“Uh, may I say something?” Damien’s hand was raised like he was in class and wanted to be called on.

“Yes, honey, and you don’t have to raise your hand,” I said.

“Oh, okay, thanks. What I wanted to say is we need to remember that when Nyx appeared at the House of Night, forgave and blessed Rephaim, she basically gave us permission to include Rephaim in our world. Neferet can’t go against that—at least not openly. And neither can Dragon. How much they don’t like it is beside the point.”

“But they did go against it,” Stark said. “Neferet asked Dragon if he’d accept Rephaim, and he said no, so she kicked him off campus. Stevie Rae called bullshit on that, and that’s why we all ended up leaving.”

“Yeah, and just because the High Council managed to pressure Neferet into letting us come back to class, it doesn’t mean we’re really going to be accepted. I can promise you that she and Dragon, and probably a lot of other people aren’t going to be cool with this.” Aphrodite fluttered her fingers at Rephaim.

Damien spoke before I could say anything. “Well, the truth is neither Neferet nor Dragon can supersede the Goddess’s wishes.”

“Super what?” Shaunee asked.

“Seed who?” Erin added.

“It means to replace,” Stevie Rae explained for Damien. “And that’s a real interestin’ point, Damien. No one can supersede the Goddess, not even a High Priestess.”

“Can you imagine what the tight-assed High Council would say about that?” Aphrodite rolled her eyes. “Litter of kittens—they’d have several litters of flying kittens. Each.”

I blinked and had the sudden urge to hug Aphrodite. Well, the urge passed quickly, but still.

“Aphrodite,” I said. “You are a genius! And so is Damien.”

“Of course I am,” Aphrodite said smugly.

“You’re going to tell on Neferet and Dragon to the High Council, aren’t you?” Damien said.

“I think ‘telling on’ them is not the right way to put it. Uh, you have your laptop with you, don’t ya?” I asked.

Damien patted the man purse slung over his shoulder. “Of course. It’s in my satchel.”

“Man purse,” Shaunee said.

“Just sayin’,” Erin added.

“It’s a European satchel,” Damien said firmly.

“If it has feathers…” Erin said.

“And quacks…” Shaunee said.

“Whatever it is, I’m glad it means you have your computer with you.” I jumped in before Damien could big word them. “You do have Skype downloaded on it, don’t you?”

“Yes,” he said.

“Good. I need to borrow it for the Council Meeting, if that’s okay with you?”

“No problem,” Damien said, raising his brows questioningly at me.

“What are you thinkin’?” Stevie Rae asked his question for him.

“Well, when I talked to Thanatos about helping us get back to school, I didn’t mention that little thing about the fact that we’re kinda, sorta branching off with our own House of Night here, but that we’ll still be going to class and such at our original House of Night.”

“We’re gonna have to think of a great new name for our place,” Shaunee said.

“Ooooh! Right you are, Twin,” Erin said.

“Hey, it’s the depot, so how about the Pot Lot House of Night,” Shaunee said.

I looked at them. Shook my head and said a firm, “No to the Pot Lot.” Then I went back to my original point. “But I do need to do a whole Skype conference with the Vamp High Council to get permission for what we want to do. A school Council Meeting seems a good time to do that, especially since I’m sure Neferet will love it if I ask that she bear witness to my call.”

“Z, that sounds like a crap plan. Neferet will love talking to the High Council and figuring out a way to twist everything you say to make you look like Insane Teenager,” Aprodite said.

“That’s kinda my point,” I said. “I’m not gonna be Insane Teenager. I’m gonna be the Fledgling High Priestess who gives the High Council all the details about the amazing, miraculous gift Nyx has given our Red High Priestess’s Consort, Rephaim, and that he’s super excited to be starting school at the Tulsa House of Night. I’m sure they’ll even want to congratulate Neferet on being such an awesome High Priestess who can handle all the changes going on here.”

“That’s devious. I like it,” Aphrodite said. “You put Neferet and even Dragon in a position where if they say ‘hell no we’re not accepting the birdboy,’ or even bitch and complain a little about it, they look massively bad—what with Nyx showing up and miracling.”

“This still isn’t going to be an easy road,” Stark said.

Rephaim met his gaze steadily. “No matter how rough it is, it’s a better road than the one that leads to darkness and hatred and death. And I think you know exactly what I mean.”

“I do,” Stark said, returning his gaze unflinchingly.

“So do I,” Stevie Rae said.

“Me, too,” I added.

“We’re in agreement then. Rephaim returns to the House of Night with us,” Darius said.

“Okay, wait. Does this mean we have to get in the damn short bus?” Aphrodite asked.

“Yes!” we all said together.

Laughing and feeling lighter than I had in days, I clambered on the short bus with my friends, and bumped my shoulder against Stark as we took our seats. He barely glanced at me. It was about then that I realized he really hadn’t had much to say to me (or anyone) since we’d woken up. Remembering how close we’d been—how he’d touched me and made the world seem all right again—had me chewing my lip and feeling super confused. I snuck another glance at him. He was staring out the window. He looked tired. Really tired.

“Hey, what’s up with you?” I asked as the bus bounced its way along Cincinnati Street heading toward midtown

“Me? Nothin’.”

“Seriously, you look really tired. Are you feeling okay?”

“Zoey, you woke me up and kept me up through most of the day yesterday. Then you made that call to Thanatos to get the whole ‘return to school’ thing in motion, which was not exactly a calm, quiet conversation. I’d just got to sleep when you yelled whatever and woke me up again. Making love was great.” He paused and for a second smiled and looked almost normal. Then he opened his mouth and ruined it by saying, “Afterward you did some serious tossing and turning before you passed out. I couldn’t get back to sleep. So I’m tired. That’s all.”

I blinked at him. Twice. And tried not to feel like he’d just slapped me in my face. Keeping my voice down because I didn’t want to deal with all my friends knowing, I said, “Okay, putting aside the whole I-had-to-call-Thanatos-to-get-us-back-to-school thing, which is what I shoulda done ’cause I’m the High Priestess in charge, and the fact that you came on to me when all I meant to do was cuddle and sleep, my mom is dead, Stark. Nyx let me see her enter the Otherworld. As of right now I don’t know how or why that happened. I’m trying like hell to act semi-normal. I haven’t even talked to my grandma yet.”

“That’s right, you haven’t. I told you that you should have called her right away—or at least called your mom. What if it was all just a dream?”

I looked at Stark in utter disbelief, struggling to keep my voice and my emotions under control. “You are the one person in this world who should understand better than anyone else that I can tell the difference between really seeing the Otherworld and dreaming it.”

“Yeah, I know, but—”

“But are you saying I should have gone through all of that and not disturbed your precious sleep? Well, except to have sex with you!”

I clamped my mouth shut and tried to look normal when I saw Aphrodite turn around and glance back at me with a question mark on her face.

Stark blew out a long breath. “No, that’s not what I mean. I’m sorry, Z.” Then he took my hand in his. “Seriously. I’m sounding like a jerk.”

“Yeah, you are,” I said.

“Sorry, again,” he said, and then he butted my shoulder with his. “Can we rewind this conversation?”