“Stop looking at them,” Aphrodite whispered as Thanatos passed out copies of The Fledgling Handbook to all of us. “They want attention. Don’t give it to them.”

“I wish I knew if Dallas had been caught,” I whispered back.

“He will be. He’s not smart enough to get away from Kalona,” she said.

“I would like to discuss the second of the Major Rituals described in this chapter of your Handbook, Cleopatra’s Protective Ritual.” Thanatos’s commanding voice called our attention to the front of the class. She pointed to the Smartboard and the pictures of the decorative daggers. “Who can tell me what these are called when they are used only for rituals and spellwork?”

Damien’s hand shot into the air.

“Damien?”

“Athame,” he said.

“I knew that,” Aphrodite whispered.

“Correct. Thank you, Damien,” Thanatos said. “You will note that in the purest and most ancient form of Protective Ritual, fire is traditionally the element invoked.” She bowed her head briefly and smiled at Shaunee, who nodded enthusiastically back at her. “As we are fortunate enough to have a fledgling at this school whose affinity is fire, perhaps she can tell us what it is that is utmost in importance in a traditional Ritual of Protection.”

“Oh, that’s easy! It’s the High Priestess who casts the ritual that’s most important. Even though fire is an awesome protection, it’s only as strong as the Priestess who sets the spell,” Shaunee said.

I was super glad she’d answered because all I could remember about the Protective Ritual was that Cleopatra cast it and then messed up because she got all infatuated with Mark Antony and in the end he died and her element turned into a burning snake and ate her. Eesh.

“Absolutely correct, Shaunee. Thank you. So, students, the lesson we need to learn from the Protective Ritual isn’t about protection at all. It is about focus and integrity and purpose,” Thanatos said. “Events at this school have had me considering the lesson of the Protective Ritual carefully. As I meditated on this lesson it came to me that in the ancient world, vampyres tended to be more gifted than today’s vampyres.” Thanatos paused and looked at me. “Though recently the trend toward less gifts and less power in young vampyres seems to be shifting.” I didn’t know what she was getting at, but she definitely had my interest. “Consider, for a moment, the ramifications of such a shift. In ancient times, highly gifted vampyres, such as Cleopatra, were held accountable for their choices and their actions by the power they wielded. As you can read in the Handbook, and as reported by our historians, Cleopatra misused her Goddess-given gift. She stopped listening to her people. She took her affinity for granted. She thought only of her own needs and desires. Ultimately, her element, fire, consumed her.”

I tried not to fidget. Was Thanatos trying to tell me that I was messing up? I mean, I knew I’d been kinda short with people lately—and the whole Aurox/Heath thing was confusing and frustrating—but was she saying that I needed a five-element smackdown?

Hell! I hoped that wasn’t it! I’d been doing my best. Yeah, I’d been frustrated and annoyed, but at least I hadn’t been whining too much. Lately.

Aphrodite’s hand went up, surprising me and shutting off my inner babble.

“Yes, Aphrodite, you have a question?” Thanatos called on her.

“Yeah, I was thinking about what you said—how vampyre gifts were stronger and more frequent in ancient times—and how that looks like it’s changing, and I wondered if you have any idea why the power shift is happening.”

“That’s a good question, Aphrodite. I wish I had a definitive answer for you. I can tell you that I believe the shift has to do with a major change in the balance of Darkness and Light.”

“Maybe Nyx is giving us gifts so that we can fight back and balance things again,” Shaunee said.

“Perhaps,” Thanatos nodded.

“Could it have something to do with Old Magick?” Aurox asked.

We all gawked at him.

“What makes you ask that?” Thanatos said.

He shrugged and looked uncomfortable. “The bulls. Are they not a manifestation of Old Magick?”

“They are,” she said.

“Zoey’s Seer Stone is Old Magick, too. Isn’t it?” Aphrodite said.

I frowned at her.

“That is true as well,” Thanatos said.

“Okay, but does any of us know what Old Magick really is?” I said, irritated at the whole subject.

“Old Magick has not manifested outside the Isle of Skye for longer than I have been Marked,” Thanatos began slowly, as if she were remembering and reasoning aloud at the same time. “From what I know of it, the best description I can give you is that it is energy at its most basic level—raw, powerful, and neutral. Old Magick is creation and destruction at once.”

“Which is probably why ancient spells, like Cleopatra’s Protection Ritual, were so dependent upon the Priestess who cast the spell,” Damien said. “It could be that the five Major Rituals all had roots in Old Magick.”

“That does seem logical,” Thanatos said.

“It still doesn’t explain exactly what it is or why it’s become active again,” Aphrodite said. “But I’d say it’s definitely active again. Wouldn’t you, Z?”

Thankfully, the sound of the classroom door banging open and Kalona striding down the center aisle interrupted her.

The winged immortal bowed respectfully to Thanatos. “High Priestess, I have returned with your prisoner.”

“You have done well,” she said, and then faced the class. “I want you all to assemble at the center of campus near the pyre site immediately. Class is dismissed.”

As we filed out of class, I watched Thanatos speaking quietly to Kalona. I saw the immortal’s eyes widen, and then he nodded, and bowed to her again—this time unusually low, holding the pose longer than normal. While he was still bowing, Thanatos went to her desk, picked up the phone, and punched a button. Her voice echoed from the school’s intercom system. “All students and faculty will assemble at the center of campus at the pyre site! Professors who are members of our Council will report to the Council Chamber immediately. All classes are suspended until after our assembly.” Then she clicked off and hurried out through the back door to the classroom, with Kalona on her heels.

I had a bad feeling. “I wonder what the hell’s going on?”

“Don’t have a clue,” Aphrodite said. “But whatever it is, it’s going to happen in front of everyone and it gets us out of at least one class, so how bad could it be?”

We went right to the pyre site and formed a big circle around the black burned area that had definitely seen too much use lately. I looked for Stark, but didn’t see him or Kalona. Darius met us, taking Aphrodite’s hand and saying he didn’t know what was going on, either. Just when everyone was starting to get restless and the talking was heading toward the I-have-to-yell-to-be-heard level, the people at the opposite side of the group I was in shifted and then parted.

Thanatos stepped into view first. She’d changed her clothes to a long black velvet dress that was decorated only with the emblem of Nyx in silver thread, hands upraised cupping a crescent moon. Thanatos had let her hair down, and it fell long and dark, in a thick veil around her waist. Within its depths I could see silver glinting, which reminded me of the thread used to embroider Nyx’s emblem. Her face was grim. I thought she looked scary but beautiful—ancient yet timeless.

Then my attention was pulled from her as Kalona and Stark came into view. Dallas limped between them. He looked like crap. His hands were tied in front of him. His face was a bloody, scratched-up mess. His clothes were wet and filthy. Buried to its feathers, one of Stark’s arrows was stuck through his right thigh. Kalona and Stark looked as serious and powerful as Thanatos as they pulled Dallas into the center of our assembly. They didn’t stop until he was standing right in the middle of the blackened pyre site.

Dallas didn’t look grim or powerful. He looked pissed. I saw when his eyes found Shaunee. He sneered at her and hacked up a nasty loogie, then spit it into the ashes at his feet.

“Professors of the Tulsa House of Night Council, come forth!” Thanatos commanded.

Lenobia, Penthesilea, Garmy, and Erik stepped from the crowd to stand to one side of Thanatos. I was thinking that the Council looked sparse with the absence of Dragon and Anastasia Lankford and Professor Nolan, when Thanatos continued, “I also command our two Prophetesses, come forth!”

“Oh, for shit’s sake,” Aphrodite grumbled, but she let go of Darius’s hand and went to join Thanatos. Shaylin took longer to make her way forward, but when she joined Thanatos, the High Priestess nodded and motioned for her to stand beside Aphrodite.

“Our school has been richly gifted with two additional High Priestesses. Sadly, one of them, the first red High Priestess, Stevie Rae, is unable to take her place beside me today because she has been gravely wounded.” I was just realizing she’d said two when Thanatos’s dark gaze found me. “But I do call our second High Priestess to join me. Zoey Redbird, come forth!”