"Well, he's definitely talkin' loud enough for the Goddess to hear," Stevie Rae said, but she smiled at him, too.

Zoey wasn't smiling, though. She'd turned to Kalona. "Can you really catch Grandma? It sounds ridiculous and super scary. I mean, Aurox is going to throw her off the roof of the Mayo."

Kalona spread his wings. They surrounded the group and brushed against the ceiling of the basement. The immortal's wounds had opened during the fight, and blood ran freely down his body. Aurox thought he looked like an avenging god.

"I will catch her and once I have her, Sylvia Redbird will be completely safe."

Zoey nodded. "I'm counting on that. Okay, then, that's our plan."

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Zoey

Waiting until dusk was hell. Keeping my mouth shut when the rest of the depot fledglings woke up slowly and shuffled sleepily around, taking their time, eating cereal and talking about school and homework and other crap that was totally not saving Grandma made my head pound and my stomach clench.

And then, of course, add to everything the fact that Aurox was crouched up in Tower #1, hiding out, waiting until we come back and pick him up right before we start the whole circle-casting-save-Grandma plan because, as Aphrodite said, "We can't let anyone see him. If Neferet gets one tiny word that Bull Boy stuck his face back at the House of Night and we didn't totally f**k him up, well, then paint a giant target on him and call Grandma toast."

So, yeah, I had one humongous headache and I was working on some serious IBS.

"Have a brown pop," Stark said, sliding a chair over next to where I was sitting at one of the kitchen tables.

"Already had one," I said.

"Have another." He leaned into me, kissed my cheek, and whispered, "You're tapping your foot like a crazy person and the other kids are looking at you like you might explode."

"I might." I nuzzled him, using that as an excuse to whisper back.

"Count Chocula, Z?" Stevie Rae asked with exaggerated perkiness.

"Not hungr-" I started, but Aphrodite cut me off.

"She'd love a bowl. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day."

"You never eat breakfast," I said, frowning at her.

Aphrodite raised her half-empty champagne flute and mock toasted me. "I choose to drink my breakfast, and I do that every day. Orange juice is brain food."

"And champagne is brain-cell killer," Shaylin said, through the mouthful of Lucky Charms.

"I like to think of it as a way the Goddess levels the playing field. Consider for a moment how ridiculously much smarter I would be than all of you if I didn't drink heavily."

"I think your logic is flawed," Damien said.

"And I think your hair is flawed. Is that early male pattern balding I see?"

Damien gasped.

I sighed.

"Don't be such a meanie pants," Stevie Rae told Aphrodite, and then she handed me a bowl of cereal.

"Speaking of pants, the waist of those bumpkin nightmare Roper jeans you have on today is so high it couldn't pass a drug test," Aphrodite quipped as she refilled her mimosa.

"I think Stevie Rae looks cute," Shaylin said.

"Of course you do. And tomorrow you'll probably be wearing two different shoes, because that's the kind of refined fashion taste you have."

I tried to eat while my friends bickered and Stark stayed close to me, resting his hand on my thigh and giving it a periodic, comforting squeeze.

My mind would not shut up. Okay, I understood why we had to wait until after sunset to go to the Mayo. Two of my five embodiments of the elements would burst into flames if they went outside in the sunlight. And that's not even counting Stark, who would also turn into a crispy critter. I even got that we had to go to school and our first hour, which was taught by Thanatos. She was going to put us into groups and assign us to different jobs, all focusing around getting the school ready for the open house on Saturday. Conveniently, the jobs that she gave to those of us who were going to rescue Grandma were going to be off campus. So, hopefully, Erin and Dallas and anyone else who might accidentally or on purpose come into contact with Neferet would have no clue what we were up to, or that we even knew Grandma was missing.

What was hard was the waiting, especially since the kids-those who weren't in on our plan-knew nothing about what was up, so they were meandering around and taking forever to get ready to load into the bus.

Aurox was crouched in a tower on the top of this building. Grandma was being held in a cage created by Darkness. It was hard to pretend like nothing was going on. I wanted to pace. I wanted to scream. Hell, I actually might have wanted to hit something. Or someone. Well, Neferet for sure. But I didn't want to burst into tears, and I thought that was a good sign.