"Well, Priestess, shall we?" Darius said.

I nodded and let him lift me into his arms. Darius took one step out into the frigid, stormy night, and then everything blurred around us as he moved kinda diagonally across the rear grounds to a part of the big wall surrounding the school that had an even bigger oak lying across it. Somehow in one of Tulsa's last winter disasters, the tree had succumbed and fallen down. Kinda. Word had it (from Aphrodite) that under normal circumstances it was an excellent place to sneak off campus undetected, and I knew from personal experience that she'd been right.

Today we were not dealing with normal circumstances.

Darius came to a halt way too fast beside the fallen tree, shoved me under it, and whispered, "Stay there until I'm sure it is safe." And off he went.

So I crouched under the tree and thought about how wet and cold it was and how annoying guys were. Then I heard the nasty wing-flapping sound, and I decided to uncrouch--quickly.

I emerged from under the side of the tree just in time to see Darius grabbing a Raven Mocker by his wing, jerking him to the ground, and then slitting his throat.

I looked away fast.

"Zoey, come on. We have no time."

Trying to ignore the corpse of the Raven Mocker, I hurried to the half-toppled tree. I placed my hand on it and closed my eyes. Centering myself, I searched for my internal north--the site of earth--and then invoked, "Earth, I need you. Please come to me." In the midst of an ice storm, in the dead of winter, I was suddenly, miraculously, surrounded by the scents of a spring meadow...ripe wheat...a mimosa tree in full bloom. I bowed my head gratefully and continued. "What I need you to do is hard, and I wouldn't ask it of you unless it was an emergency." I drew a deep breath, and focused on the ice-slicked bark beneath my palm. "Fall," I commanded. "Forgive me, but I have to ask you to fall." The skin of the tree shuddered under my hand, so violently that I fell backward, and with a crack that I swear I could hear a dying scream within, the old oak fell, crashing against the already weakened wall, sending blocks of stone and bricks tumbling down, and creating a break in the barrier that surrounded the school, a break it would seem logical for us to try to escape through.

I was breathing heavily and feeling more than a little shaky, but I automatically sent spirit to let Lenobia know I was successful. Then I picked myself up, staggered to the fallen tree, and put both hands on its bark. "Thank you, earth." Then a sudden thought had me adding, "Go to Stevie Rae. Tell her we're coming. Tell her to be ready." I felt the usual listening sense I got when I commanded an element to do something. "Go now, earth. Thank you again for helping me, and I'm really sorry I had to hurt the tree."

"We must return to the stables." Darius strode over to me and lifted me in his arms. "You did well, Priestess," he said. I put my head down on his friendly shoulder, and only knew I was crying because I could see the wet streaks on his jacket. "Let's get out of here."

Chapter Thirty-two

The three bridled horses were waiting for us. Erin and Shaunee were already mounted on Destiny. Shaunee was "driving." She'd taken English Hunter/Jumper classes at her private prep school before she was Marked, and so she'd proclaimed herself "an almost mediocre rider." Aphrodite and Damien stood near Persephone and Hope. Damien looked like he might be sick at any instant.

"I felt spirit's touch and am assuming all went well," Lenobia said as she breezed by us and began rechecking the horses' tack.

"The wall has been broken, but I was forced to kill a Raven Mocker. I'm quite sure he'll be discovered soon," Darius said.

"Actually, that's good. It will just give more credence to the thought that the fallen wall is how you'll try to escape," Lenobia said. She glanced at her watch. "Time to mount up. Shaunee, are you ready?"

"I was born ready," Shaunee said.

"All right, how about you, Erin?"

Erin nodded. "Ditto. I'm ready."

"Damien?"

He answered Lenobia, but he spoke to me, "I'm scared."

I hurried to his side and took his hand. "I'm scared, too. But it's a lot less scary if I remember we're together."

"Even if we're together on a horse?"

I smiled. "Even if. Plus, Persephone is a perfect lady." I took Damien's hand and pressed it against the graceful curve of my mare's neck.

"Oooh, she's soft and warm," he said.

"Here, I'll give you a knee up," Lenobia said, bending beside us and offering Damien the cradle her hands were making.