“What?” Damien said. “How could it have looked like Neferet?”
“I don’t have a clue, but I promise when I looked up she was there. She smiled a terrible, creepy smile at me. I blinked, and then she was gone and there was a Raven Mocker in her place. That’s all I know.” I knew there was something else I needed to remember about what had happened, but my mind was feeling fuzzy with pain and I slumped down, totally exhausted.
“We have to get her back to the House of Night,” Darius said.
“And take her right to Neferet? That doesn’t sound smart,” Heath said.
“Nevertheless, she has to go there.”
I looked up at Darius. “Isn’t there some other way?”
“Not if you want to live,” he said.
“Then Zoey has to go back to school,” Damien said.
“Oh, great! So the Raven Mockers and Neferet have her exactly where they want her!” Aphrodite yelled.
I looked at Aphrodite and saw beyond the hateful demeanor she wore like armor to the sincere worry she had for me. Basically, she was scared. I couldn’t really blame her. I was scared, too—for myself, for my friends. Hell, I was scared for the whole darn world.
“They want me there, but they want me alive,” I said solemnly. “That means before they do anything else, they’ll make sure I’m healed.”
“Are you remembering that the House of Night’s healer is Neferet?” Damien said.
“Of course I remember,” I said irritably. “I’m just hoping Kalona wants me alive worse than she wants me dead.”
“But what if she does something terrible to you after you’re healed?” Aphrodite said.
“Then you guys will have to come get me out of there,” I said.
“Uh, Zoey,” Damien said. “You sound like you think you’re going back there alone. You’re not.”
“Yeah, no way,” Erin said.
“We’re not letting you out of our sight,” Shaunee said.
“Where you go, we go,” Jack said.
“That’s right. We’re in this together,” Stevie Rae said. “Remember the only thing that was the same about both of the death visions Aphrodite had of you was the fact that you were alone. So we’re not lettin’ you be alone.”
Erik’s voice sliced between us. “We can’t all go back with her.”
“Look, Erik,” Aphrodite sneered. “We get that you’re Mr. Jealous and that seeing your girlfriend sucking on another guy is probably not cool with you, but you’re going to just have to learn to deal.”
Erik completely ignored her. Instead, he met my eyes and I saw that he had, once again, reached into his acting bag of tricks and pulled out the character of a stranger. As I studied him, I saw absolutely no trace of the guy who wanted me so bad that his passion had gotten kinda scary. I couldn’t even find any trace of the possessive Neanderthal who had wanted to kick Heath’s butt and boss me around. He was able to cover all of those versions of himself and his emotions so effectively that I was beginning to wonder who the hell the real Erik was.
“Stevie Rae can’t go back with you. If she goes, who will be here to control the red fledglings? Aphrodite can’t go back with you. She’s just a human, and as much as I’d like something to eat her, I imagine you and Nyx probably want to keep her around.”
“Before he says shit else, you need to know that I’m going back with you, no matter what,” Heath said.
Erik didn’t so much as blink. “Yeah, and you’ll get your stupid human ass kicked, probably killed, even faster than Aphrodite would. And along with yourself, you’ll probably get Zoey killed for real this time. Zoey has to go back, because she’ll die if she doesn’t. Darius is the only one who should go back with her. Anyone else is taking a big risk. For sure they’ll be trapped at the House of Night. Maybe they’ll even be killed.”
As usual, the room exploded as my friends yelled their own not-so-positive opinions of Erik’s emotionless proclamation.
“Guys…guys…” I tried to speak over them but didn’t have the energy.
“Silence!” Darius commanded, and everyone finally shut up.
“Thanks,” I said to him, then I looked at my friends. “I think Erik’s right. Anyone who goes back with me is at risk, and I don’t want to lose you guys.”
“But aren’t the five of you stronger when you’re together?” Heath asked.
“Yes, we are,” Damien answered.
Heath nodded. “That’s what I thought. So shouldn’t those of you who have a special thing with an element go back with Zoey?”
“An affinity for an element,” Damien explained. “That’s what it’s called. And I agree with Heath. The circle should stay complete.”
“It can’t,” Darius said. “Stevie Rae has to stay here with the red fledglings. If she’s trapped on campus or, worst case scenario, killed, we have no way of knowing if Erik’s presence, as a Changed vampyre, will be enough to keep them healthy and under control. In case Zoey and I were the only ones who noticed, let me tell all of you that Kramisha looked as if she was having trouble controlling herself around Heath. The ripple effect that might be caused by Stevie Rae’s absence could be disastrous. So the circle cannot stay complete.”
“Wait, maybe it can,” Aphrodite said.
“What do you mean?” I asked her.
“Well, I can’t represent earth anymore. That affinity was given back to Stevie Rae when she Changed, and the one time I tried to evoke it, the element was pissed and zapped me.”
I nodded, remembering how upsetting it had been for Aphrodite to believe that Nyx had abandoned her, which she really hadn’t. But still, the girl was definitely unable to evoke earth anymore.
“But,” Aphrodite continued, “Zoey can evoke earth, just like she can any of the five elements. Right?”
I nodded again. “Right.”
“And I just evoked spirit without any problem. So what if we just change positions? Zoey personifies earth and I call spirit. It worked just a little while ago. I think as long as Zoey’s around to help nudge spirit toward me, there’s no reason it won’t work again.”
“She has a point, which makes the circle complete without me,” Stevie Rae said. “As much as I want to stay with you, Darius is right. I can’t take the chance that I can’t get back here to my fledglings.”
“You are all forgetting another reason the rest of you can’t return with Zoey,” Darius said. “Neferet, and perhaps even Kalona, can read your minds. Which means everything you know about the red fledglings and this safe haven, they will know, too.”
“Uh, guys, I have an idea,” Heath spoke up. “Okay, I don’t really know much about this stuff, so I might be totally wrong, but can’t each of you get help from an element to, I dunno, set up some kind of roadblock around your minds?”
I blinked in surprise at Heath and then grinned. “You might be on to something. What do you think, Damien?”
Damien looked excited. “I think we were idiots not to have thought of it ourselves.” He smiled at Heath. “Well done, you!”
Heath shrugged and looked adorable. “No problem. Sometimes it takes someone from the outside to figure stuff out.”
“You really believe that could work?” Darius asked.
“It should,” Damien said. “Or at least it should for those of us who have an actual affinity for an element. The Twins and I have called our elements to protect and shield before. It shouldn’t be hard to ask them to put up barriers around our minds.” He hesitated and glanced at Aphrodite. “But can you do it? You don’t really have an affinity for spirit, do you? I’m not trying to be mean, but just because you can stand in Zoey’s place and evoke the element within a circle, it doesn’t mean you are actually able to conjure spirit on your own.”