“Please, just please,” I heard Shaunee say.
“Get a room!” Erin said.
Damien giggled as I stepped self-consciously out of Erik’s arms.
“I’m starving,” Stevie Rae said. “This refrigerator stuff makes you hungry.”
“Well, let’s go get you something to eat,” I said.
My friends started over the bridge and I could hear Shaunee bickering with Damien about whether we should have pizza or sandwiches.
“Mind if I walk with you?” Erik asked.
“Nah, I’m getting used to it,” I said, smiling up at him.
He laughed and walked onto the bridge. Then from the darkness behind me I heard a very distinct, very annoyed, “me-eeh-uf-ow!”
“Go on, I’ll catch up with you guys in a minute,” I told Erik and then I walked back into the shadows at the edge of the Philbrook’s lawn. “Nala? Kitty, kitty, kitty . . . ,” I called. And, sure enough, a disgruntled ball of fur trotted out of the bushes, complaining the entire time. I bent down and picked her up and she instantly started to purr. “Well, silly girl, why did you follow me all the way out here if you don’t like walking that far? Like you haven’t been through enough tonight already,” I murmured, but before I could head back to the bridge, Aphrodite stepped out of the shadows and blocked my way.
“You might have won tonight, but this isn’t over,” she told me.
She made me feel really tired. “I wasn’t trying to ‘win’ anything. I was just trying to make things right.”
“And that’s what you think you did?” Her eyes darted nervously back and forth from me to the path that led to the gazebo, as if someone had followed her. “You don’t really know what happened here tonight. You were just being used—we were all just being used. We’re puppets, that’s all we are.” She angrily wiped at her face and I realized she was crying.
“Yes it does!” she snapped. “It’s the parts we’re supposed to play. You’ll see . . . you’ll see. . . .” Aphrodite started to walk away.
A thought drifted unexpectedly from my memory. It was of Aphrodite, during her vision. As if it was happening again, I could hear her say, They’re dead! No. No. That can’t be! Not right. No. Not natural! I don’t understand . . . I don’t . . . You . . . you know. Her scream of terror echoed eerily through my mind. I thought of Elizabeth . . . of Elliott . . . the fact that they had appeared to me. Too much of what she said made sense.
“Aphrodite, wait!” She looked over her shoulder at me. “The vision you had today in Neferet’s office, what was it really about?”
Slowly, she shook her head. “It’s only beginning. It’s going to get much worse.” She turned and suddenly hesitated. Her way was blocked by five kids—my friends.
“It’s okay,” I told them. “Let her go.”
Shaunee and Erin parted. Aphrodite lifted her head, shook back her hair, and marched past them as if she owned the world. I watched her walk over the bridge, my stomach clenching. Aphrodite knew something about Elizabeth and Elliott, and eventually I was going to have to find out what it was.
“Hey,” Stevie Rae said.
I looked at my roommate and new best friend.
“Whatever happens, we’re in it together.”
I felt the knot in my stomach release. “Let’s go,” I said.
Surrounded by my friends, we all went home.
Don’t miss the final electrifying installment of the House of Night series
OCTOBER 2014
Read the entire series
Marked
Betrayed
Chosen
Untamed
Hunted
Tempted
Burned
Awakened
Destined
Hidden
The Fledgling Handbook 101
House of Night Novellas:
Dragon’s Oath
Lenobia’s Vow
Neferet’s Curse
Kalona’s Fall
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