"You're my grandma's Goddess, too!"

She smiled and it was hard for me to keep looking directly at her because she was so incredibly lovely. I do know Sylvia Redbird.

"Can you help her? I think she's in big trouble right now!" I clenched my hands together.

Your grandmother knows me well. She may cloak herself in the power of my earth, as may any of my children if they choose to walk my path.

"Thank you! Thank you! Will you tell me where she is and then help me save her?"

You have the means for both, Zoey Redbird.

"I don't understand! Please, for Grandma's sake, help me," I begged the Goddess.

She smiled again, and it was even more blinding. But I answered you when first you beseeched me. If you are to save your grandmother and, ultimately, your people, you will have to grow up. Be a woman, a High Priestess, and not a child.

"But I want to be, I just don't know how. Could you please teach me?" I bit my lip to keep from crying again.

How to be the woman you were meant to be is something no one can teach you. You must find the way yourself. But know this: a child sits, weeps, and dissolves into self-pity and depression. A High Priestess takes action. Which way will you choose, Zoey Redbird?

"The right way! I want to choose the right way. But I need your help!"

As always, you have it. What I have gifted I never take back. I wish you, my precious u-we-tsi-a-ge-ya, to blessed be ...

And the Goddess sank into the wall of the tunnel, disappearing in a glimmer of dust that glistened like the amethyst crystals that had been her eyes.

I sat there and stared at the wall, thinking about what the Goddess had said. I realized what I felt was mostly embarrassment. Basically, the Great Earth Mother had just told me to quit whining. I wiped my face again. I sucked down the last of my brown pop.

Then I made my decision. Out loud.

"Time to grow up. Time to stop bawling. Time to do something. And that means if I'm not sleeping, my herd of nerds isn't sleeping, either-sun or no sun."

I retraced my path down the tunnel, punching phone numbers as I went.

"What's happenin', Z?" Stevie Rae answered on the third ring and sounded groggy.

"Get dressed, get a green candle, and meet me in the basement," I said, and hung up. Aphrodite was next.

"Someone better be dead," she said as her hello.

"I'm gonna make sure that someone isn't Grandma. Wake Darius up. Meet me in the basement."

"Please tell me I can call Shaunee and Queen Damien and wake them up, too," she said.

"Absolutely. Tell them to bring their circle candles. Oh, and have Shaunee grab Erin's blue candle. You may be standing in for water."

"I have a better idea, but that's nothing new. Anyway, see you soon."

By that time I'd gotten to my room. I didn't hesitate. High Priestesses aren't hesitant babies. They act. So, I acted.

"Stark, wake up." I shook his shoulder.

He blinked, peering up through his cute, messy hair at me. "What's wrong? You okay?"

"What's wrong is we're not sleeping until we have a plan to save Grandma."

He sat up, dislodging Nala from his hip and making her mutter grumpy old lady cat noises at him. "But Kalona went to rescue Grandma."

"Would you trust Kalona to babysit Nala?"

Stark rubbed his eyes. "No, probably not. Why do you want Kalona to babysit Nala?"

"I don't. I'm just proving my point. Here's the deal: I don't want him to be who I trust to rescue my grandma."

"Okay, so what now?"

"Now, we circle." I went to the little table beside our bed and grabbed a lighter and the thick purple pillar candle that sat there, smelling like lavender and my childhood. I breathed deeply. Then I told Stark, "Get dressed and meet me in the basement."

I walked quickly. I didn't want to wait for anyone, not even Stark. I needed some time by myself to focus on spirit-to draw strength from the element that was closest to me. I needed to be brave and strong and smart, and the truth was I wasn't all of those things-or at least I wasn't all of those things at the same time. I remembered that I'd asked Grandma once how she got to be so smart. She'd laughed and told me she surrounded herself with smart people, and she never stopped being willing to listen and learn.

"Okay," I said as I climbed up the metal ladder that led from the tunnels below the depot up to the basement entrance. "I have smart friends. I can listen. And, in theory, I can learn. That's what I'll do."