"You don't even like horses," I said. "Exactly," she said, which made absolutely no sense, but also made me laugh. Yep, hot mess of bullpoopie or not, I was seriously glad to be home.

***

"I still can't believe the High Council could be that na?ve," I said for what felt like the gazillionth time as Stevie Rae helped me decide on what outfit I was gonna wear to light Jack's funeral pyre. I shuddered.

Without knocking, Aphrodite breezed into the room. She took one look at the black, long-sleeved, high-necked sweater and black jeans I was holding up and said, "Oh, for shit's sake. You can't wear that. You're lighting the funeral pyre of a g*y. Do you know how mortified Jack would be if he saw you in that, not to mention Damien? It looks like an early 1990s Anita Blake reject outfit."

"Who's Anita Blake?" Stevie Rae asked.

"Vampire killer chick written by a human chick who has a Totally Tragic fashion sense." Aphrodite was wearing a skintight sapphire-colored dress that was a little shimmery, but not so much so that it looked like one of those prom rejects from David's Bridal.

Actually, she looked gorgeous and classy like she usually does. Probably because Victoria, her personal shopper at super posh Miss Jackson's at Utica Square, had pulled the dang thing for her as soon as it came in and charged her mommy's platinum credit card. Sigh. It kinda made my head hurt.

Anyway, she marched over to my closet, opened it, and after one disdainful look at my wardrobe took out the dress she'd given me the night I'd gone to my first Dark Daughters' Ritual. It was black, longsleeved, and (unlike the sweater and jeans) flattering. It was also trimmed around the low, round neckline, the flowy sleeves, and the hem with little red glass beads that sparkled whenever I moved and matched perfectly the Leader of the Dark Daughters triple moon that rested around my neck. I met her eyes. "This dress doesn't have such nice memories attached to it," I said. "Yeah, well, it looks good on you. It's appropriate. And, most important, Jack would totally love it. Plus, according to my mother, memories change like people do, especially if there's enough alcohol involved."

"Look, Aphrodite, do not tell me you are gonna be drinkin' tonight. That's just not appropriate," Stevie Rae said.

"No, bumpkin. Or at least not until afterward." She tossed the dress at me. "Now put this on and hurry up. The Twins and Darius are bringing Damien up here so we can all walk out to the pyre together--a show of nerd herd solidarity and all, which I believe is a good decision," she added quickly when Stevie Rae sucked in air and opened her mouth to interrupt. "Oh, and hi. It's good to see you and your hypochondriac boyfriend back in the real world."

"Fine. I'll wear this." I ducked into our bathroom, then popped my head out and met Aphrodite cool blue eyes. "Oh, and Stark is my Guardian and Warrior first, my boyfriend second. And he is darn sure not a hypochondriac. You know that. You saw what happened to him."

"Huh," Aphrodite scoffed under her breath.

I ignored the rude sound but kept the door open so I could still talk to them while I got dressed. When I saw the seer stone I paused, and decided to let it hang down beneath the top of the dress--no way did I feel like answering questions about Skye and Sgiach tonight. I combed my hair quickly and said,

"Hey, do you guys think Neferet's letting me light the pyre because she expects me to mess it up?" Hell, I expected to mess it up, why wouldn't she?

"Well, I think her plan's much more nefarious than you fumbling around with some words 'cause you're bawling, 'cause you actually cared 'bout Jack," Stevie Rae said.

"Nef what?" said Shaunee as she, too, walked right into my room without so much as a howdy do.

"Arious who?" chimed in Erin. "What's she doing, Twin? Tryin' to pick up the Damien vocab slack?" "Totally sounds like it, Twin," Shaunee replied.

"I like words, and you two can go suck a lemon," Stevie Rae said.

Aphrodite started to laugh and then covered it with a cough when I left the bathroom and glared at all of them. "We're getting ready to go to a funeral. I think we should show a little more respect for Jack, being as he was our friend and all."

The Twins instantly looked contrite. They came over to me and each gave me a hug, mumbling his and glad you're backs.

"Z has a point about bein' more serious, and not just 'cause it's Jack's funeral and that's real terrible. We all know there's no way Neferet has suddenly decided to do the right thing and respect Zoey and her powers," Stevie Rae said.