Revealed (House of Night #11)(66)

“I spent eons tracking evil beings that far surpassed this one small vampyre’s ability at subterfuge. It is a skill not easily forgotten,” Kalona said.

Stark watched him from the corner of his eye and wondered, not for the first time, just exactly what Kalona had done for the Goddess before he’d Fallen. And if he’d been so damn good at his job that centuries later he could still track scarily well, why had he Fallen at all?

“There!” Kalona pointed. “Do you see him, there, on the log near the far bank?”

Stark smiled. “I don’t need to see something to hit it. Just give me a little room and get ready to retrieve the ass**le after I shoot him, ’cause now I get to do what I’m scarily good at.” He stood, notched an arrow, and drew the bow back. Bury the arrow to the feathers in the thigh of the vampyre named Dallas, Stark focused his specific thought—his specific purpose—and let fly the arrow.

It shot from the bow with a satisfying thrum, whistling through the air, invisible but deadly.

“Aaaah!” Dallas’s scream carried easily across the water.

Stark smiled cockily at Kalona and said, “Fetch.”

Zoey

It didn’t seem like first hour was ever going to end. I usually liked Thanatos’s special class. She wasn’t the most entertaining professor at the school (uh, that would be Erik), but she was super smart and she let us ask just about anything—as long as we were respectful to her and to each other. I squirmed in my chair and glanced behind me. Dallas, of course, wasn’t in class. As far as I knew Stark and Kalona hadn’t returned to campus yet, with or without him. But all the rest of the red fledglings were here. The kids who weren’t part of Dallas’s group, like Shaylin and Kramisha, Johnny B, Ant, and the rest of Stevie Rae’s red fledglings, were sitting up toward the front of class, just behind the first row where my circle and Aphrodite and I sat. Nicole had come in with Shaylin and was sitting beside her. She’d totally ignored her ex-friends, who stared at her like she was road kill when she’d walked past them.

Aurox wasn’t sitting all the way over on the side of the room by himself today. When he’d walked in he’d hesitated as he started past us, and Damien had waved at him and told him since Rephaim was in the infirmary with Stevie Rae, the two seats next to him weren’t taken. Aurox had only paused long enough to glance at me. I’d kinda half shrugged and half nodded, and then he’d thanked Damien and sat beside him. So, there was only Aphrodite and Damien between him and me. I could see him taking notes as Thanatos opened the lecture by talking about the five major rituals discussed in The Fledgling Handbook.

Huh. Maybe Aurox was a good student. That wouldn’t be Heath-like at all. The thought almost made me giggle—as in the beginnings of hysteria, not as in a funny giggle—and I coughed to cover it.

“You okay?” Shaunee asked me softly. She was sitting on my left and I could see that I’d worried her.

“Totally fine. Just a tickle in my throat,” I assured her quickly.

Thanatos had turned to the Smartboard and was pulling up a picture of a super decorative knife on it. From the back of the room a balled-up sheet of paper was tossed onto my desk. I could see that there was writing on it. Frowning, I smoothed it out and read: TO BAD U DON’T DIE.

Aphrodite snatched up the note and crumpled it up, dropping it into her purse. “Ignore them,” she whispered. “Even I can spell better than they can.”

Dallas’s red fledglings hadn’t been as openly jerk-ish as they tended to be with Dallas leading the way. Instead they were a silently simmering pile of pissed off. They didn’t answer any of Thanatos’s questions and they never commented during her lecture. They just did mean stuff like throw notes when her back was turned. And I swear I could feel their beady little red eyes staring at me. I glanced over my shoulder.

“Stop looking at them,” Aphrodite whispered as Thanatos passed out copies of The Fledgling Handbook to all of us. “They want attention. Don’t give it to them.”

“I wish I knew if Dallas had been caught,” I whispered back.

“He will be. He’s not smart enough to get away from Kalona,” she said.

“I would like to discuss the second of the Major Rituals described in this chapter of your Handbook, Cleopatra’s Protective Ritual.” Thanatos’s commanding voice called our attention to the front of the class. She pointed to the Smartboard and the pictures of the decorative daggers. “Who can tell me what these are called when they are used only for rituals and spellwork?”

Damien’s hand shot into the air.

“Damien?”

“Athame,” he said.

“I knew that,” Aphrodite whispered.

“Correct. Thank you, Damien,” Thanatos said. “You will note that in the purest and most ancient form of Protective Ritual, fire is traditionally the element invoked.” She bowed her head briefly and smiled at Shaunee, who nodded enthusiastically back at her. “As we are fortunate enough to have a fledgling at this school whose affinity is fire, perhaps she can tell us what it is that is utmost in importance in a traditional Ritual of Protection.”

“Oh, that’s easy! It’s the High Priestess who casts the ritual that’s most important. Even though fire is an awesome protection, it’s only as strong as the Priestess who sets the spell,” Shaunee said.