"Wow, she's really rich," Stevie Rae said to me.

"Apparently," I said.

"Do you have cable?" Stevie Rae asked Aphrodite.

"Of course," she said.

"Cool," Stevie Rae said, looking happier than she had since she died.

"Okay, so, we're out of here," I said, joining Aphrodite at the door. "Oh, Stevie Rae, I got you one of those GoPhones. It's in my bag. If you need anything, just call my cell. I'll remember to keep it with me and actually turned on." I paused, feeling weirdly uncertain about leaving her.

"Go on. I'll see you later," Stevie Rae said. "You don't need to worry about me. I'm already dead. What more can go wrong?"

"She has a point," Aphrodite said.

"Okay, well. See ya," I said. I didn't want to say I thought she had a point, too. That seemed to be asking for trouble. I mean, she was undead, and that was pretty awful. But there were other things that could go wrong, too. The thought made a creepy chill go up my spine, which, sadly, I ignored and kept blundering on into my future. Too bad I didn't have any idea of the horror I was blundering blindly into.

Chapter Fourteen

"Drop me back by the trapdoor in the wall. I still don't think it's a good idea if people think we're hanging out," Aphrodite said.

I turned right on Peoria Street and headed back to the school. "I'm surprised you care so much what other people think."

"I don't. I care what Neferet finds out. If she thinks the two of us are friends, or even just not enemies, she's going to figure that we've shared info about her."

"And that would be majorly bad," I finished for her.

"Definitely," she said.

"But she's going to see us together once in a while because you're going to be evoking earth in my circles." Aphrodite gave me a startled look. "No, I'm not."

"Of course you are."

"No, I am not."

"Aphrodite, Nyx has given you an affinity for earth. You belong in the circle. Unless you want to ignore Nyx's will." I didn't add the word "again," but it seemed to hang in the air between us.

"I already said I'd do Nyx's will," she said through clenched teeth.

"Which means you're going to be part of the Full Moon Ritual tonight," I said.

"That's going to be a little difficult, seeing as I'm not a member of the Dark Daughters anymore." Crap. I'd forgotten about that.

"Well, then, you'll just have to rejoin the Dark Daughters." She started to say something. I raised my voice and talked over the top of her. "Which means you're going to have to swear to uphold the new rules."

"Lame," she muttered.

"You're doing that attitude thing again," I said. "So, will you swear to it?" I could see her chewing her lip. I waited without saying anything else and just kept driving. This was something Aphrodite was going to have to decide for herself. She said she wanted to atone for her screw-ups and wanted to do the Goddess's will. But wanting something and actually doing it was totally not the same thing. Aphrodite had been selfish and mean for a really long time. Sometimes I could see a spark of a change in her, but mostly I just saw the girl the Twins called the Hag from Hell.

"Yeah, whatever."

"What was that?"

"I said, yeah. I'll swear to your new lame-ass rules."

"Aphrodite, part of the swearing means that you don't believe the rules are lame."

"No, there's nothing in the swearing that says I can't think they're lame. I just have to say that I'll be authentic for air, faithful for fire, wise for water, empathetic for earth, and sincere for spirit. So I'm authentically saying I think your new rules are lame."

"If that's what you think, then why did you memorize them?"

"Know thy enemy," she quoted.

"Who said that, anyway?"

She shrugged. "Someone back in the day. The 'thy' gives it away as from the olden back in the day." I thought she was full of poopy, but didn't want to say anything (especially since she'd make fun of me saying

"poopy" instead of the s word).

"Okay, here you go." I pulled over to the side of the road. Thankfully, the clouds that had rolled in during the late night hours had multiplied, and the morning was dark and gloomy. All Aphrodite would have to do was cross the little grassy area that sat between the road and the wall that surrounded the school, go through the trapdoor, and then follow the sidewalk a short way to the dorm. As the Twins would say, easy-peasy. I squinted up at the sky, considering whether I should try asking the wind to blow in more clouds to make it even darker, but a glance at Aphrodite's sullen face made me decide, nah, she could deal with the sunlight.