"Muh uh mu," Johnny B said around the Cheetos.

"Just take your silly ass outta here. We got things to discuss." She shook her head and finished shooing him and the last of the red fledglings from the kitchen. Then Kramisha faced the rest of us. "No. I ain't leavin'."

"Oh, for shit's sake, you have another poem?" Aphrodite said.

"I read in People magazine that negativity gives you wrinkles," Kramisha said to Aphrodite. "You may wanna consider your attitude when you look in the mirror. 'Cause I do know you love you some mirror time." She made a little "huh" noise and then her gaze went to Stevie Rae and then to me. "It come to me in Latin class."

"Latin? Seriously?" Aphrodite said. "Your English isn't even that great."

"Non scholae sed vitae discimus," Kramisha said smoothly.

There was a giant silence, then Stevie Rae said, "Dang, Latin always sounds so smart. Good job, Kramisha."

"Thank you. It nice to be 'preciated by my High Priestess. Anyway..." She dug around in her gihugic bag until she found her purple notepad, then she pulled it out, came over to the table, and slapped it down in front of me. "This one's for you."

"Why?" I said before I could make my mouth stop.

Kramisha shrugged. "Don't know, but you're supposed to read it."

"It would really be more helpful if you could get a little more info when these poems 'come to you,'" Aphrodite air quoted sarcastically.

"Wrinkles," Kramisha said without looking at her.

"Fine, I'll read it." I took the paper and then glanced at my gawking group. "Yes, out loud." And I read:

"The dividing line forms-fashioned from:

Dragon's tears

Missed years

Overcome fears

The fire and ice paradox

Seen with True Sight

Darkness does not always equate to evil

Light does not always bring good."

As I read the last two lines my stomach squeezed. I glanced up at Kramisha. "You were right. I was supposed to read this."

"How do you know?" Stark asked.

"The last lines-the part that starts with Darkness-it's what Nyx said to me right before she kissed my forehead and filled in my crescent the day I was Marked."

"Does the rest of it mean anything to you?" Damien said.

"Well, I dunno. We all know why Dragon would be crying." Rephaim hunched his shoulders and I gave him a quick apologetic look. "The years and fears part could have to do with Dragon, too. Clearly we're gonna have to get Shaylin involved 'cause of the True Sight part, and I'm not even sure what a paradox is." I sighed. "So, in other words, no, I'm clueless about the rest of it."

"A paradox is a statement or a situation that is contradictory, but true," Damien said.

"Huh?" I said.

"Okay, an example: the paradox of war is that you have to kill people in order for people to stop being killed."

"God, I hate figurative language," Aphrodite said.

"But you are smart, my beauty. When you put your mind to something you figure it out," Darius said.

"The paradox could have something to do with Kalona and Rephaim," Shaunee suddenly spoke up.

"What do you mean?" Stevie Rae asked.

"Twin?" Erin said. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Shaunee told her and then continued. "What I mean is that it's a paradoxical situation, isn't it? In order for Rephaim to prove he's changed sides and is being good now, he has to turn his back on his dad, and that's something that would usually be considered bad."

"You may have something," Damien said.

"She is fire," Aphrodite said.

I blinked. "And Kalona is ice."

"But my Twin doesn't have anything to do with Kalona," Erin said.

"Yes, she does," Rephaim said. "She understands how I feel about him, especially after today."

"Rephaim, I know you want your daddy to be a good guy and love you, but you just gotta give up on that," Stevie Rae said. I could hear the frustration in her voice.

"Please tell her about today," Rephaim said to me.

I stifled a sigh. "Kalona wants a truce with us." After the commotion of everyone being all "no way" and "oh please"-well, everyone except Shaunee and Rephaim-I went on to explain exactly what had happened between Kalona, Rephaim, and me, and summed up with, "So, no, I don't think we can trust him, but having a truce with him isn't necessarily a bad thing."