Marked

little stream that runs through the courtyard outside the dining hall and disappears somewhere under the school," Damien said.
    "That's no good; it's too public. We'll need to use the smudge stick. What works best is dried lavender and sage mixed together, but if I have to I can use pine.”
    "I can get the sage and lavender," Damien said. "They have that kind of stuff in the school supplies store for the fifth and sixth former's Spells and Rituals class. I'll just say I'm helping out an upperclassman by picking some up for him. What else do you need?”
    "Well, in the purification ritual Grandma always thanked the seven sacred directions the Cherokee people honor: north, south, east, west, sun, earth, and self. But I think I want to make the prayer more specific to Nyx." I chewed my lip, thinking.
    "I think that's smart," Shaunee said.
    "Yeah," Erin added. "I mean, Nyx isn't allied with the sun. She's Night.”
    "I think you should follow your gut," Stevie Rae said. "Trusting herself is one of the first things a High Priestess learns to do," Damien said.
    "Okay, then I'll also need a candle for each of the five elements," I decided.
    "Easy-peasy," Shaunee said.
    "Yeah, the temple is never locked and there are zillions of circle candles in there.”
    "Is it okay to take them?" Stealing from Nyx's Temple definitely did not feel like a good idea.
    "It's fine as long as we bring them back," Damien said. "What else?”
    "That's it." I think. Hell, I wasn't sure. It's not like I actually knew what I was doing.
    "When and where?" Damien asked.
    "After dinner. Let's say five o'clock. And we can't go together. The last thing we need is for Aphrodite or any of the other Dark Daughters to think we're having some kind of meeting and get curious about us. So let's meet at a huge oak tree by the eastern wall." I smiled crookedly at them. "It's easy to find if you pretend that you've just run out of one of the Dark Daughter's rituals in the rec hall, and you want to get the hell away from the hags.”
    "That doesn't take much pretending," Shaunee said.
    Erin snorted.
    "Okay, we'll bring the stuff," Damien said.
    "Yeah, we'll bring the stuff; you bring the puissantness," Shaunee said, giving Damien a smartass look.
    "That is not the correct form of that word. You know, you really should do more reading. Maybe your vocabulary would improve.” Damien said.
    "Your mom needs to read more.” Shaunee said, and then she and Erin dissolved in giggles at the really bad "your mom" joke.
    I, for one, was glad that they shifted the subject away from me and I could eat my salad and think in relative privacy while they bickered back and forth. I was chewing and trying to remember all the words to the purification prayer when Nala hopped up on the bench beside me. She looked at me with her big eyes and then leaned into me and started to purr like a jet engine. I don't know why, but she made me feel better. And when the bell rang and we all hurried off to class, each of my four friends smiled at me, gave me a secret wink, and said, "Later, Z." They made me feel better, too, even though their easy adoption of Erik's nickname for me gave my heart a twinge.
    Spanish class zoomed by: a whole lesson on learning how to say that we like things or don't like things. Prof. Garmy was cracking me up. She said it would change our lives. Me gusta gatos. (I like cats.) Me gusta it de compras. (I like shopping.) No me gusta cocinar. (I don't like to cook.) No me gusta lavantar el gato. (I don't like to wash the cat.) Those were Prof. Garmy's favorites, and we spent the hour coming up with our own favorites.
    I tried not to scribble things like me gusta Erik… and no me gusta el hag-o Aphrodite. Okay, so I'm sure el hag-o is not how you say "hag" in Spanish, but still. Anyway, class was fun and I actually understood what we were saying. Equestrian class didn't quite zoom by. Mucking stalls was good for thinking―I went over and over the purification prayer―but the hour definitely seemed to take an hour. This time Stevie Rae didn't have to come get me. I was way too anxious to lose track of time. As the bell rang I was quickly putting up the curry combs, happy that Lenobia had let me groom Persephone again, and preoccupied because she had also told me that starting next week she thought I might actually begin riding her. I hurried out of the stables, wishing that the hour wasn't so late back in the "real" world. I'd have loved to call Grandma and tell her