Hunted

forehead.
    “Zoey, Kalona must be killed.”
    The abruptness of her statement shocked me to my core, and I quickly looked around, worried that Raven Mockers were lurking close by, as they had been in all of my other classes.
    Lenobia shook her head and waved away my fears. “Horses despise Raven Mockers as much as cats do, only earning a horse’s hatred is more dangerous than a cat’s. None of the abominable bird creatures will dare to enter my stables.”
    “What about the other fledglings?” I asked softly.
    “They are entirely too busy exercising horses who have been cooped up for days because of this storm to eavesdrop on us. So I repeat, Kalona must be killed.”
    “He can’t be killed. He’s immortal.” My frustration at this unfortunate fact showed clearly in my voice.
    Lenobia shook back her long, thick hair and began to pace from one side of the stall to another. “But we must defeat him. He lures our people away from Nyx.”
    “I know. I haven’t even been back one whole day and already I can see how bad things are. Neferet is in on all of this, too.” I held my breath, waiting to see if Lenobia would remain blindly loyal to her High Priestess or if she would see the truth.
    “Neferet is worse than any of them,” she said bitterly. “She who should be most faithful to Nyx has betrayed her utterly.”
    “She’s not what she used to be,” I said. “She’s become something that’s focused on evil.”
    Lenobia nodded her head. “Yes, a few of us have been afraid of that. I’m ashamed to say we looked the other way instead of confronting Neferet when she first began to behave strangely. I no longer consider her in Nyx’s service. I plan on pledging my allegiance to a new High Priestess,” she finished, giving me a knowing look.
    “Not me!” I practically squeaked. “I haven’t even Changed yet.”
    “You’ve been Marked and Chosen by our Goddess. That is enough for me. It is also enough for Dragon and Anastasia.”
    “How about the other professors? Are any of them with us, too?”
    A terrible sadness crossed her face. “No. All of the others are blinded by Kalona.”
    “Why aren’t you?”
    She took her time answering me. “I am not sure why he didn’t blind me, as he has most of the others. Dragon and Anastasia and I have spoken of it, if only briefly. We do feel his allure, but a part of us was able to stay untouched by him enough that we were able to see him—really see him—and recognize him as the destructive creature he is. There is no doubt in our minds that you must find a way to defeat him, Zoey.”
    I felt terrible and helpless and breathless and too darn young. I wanted to flail my arms around and scream, I’m seventeen! I can’t save the world—I can’t even parallel park!
    And then a sweet, meadow-filled breeze caressed my face. It was warmed by the summer sun and moist as dew at dawn, and my spirit lifted in response.
    “You aren’t simply a fledgling. Listen within, child, and know that where that still, small voice leads you, we will follow,” Lenobia said in a voice that reminded me of my Goddess.
    Her words mixed with the elements soothed me, and suddenly my eyes widened. How could I have forgotten?
    “The poem!” I blurted, hurrying over to where I’d hung my purse by the door of Persephone’s stall. “One of the red fledglings has been writing prophetic poetry. She gave me one that had to do with Kalona right before I came here.”
    Lenobia watched me curiously as I searched through my purse.
    “Here it is!” It was wadded up with the poem that must have been about Stark. I grabbed the other poem and focused on it.
    “Okay . . . okay . . . This is it. This tells me how to make Kalona flee. It’s just . . . just written in poetic code or something.”
    “Let me read it, too. Perhaps I can help shed light on it.”
    I held the poem out so she could see it, and she read it aloud as I followed the words.

    What once bound him
    Will make him flee
    Place of power—joining of five
    Night
    Spirit
    Blood
    Humanity
    Earth
    Joined not to conquer
    Instead to overcome
    Night leads to Spirit
    Blood binds Humanity
    And Earth completes.

    “When Kalona rose from the earth, he wasn’t being reborn, as Neferet tried to get us to believe, was he?” Lenobia said, still studying the poem.
    “No. He’d been trapped there for more than a thousand years,” I said.
    “By whom?”
    “My grandmother’s Cherokee ancestors.”
    “This seems to imply