Hidden (House of Night Novels)

tell them what you want them to do while you think about it real hard.”
    Shaylin nodded. She didn’t look nervous at all. She looked rock solid. “I’ll think go away, leave me alone, forget you ever saw me! Is that right?
    “Yep, sure is.” Stevie Rae smiled. “See, easy-peasy.”
    “I will watch out for you as well,” Kalona said.
    “No! Shaylin can handle herself. We all can. You’re not supposed to take your eyes from the top of the Mayo and the balcony of Neferet’s penthouse. The second you see Grandma, swoop in and save her. That’s your only job tonight,” I said.
    “Not true, young Priestess,” Thanatos cut in. “Kalona is my Warrior, and as such he has a responsibility to protect our fledglings, as well as me.” She walked to Kalona. “Shadow me as I cast the circle and set the spell. Watch over our people. Be sure that the stage is set for what we mean to accomplish tonight.” Thanatos’s gaze shifted to me and then to where Aurox stood at the edge of our group. “Until the circle is cast, you are not to enter Neferet’s lair.”
    “I will wait until I feel the infilling of the elements,” Aurox said.
    “Remember, Aurox, without the strength of the elements, you have no way to control the beast, and it will emerge when Neferet realizes you have come for her prisoner,” Thanatos said.
    “I will remember,” he said.
    “And I will be sure your circle is cast,” Kalona said. “From the sky I will watch over you. I will watch over all of you.” The winged immortal turned his cold amber gaze to Aurox. “You realize I cannot help you. You will have to battle your way from Neferet’s lair.”
    I felt a little start of surprise. I’d been so focused on getting Grandma safe that I hadn’t even considered what was going to happen to Aurox afterward.
    “Wait, can’t you carry both of them out of there?” I asked Kalona.
    “Safely? No. There are some limits to my immortal strength,” Kalona said. “Aurox, if I drop you from the sky will you be killed?”
    It was so bizarre, listening to Kalona question Aurox about falling from the sky like he was asking him if he liked ham and swiss, or turkey and swiss better.
    Aurox made a restless movement with his shoulders. “I believe that would depend upon whether the beast within me has manifested or not. The beast is much more difficult to destroy than am I.”
    “When Grandma is safe, we’ll recall our elements.” Now I was sounding as bizarrely calm as the two of them. “Aurox, let the beast take over enough for it to help you fight your way out of there.”
    “Do you believe that is possible?” Thanatos asked him.
    “Perhaps. I think it will depend a great deal upon Neferet. I–I have not considered getting out, only getting in,” Aurox said.
    “I agree with Zoey. Use the beast. Neferet needed a sacrifice to control it before. She will need to do so again, and we will have taken her sacrifice,” Thanatos said. “It can get you to safety. When you come to yourself again, make your way back to the House of Night.”
    Aurox’s face seemed to brighten. “To stay? I’ll be able to go to school there?”
    “That is a question too great for me to answer alone. The High Council must decide your fate,” Thanatos said.
    I held my breath, waiting for Aurox to bail out—to realize that he was basically on a suicide mission, to tell us all to go to hell in a handbasket, and take off.
    He didn’t do any of those things. Instead, he met my eyes and said, “I have a question for you.”
    “Okay, what?”
    “What does it mean to be coat-tailing on someone?”
    I couldn’t have been more surprised if Aurox had crouched down and given birth to a litter of kittens. For a second, I couldn’t even think of an answer, and then I blurted, “It means that you haven’t earned what you’ve been given, but that someone else has, so you’re riding his coattails and getting credit that way.”
    Aurox’s face was an emotionless mask. He drew a deep breath and let it out slowly. We were all staring at him, but he didn’t say a word. He just stood there, breathing and looking like an almost-statue.
    “Okay, so, who are you coat-tailing?” Stark’s voice cut the silence.
    Aurox turned his moonstone eyes on my Warrior. “No one. No one at all, and tonight I will prove that.” Then his gaze found mine again. “When I feel the presence of the elements I will go to Neferet. When Grandma is safe, do as you said. Withdraw the