"Rephaim needs to keep our business to hisself," Kramisha added, giving Rephaim a hard look.

"Yeah, we've already talked about that. Right, Rephaim?" I said.

"I won't tell Father our secrets," Rephaim said.

"It's more than that, though," Stark said. "It's not a secret that we're living here, but that's something Kalona didn't need to know."

"If it's not a secret Father could have found out anywhere," Rephaim said.

"Yeah, maybe. But did ya ever think that maybe if he really had left Tulsa and was out west somewhere and he thought you were at the House of Night surrounded by Sons of Erebus he would have kept flying west and we'd be rid of him?" Stark said.

"That wasn't going to happen. Father wasn't going to leave me."

"He already did!" Stevie Rae suddenly blew. She stood up and wrapped her arms around herself as if she was trying to physically hold her emotions in check. "He left you when you made a choice for good. He's only come back now 'cause your brothers couldn't get you to spy for him.

So now he's tryin' for himself."

"Spy?" Darius said.

Rephaim was looking at Stevie Rae as if she'd slapped him, but he answered Darius. "Yes. That is what my brothers came to ask of me. I refused right before Dragon and the Aurox creature found me."

"Okay, look, like I already said, it's clear that we shouldn't trust Kalona, but I do think that he made a valid point today. If Neferet is immortal and can only be destroyed by herself, then we definitely need help in figuring out how to push her in that direction." I paused and then added, "I also think we can trust Rephaim, even though he loves his dad."

"Kalona is a ticking time bomb," Stark said.

"So once were you. So once was I," Rephaim said.

Stevie Rae unwrapped her arms from around herself and took Rephaim's hand. "I was a time bomb, too, Rephaim, just like you guys. But all three of us made the choice for Light. Your daddy hasn't. Please, you gotta remember that."

"Again, I agree with the bumpkin," Aphrodite said.

"So do I," Erin said.

There was an obvious pause where Erin looked at Shaunee, who didn't echo her in Twin-like fashion and didn't meet her gaze.

"Well, that's a miracle. Someone call the Vatican," Aphrodite said dryly.

With the hand Stevie Rae wasn't holding, Rephaim reached out and pulled Kramisha's poem across the table. He glanced down and then read,

"'Darkness does not always equate to evil. Light does not always bring good.' Maybe things aren't exactly as they appear."

"I know one thing that is for sure and exactly as it appears," I said. "I was there in the Otherworld when Kalona asked Nyx if she would forgive him.

The Goddess said only after he earned the right to ask. He hasn't earned it, Rephaim."

"Yet," Shaunee said softly.

"Yet," Rephaim echoed.

"Yet?" Erin said, shaking her head.

"All right, here's the deal: until Kalona earns the right to ask for Nyx's forgiveness, we do not trust him. We can truce with him, but it's under the heading of my enemy's enemy is my friend." I said, hoping I'd gotten that quote right. "Period, the end."

"But not trusting him doesn't mean not hoping," Shaunee said.

"No, it doesn't mean that," I said slowly, hating the resigned, sad look in my BFF's eyes as she stared at Rephaim.

"I won't let you down." Rephaim spoke first to Stevie Rae, then his gaze moved to the rest of us. "It's like Shaunee said-I can hope, but I won't trust."

"He's going to break your heart," Stevie Rae said.

"Too late to worry about that," he said. "He already did." And then a shudder rippled through Rephaim's body. I swear I saw his skin twitch.

"Dawn." He stood, kissed Stevie Rae gently. "I must go. I love you."

"I'll go with-" Stevie Rae began, but then stopped herself. "No, you don't want me to. It's okay. I know it's something you have to do alone." She tiptoed and kissed him quickly. "Go on before you get caught down here."

Rephaim nodded and then sprinted from the room.

"Huh. So, he turns into a bird? Just like that?" Aphrodite said.

"Besides the fact that it hurts him and humiliates him, yeah, just like that," Stevie Rae said and, with a little sob, she bolted from the kitchen.