“Again,” Shaunee finished.
Everyone looked at me.
“I think the graduated driver’s license thing is stupid, too,” I lamely said.
“See! I told you!” Aphrodite said. “She has a serious thing for Stark.”
“Serious shit,” Erin said.
“I would never have believed it,” Shaunee said.
“Let her explain!” Damien yelled.
Everyone got really quiet.
I cleared my throat.
“Okay. Well. Remember the poem?” All of my friends narrowed their eyes at me, which I didn’t think was very fair. But I continued anyway. “It said I was supposed to save his humanity? And I did. I think. I hope.”
“Priestess, we caught him abusing a fledgling. How can you condone that?” Darius said.
“I don’t condone it. It makes me sick. But I remember when Stevie Rae was fighting to keep her humanity, and she was awful.” I looked at Aphrodite. “You know what I’m talking about.”
“Yeah, and I’m not one hundred percent sure you can trust her today. And I say that as the human she’s Imprinted.”
I expected the Twins and Damien to blow up at her, but they stayed very quiet. Finally I turned to Darius. “Stark gave me his Warrior’s Oath.”
“His Warrior’s Oath! And you accepted him?” Darius said.
“I did. It was right after that he Changed.”
Darius sighed deeply. “Then Stark is bound to you until you release him from his oath.”
“I think that caused his Change,” I said. “I think with the red fledglings their Change has something to do with the choice between good and evil.”
“By pledging to you, Stark chose good,” Darius said.
I smiled. “I like to think so.”
“So that means he isn’t an asscake anymore?” Erin said.
“I thought you called him an assbucket,” Shaunee said.
“Twin, it’s the same thing,” Erin said.
“It means I trust him,” I said. “And I wish you guys would give him a chance.”
“Giving the wrong person a chance right now could get us killed,” Darius said.
I drew a deep breath. “I know.”
“A newly Changed vampyre needs to be secluded in Nyx’s Temple. Dragon assured me Stark is safely there.” Lenobia glanced at her watch. “We have exactly ten minutes. Can we not get on with more important things and leave the question of Stark’s trustworthiness until a better time?”
“Definitely,” I said. “What’s left to do?” All I could hope was that Dragon really had the newly Changed Stark safely locked away in Nyx’s Temple, and that we would actually chase Kalona out of here, thereby getting rid of Neferet, too, so that we would have a chance to deal with his trustworthiness at a better time.
We quickly got bridles on two other horses, appropriately named Hope and Destiny. Then the hard part of our plan started.
“I still say it is not safe,” Darius said, looking like a thundercloud.
“I have to do it. Stevie Rae’s not here, and I’m the closest thing we have to a pure earth affinity,” I said.
“It really doesn’t sound that hard,” Aphrodite said, trying to reason with the irate warrior. “All Zoey has to do is sneak out to the wall, tell the tree that’s already smushing it to push harder, and then sneak back here.”
“I will take her there,” Darius said stubbornly.
“With your mega-quickness that’ll be perfect,” I said. “By the way, I’m ready.”
“How will I know you’ve succeeded and it’s my time to start the next part of the plan?” Lenobia asked me.
“I’ll send spirit to you. If you feel a jolt of something good, you’ll know we’re fine and it’s time to tell Shaunee to get ready to let fire loose.”
“But she must remember that only the
“I know! It’s not even hard. Just go on about your business. Destiny and I are making friends.” Shaunee turned back to the big bay mare who would carry her and Erin, and continued to chatter to the horse as Erin brushed her and talked about sugar cubes and something called a Jazzy Apple.
“Just keep her safe and get back here to me,” Aphrodite said. She kissed Darius on the mouth and then walked toward Hope to help Lenobia finish buckling the last of the mare’s bridle straps.
“Well, Priestess, shall we?” Darius said.
I nodded and let him lift me into his arms. Darius took one step out into the frigid, stormy night, and then everything blurred around us as he moved kinda diagonally across the rear grounds to a part of the big wall surrounding the school that had an even bigger oak lying across it. Somehow in one of Tulsa’s last winter disasters, the tree had succumbed and fallen down. Kinda. Word had it (from Aphrodite) that under normal circumstances it was an excellent place to sneak off campus undetected, and I knew from personal experience that she’d been right.
Today we were not dealing with normal circumstances.
Darius came to a halt way too fast beside the fallen tree, shoved me under it, and whispered, “Stay there until I’m sure it is safe.” And off he went.
So I crouched under the tree and thought about how wet and cold it was and how annoying guys were. Then I heard the nasty wing-flapping sound, and I decided to uncrouch—quickly.
I emerged from under the side of the tree just in time to see Darius grabbing a Raven Mocker by his wing, jerking him to the ground, and then slitting his throat.
I looked away fast.
“Zoey, come on. We have no time.”
Trying to ignore the corpse of the Raven Mocker, I hurried to the half-toppled tree. I placed my hand on it and closed my eyes. Centering myself, I searched for my internal north—the site of earth—and then invoked, “Earth, I need you. Please come to me.” In the midst of an ice storm, in the dead of winter, I was suddenly, miraculously, surrounded by the scents of a spring meadow…ripe wheat…a mimosa tree in full bloom. I bowed my head gratefully and continued. “What I need you to do is hard, and I wouldn’t ask it of you unless it was an emergency.” I drew a deep breath, and focused on the ice-slicked bark beneath my palm. “Fall,” I commanded. “Forgive me, but I have to ask you to fall.” The skin of the tree shuddered under my hand, so violently that I fell backward, and with a crack that I swear I could hear a dying scream within, the old oak fell, crashing against the already weakened wall, sending blocks of stone and bricks tumbling down, and creating a break in the barrier that surrounded the school, a break it would seem logical for us to try to escape through.
I was breathing heavily and feeling more than a little shaky, but I automatically sent spirit to let Lenobia know I was successful. Then I picked myself up, staggered to the fallen tree, and put both hands on its bark. “Thank you, earth.” Then a sudden thought had me adding, “Go to Stevie Rae. Tell her we’re coming. Tell her to be ready.” I felt the usual listening sense I got when I commanded an element to do something. “Go now, earth. Thank you again for helping me, and I’m really sorry I had to hurt the tree.”
“We must return to the stables.” Darius strode over to me and lifted me in his arms. “You did well, Priestess,” he said.
I put my head down on his friendly shoulder, and only knew I was crying because I could see the wet streaks on his jacket. “Let’s get out of here.”
CHAPTER 32
The three bridled horses were waiting for us. Erin and Shaunee were already mounted on Destiny. Shaunee was “driving.” She’d taken English Hunter/Jumper classes at her private prep school before she was Marked, and so she’d proclaimed herself “an almost mediocre rider.” Aphrodite and Damien stood near Persephone and Hope.
