Tempted

definitely hide down here during a tornado,” Damien said.
    Feeling overly sensitive and kinda silly, I blew out a long breath and peered into the tunnel, trying to see it with new eyes and feel it with a more accurate instinct. “Could I use your flashlight for a second, Sister?”
    “Of course.”
    Sister Mary Angela handed me the big, square, heavy-duty flashlight she’d carried with us from the main basement into this little side section she’d called their root cellar. The ice storm that had encased Tulsa for the past several days had knocked out the abbey’s power—as it had most of the city’s power. They did have gas generators, so in the main part of the abbey a few electric lights were on, along with the zillions of candles the nuns liked so much, but they hadn’t wasted electricity in the root cellar, and the only illumination came from the nun’s flashlight. This I shined into the hole in the ground.
    The tunnel wasn’t very big. If I spread my arms, I could easily touch both sides of it. I looked up. It only cleared my head by about a foot. I sniffed again, trying to find the sense of comfort the nun and Damien obviously felt. My nose wrinkled. The place reeked of dark and dampness, roots and things that had been stirred up from under the surface. I suspected those
things
slithered and crawled, which automatically made my skin shiver and crawl.
    Then I mentally shook myself. Why should a tunnel in the earth seem so gross? I had an affinity for earth. I could conjure it. I shouldn’t be afraid of it.
    Gritting my teeth, I took one step into the tunnel. Then another. And another.
    “Hey, uh, Z, don’t go too far. You have the only light, and I wouldn’t want Sister Mary Angela to be left back here in the dark. She might get scared.”
    I shook my head and, smiling, turned around, shining the flashlight toward the entrance and illuminating Damien’s worried face and Sister Mary Angela’s serene one.
    “You wouldn’t want the
nun
to be afraid of the dark?”
    Damien shifted guiltily.
    Sister Mary Angela rested her hand on his shoulder for a moment. “It is kind of you to think of me, Damien, but I have no fear of the dark.”
    I was giving Damien a
don’t be such a sissy
look when the feeling hit me. The air behind me changed. I knew I wasn’t alone in that tunnel anymore. Fear fingered its way up my spine and I had a sudden urge to run—to get out of there as fast as I could and to never, ever come back.
    And I did almost run. Then I surprised myself by getting mad. I’d just faced a fallen immortal—a creature I was connected to on a soul-deep level—and I hadn’t run then.
    I wasn’t going to run now.
    “Zoey? What is it?” Damien’s voice sounded far away as I whirled around to face the darkness.
    Suddenly a flickering light, like the glowing eye of an underground monster, materialized. The light wasn’t big, but it was bright, temporarily causing spots in my field of vision and partially blinding me so that when I looked up the monster appeared to have three heads, with a wild, waving mane, and shoulders that looked mismatched and grotesque.
    Then I did what any sensible kid would do. I sucked air and let loose with my very best girl scream, which was instantly and creepily echoed by the three mouths of the single-eyed monster. I could hear Damien shrieking behind me, and I swear Sister Mary Angela even squeaked a startled gasp. I was starting to do exactly what I’d just promised myself I wouldn’t do—run like hell, when one of the heads stopped screaming and stepped forward into the beam of the flashlight.
    “Shit, Zoey! What is wrong with you? It’s just the Twins and me. You scared us crapless,” said Aphrodite.
    “Aphrodite?” My hand clutched my chest over my heart, trying to keep it from pounding out of my body.
    “Of course it’s me,” she said, marching past me in disgust. “Goddess! Get a grip.”
    The Twins were still standing in the tunnel. Erin was holding a thick pillar candle so tightly her knuckles were white. Shaunee was standing next to her, so close their shoulders were smashed together. They looked frozen and big-eyed.
    “Uh, hi,” I said. “I didn’t know you guys were down here.”
    Shaunee thawed first. “Ya think?” She wiped a shaking hand delicately across her forehead and turned to Erin. “Twin, did she scare me white?”
    Erin blinked at her BFF. “I don’t think that’s possible.” She squinted at Shaunee. “But no,