Rephaim felt the creature above him pause in his feeding as a bolt of light speared through the smoky blackness in front of Stevie Rae. He saw Stevie Rae's eyes go wide and, miraculously, she smiled and then laughed.

"Yes!" she spoke joyously. "I'll pay your price. And, dang! You're so black and beautiful!"

Still standing over him, the white bull growled. Tendrils began snaking from the darkness around Rephaim and slithering toward Stevie Rae. Rephaim opened his mouth to shout a warning, but Stevie Rae stepped directly into the shaft of light. There was a sound like a thunderclap, and then another blinding flash. From the middle of the bright explosion stepped an enormous bull, as black as the first was white. But this creature's darkness wasn't like that of the inky shadows that cringed away from it. This bull's coat was the black of a midnight sky filled with the radiance of diamond stars - deep and mysterious and beautiful to behold.

For an instant, the black bull's gaze met Rephaim's, and the Raven Mocker gasped. He'd never seen such kindness in his life; he'd never even known such kindness could exist.

"Do not let her have made the wrong choice." The new voice in his mind was as deep as the first bull's had been, but filled with a wealth of compassion. "Because whether you are worthy or not, she has paid the price ."

The black bull lowered his head and charged the white bull, hurling it off Rephaim's body. There was a deafening crash as the two met, and then a silence so deep it, too, was deafening.

The tendrils dissipated like dew from the summer sun. Stevie Rae was on her knees, reaching for him, when the smoke vanished, and the fledgling ran into the circle, knife raised and ready.

"Get back, Stevie Rae! I'm gonna f**king kill it!"

Stevie Rae touched the ground, and murmured, "Earth, trip him. Hard."

Over Stevie Rae's shoulder, Rephaim saw the ground rise up right in front of the boy's feet, and the wiry fledgling fell down face-first - hard.

"Can you fly?" she whispered.

"I think so," he murmured back.

"Then get back to the Gilcrease," she said urgently. "I'll come to you later."

Rephaim hesitated. He didn't want to leave her so soon after they'd been through so much together.

Was she really well, or had Darkness taken too much from her?

"I'm okay. Promise," Stevie Rae told him softly as if reading his mind. "Go on."

Rephaim stood. With one last look at Stevie Rae, he unfurled his wings and forced his battered body to carry him into the sky.

Chapter Fourteen

Stevie Rae

Dallas was half carrying, half dragging Stevie Rae around the corner of the school, arguing with her about going to the infirmary instead of just back to her room, when Kramisha and Lenobia, who were walking toward Nyx's Temple, caught sight of them.

"Sweet weeping baby Jesus, you is messed up!" Kramisha yelled, stumbling to a halt.

"Dallas, let's get her to the infirmary!" Lenobia said. Unlike Kramisha, she didn't freeze at the bloody sight of Stevie Rae; instead, she hurried to her other side and helped Dallas support her weight, automatically angling them toward the infirmary entrance.

"Look, no, y'all. Just take me to my room. I need a phone, not a doctor. And I can't find my dang cell phone."

"You can't find it because that bird thing ripped almost all your clothes off of you, along with your skin.

Your cell's probably back at the park smooshed in the ground that's still soaked with your blood.

You're goin' to the damn infirmary."

"I have a phone. You can use mine," Kramisha said, catching up to them.

"You can use Kramisha's phone, but Dallas is right. You can't even stand by yourself. You're going to the infirmary," Lenobia said firmly.

"Fine. Whatever. Get me to a chair or somethin' so I can make a call. You have Aphrodite's number, don't you?" she asked Kramisha

"Yeah. But don't think that makes us friends or anything," Kramisha muttered.

As they headed into the infirmary, Lenobia's sharp gaze kept returning to Stevie Rae's battered body.

"You're in bad shape. Again," she said. Then Dallas's words seemed to catch up with her, and the Horse Mistress's gray eyes widened in shock. "Did you say a bird did this?"

"Bird thing ," Dallas said at the same time Stevie Rae said, "No!"

"Dallas, I do not have the time or the energy to argue with you 'bout this right now."

"You mean you didn't see what happened to her?" Lenobia asked.