Untamed

comes back. And if he does, he's going to be hungry and probably a little crazy when he wakes up. You'll have to feed him, Zoey."
    I passed a shaky hand over my forehead, wiping my hair from my face. "Okay . . . okay . . . I'll figure it out. I'll just have to figure it out."
    "If he does wake up, bring him to me. He can stay with us," Stevie Rae said.
    "Okay," I repeated, feeling utterly overwhelmed. "There's just so much stuff going on at the House of Night right now. It's different than it was before."
    "Different like how? Tell me, and maybe I can help you figure this out."
    "Well, for one thing, Shekinah showed up at the House of Night."
    "That name sounds familiar. Like she's a big deal or somethin'."
    "She's a major big deal, as in the leader of all vamp High Priestesses. And she pretty much told Neferet right in front of the Council."
    "Dang, wish I could have seen that."
    "Yeah, it was great, but kinda scary, too. I mean, if Shekinah has enough power to put Neferet in her place—well, that's just plain scary."
    Stevie Rae nodded. "So what did Shekinah say?"
    "You know Neferet had closed the school, even though she called off winter break and made everyone come back."
    "Yeah." Stevie Rae nodded again.
    "Shekinah reopened the school." I leaned closer to Stevie Rae and lowered my already mostly whispery voice before I continued. "And she called off the war."
    "Ooooh! I know that pissed off Neferet," Stevie Rae whispered back.
    "Absolutely. Shekinah seems okay, or at least as far as I can tell. But see what I mean about her being scarily powerful?"
    "Yeah, but it also looks like you might have someone on your side who is actually a bigger deal than Neferet. She did stop the war, which is a good thing."
    "It is a good thing, but Shekinah also wants to have a major cleansing ritual performed for the school. I'm performing the ritual. Me with my group of uber-gifted fledglings. You know: the Twins, water and fire—Damien, who is Mr. Air—and, to top it all off, Aphrodite embodying earth, of course."
    "Uh-oh," Stevie Rae said. "Uhm, Z, does Aphrodite have any affinity with earth anymore?"
    "Absolutely none," I said.
    "Can she fake it?"
    "Absolutely not."
    "She tried?"
    "Yep. The green candle zaps her and flies out of her hand. She's not just minus earth, she's minus earth squared."
    "That is a problem," Stevie Rae agreed.
    "Yep. A problem I'm sure Neferet will somehow twist into having happened because there's something wrong with me. Or worse, something wrong with Aphrodite, Damien, and the Twins."
    "Dang, that sucks. I really wish I could help." Then she brightened. "Hey! Maybe I can! What if I sneak into the ritual and hide behind Aphrodite? I'll bet if you focus on me when you call earth, and I focus on earth at the same time, the candle will light and everything will look practically normal."
    I opened my mouth to say thanks but no thanks—it'd be too easy for her to get caught and then for everyone to find out about her. But then I closed my mouth. Just exactly what would be so wrong about Stevie Rae being found out? Not caught hiding and sneakily being part of a ritual, of course, but just found out . The warm, familiar feeling inside me told me I just might be flailing down the right path (for a change).
    "Something like that might just work."
    "Really? You want to hide me? Okey-dokey, just tell me when and where."
    "What if we didn't hide you? What if we outed you instead?"
    "Zoey, I love Damien and all, but I'm really not gay. I mean, I haven't had an official boyfriend in a really long time, but I still get kinda warm and tingly when I think about how cute Drew Partain is. Do you remember how he was likin' me before I got all dead and crazy?"
    "Okay, first—yes. I remember that Drew liked you. Second, you're not dead and crazy anymore, so he would probably still like you—that is if he knew you were alive. Which brings me to my third point: When I said we should out you, I didn't mean as in you being gay. I meant as in you being you ." I made a little figure flutter toward the colored-in scarlet tattoos on her face that she'd carefully concealed before going out in public.
    Stevie Rae gaped at me for a little while, looking seriously shocked. When she finally spoke, her voice sounded choked. "But they can't know about me."
    "Why not?" I asked calmly.
    "Because if they find out about me, they'll find out about the others."
    "So?"
    "That would be bad," she said.
    "Why?"
    "Zoey. Like I said before,