Stark watched Zoey’s face drain of color. “As a girl who is deathly afraid of spiders, I don’t know how that dream could be much worse.”

“Make the spider Neferet and its web Darkness.”

“Okay, well, you’re right. That is worse.” She gave him what he knew was a brave smile. “But you saved me, right?”

He didn’t say anything. He couldn’t.

“Hello, big strong Guardian! You. Saved. Me. Right?”

“No,” he admitted. “I tried, but the Darkness Neferet controlled was too much for me.”

“Well, hell,” Zoey said. “I hate when that happens.” Then she shook her head and added firmly, “Hey, it didn’t really happen. For now at least it’s just a dream.”

“Too damn many things that seem like they could only happen in dreams have turned out to be real,” he said grimly. “And there was something else. Someone was telling me that what I dreamed would really happen unless you start standing up to Neferet.”

Zoey frowned. “Hey, I do stand up to Neferet! All the darn time. And what do you mean ‘someone’ was telling you that? Was it Nyx? Did the Goddess speak to you?”

Stark thought back, trying to recall the dream voice, but even though the horror of it was fresh, the specifics were already fading back into his subconscious. “I can’t really remember, but I don’t think it was Nyx’s voice, or at least not a voice of hers I recognized.”

“I think you’d know for sure if it’d been the Goddess. Plus, like I said, I do stand up to Neferet, so I don’t know what your dream voice was talking about.”

“Actually, right now you are kinda in a truce with her,” Stark said slowly.

“I supposed that depends on your definition of truce. If it means I-can’t-kick-Neferet-out-of-the-House-of-Night-’cause-the-High-Council-forgave-her, then yeah, we’re in a truce.”

“Hey.” He touched her cheek. “I didn’t mean to piss you off. That dream scared me, that’s all.”

She snuggled into his arms and he felt the tension in her body begin to relax. “You didn’t really piss me off. You just surprised me. I mean, I thought you and I were on the same page about Neferet.”

“We are.” He held her tight. “We know Neferet’s evil and crazy, and we know all of us on Nyx’s side have to watch out for what-thehell-ever she’s gonna do next.”

Zoey shuddered and buried her face in his shoulder. “Makes me want to run back to Skye.”

“Makes me want to take you back to Skye.” He hesitated and almost didn’t say anything else, but something in the back of his mind wouldn’t allow him to let it go. “The dream, Z. Darkness got you and I couldn’t save you. I think it was a warning; I really do. And the most sense I can make of it is that you’ve got to keep standing up to Neferet.”

“I will,” she said, tilting her head back to look at him. “You look tired and you’re up early.”

He gave her his cocky smile. “I’m up early so that you and I can spend some quality time alone before we have to catch the short bus, and I may look tired, but I’m not that tired.” He slid his hand up under the big, baggy T-shirt she was wearing and tickled her ribs with a light caress. Zoey giggled. He caught the sweet, happy laugh with his lips and turned it into a long, hot kiss. And then his hand quit tickling and almost all of the worry his dream had caused disappeared as he loved her … almost …

Zoey

“Ah, hell,” I muttered as Darius pulled the bus into the long driveway that wound through the rear of the House of Night and led to the parking lot. We’d just turned onto campus and I saw Neferet, Dragon, and five Sons of Erebus Warriors standing there as if they were a weird vampyre welcome wagon. “Slow down,” I told Darius. “We need to get ready for this.”

“Yeah, it don’t look good,” Kramisha said.

“Wow, you would not believe all the colors.” Shaylin was gawking open-mouthed out the window at the group of professors. “Eek, and there’s the Dead Fish Eye Lady, so gross!”

“Dead Fish Eye Lady—I like that,” Aphrodite said. “It suits her.”

“Dead Fish Eye Lady is super intuitive,” I was reminding everyone, even though I was speaking specifically to Shaylin.

“And we all decided it’s best if she doesn’t know much about Shaylin’s gift,” Stevie Rae said, walking up from her seat with Rephaim in the back of the bus. “Z, you want to call spirit and ask it to help shield Shaylin’s thoughts, at least until we get past Neferet right now?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Sounds like a good idea.” I drew a deep breath and whispered, “Spirit, come to me.” I felt the air over my skin stir with the power of the element. “Shield Shaylin. Keep her thoughts private.”

“Oooh!” Shaylin giggled as the element washed over her. “That’s so cool, and you’re super purple when you do that.”

“Thanks, I guess,” I said. The new kid was definitely weird, but she seemed nice enough. I glanced back at the rest of the bus, picking out the Twins and Damien. “You guys keep your elements close, too.”

“I think whenever Neferet is around it’s an excellent opportunity for all of us to focus our thoughts on academics,” Damien said.

We stared at him.

“Academics?” Shaunee asked.

“Like homework and whatnot?” Erin added.

“Or are you talking about the fashion show that really is school to us?” Shaunee said.

“We’re confused,” Erin concluded.

Damien sighed dramatically. “Academics—as in schoolwork. For instance, when Neferet is near you should practice memorizing the definitions for your vocabulary words.” He looked down his long nose at the Twins. “You two should start with the word miscreants.”

“I have sort of no idea what that means, Twin. What about you?” Erin asked.

“Don’t have a clue, Twin,” Shaunee said.

“Be still, brain-sharers. Queen Damien has a point. We haven’t been around Neferet like this in a while. Everyone needs to focus and keep their thoughts busy—and not busy on our business. Busy on stupid school business.” Aphrodite glanced at Rephaim. “Can Neferet read your mind?”

Rephaim looked surprised by the question, but hardly hesitated before saying, “She cannot.”

“You know that for sure?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said.

“How?” Aphrodite asked.

“He doesn’t have to explain that to you,” Stevie Rae said.

“Yeah, he does.” Stark spoke before I could say anything. “Stevie Rae, you’re going to have to stop being so defensive about Rephaim. He used to be on Neferet’s side. He might have info we could use.”

“I was never on Neferet’s side.” Rephaim’s voice was as hard as the gaze he leveled on Stark. “I was on Kalona’s side. As were you.”

That totally shut Stark up, and I took the opportunity to step between them and say, “Whatever the specifics, what we mean is that you were on an opposite side, and that might help us now.” He looked at me and his gaze softened, though his expression was still guarded.

“I know Neferet can’t read my mind because she didn’t know about Stevie Rae and me.” He took Stevie Rae’s hand. “I tried not to think about you when she was near, but I couldn’t help myself. I thought of you. Often.”

Stevie Rae grinned and went up on her tiptoes to kiss him.

“Ugh,” Aphrodite said. “So, moving on quickly before I puke, it’s for sure that Neferet can’t read my mind, Zoey’s mind, or birdboy’s mind. The rest of you need to watch yourselves.”

“There is another bus that has just turned into the lane behind us,” Darius said, looking in the rearview mirror. “It says House of Night on the side of it, too.”

From one of the rear seats Johnny B called, “And it’s not short. Why can’t we get the normal-sized bus?”

“You ain’t normal,” Kramisha said.

“Your mom ain’t—”

“Okay, let’s get ready for school.” I cut him off.

“Which means get ready for battle,” Stark said.

“Park us,” I told Darius.

He parked and then he and Stark and Rephaim exited the bus first, followed by the rest of us. I figured I might as well face whatever was going on, so flanked by Stevie Rae and Stark, I marched straight up to Neferet, bowed semi-respectfully to her and more respectfully to Dragon, and the Warriors. Then I said formally, “Merry meet.”