by P. C. Cast
Aphrodite flipped her hair back. Shaylin had read her colors. She’d pissed Aphrodite off, and been a bitch at first, but later she’d apologized. And the truth was that Shaylin had been right when she’d told Aphrodite: You do have a flickery yellow light inside your moonlight light … It’s part of your uniqueness—your warmth … it’s small and hidden, because you keep how warm and good you really are hidden most of the time. But that doesn’t change that it’s still there. Remembering, Aphrodite flipped her hair back again. As annoying as it was, her instinct was telling her that Shaylin was the real deal—that she did have True Sight and a Goddess-given ability to interpret it.
Aphrodite glanced at where Zoey was standing over by Stevie Rae and Rephaim, between Stark and Shaunee. Naturally, Shaunee and Stevie Rae were bawling their eyes out. Z wasn’t, though, and that seemed weird. Z usually snot cried at funerals, and as messed up as Erin had gotten before she’d died, she had been part of Z’s original circle.
When Aphrodite looked back at Shaylin, the girl wasn’t watching Thanatos anymore. She was watching Zoey and her expression said she didn’t like what she was seeing.
That’s when Aphrodite made her decision.
Then her attention was pulled back to the funeral as Dallas lifted the blazing torch while Thanatos raised her arms and her voice, commanding, “Dallas, it has been entrusted to you to light Erin’s pyre, and it is my decision that Shaunee use her Goddess-given gift to aid our fallen daughter’s body as it returns to ash and earth.” Thanatos gestured for Shaunee to join her beside the pyre.
Shaunee’s cheeks were washed with tears, but she didn’t hesitate. She walked to the pyre and as Dallas touched the torch to the dry logs, she called into the night, “Fire, come to me!” Her long, dark hair lifted on the heat thermals that surrounded her. “Set my Twin’s body free! So I ask, and so mote it be!” There was a great whooshing and the pyre exploded in fire. Everyone except Shaunee was forced to take several steps back from the blaze. Aphrodite shielded her eyes with her hands, unable to look away from Shaunee. She was still crying, but she was also smiling as her element did her bidding.
Aphrodite thought she looked like a fire goddess. Not that she’d ever tell Shaunee that, but still…
As Thanatos closed the circle and bid everyone to blessed be, Aphrodite whispered to Darius, “Gotta do something real quick. I’ll meet you back in our room.” She kissed him and then ducked through the crowd, trying to catch sight of Shaylin, and wishing the girl wasn’t so effing short.
Distracted, she almost ran into a damn tree. Good thing she didn’t because on the other side of it, Rephaim was holding Stevie Rae, who was still bawling her eyes out and totally soaking the front of his T-shirt.
“I know it’s hard, but Erin is with Nyx,” Rephaim was saying to Stevie Rae. He glanced up as Aphrodite stumbled around the big oak.
She put her finger to her lips and mimed a shhh motion, shaking her head. That’s all she needed—Stevie Rae expecting Aphrodite to be included in her blubberfest. Luckily, Rephaim didn’t pay any attention to her, and went right back to overcomforting Stevie Rae while Aphrodite tiptoed away.
She felt a shivery, not right feeling and froze. Her gaze found Dallas immediately. He couldn’t see Aphrodite, though. The tree was in his way, but Aphrodite didn’t think he would have noticed if she’d stomped around unattractively like a heifer. He was too busy staring at Rephaim and Stevie Rae. The hatred in his gaze was frightening. Silently, Aphrodite worked her way around the tree, moving closer to Dallas. He was saying something, muttering to himself. Aphrodite concentrated, watching his too-thin lips and listening with all of her focus.
“It ain’t right. Mine is dead and hers ain’t even human. It ain’t right…”
That was it. That was all Dallas was muttering. Aphrodite waited, watched, ready to warn Rephaim and yell for Darius if Dallas actually tried anything, but the kid just kept saying the same shit over and over, even as he walked away.
Aphrodite shook her head. Dallas was seriously not right. Z might be having a mental breakdown, but she had a point about not wanting to be stuck at the House of Night with him.
“Okay, see ya tomorrow, Erik!”
Hearing Shaylin’s voice, Aphrodite sighed in relief, and hurried to catch up to her as she waved bye to Erik and started meandering toward the girls’ dorm.
“Pssst!” Aphrodite called after her.
Shaylin glanced back, questioningly.
“There. Now.” Aphrodite pointed to the shadows outside the flickering gaslights that illuminated part of the sidewalk.
They got to the dark part of the pathway together. Shaylin crossed her arms over her chest. “You can’t boss me around.”
“And yet you just did what I told you to do.”
Without saying anything Shaylin spun around and started to walk away.
“Hang on! I was just kidding. Come back.” When Shaylin didn’t stop walking, Aphrodite sighed and added, “Please.”
Shaylin immediately came back to her. “Please was all you needed to say. Next time try it first.”
“Fine. Fine. Whatever.”
Aphrodite looked at Shaylin. Shaylin stared back at her. Aphrodite flipped her hair. Shaylin’s eyes widened. “Are you nervous?”
“I never get nervous.”
“You’re fidgeting with your hair.”
“I’m flipping my hair.”
“You need something from me.” Shaylin smiled.
“No. I don’t need anything from you. Aphrodite, Prophetess of Nyx, needs something from you.”
“If you start talking about yourself in the third person I’m going to get very creeped out.”
“Just shut it and listen: I had a vision, and it had to do with Zoey losing control of her temper, and bad stuff happening because of it.”
Shaylin’s smile disappeared. “Did you tell Z?”
“I don’t think I should. Or at least I don’t think I should right now.”
“Have you prayed about it and really listened for an answer from Nyx?”
“Yes, moron. Of course I have. The answer I got is why I’m standing here talking to you and not Zoey.”
“Don’t call me a moron,” Shaylin said.
“Then don’t sound like one. You already know something’s up with Z.”
Shaylin chewed her lip.
“Well?” Aphrodite pressed.
“I’m not comfortable talking about this with you.”
“Forget you’re talking to me. Pretend like we’re one Prophetess talking to another Prophetess about our High Priestess, because that’s actually what we are.” Aphrodite met her gaze. “This isn’t gossip. This isn’t mean. This is us doing our jobs.”
“Her colors are getting weirder and weirder,” Shaylin said quietly.
“Weirder? Like it’s been happening?”
“Yeah, I talked to her about it in the tunnels. I noticed her colors were getting murky, swirling together, and I told her that it seemed to me that she was confused about something.”
“And then what?”
“She said I was kinda right, and basically, that I shouldn’t blab her business around to everyone.”
“Yeah, I can understand why she’d say that,” Aphrodite said.
“And now I’ve blabbed and I feel crappy about it.”
“I’m not going to say anything to anyone—not even Zoey. Shaylin, are Zoey’s colors still murky?”
“Very, and they’re swirling, almost like the beginning of a whirlpool or the tip of a tornado.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“Anger. Confusion. Frustration. Basically, not good stuff. Okay, here’s an example: Dallas’s colors are always swirling.”
“Shit! Are Zoey’s always swirling?”
“No, that just started, and it doesn’t keep going. She was swirly when she first came up to the circle tonight, but as Thanatos talked and prayed, she got more and more still and clear. By the time Shaunee lit the pyre she wa
s back to her normal purple with silver flecks. Sorry, I know it’s super confusing,” Shaylin said, shaking her head.
“Actually, I think you’re doing a good job of describing it.” When Shaylin blinked at her in surprise Aphrodite added, “I told you she’s Aphrodite, Prophetess of Nyx, right now.”
“Third person—creepy.”
“Get used to it. Here’s what the Prophetess wants you to do—keep watching Zoey and tell me whenever she starts to swirl.”
“Like, right away?”
“Yes, moron. Right away.”
“You’re sounding a lot more like Aphrodite than the Prophetess right now,” Shaylin said.
“That’s because she and I have mind melded. Just do what we say and no one gets hurt,” Aphrodite said.
“You’re so damn strange,” Shaylin said.
“Normal is overrated. Do we have a deal?”
“Do you promise not to tell anyone except Zoey and Nyx what I tell you?”
Aphrodite hesitated, then nodded. “I promise. You have my oath on it. I wouldn’t gossip about Zoey.”
Shaylin studied her. “I believe you. Both of you.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Aurox
Aurox wondered if funerals ever got easier. Would it be less sad if he had lived decades of life first? If he had friends he could talk with afterward?
He walked away from the main group, heading nowhere in particular. No one spoke to him. No one noticed him. But Aurox noticed everything and everyone.
Shaunee remained beside the burning pyre, crying softly, though the heat of the flames dried her tears almost instantly. Thanatos stood as close to her as she could bear. The winged immortal remained as well, standing statue-like in the shadows, eyes scanning the area around the pyre as if he expected an enemy to appear from the fledgling’s ashes.
Aurox moved swiftly and silently, staying out of Kalona’s line of vision. He didn’t know what to make of the immortal. Was he friend, foe, or simply a god whose purpose was to observe them and laugh?
Aurox continued to move through the shadows. Rephaim was comforting Stevie Rae. Aurox envied their closeness—especially the way Stevie Rae was able to accept Rephaim completely, without judgment or hesitation.
He noticed Dallas as well. The young red vampyre seemed miserable, filled with anger and envy. Aurox did not like how he stared at Stevie Rae and muttered to himself. Perhaps he should speak with Thanatos about him, though the High Priestess, as well as the rest of the House of Night, seemed well aware of Dallas’s potential for violence.
Aphrodite flitted off. Aurox saw her calling to Shaylin. It felt right that the two Prophetesses would seek one another out, especially during such trying times.
He should have continued to walk away—continued to fade into the night and wait until Stevie Rae’s red fledglings were settled for the daylight hours in their new lair in the basement. Then he could reappear to stand guard. To protect. To remain silent and vigilant, and to want no more than to serve this House, and through this House, the Goddess Nyx.
But, as always, Zoey drew his gaze. Aurox paused, and from the darkness allowed himself a moment to watch her. Stark was holding her hand as she talked with Damien and Darius. She kept glancing from whomever she was speaking to, to Shaunee. Zoey was nodding, and engaging in the conversation, but Aurox could tell that most of her attention was on her friend who stood so close to the pyre, weeping.
Zoey will probably remain until Shaunee is ready to say her final good-bye, Aurox thought. For a moment he considered remaining as well—waiting with Zoey. Perhaps there would be something he could say or do that would help.
No. Stark would be with Zoey, and Stark could only abide Aurox’s presence if Zoey wasn’t near.
And yet Aurox felt drawn to Stark as well as to his young Priestess. He honestly liked the Warrior. There had even been moments today when he had been helping Stark and Darius ready the basement for the red fledglings that they had worked easily together—companionably. Aurox had almost felt as if he belonged. Then Stark and Darius had sent him on an errand and Thanatos had called him—asked him to find Zoey—she was late for a meeting.
Aurox had found Zoey easily. He thought he could always find Zo.
But Stark had been with her, and suddenly the Warrior had become strange, cold, freezing him out and causing Zoey to berate him in front of the others.
He’s jealous of me, Aurox thought, though he knew there was no reason for Stark to feel the slightest bit of jealousy.
Zoey paid no attention to Aurox. She rarely even glanced in his direction. Earlier, it had seemed as if she could hardly bear to share the same table with him in the cafeteria.
Aurox knew that within him there was supposed to be the soul of a human boy named Heath. This boy had been Zoey’s love—her intended Consort—even though she was bonded to an Oath Sworn Warrior.
Aurox had asked Damien about it, and Damien had explained the situation to him with patience and kindness, though his explanation hadn’t really helped.
It wasn’t that Aurox didn’t understand that it was acceptable for a fledgling or a vampyre to have a human Consort as well as a Warrior or even a vampyre mate. That made sense to Aurox. Love was too complex an emotion to be constrained and given limitations.
What Aurox didn’t understand was how he could possibly host a human boy’s soul.
Where was this Heath?
Aurox had tried to reach him. Tried to talk to him. He never received any answer. Yes, once in a while he had odd dreams where he was fishing or playing sports. Or kissing Zoey.
No, that dream wasn’t from something within him. He dreamed of kissing Zoey because he wanted to kiss Zoey. She was beautiful. She was powerful. She had believed him to be more than a vessel of evil before he believed it himself.
Aurox mentally shook himself. It mattered little what Zoey was because of what she was not. She was not interested in him because the terrible truth was that sharing the soul of her human love was not enough to make Zoey forget how Aurox had been created. He had come into being through the death of her mother.
He couldn’t forgive himself for that. How could Zoey?
But I didn’t murder her mother! Aurox’s mind cried.
Had her mother not died, I would not exist! His conscience reminded him.
Not my choice! Not my fault!
Yet, still, I am held responsible for the death!
Because I am a product of that death!
Mentally exhausted by the internal debate that never changed—never could be won—Aurox did the only thing that he knew would silence the struggle within him. Unnoticed by anyone, Aurox made his way to the stone wall that encased the grounds of the House of Night. It stood twelve feet tall and two feet wide. With preternatural strength, Aurox leaped to the top of the wall, dropping quietly over the outer side. The wall was exactly 6,823 feet long. Aurox knew this not because he had looked up its length in the school’s registry. He knew it because he had covered each of those feet, shadowing the great wall, running, running, running, around and around the school grounds in the darkness outside the wall, until all he knew was the struggle for breath, the pounding of his heart, the burning of his body, and the war within his mind finally ceased.
So Aurox ran.
There were lights hung high on iron arms that jutted in regular intervals from the wall. Those lights were the only electric spotlights the House of Night owned, and they were aimed outward, effectively blinding any humans who might attempt to peer into the gaslit, shadowy school grounds. Those spotlights also created the shadow at the base of the wall in which Aurox ran, unseen, more swiftly than any human, any vampyre, could ever run.
The night before, after the fledgling and the human had died, it had taken ten laps around the school for Aurox’s mind to quiet. He thought tonight it might take several more.
He breathed deeply, steadily, pumping his arms and driving his body unmercifully.
Aurox’s left shoulder skimmed t
he stone as he followed the first curve around the northwestern part of the school.
He didn’t see the metal barrel. He didn’t see the humans. He did collide with both humans and metal and fall, end over end, rolling several feet before he could stop himself.
“Fuck! Vampyre!” a male voice yelled.
“We didn’t see anything!” another male cried.
Dazed, Aurox stood, turned, and faced the danger. Already he was reaching out for the fear that was wafting from the two males, readying himself to draw the emotion to him, to fuel his change into a creature that would battle them—that would protect the House of Night.
Two teenage males had scrambled away from Aurox. They were holding red plastic cups that had had been full of liquid before Aurox had slammed into them. Together they had grabbed the little metal barrel and were trying to drag it away with them as they backed away from him.
“Hey, that’s not a damn vampyre,” one of the boys said.
The other squinted at Aurox, staring at his unmarked forehead. “Damn, you’re right, Zack.”
They stopped dragging the barrel. “Shit, man, you made us spill our beer. You almost made us run off and leave the keg.”
“Yeah, that’s not okay,” the other boy said, shaking his head and wiping at the liquid that had spilled down the front of his shirt. Then he paused. “Hang on—he was runnin’. Is a vamp chasing you?”
“Chasing me? No,” Aurox said.
“Then why the hell were you runnin’ like that?”
“Because I wanted to,” Aurox answered truthfully.
“Dude, next time look where you run.”
Completely confused Aurox said, “What are you doing here?”
“Shit, man, same thing you are. Trying to get a look at some vampyre pussy.”
“Vampyre pussy?”
The first boy sighed. “Look, we ain’t showin’ you unless you can keep your mouth shut.”
“Vampyre pussy,” Aurox repeated, not sure whether to crack their skulls together or laugh.
“Just show him, Jason. It’s not like he’s one of them. And if he tells anyone it’ll fuck this up for him, too.”
Jason shrugged. “Okay, but don’t say shit.”
