Burned

and remember to use your good sense. And also, every time I wrote the word
Darkness
, it made my insides feel wrong.”
    Stevie Rae gave Kramisha a long look, then made her decision. “Walk with me to the parking lot, ’kay? I got somethin’ to do off campus, but I wanna talk to you on the way.”
    “No problem,” Kramisha said. “Plus, it’s ’bout time you said something ’bout what’s going on inside your head to someone. You been actin’ wacked lately, and I mean even before Zoey got herself shattered.”
    “Yeah, I know,” Stevie Rae mumbled.
    Neither one of them said anything more while they walked down the stairs and through the busy dorm. Stevie Rae thought it was like the thawing ice had also unfrozen the fledglings. Over the past couple of days, the kids had started coming out and acting more and more normal. Sure, she and Kramisha still got plenty of looks, but they’d gone from hostile and fearful to mostly curious.
    “You thinkin’ we might actually be able to come back here and go to school again, like this is still our home?” Kramisha blurted once they’d reached the sidewalk outside the dorm,
    Stevie Rae gave her a surprised look. “Actually, I kinda have started to think that. Would it be so bad to be back here?”
    Kramisha shrugged. “I ain’t sure. All I’m sure of is I feel right when I’m sleepin’ underground during the day.”
    “Yeah, that’s a problem here.”
    “The Darkness in my poem that makes me feel wrong—you don’t think that’s ’bout us, do you?”
    “No!” Stevie Rae shook her head emphatically. “There’s nothin’ wrong with us. You and me and Dallas and the rest of the red fledglings who came here decided. Nyx gave us a choice, and we chose good over evil—Light over Darkness. The poem isn’t talkin’ about us. I’m sure of that.”
    “It’s the others, huh?” Even though they were alone, Kramisha lowered her voice.
    Stevie Rae thought about it and realized Kramisha could be right. She’d just been so preoccupied with guilt about Rephaim that it hadn’t occurred to her. Dang! She did need to get her head on straight. “Well, yeah, I guess it could be talkin’ ’bout them, but if it is, it’s really bad.”
    “Please. We all know they real bad.”
    “Yeah, well, I just found out some stuff from Aphrodite that gives Darkness with a capital D a whole new level of messed-up. And ifthey’re involved with that, then they’ve reached a different kind of bad. Like Neferet bad.”
    “Shit.”
    “Yeah. So your poem might be talkin’ ’bout a fight with them. But also, and this is the part I wanted you to know, Aphrodite and I have started to learn about some ancient stuff. You know,
really
old. So old the vamps have even forgotten about it.”
    “That’s some old shit.”
    “Well, we’re—meaning me and Aphrodite and Stark and the rest of the kids with Zoey—are gonna try to see if we can use this old info to help Stark get to the Otherworld so he can protect Z while she puts her soul back together.”
    “You mean get Stark to the Otherworld without him being all dead and stuff?”
    “Yeah, apparently him showin’ up in the Otherworld dead wouldn’t be good for Zoey.”
    “So you gonna use that old shit to figure out how to do it right?”
    Stevie Rae smiled at her. “We’re gonna try. And you can help.”
    “Say the word—I’m there.”
    “Okay, here goes: Aphrodite’s found some new Prophetess powers since she’s been focused on them.” Stevie Rae added a wry smile to her words. “Even though she’s ’bout as happy as a cat in a thunderstorm about it.” Kramisha laughed, and Stevie Rae continued, “Anyway, I was thinkin’ that even though I don’t have a circle here like Z does around her there, I do have a Prophetess.”
    Kramisha blinked, looked confused, and when Stevie Rae kept staring at her, her eyes finally widened in understanding. “Me?”
    “You. Well, you and your poetry. You did it before and helped Z figure out how to chase Kalona outta here.”
    “But—”
    “But look at it this way,” Stevie Rae broke in. “Aphrodite figured it out. So are you sayin’ she’s smarter than you?”
    Kramisha’s eyes narrowed. “I got a whole world of smart that rich white girl don’t know nothin’ about.”
    “Well, then, cowboy up.”
    “You know you kinda scare me when you talk country.”
    “I know.” Stevie Rae dimpled at her. “Okay, I’m gonna go conjure up some earth and see if I