I took the poem from her, folded it carefully, and put it in the front pocket of my jeans. "Thank you, Kramisha. I hope real soon I'll be able to tell you how much this means to me."

"You will. Like I said, I believe in you, Z. Now it's your turn to believe in yourself."

"Yeah, I know. That's what scares me," I heard myself admitting.

Kramisha pulled me into a warm, tight hug. "Z, if it didn't scare you, then I'd say you had no damn sense at all. Just be strong, and remember-Nyx ain't stupid, and she's the one who picked you for all this stressful shit, and not the other way 'round."

"That actually does make me feel a little better," I told her.

"Well, I ain't Dr. Phil, but I'm smart," she said.

"And your shoes are cuter than his," I said, trying to sound at least semi-normal.

"Yeah, they remind me of Dorothy's ruby slippers, only mine is wedges 'cause I'm more fashion conscious than she was."

Her comment seemed appropriate because I felt like I was following the yellow brick road into some serious flying monkey bullpoopie, which, I suppose, made Aurox Glinda the Good Witch of the West. Me? I was pretty sure I'd be the Cowardly Lion ...

* * *

I thought I was ready to see Erin. I was super wrong. I'd expected her to be distant and cold-she'd been working the cold, distant act for the past several days. I'd even known about her thing with Dallas-Shaylin had told us she'd seen them, and their very muddy, very yucky colors, together the night before. And Shaunee had admitted she'd seen them making out (even though she refused to give us what she called 'the gory details'). Still, I hadn't expected Erin to be so obvious. But there she was, sitting smack up against Dallas in the back of the class with the other hateful red fledglings when we walked into first hour.

"Oh, hell, no," Aphrodite muttered as Erin's sarcastic, oh-my-goddess-I'm-so-sexy laughter bubbled around us sarcastically.

"Don't give her any attention," Shaunee whispered as she walked by us while we all gawked at how far Erin had fallen into the gutter. Okay, all of us gawked except Shaunee. Shaunee didn't even glance at her ex-Twin. She just walked with her head up, like she couldn't hear Erin's immature giggles or feel the nasty looks thrown her way.

"Shaunee's right." I lowered my voice so only my group could hear me. "Erin's like one of those bad kids who wants any kind of attention-positive or negative. Ignore her and the rest of them."

So, we did. I took my seat in the front row with Stevie Rae and Rephaim and Shaunee on one side of me, and Aphrodite, Shaylin, and Damien on the other.

Aurox's unoccupied seat seemed super obvious to me. What's he doing right now? What's going through his mind as he gets ready to confront Neferet and save Grandma? Is he going to chicken out? He's probably not even going to be waiting at the depot when we go back to get him. He'll probably be, like, halfway to Brazil by then ...

Shaylin's voice cut off my internal hyperventilation. "Look over there," She'd leaned forward to whisper to me across Aphrodite. She was nodding slightly to the left of our group at a single kid. Surprised, I recognized that kid as Nicole. She was completely by herself and sitting up toward the front of the class, definitely separated from Dallas and his group.

"Colors?" Aphrodite asked her quietly.

"The red's almost gone," Shaylin answered just loud enough for me to hear. "And the sandstorm brown stuff is turning gold. It's really pretty."

"Huh," I said.

"Weird," Aphrodite said.

"Totally dang weird," Stevie Rae whispered from the other side of me. "And I still don't like her."

I was trying to think of something wise to say when Thanatos entered the room. "Merry meet!" she said.

"Merry meet!" we responded.

Thanatos didn't waste any time, and I was super grateful for that because I was seriously sick of time wasting.

"I cannot ask you to turn in your homework, as I would were this an ordinary school. I am not going to pretend that you haven't lost your leader, Neferet, and that your lives haven't been torn asunder."

Damien tapped quickly on his iPad and lifted it so we could all see: TORN ASUNDER = TORN TO PIECES.

"I want to know who's responsible for the fire at the stables." Erin's question from the back of the room surprised more of the kids than just me. I heard whispers from everywhere. Shaunee's face had gone blank and pale, and even Thanatos took more than an appropriate teacher hesitation before she responded.