Revealed

immediately. Class is dismissed.”
    As we filed out of class, I watched Thanatos speaking quietly to Kalona. I saw the immortal’s eyes widen, and then he nodded, and bowed to her again—this time unusually low, holding the pose longer than normal. While he was still bowing, Thanatos went to her desk, picked up the phone, and punched a button. Her voice echoed from the school’s intercom system. “All students and faculty will assemble at the center of campus at the pyre site! Professors who are members of our Council will report to the Council Chamber immediately. All classes are suspended until after our assembly.” Then she clicked off and hurried out through the back door to the classroom, with Kalona on her heels.
    I had a bad feeling. “I wonder what the hell’s going on?”
    “Don’t have a clue,” Aphrodite said. “But whatever it is, it’s going to happen in front of everyone
and
it gets us out of at least one class, so how bad could it be?”
    We went right to the pyre site and formed a big circle around the black burned area that had definitely seen too much use lately. I looked for Stark, but didn’t see him or Kalona. Darius met us, taking Aphrodite’s hand and saying he didn’t know what was going on, either. Just when everyone was starting to get restless and the talking was heading toward the I-have-to-yell-to-be-heard level, the people at the opposite side of the group I was in shifted and then parted.
    Thanatos stepped into view first. She’d changed her clothes to a long black velvet dress that was decorated only with the emblem of Nyx in silver thread, hands upraised cupping a crescent moon. Thanatos had let her hair down, and it fell long and dark, in a thick veil around her waist. Within its depths I could see silver glinting, which reminded me of the thread used to embroider Nyx’s emblem. Her face was grim. I thought she looked scary but beautiful—ancient yet timeless.
    Then my attention was pulled from her as Kalona and Stark came into view. Dallas limped between them. He looked like crap. His hands were tied in front of him. His face was a bloody, scratched-up mess. His clothes were wet and filthy. Buried to its feathers, one of Stark’s arrows was stuck through his right thigh. Kalona and Stark looked as serious and powerful as Thanatos as they pulled Dallas into the center of our assembly. They didn’t stop until he was standing right in the middle of the blackened pyre site.
    Dallas didn’t look grim or powerful. He looked pissed. I saw when his eyes found Shaunee. He sneered at her and hacked up a nasty loogie, then spit it into the ashes at his feet.
    “Professors of the Tulsa House of Night Council, come forth!” Thanatos commanded.
    Lenobia, Penthesilea, Garmy, and Erik stepped from the crowd to stand to one side of Thanatos. I was thinking that the Council looked sparse with the absence of Dragon and Anastasia Lankford and Professor Nolan, when Thanatos continued, “I also command our two Prophetesses, come forth!”
    “Oh, for shit’s sake,” Aphrodite grumbled, but she let go of Darius’s hand and went to join Thanatos. Shaylin took longer to make her way forward, but when she joined Thanatos, the High Priestess nodded and motioned for her to stand beside Aphrodite.
    “Our school has been richly gifted with two additional High Priestesses. Sadly, one of them, the first red High Priestess, Stevie Rae, is unable to take her place beside me today because she has been gravely wounded.” I was just realizing she’d said
two
when Thanatos’s dark gaze found me. “But I do call our second High Priestess to join me. Zoey Redbird, come forth!”
    Feeling nervous and unsure, I went to stand beside Aphrodite and Shaylin.
    Thanatos faced Dallas. “Are you the red vampyre known as Dallas?”
    Dallas curled his lip. “Everybody knows who I am.”
    “Dallas, at dawn you attacked the red High Priestess, Stevie Rae, with the intent to expose her to sunlight until she died. Do you deny this?”
    “No, I ain’t denying it.”
    “Dallas, at dawn you also planned to kill the fledgling Shaunee with the power you have been gifted with by Nyx. Do you deny this?”
    “I ain’t denying anything!” His voice was mean and his eyes glinted with a rust-colored glow. “Shun me! I’m more than ready to leave this shithole of a school.”
    Thanatos turned so that she faced the crowd. “I know this vampyre has followers who share his same views. I believe they knew and