Hidden: House of Night: Book 10

you and I can sit there, in a corner booth. I can sip good champagne. You can read a boringly huge textbook while you really are lighting a smaller, less obvious version of that purple candle and zapping bull boy with all of the elements.”
    “Where will we be?” Stark asked, not looking happy at all.
    “Outside, watching over the nerd herd so that some street crazy doesn’t stagger into, say, Queen Damien and cause him to shriek, drop his candle, and fuck everything up,” Aphrodite said.
    “I would
not
drop my candle,” Damien said.
    “What if he smelled really,
really
bad and you thought he had lice?” Aphrodite asked.
    “Eeew,” Damien said and shuddered.
    “Told you so,” Aphrodite said.
    “Aurox, can you do it?” Zoey asked.
    He met her gaze and didn’t hesitate. “Yes. I can do it. I will do it. As long as the elements can strengthen
me
.” Aurox paused and couldn’t stop a smile of pure joy. “Me! I am more than a beast. I am more than Darkness.” He turned from Zoey to Thanatos. “You said I had a choice. I choose Light and the path of the Goddess.”
    Thanatos returned his smile. “Yes, child. Yes, I believe you have. I also believe Nyx has heard you.”
    “Well, he’s definitely talkin’ loud enough for the Goddess to hear,” Stevie Rae said, but she smiled at him, too.
    Zoey wasn’t smiling, though. She’d turned to Kalona. “Can you really catch Grandma? It sounds ridiculous and super scary. I mean, Aurox is going to throw her off the roof of the Mayo.”
    Kalona spread his wings. They surrounded the group andbrushed against the ceiling of the basement. The immortal’s wounds had opened during the fight, and blood ran freely down his body. Aurox thought he looked like an avenging god.
    “I will catch her and once I have her, Sylvia Redbird will be completely safe.”
    Zoey nodded. “I’m counting on that. Okay, then, that’s our plan.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

    Zoey
    Waiting until dusk washell. Keepingmy mouth shut when the rest of the depot fledglings woke up slowly and shuffled sleepily around, taking their time, eating cereal and talking about school and homework and other crap that was totally
not
saving Grandma made my head pound and my stomach clench.
    And then, of course, add to everything the fact that Aurox was crouched up in Tower #1, hiding out, waiting until we come back and pick him up right before we start the whole circle-casting-save-Grandma plan because, as Aphrodite said, “We can’t let anyone see him. If Neferet gets one tiny word that Bull Boy stuck his face back at the House of Night and we didn’t totally fuck him up, well, then paint a giant target on him and call Grandma toast.”
    So, yeah, I had one humongous headache and I was working on some serious IBS.
    “Have a brown pop,” Stark said, sliding a chair over next to where I was sitting at one of the kitchen tables.
    “Already had one,” I said.
    “Have another.” He leaned into me, kissed my cheek, and whispered, “You’re tapping your foot like a crazy person and the other kids are looking at you like you might explode.”
    “I might.” I nuzzled him, using that as an excuse to whisper back.
    “Count Chocula, Z?” Stevie Rae asked with exaggerated perkiness.
    “Not hungr—” I started, but Aphrodite cut me off.
    “She’d love a bowl. Breakfast is the most importantmeal of the day.”
    “You never eat breakfast,” I said, frowning at her.
    Aphrodite raised her half-empty champagne flute and mock toasted me. “I choose to drink my breakfast, and I do that every day. Orange juice is brain food.”
    “And champagne is brain-cell killer,” Shaylin said, through the mouthful of Lucky Charms.
    “I like to think of it as a way the Goddess levels the playing field. Consider for a moment how ridiculously much smarter I would be than all of you if I
didn’t
drink heavily.”
    “I think your logic is flawed,” Damien said.
    “And I think your hair is flawed. Is that early male pattern balding I see?”
    Damien gasped.
    I sighed.
    “Don’t be such a meanie pants,” Stevie Rae told Aphrodite, and then she handed me a bowl of cereal.
    “Speaking of pants, the waist of those bumpkin nightmare Roper jeans you have on today is so high it couldn’t pass a drug test,” Aphrodite quipped as she refilled her mimosa.
    “I think Stevie Rae looks cute,” Shaylin said.
    “Of course you do. And tomorrow you’ll probably be wearing two different shoes, because that’s the kind