Hunted

“I know! It’s not even hard. Just go on about your business. Destiny and I are making friends.” Shaunee turned back to the big bay mare who would carry her and Erin, and continued to chatter to the horse as Erin brushed her and talked about sugar cubes and something called a Jazzy Apple.

“Just keep her safe and get back here to me,” Aphrodite said. She kissed Darius on the mouth and then walked toward Hope to help Lenobia finish buckling the last of the mare’s bridle straps.

“Well, Priestess, shall we?” Darius said.

I nodded and let him lift me into his arms. Darius took one step out into the frigid, stormy night, and then everything blurred around us as he moved kinda diagonally across the rear grounds to a part of the big wall surrounding the school that had an even bigger oak lying across it. Somehow in one of Tulsa’s last winter disasters, the tree had succumbed and fallen down. Kinda. Word had it (from Aphrodite) that under normal circumstances it was an excellent place to sneak off campus undetected, and I knew from personal experience that she’d been right.

Today we were not dealing with normal circumstances.

Darius came to a halt way too fast beside the fallen tree, shoved me under it, and whispered, “Stay there until I’m sure it is safe.” And off he went.

So I crouched under the tree and thought about how wet and cold it was and how a

I emerged from under the side of the tree just in time to see Darius grabbing a Raven Mocker by his wing, jerking him to the ground, and then slitting his throat.

I looked away fast.

“Zoey, come on. We have no time.”

Trying to ignore the corpse of the Raven Mocker, I hurried to the half-toppled tree. I placed my hand on it and closed my eyes. Centering myself, I searched for my internal north—the site of earth—and then invoked, “Earth, I need you. Please come to me.” In the midst of an ice storm, in the dead of winter, I was suddenly, miraculously, surrounded by the scents of a spring meadow…ripe wheat…a mimosa tree in full bloom. I bowed my head gratefully and continued. “What I need you to do is hard, and I wouldn’t ask it of you unless it was an emergency.” I drew a deep breath, and focused on the ice-slicked bark beneath my palm. “Fall,” I commanded. “Forgive me, but I have to ask you to fall.” The skin of the tree shuddered under my hand, so violently that I fell backward, and with a crack that I swear I could hear a dying scream within, the old oak fell, crashing against the already weakened wall, sending blocks of stone and bricks tumbling down, and creating a break in the barrier that surrounded the school, a break it would seem logical for us to try to escape through.

I was breathing heavily and feeling more than a little shaky, but I automatically sent spirit to let Lenobia know I was successful. Then I picked myself up, staggered to the fallen tree, and put both hands on its bark. “Thank you, earth.” Then a sudden thought had me adding, “Go to Stevie Rae. Tell her we’re coming. Tell her to be ready.” I felt the usual listening sense I got when I commanded an element to do something. “Go now, earth. Thank you again for helping me, and I’m really sorry I had to hurt the tree.”

“We must return to the stables.” Darius strode over to me and lifted me in his arms. “You did well, Priestess,” he said.

I put my head down on his friendly shoulder, and only knew I was crying because I could see the wet streaks on his jacket. “Let’s get out of here.”

CHAPTER 32

The three bridled horses were waiting for us. Erin and Shaunee were already mounted on Destiny. Shaunee was “driving.” She’d taken English Hunter/Jumper classes at her private prep school before she was Marked, and so she’d proclaimed herself “an almost mediocre rider.” Aphrodite and Damien stood near Persephone and Hope. Damien looked like he might be sick at any instant.

“I felt spirit’s touch and am assuming all went well,” Lenobia said as she breezed by us and began rechecking the horses’ tack.

“The wall has been broken, but I was forced to kill a Raven Mocker. I’m quite sure he’ll be discovered soon,” Darius said.

“Actually, that’s good. It will just give more credence to the thought that the fallen wall is how you’ll try to escape,” Lenobia said. She glanced at her watch. “Time to mount up. Shaunee, are you ready?”

“I was born ready,” Shaunee said.

“All right, how about you, Erin?”

Erin nodded. “Ditto. I’m ready.”

“Damien?”

He answered Lenobia, but he spoke to me, “I’m scared.”

I hurried to his side and took his hand. “I’m scared, too. But it’s a lot less scary if I remember we’re together.”

“Even if we’re together on a horse?”

I smiled. “Even if. Plus, Persephone is a perfect lady.” I took Damien’s hand and pressed it against the graceful curve of my mare’s neck.

“Oooh, she’s soft and warm,” he said.

“Here, I’ll give you a knee up,” Lenobia said, bending beside us and offering Damien the cradle her hands were making.

With a long-suffering sigh he put his knee in her hands and tried (unsuccessfully) to stifle a very gay squeal as she boosted him up on Persephone’s broad back.

Before Lenobia helped me up she put her hands on my shoulders and looked into my eyes. “Follow your heart and your instinct, and you will not go wrong. Make him flee, Priestess.”

“I’ll do my best,” I said.

“That is why I have such faith in you,” she said.

Once we were all mounted, Lenobia led us to the rollaway doors that opened into the exercise corral. Earlier Lenobia had quietly gone out and opened the outside gate to the corral. Now nothing stood between us and the world except a lot of ice, the front gates of the school, a bunch of Raven Mockers, their daddy, and a crazy-assed ex-High Priestess.

As you can well imagine, I was pretty concerned about having a raging case of nervous diarrhea. Thankfully, I didn’t have enough spare time for my body to give it much thought.

Lenobia slid the doors open. She’d already extinguished the lights in this part of the stable, so that we wouldn’t be silhouetted, all sitting-duck-like. We peered into the icy darkness, imagining the storm to come.

“I’ll give you just a few minutes to call the elements,” Lenobia said. “The sudden increase in intensity of the storm is Anastasia’s cue to begin the confusion spell on the other side of campus, and don’t forget that Dragon has stationed himself at the school gate. He will cut down the Raven Mocker who is sentry there as soon as he hears hoofs approaching. Shaunee, when you’re ready, set the stall on fire. When I see the flames, I’ll free the rest of the horses. They already know that they are to stampede around the school grounds and create as much havoc as possible.”

Shaunee nodded. “I got it.”

“Then refocus flame on these horses’ hoofs.” Lenobia paused and reiterated, “I mean the horse shoes on their hoofs. I’ll tell Persephone when to go. All the rest of you need do is to hold on and follow her lead.” She patted my sorrel mare affectionately. Then she looked up at me, “Merry meet and merry part, and merry meet again, High Priestess,” she said. Fisting her hand over her heart, she bowed to me.

“Brightest blessings to you, Lenobia,” I said. As she began to walk quickly away, I called after her, “Lenobia, please reconsider leaving here. If we don’t get rid of Kalona, you and Dragon and Anastasia have to get underground—the tu

Lenobia paused and looked over her shoulder at me. Her smile was serene and wise. “But, Priestess, you will succeed.” And she hurried away.