Hidden

“Rain. I really, really wish it would rain.” The girl looked from the sky to him and shrugged, appearing a little embarrassed. “I swear I could smell it in the air. It would help the firemen and make double sure the fire didn’t spread to the rest of the school.”

“The humans are handling the fire. We need to check out the field house. I don’t like that Neferet was seen going in there.”

Lenobia began heading toward the field house, assuming the two of them would follow her, but she hesitated when Shaylin still resisted. Turning on her, ready to call the fledgling to task for either insolence or ignorance, Erik beat her to it by saying something.

“Hey, this is important.” He spoke in a low, urgent voice to Shaylin. “Let’s go with Lenobia and check out the field house. The firemen can get the rest of this stuff under control.” When Shaylin continued to hold back and resisted going toward the field house, he said, more loudly, “What’s going on with you? Since Thanatos and Dragon, and even Zoey and her group aren’t here, we need to be careful about not letting everyone know what we might —”

“Erik, I do think Lenobia’s right,” Shaylin cut him off. “It’s just, I want to know what’s going to happen to her.”

Lenobia followed Shaylin’s gaze to see Nicole, still sitting on the bench, between the two infirmary vampyres, looking soot-smudged and pink-skinned.

“She’s one of Dallas’s red fledglings. I wouldn’t be surprised if she had something to do with the fire,” Erik said, clearly annoyed. “Lenobia, I think you should make Nicole go to the infirmary, and then keep her locked in there until we figure out what the hell really happened here.”

Before Lenobia could respond, Shaylin was speaking. She sounded firm and much wiser than her sixteen years. “No. Have her go to the infirmary to be sure she’s okay, but don’t lock her up.”

“Shaylin, you don’t know what you’re talking about. Nicole is with Dallas,” Erik said.

“Well, she’s not with him right now. She’s changing,” Shaylin said.

“She did help me get the horses out,” Lenobia said. “If she was involved in the fire it would have been a lot easier for her to slip away in the smoke. I would have never known she was there.”

“That makes sense. Her colors are different—better.” Then Shaylin, firmness and wisdom dissipating, looked big-eyed at Lenobia and said, “Ah oh. Sorry. I said too much. I need to learn to keep my mouth shut.”

“What atrocity has been committed on the school grounds this night!” The voice thundered over Lenobia. Across the school grounds, moving quickly toward them, was a phalanx of vampyres and fledglings with Thanatos in their lead, Zoey and Stevie Rae on either side of her and, bizarrely enough, Kalona, wings unfurled defensively, striding along with them just behind Thanatos, as if he had suddenly become Death’s Guardian Angel.

It was at that moment that the night sky opened and it began to rain.

CHAPTER THREE

Zoey

I’d known it before we saw the fire trucks and the smoke. I’d known all hell had broken loose at the House of Night the moment Thanatos had witnessed the truth of Neferet’s crimes. That night it had been proven beyond all doubt that Neferet was on the side of Darkness. Thanatos hadn’t wasted any time outing her. On the way back to the school from Grandma’s lavender farm, the High Priestess of Death had made the emergency call to Italy and officially informed the Vampyre High Council that Neferet was no longer a Priestess of Nyx—that she’d chosen Darkness as her Consort. Neferet had been seen for who she really was, something I’d wanted since I’d first realized her disgusting truth. Only, now that I’d gotten my wish, I had a terrible feeling that outing Neferet would serve more to free her than to force her to pay the consequences for her lies and betrayals.

Everything seemed so awful and so confusing, like the entire night had been the last half of a terrible slasher horror movie: the ritual, rewatching images of my mother’s murder, what had happened with Dragon and Rephaim and Kalona and Aurox … Aurox? Heath? No, I can’t go there! Not now. Now the stables were on fire. Seriously. At our school horses were neighing and clustering nervously by the east wall. Lenobia looked singed and soot-covered. Erik and Shaylin and a bunch of other fledglings were standing there, shell-shocked and soggy because, of course, it had started to pour buckets of rain. And Nicole, as in the Nicole who was a super mean red fledgling and Dallas’s skanky, hateful girlfriend, was collapsed on a bench with a couple of human EMTs hovering around her like she was the gold-winged baby Jesus.

I wanted to punch a button, turn off the scary movie, and drift to sleep safely curled up next to Stark. Hell, I wanted to close my eyes and go back to a time when the worst stress I had was triple boyfriend stress, and that had been really, really bad.

I mentally shook myself, did my best to shut out the chaos that surrounded me inside and out, and focused on Lenobia.

“Yes, the stables caught fire,” she was explaining to us. “We don’t know who or what caused it. Have any of you seen Neferet?”

“We have not seen her in person, but we have seen her image in the recorded spirit of Zoey’s grandmother’s land.” Thanatos lifted her chin, and in a strong, sure voice that carried through the rain pronounced, “Neferet has allied herself with the white bull. She sacrificed Zoey’s mother to him. She will be a powerful enemy, but enemy she is to everyone who follows Light and the Goddess.”

I could see that the announcement shook Lenobia, although I knew the Horse Mistress had been aware that Neferet had become our enemy months ago. Still, there was a big difference between thinking something, and knowing the worst you had imagined was true. Especially when that something was so horrible it was almost beyond comprehension. Then Lenobia cleared her throat and said, “The High Council has shunned her?”

“I have reported what I have witnessed this night,” said Thanatos, acting High Priestess of our House of Night. “The High Council commands Neferet appear before them where they will mete out justice upon her for her betrayal of our Goddess and of our ways.”

“She had to have known what you would find if your ritual was successful,” Lenobia said.

“Yeah, which is why she sent that thing of hers after us—to kill Rephaim and mess up our circle and stop the reveal ritual,” Stevie Rae said, sliding her hand within Rephaim’s, who stood tall and strong by her side.

“Doesn’t look like that worked,” Erik Night said.

He was standing close to Shaylin. Now that I thought about it, it seemed Erik had been spending a lot of time standing close to Shaylin. Hmmm …

“Well, it would’ve worked,” Stevie Rae said, “but Dragon showed up and stopped Aurox for a while.” She paused and looked back at Kalona. She actually sent him a warm, sweet, Stevie Rae smile before continuing, “Kalona is really who saved Rephaim. Kalona saved his son.”

“Dragon! That’s where he is—with you guys,” Erik said, his eyes searching around behind us, obviously expecting to see Dragon.

I felt my gut clench and blinked hard so that I wouldn’t start bawling. When no one said anything I drew in a deep breath and delivered the really crappy, sad news. “Dragon was with us. He fought to protect us. Well, us and Rephaim. But…” I trailed off, finding it hard to say the next words.

“But Aurox gored Dragon to death, breaking the spell that had sealed the circle and setting the rest of us free so we could get to Rephaim and protect him,” Stark had no problem finishing for me.

“It was too late, though,” Stevie Rae added. “Rephaim would have died, too, if Kalona hadn’t shown up in time to save him.”

“Dragon Lankford is dead?” Lenobia’s face had gone still and white.

“He is. He died a Warrior, true to himself and to his Oath. He has been reunited with his Mate in the Otherworld,” Thanatos said. “We all served witness to it.”

Lenobia closed her eyes and bowed her head. I could see her lips were moving, as if she was murmuring a soft prayer. When she lifted her head her face was set in angry lines and her gray eyes looked like storm clouds. “Burning my stables was a distraction which allowed Neferet to escape.”

“It seems likely,” Thanatos said. Then the High Priestess paused as if listening carefully through the rain and firemen and horse noises. Her eyes narrowed and she said, “Death has been here—recently.”