Revealed

I sneezed. Yep, thunderstorms, flowers, and allergies. Spring had to be coming to Oklahoma.
    I went into the field house through the stables and paused in the hall between buildings, breathing deeply of horse and hay and trying to keep my emotions calm.
    I’m just going to be honest. It’ll hurt his feelings more if I stretch this out and avoid him. Heath would understand.
    I snorted a laugh at myself. No, Heath would not understand. Heath would tell me,
“We belong together, babe!”
and ignore the fact that I was breaking up with him. Again.
    Kalona was standing by himself in the hallway outside the entrance to the basement.
    “Zoey, you’re up late,” he said as he fisted his hand over his heart and gave me a little bow.
    I hadn’t seen him since he’d cut Dallas’s head off and flown away with two fledglings struggling under his arms. He didn’t look any different. I suppose I shouldn’t expect him to. Still, I couldn’t help being morbidly curious. “Hi,” I said. “So, how’d things go with the two fledglings?”
    “As they were meant to go.”
    “Are they, you know,
dead
?”
    Kalona shrugged, causing his massive wings to rustle. “I left them in the middle of the Tall Grass Prairie. With the storms covering the sun they might last the day, but they certainly will not last another.”
    “Are you going to take care of their bodies?”
    He shook his head. “Coyotes will do that job for me.”
    “That’s really cold,” I said.
    “Justice often seems cold. That is not a trait Thanatos and I originated. Judging, condemning, and carrying out justice is not pleasant. Is it not this country whose symbol for justice is a blind maiden holding scales of judgment?”
    “Uh, I don’t think that’s because she’s cold. I think that’s because justice shouldn’t be based on the way a person looks or who he or she is—it should be based on the facts.”
    “I do not understand the distinction you are making.”
    “Nevermind.” I gave up. “I’m looking for Aurox. Have you seen him?”
    “It was his turn to patrol the school perimeter. If you go out the front entrance to the field house, he should be circling back around shortly.”
    “Okay, great. Uh, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t mention to anyone that I was looking for—”
    Kalona held up a hand, cutting me off. “I will not tell tales to your Warrior.”
    I thought about correcting him and saying that wasn’t it at all, that I just didn’t want fledglings to be gossiping about Aurox and me, but my mouth wouldn’t form the lie, so I sighed and said, “Yeah, thanks.” And then I scurried away.
    No one was out in the front side of the school, either, and I found a bench not far from the field house door. While I sat and waited for Aurox, I watched the thunderclouds get closer and thought about what Kalona had said.
    Maybe he was right. Judging others wasn’t pleasant. There was a time when I would have also thought judging others was wrong, but I’d agreed with Thanatos in her condemnation. I suppose I even agreed with her penalty. So, did that make me a hypocrite when, afterward, I felt all squeamish and disgusted? Or did that make me humane?
Or
did it make me too damn dense to ever be a decent High Priestess?
    “Zoey? Is everything okay?”
    I hadn’t heard Aurox approach, so it was a shock to look from the thunderclouds to his moonbeam eyes. I blinked and shook myself, trying to refocus and at least do this one thing right.
    “Yeah, everything’s fine. I just needed to talk to you. Is now a good time?”
    “Of course.” He gestured toward the bench beside me and nodded, “Oh, yeah, go ahead and sit down.”
    He sat and I tried not to fidget or pick at my fingernail polish.
    “It looks like it’s going to rain,” I said. “And I think I just heard thunder off in the distance.”
    “The scent of lightning is in the air,” he agreed.
    I relaxed a little. That was definitely
not
something Heath would have said. “I never thought about lightning smelling like anything, but you’re probably right. Thunder and lightning go together.”
    “Zo, what’s up?”
    My eyes went to his. Yep. Heath was definitely in there. “I can’t drink your blood again.”
    “But you want to,” he said.
    “Aurox, no one gets everything they want.”
    “But this isn’t everything, it’s just a small part of everything.”
    “If I really drank your blood, we’d make love. We’d probably Imprint. That wouldn’t be a small