Revealed

seeing any way back to her.”
    “Does it still?”
    “No. It is Nyx herself who keeps me from her side now,” Kalona said.
    “I don’t think she always will,” Shaunee said.
    “You are young,” he said. “You haven’t lived long enough for life to kill your ability to hope.”
    “Well, I don’t know Nyx as well as you do, but I absolutely believe that she’s a just, forgiving goddess. She’s proven that time after time. I’ve seen it, and I’m only eighteen.” Shaunee paused. “Maybe it’s not about how long you’ve lived, or having the ability to hope, even when things seem hopeless. Maybe it’s just about how much faith you have.”
    “I do have faith, young fledgling. I have faith that Nyx forgives those who deserve her forgiveness,” he said.
    “You don’t think you deserve her forgiveness, do you?”
    “I know I do not.” He bowed his head slightly to her. “Stand watch over your friend. I will disturb you no longer.” Then he faded into the darkness.
    Shaunee turned back to the pyre and raised her other hand. She took a step even closer, closed her eyes, and let her element flood through her, and as she did so she spoke a prayer that lifted with the smoke to Nyx.
    “Goddess, this is my good-bye to Erin. I know she’s with you, and finally at peace. Thank you for loving her and taking care of her. Also, thank you for loving Kalona and taking care of him, too, because no matter what, I know you don’t just turn your back on the people you love.”
    “You think you’re so fucking much better than me, don’t you?”
    Dallas’s voice jolted her, and Shaunee couldn’t say anything for several moments while she controlled her element. The flaming pyre reflected her shock, and had Shaunee not focused and brought it under control, its natural course would have been to consume Dallas.
    When she had her element under control again and was able to turn her attention to Dallas, the stupid kid was just standing there, smirking at her and looking like the dickwad he was, totally oblivious to the fact that she had just saved his idiot life.
    “No, Dallas, I don’t think I’m better than you. The truth is, I don’t think much about you at all,” she said.
    “Erin thought you were an uptight bitch,” he said.
    Shaunee bit her lip instead of lashing out at him. She could have fried him with her fire,
or
with her words. But she didn’t want to do either, especially over Erin’s pyre. So, she thought about it for a long, uncomfortable moment, and then said the nicest thing she could think of. “Are you sure you knew what Erin really thought about anything?”
    “I fucked her! Of course I knew what she thought.” He took a couple of steps out of the shadows toward Shaunee, and his smirk became a sneer. “Unless you’re tellin’ me you used to fuck her, too.”
    Shaunee stared at him, too shocked by the mean ignorance in his words to know what to say.
    “Shiiiiit! I knew you two were abnormally close. You did fuck her! And she didn’t even tell me. That’s a damn shame. The three of us, we could’ve had a good time.”
    The flame that had been building inside Shaunee turned white hot. Her mind cleared. She trapped Dallas with one look.
    “I didn’t like you when you were with Stevie Rae. You always felt wrong to me. Plus, you’re too short,” she couldn’t help adding. Then she refocused and made herself tell the truth, without name-calling or spiteful comments. She channeled fire, but instead of burning him, Shaunee scorched him with the truth. “For her entire life, Erin’s biggest desire was to find anybody, anything, who could make her
feel something.
You were just the last in a long list of anybodies. I understood how vulnerable and messed up she was, and I really cared about her, even after she wasn’t my best friend anymore. If you really cared about her, you’ll show it by staying here with me until sunrise and respecting her memory, even though she’s gone.”
    Dallas couldn’t seem to look away from her. His eyes filled with tears and then overflowed. Shaunee thought she might have glimpsed the real boy for a second—the boy who might have actually been able to love Erin. Then he blinked and wiped his cheeks with the back of his sleeve. His lip curled. “You’re as stupid as Erin used to say you were. I can’t stay here until sunrise. I’m a
red
vampyre. The sun will burn me up.”
    Shaunee’s element filled and calmed her. She would not return his