Revealed (House of Night #11)(80)

“Shit, Shaylin! You’re not a Prophetess, you’re a super spy!” Aphrodite said, laughing. “Tell me that Z and Bull Boy did the nasty.”

I bit my lip to keep from screaming.

“Almost. The two of them are definitely all into each other. She sucked blood from his finger.”

“That’s practically doing it for Zoey, and oh crap. That’s too f**king close to what I saw. Then, let me guess, her colors went crazy? All confused and frustrated and pissed?”

“Totally. Especially after she—”

I’d heard enough.

“Shut up!” I yelled. My chest was burning as hot as my face as I slapped my hand against the door, making it fly open and smack against the wall.

“Uh-oh,” Aphrodite said.

“Zoey! This isn’t what you think!” Shaylin said, backing away from me as I came into the room.

“Really? How is this not what I think it is when I hear you telling Aphrodite that you’ve been spying on me!” I didn’t think. I reacted. Fisting my hand around the burning Seer Stone, I lifted my other hand and thought about how badly I wanted to knock Shaylin on her butt.

A ball of blue fire burst from my hand, knocking Shaylin off her feet. She landed on her back, out of breath, gasping and crying.

I didn’t care about her bawling. It felt good to put her on her butt. Shaylin deserved it.

“Stop it. Now!” Aphrodite stepped in front of me.

I narrowed my eyes. “You were talking about me behind my back!”

“And I’ll tell you why in a second. First, you need to check yourself. Get control of whatever crazy bullshit you’ve got going on and calm it down, right now.” She glanced over her shoulder at Shaylin. “You go back to the basement, right now.”

Still crying, Shaylin scrambled to her feet and ran past me.

“So, what is she, your own little private Prophetess?”

Instead of answering me, Aphrodite watched Shaylin go, and then she planted her hands on her hips and faced me. “Seriously? You’re trying to talk shit to me after you used that f**king stone to hurt Shaylin? You have lost your damn mind.”

“Stone?” I blinked at her, and then looked down at my chest, realizing I had been holding the Seer Stone so tightly that it had pressed painfully into my palm. As soon as I felt the pain the stone went cold. I dropped it. Feeling disoriented, I tried to keep my focus on what had pissed me off—Shaylin spying on Aurox and me. “I’m not talking about the stone, and I’m not talking shit. I want to know what the hell you think you’re doing having me followed around.”

“I had a vision. It was from your point of view. You were doing some of what Shaylin saw you doing with Aurox.”

“When did you have this vision?”

“A couple of days ago. That doesn’t matter. What’s important is—”

“It doesn’t matter that you kept a vision about me from me for days?”

“No, what’s important is why. Why is because I also saw you losing your f**king temper and not able to control that f**king stone. Which is exactly what just happened.”

“No, that’s not what just happened. I controlled the f**king stone. I wanted to knock Shaylin on her butt, and it did exactly what I wanted.”

Aphrodite shook her head back and forth. “Are you even listening to yourself? Yeah, you should be pissed about what you overheard. But Normal Zoey would never have wanted to hurt Shaylin. And, by the way, Normal Zoey wouldn’t have said ‘f*cking,’ either.”

“Normal Zoey wouldn’t have thought one of her best friends was talking behind her back and having her spied on!”

“I was going to tell you about the vision. I was going to tell you about Shaylin. I just needed to wait until the right time,” Aphrodite said.

“You know what, Aphrodite? The right time wasn’t after you talked about me and spied on me. Oh, to hell with this. I’m out of here.” I started to walk away from her, but Aphrodite stepped in front of me again.

“Z, there’s more going on here than just you being pissed at me. I think Old Magick is affecting you, and not in a good way. We need to talk about this. You have to let me tell you about the rest of my vision.”

“I am so damn sick of hearing about what I have to do. Back off, Aphrodite.” My chest was blazing when I pushed past her. She stumbled away from me, making a shocked noise. I didn’t care. I’d had it with her.

I didn’t know where I was going. I just knew I had to go. If I’d had the keys to my Bug I would’ve driven to Grandma’s house, but my keys were up in my room and I didn’t want to see Stark right now and tell him why I was so upset. Hell, if it hadn’t been during the day, I would’ve already run into Stark, thanks to the stupid bond we shared.

I needed time. I needed space. I felt like anger was crawling under my skin. I couldn’t get away from it because I couldn’t get away from everyone pissing me off and telling me what to do. I needed to think without being pecked to death by ducks!

I changed direction, walking away from the dorms, until I came to the wall that enclosed the school. The wall Aurox patrolled. Damn! I didn’t want to see him, either.

That’s when I decided to hell with the cops and their house arrest crap. I hadn’t killed the mayor, and if I needed to go for a walk off campus, I was going to go for a walk off campus! I started jogging for the easternmost part of the wall, and the hidden door I knew was not far from there.