“But no more,” I said.
“No more,” he agreed.
Stark kissed me with such gentleness that he took my breath away. Then he took a step back, fisted his hand over his heart, and bowed formally to me. “I’ll see you soon, my lady.”
“Be careful,” I said.
“And if I can’t be careful, I’ll be quick.” He threw me his cocky grin and ducked out of the door.
When he was gone I closed my eyes, fisted my hand over my heart, and bowed my head. “Nyx,” I whispered, “I was telling him the truth. He has my heart. I don’t know how that’s going to turn out, but I ask that you keep my warrior safe and thank you for giving him the courage to make the choice for good.”
Nyx didn’t suddenly appear before me, and I hadn’t expected her to. But I did feel a brief, listening silence in the air around me, and that was enough. I knew the Goddess’s hand was on Stark.
“Okay, Zoey,” I told myself. “Let’s break out of this place.”
CHAPTER 29
When I rushed into the stables late, Lenobia gave me a chilly look and said, “Zoey, you have a stall to muck.” She tossed me a pitchfork and pointed me toward Persephone’s stall.
I muttered my apologies and my “yes, ma’am—right away, ma’am” and hurried into the stall of the mare I considered my own for as long as I was in school at the House of Night. Persephone whickered a soft greeting to me and I went straight to her head, stroking her face and kissing her velvet muzzle, and basically telling her that she was the prettiest, smartest, best horse in the known universe. She lipped my cheek, blew in my face, and seemed to agree with my opinion.
“She loves you, you know. The mare has told me so.”
I turned to see Lenobia standing just inside the door of the stall, leaning against the wall. I sometimes forget how exceptionally beautiful she is, so at times like this, when I really look at her, I’m surprised again at her uniqueness. She is strength packaged delicately. Her silver-white hair and slate-gray eyes are the most striking things about her, well, except for the incredible tattoos of rearing horses that Marked her as a vampyre. She was wearing her usual outfit of a crisp white shirt and tan riding slacks tucked into English riding boots. Except for the tattoos and the silver goddess embroidered over her heart, she looked like something that should be in a chic Calvin Klein ad.
“You can really talk to them?” I’d suspected as much, but Lenobia had never been so blunt about her abilities before now.
“Not in words. Horses communicate in feelings. They are passionate, loyal beings with hearts big enough to hold the world.”
“I’ve always thought so, too,” I said softly, kissing Persephone’s forehead.
“Zoey, Kalona must be killed.”
The abruptness of her statement shocked me to my core, and I quickly looked around, worried that Raven Mockers were lurking close by, as they had been in all of my other classes.
Lenobia shook her head and waved away my fears. “Horses despise Raven Mockers as much as cats do, only earning a horse’s hatred is more dangerous than a cat’s. None of the abominable bird creatures will dare to enter my stables.”
“What about the other fledglings?” I asked softly.
“They are entirely too busy exercising horses who have been cooped up for days because of this storm to eavesdrop on us. So I repeat, Kalona must be killed.”
“He can’t be killed. He’s immortal.” My frustration at this unfortunate fact showed clearly in my voice.
Lenobia shook back her long, thick hair and began to pace from one side of the stall to another. “But we must defeat him. He lures our people away from Nyx.”
“I know. I haven’t even been back one whole day and already I can see how bad things are. Neferet is in on all of this, too.” I held my breath, waiting to see if Lenobia would remain blindly loyal to her High Priestess or if she would see the truth.
“Neferet is worse than any of them,” she said bitterly. “She who should be most faithful to Nyx has betrayed her utterly.”
“She’s not what she used to be,” I said. “She’s become something that’s focused on evil.”
Lenobia nodded her head. “Yes, a few of us have been afraid of that. I’m ashamed to say we looked the other way instead of confronting Neferet when she first began to behave strangely. I no longer consider her in Nyx’s service. I plan on pledging my allegiance to a new High Priestess,” she finished, giving me a knowing look.
“Not me!” I practically squeaked. “I haven’t even Changed yet.”
“You’ve been Marked and Chosen by our Goddess. That is enough for me. It is also enough for Dragon and Anastasia.”
“How about the other professors? Are any of them with us, too?”
A terrible sadness crossed her face. “No. All of the others are blinded by Kalona.”
“Why aren’t you?”
She took her time answering me. “I am not sure why he didn’t blind me, as he has most of the others. Dragon and Anastasia and I have spoken of it, if only briefly. We do feel his allure, but a part of us was able to stay untouched by him enough that we were able to see him—really
I felt terrible and helpless and breathless and too darn young. I wanted to flail my arms around and scream,
And then a sweet, meadow-filled breeze caressed my face. It was warmed by the summer sun and moist as dew at dawn, and my spirit lifted in response.
“You aren’t simply a fledgling. Listen within, child, and know that where that still, small voice leads you, we will follow,” Lenobia said in a voice that reminded me of my Goddess.
Her words mixed with the elements soothed me, and suddenly my eyes widened. How could I have forgotten?
“The poem!” I blurted, hurrying over to where I’d hung my purse by the door of Persephone’s stall. “One of the red fledglings has been writing prophetic poetry. She gave me one that had to do with Kalona right before I came here.”
Lenobia watched me curiously as I searched through my purse.
“Here it is!” It was wadded up with the poem that must have been about Stark. I grabbed the other poem and focused on it.
“Okay…okay…This is it. This tells me how to make Kalona flee. It’s just…just written in poetic code or something.”
“Let me read it, too. Perhaps I can help shed light on it.”
I held the poem out so she could see it, and she read it aloud as I followed the words.
