrieks of panic and then died away completely. When I knew they were gone, I let my trembling arms drift down to my sides. 'In the name of my Goddess, Nyx, I thank you, wind. I release you, and please tell Damien I'm fine now. I'm okay.'

But before wind left me, it found my face, caressed it briefly, and then it was filled with more than Damien's presence. Within the lingering breeze there was suddenly a distinct warmth that reminded me of Shaunee with its hint of spice and sizzle, as well as the scent of a life-affirming spring shower, which I knew had been sent by Erin. The three elements of my friends joined together, and the wind became a healing breeze that circled around my neck like a silk scarf, soothing the stinging wound left by the Raven Mocker. When the pain around my throat had faded completely, the wind gently blew itself away, taking with it the warmth of fire and the healing touch of water, leaving only the peace of the night and silence.

I lifted my hand, letting my fingers run across my throat. Nothing. There was not a scratch there. I closed my eyes and sent a silent thank you for my friends prayer to Nyx. With their help, I'd overcome one of Aphrodite's death visions for me. One down . . . one to go . . .

I picked up Nala and, holding her close to me, hurried down the sidewalk, trying to stop the trembling that was still quaking through my body.

I was feeling shaky and ultrasensitive, and when my gut told me I really shouldn't be seen right now, I called spirit to me as I entered the quieting school building, and through it covered myself in silence and shadow. So I moved through the mostly deserted halls of school undetected. It was weird of me to do this inside our school building, and it made me feel detached, like I was hiding not just my body, but my thoughts, too, and gradually as I made my way to the Council Chamber, the fear and the triumph that trembled inside me stilled and I began to breathe more easily.

Though Neferet's hand hadn't literally tried to slit my throat, I knew deep in my gut that what I'd just avoided really had been my death, or at the very least a foreshadowing of it. Had Damien still been mad at me, I don't think I could have pushed through the terror the Raven Mockers washed over me and reached out to the elements for protection. And even though Neferet hadn't been holding a blade to my neck, I couldn't help but believe that she was somehow all tied up in what was happening.

Was I still scared? Hell yes!

But I was also still breathing and more or less in one piece. (Okay, I was currently invisible, but still.) Could I beat the Raven Mockers again? In their current form where they were part spirit, part body, yes—with the help of my friends and the elements.

Could I beat them if they were fully formed and had come into all their power?

I shivered. Just the thought of it terrified me.

So I did what any reasonable kid would do—I decided to think about it later. A snatched piece of a quote surfaced from my memory, sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof, and as I dived deeply into the lovely Land of Denial, I kept my mind busy trying to figure out where I'd read it.

Soundlessly, I floated up the stairs to the Council Chamber, across from the library, where I thought I would probably find Shekinah. It was in the hall outside the room that I heard the all-too-familiar voice, and I was very, very glad I'd followed my instinct to conceal myself.

'So you admit to feeling it, too? This sense of something being not right?'

'Yes, Neferet. I readily admit to sensing there was something wrong about the school, but if you'll recall, I was firmly against buying this campus from the Cascia Hall monks five years ago.'

'We needed a House of Night in this part of the country,' Neferet insisted.

'And that is the argument that won the Council over and convinced them to open this House of Night. I didn't agree with it then, and I don't agree with it now. The recent deaths simply prove we should not be here.'

'The recent murders prove we need more of a presence here and all over the world!' Neferet snapped. I heard her draw a deep breath, as if she was working hard to control herself. When she spoke again, her voice was much more subdued. 'This bad feeling of which we were speaking—it has nothing to do with being reticent about opening a school. It's different, more malevolent, and it's grown far worse in the recent months.'

There was a long pause before Shekinah answered her. 'I do feel a malevolence here, but I cannot name it. It seems hidden, shrouded in something I do not find familiar.'

'I think I can name it,' Neferet said.

'What do you suspect?'

'I have come to believe it is an evil hidden, shrouded, in the appearance of a child, and that is why it is going to be so hard to expose,' Neferet said.

'I don't understand your meaning, Neferet. Are you saying one of the fledglings is hiding evil?'

'I don't want to say it, but I'm coming to believe it.' Neferet's voice was filled with sadness, like what she was saying was so difficult to admit, she was almost on the brink of tears.

I knew it was absolutely, utterly, an act.

'Again I ask you, what do you suspect?'

'It isn't a what, but a who. Shekinah, sister, it grieves me to say it, but the deep evil I have been sensing, that you have been sensing, too, began to build and intensify with one student's entry to this House of Night.' She paused, and even though I knew what she was going to say, it was a shock to hear her actually speak the words. 'I'm afraid Zoey Redbird is hiding a terrible secret.'

'Zoey! But she is the most gifted fledgling in history. Not only has no other fledging ever wielded the power of all five elements, but no other fledgling has ever been surrounded by so many gifted peers. Each of her closest