Hidden (House of Night #10)(41)

"She's good. All of the horses are good. Well, except Bonnie. She's acting pretty nervous. Lenobia put her in a turn-out with Mujaji to settle her down. Apparently the two of them get along. Which reminds me, a bunch of fledglings said they saw Lenobia kissing Travis before the EMTs took him away," Stark said.

My eyes got giant. "Seriously? I can't wait till Aphrodite and Stevie Rae hear that!"

Stark chuckled. "Stevie Rae already has-via Kramisha, who is telling everybody." He bumped my shoulder with his. "All that time you spent at the tree made you miss out on some good gossip."

I looked up at him, confused. "All that time? I was only there for, like, a minute."

Stark stopped. "What time do you think it is right now?"

I shrugged. "I dunno. I'd have to look at my phone, but we got to Thanatos's room at seven-thirty. We were probably there half an hour or less, so it couldn't be any later than eight-thirty-ish."

"Zoey, it's eleven-thirty. We only have time to meet everyone at the stables and then go to Dragon's funeral pyre."

All of my insides went cold. "Stark, I lost more than three hours!"

"Yeah, you did, and I don't like it. Give me your word that you won't look through that damn stone again unless I'm with you."

I was freaked enough not to argue with him. "You got it. I'm totally giving you my word. I'm not looking through that thing unless you're with me."

His shoulders relaxed and he gave me a quick kiss. "Thanks, Z. Something that can steal time from you is Not Good." He gave the last two words special emphasis. "I know Sgiach said old magick could be good or bad, but I don't care which one it is if it takes without asking."

"I know. I know." We'd starting walking again, but I kept a tight hold on his hand. "No wonder I felt like I was going to have a heart attack. I'd been stuck standing there, staring at those disgusting, smelly things for hours." I shuddered.

"It's okay. We're going to figure out this old magick crap. I'm not going to let anything happen to you."

Stark squeezed my hand and I squeezed back. I wanted to believe him. I did believe in him-his strength and his love. It was the other side that I was worried about. The unknown side that Darkness sat squarely in the middle of. It kept creeping up and picking off people I loved.

I was thinking about how much I didn't want to lose anyone else when the stupid Seer Stone began heating up. I stopped, pulling Stark to a halt with me. I pressed my hand over the spot it was warming on my chest.

"What?" he asked.

"It's getting hot."

"Why?"

"Stark, I have no clue. You're supposed to be helping me figure that out, remember?"

"Okay, right. Yeah. We can do this." He started looking around. "So, let's figure it out."

"How?"

"Well, I'm thinking," he said.

I sighed and tried to think, too. We'd stopped under one of the big trees just outside the perimeter of the east side of the stables. I glanced up quickly, suddenly worried about lurking things with no eyes and sewn shut mouths. But there was nothing above us. Actually, it was really peaceful around us. All I could think of was that there was nothing to think of. Voices drifted to us from the stables and I could hear equipment and stuff running-like tractors and whatnot were being used to drag things away and clear up the debris. I heard the sound of another motor, this one coming from somewhere behind us and getting closer.

"That's weird," Stark said, looking back over my shoulder. "Taxis don't come here."

I followed his gaze and saw the beat-up, maroon-colored car with boxy black letters spelling TAXI on the side of it. Stark was right. It was super weird to see a taxi at the House of Night. Hell, Tulsa wasn't exactly known for its awesome taxi service. I mentally shrugged-the Midtown trolley was cooler anyway.

Then Lenobia stepped from the side entrance to the stables and practically ran to the car. She opened the back door and reached down to help guide the tall, bandaged cowboy out. The taxi sped away. Travis and Lenobia just stood there looking at each other.

My Seer Stone felt like it was going to burn a hole in my shirt. I pulled it out and held it away from my skin. I didn't say anything, though. Stark and I were too busy staring at Travis and Lenobia. They weren't real close to us, but still it felt like an invasion of their privacy to be gawking at them-even though we kept standing there gawking at them.

Then it hit me. I bumped Stark's arm and, keeping my voice low, said, "The stone got super hot as soon as Travis got out of the cab."

Stark looked from Travis and Lenobia to the stone and then to me. He put a firm hand on my shoulder and said, "Do it. Look through the stone at him. I've got you. I'm not going to let anything happen to you. If something tries to suck time from you I'm going to stop it."

I nodded and, like ripping off a Band-Aid in one quick pull, I lifted the Seer Stone, framing Travis and Lenobia within its circle.

It started like what happened at the tree, at first my vision of the two of them remained exactly the same. I watched Lenobia's hands fluttering nervously over Travis's bandaged hands. They looked like big white mittens, and I could see that the gauze wraps went up his forearms. Even from where we stood, his face looked abnormally red and shiny, like he'd gotten a bad sunburn and had put a bunch of aloe gel on it. But he didn't look like he was in pain. He was smiling. A lot. At Lenobia. I was getting ready to drop the Seer Stone and tell Stark that I was, indeed, Crazy Universe, when Travis bent and kissed Lenobia.