Hunted

“Or at least it won’t start here,” I said. “And that might give us time to figure out how to get rid of him permanently, since he seems to be a main player in the war.”

“It is Neferet,” Lenobia said in a voice so calm it almost sounded dead. “She is the impetus behind Kalona. She has desired a war against the humans for many years.” She met my eyes. “You may have to kill her.”

I blanched. “Kill Neferet! No way. I’m not doing that!”

“You might have to,” Darius said.

“No!” I cried again. “If I was supposed to kill Neferet, I wouldn’t have this horrible sickness in my gut just thinking about it. Nyx would let me know that it was her will, but I can’t believe killing a High Priestess of hers would ever be the Goddess’s will.”

“Ex-High Priestess,” Damien said.

“Is High Priestess a job you can really lose?” Shaunee asked.

“Yeah, isn’t it one of those ‘for life’ things?” Erin said.

“Plus, is she really a High Priestess if she’s turning into something else, like Queen Tsi Sgili?” Aphrodite added.

“Yes! No!” I babbled. “I don’t know. Let’s just get off the subject of killing Neferet. I so ca

I saw Darius, Lenobia, and Aphrodite exchange a long look, which I definitely chose to ignore. Then Lenobia said, “Back to getting all of you out of here. I think that is something we need to do now.”

“Right now?” Shaunee said.

“Like this second?” Erin chimed in.

“The sooner the better,” I said. “I mean, I can feel your elements, and I know they’re protecting your thoughts, but the truth is, if Neferet is trying to break into your minds, she’ll know something is going on when she comes up against an elemental wall. She just won’t know exactly what.” I glanced around, half expecting her to be floating like a bloated, spectral spider in the shadows. “She’s also appeared twice to me like a disgusting ghost, so I say we need to get the hell out of here. Now.”

“I don’t like the sound of that,” Erin said.

“Tell me about it,” I said. “But getting out of here is going to be a problem. The weather is definitely not helping us. I couldn’t even walk from the main building to the stables without almost breaking my butt. I had to use fire to melt some of the stupid ice.” I glanced at Shaunee and smiled a little sheepishly.

“Wait, what did you say about using the element fire to melt the ice?” Lenobia broke in.

I shrugged. “I was just sick of almost falling. So I focused some flame on the sidewalk. It melted the ice with no problem.”

“Actually, easy-peasy,” Shaunee said. “I’ve done it myself.”

Lenobia looked increasingly excited. “Do you think you could project flame specifically enough that it could melt the ice beneath your feet as a group if you moved?”

“Yeah, I think so. If we could figure out some way that it wouldn’t burn our feet, too. I don’t know how long I could do it, though.” I glanced questioningly at Shaunee.

She nodded. “Sure, I could help, and it wouldn’t even burn my feet. With the two of us joined together we could make it last longer than either of us trying to do it by ourselves.”

“Plus, Twin,” Erin said, “Twenty-first and Lewis is only like half a mile down the street. Zoey’s looking way better today, so you guys should be able to keep the heat going that long.”

“Even with the ice problem solved, we can’t possibly move fast enough on foot, and I can’t cloak the Hummer because it’s not organic,” I said.

“I think I have a solution for you,” Lenobia said. “Come with me.” We followed as she led us to Persephone’s stall. The mare was eating contentedly, and she simply flicked her ears back at us when Lenobia greeted her, went to her back leg, reached down, and said, “Give, sweet girl.”

Persephone obediently lifted her leg. Lenobia brushed off the straw that clung to her hoof, and then, still holding the mare’s leg up, she looked at Shaunee. “Can you send flame to heat her shoe?”

Shaunee looked surprised at the unusual request, but said, “Easy peasy.” Then she drew a deep breath, and I heard her whisper something that I couldn’t quite make out, and she pointed one glowing finger at Persephone’s hoof. “Burn, baby, burn!” she said. The glow rushed from her finger to the silver horse shoe snug against Persephone’s hoof. In no time it started to glow, too. Persephone stopped eating, craned her head around and gave her hoof a curious look, snorted, and then went back to eating.

Lenobia tapped the hoof, kinda like she was checking to see if an iron was hot, quickly pulling her finger away from the glowing surface. “It definitely worked. You can make it go away now, Shaunee.”

“Thanks, fire! Come on back to me now!” The glow swirled around the horse, making her snort again, and then came back to Shaunee whose bod$ As noty began to glow until she frowned and said, “Just settle down.”

Lenobia put the horse’s hoof down, patted her rump affectionately, and said, “That is how you leave here and get to the abbey quickly. On horse back, which, in my opinion, is the best way to travel anyway.”

“The idea has merit,” Darius said. “But how do we escape? Surely the Raven Mockers won’t let us ride out the front gates.”

Lenobia smiled. “Perhaps they will.”

CHAPTER 31

“That is an insane plan,” Aphrodite said.

“Yet it just might work,” Darius said.

“I like it. It’s kinda romantic, with the horses and all. Plus, it’s the best plan we have,” Damien said.

“It’s the only plan we have,” I said. At Lenobia’s raised brows I hastily added, “But I like it, too.”

“The fewer horses you take, the easier it will be for you to get away u

“Three is definitely sneakier than six,” Erin said.

“But how are we going to get Dragon and Anastasia in on it?” I said. “We definitely can’t all go walking over to the fencing room or Anastasia’s class. And I don’t want us to split up.”

Lenobia’s brows went up again. “I don’t know if you’ve heard of this, but there is something many of us use, called a cellular telephone. Believe it or not, Dragon and Anastasia each have one.”

“Oh,” I said, feeling like a moron.

Aphrodite rolled her eyes at me.

“I’ll call them and fill them in on their part of the plan. Those of you wearing skirts—you need to change. Zoey can show you where the extra riding habits are kept in the tack room. Take anything in there you might need,” Lenobia said as she hurried toward her office.

“I’ll tell Dragon the diversion will start in thirty minutes.”

“Thirty minutes!” My stomach clenched.

“That should give you plenty of time to change and put bridles on three horses. You won’t be able to use saddles. That would be too obvious.” Lenobia disappeared into her office just as Damien said, “No saddles? I think I’m going to be sick.”

“Join the crowd,” I said. “Come on,” I told Aphrodite and the Twins, “You need to change out of those short skirts. And who the hell wears stilettos in an ice storm?”

“They’re boots,” Aphrodite said. “And boots are proper winter attire.”

“Three and a half inch stiletto boots are not sensible footwear for winter,” I said, leading them to the tack room and the riding clothes hanging neatly there among the other tack.

“Fashion-impaired geek,” Aphrodite muttered.

“Agreeing,” Shaunee said.

“For once,” Erin added.

I grabbed three bridles and shook my head at my friends. “Just change your clothes. There are riding boots in that closet. Avail yourselves of their use.”

“Avail?” I heard Shaunee say as I marched out of the tack room.

“Girlfriend has been hanging around Queen Damien too much,” Erin said.

I slammed the door.

I wasn’t sure what other two horses Lenobia would choose to go with us, but I knew Persephone would be carrying me, so I hurried toward her stall. Darius had moved over to one of the high stable windows and was busy stacking hay bales on top of each other. Obviously he was going to give us a weather and Raven Mocker check.