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yours doesn’t make its death any less awful.” Erik sounded way more mature than usual. “Wonder who’s on Team Selfish now?”
    I sighed, and was going to agree with Erik when Nicole made an exasperated sound and started walking away from us—following the path Thanatos had just taken.
    “Where do you think you’re goin’?” Stevie Rae called after her.
    Nicole didn’t pause. She didn’t turn around, either, but her voice trailed back to us. “Team Selfish is going to help Thanatos with the dead cat— whosever dead cat it is—because Team Selfish likes animals. They’re nicer than people. The end.”
    “I don’t know what she’s talking about,” Aphrodite said.
    I rolled my eyes at her.
    “This is all some kinda act she’s puttin’ on. That girl can’t be trusted.” Stevie Rae glared after Nicole.
    “Well, I can tell you that Nicole almost succumbed to smoke inhalation helping me free the horses,” Lenobia said.
    “Her color’s changing,” Shaylin whispered.
    “Shhh,” Erik said to her, touching her shoulder.
    “She tried to kill me!” Stevie Rae sounded like she was getting ready to explode.
    “Oh, for shit’s sake, who hasn’t tried to kill you? Or Zoey. Or me for that matter. Get over it,” Aphrodite clipped, and before Stevie Rae could answer back, she raised her hand, palm out and continued, “Save it. Unless you and Stark and the rest of the burn-up-in-daylight-red-fledglings are planning on spending the day here and under cover, we’d better be reloading the short bus and getting back to the depot. Oh, and birdboy is gonna be one hundred percent bird and zero percent boy pretty soon, too, which I’m sure is awkward in public.”
    “I really hate it when she’s right,” Stevie Rae said to me.
    “Tell me about it,” I said. “Okay, why don’t you guys gather up everyone who is supposed to go back to the depot? I’ll find out what’s going on with Thanatos and Death and whatnot, and then meet you at the bus. Soon.”
    “You mean you and I will find out what’s going on with Thanatos and Death and whatnot, and then meet them at the bus. Soon,” Stark corrected me.
    I squeezed his hand. “That’s exactly what I mean.”
    “And I,” Kalona said. “I will follow Thanatos with you as well, though I will not be returning to the depot.” His lips turned up just a little as his gaze shifted from me to his son. “Soon, though. I will see you all again soon.”
    Stevie Rae let loose of Rephaim’s hand long enough to hurl herself into Kalona’s arms, squeezing him in a giant hug, which seemed to surprise him as much as it did the rest of us, though Rephaim looked on with a humongous grin. “Yeah, we’ll see you real soon. Thanks again for showin’ up for your son.”
    Kalona awkwardly patted her back. “You are welcome.”
    Then she had a hold of Rephaim’s hand again and was retracing our path to the parking lot. “’Kay, we’ll wait for y’all, but remember, sure as sugar, the sun’s gonna rise real soon.”
    Aphrodite shook her head and hooked her arm through Darius’s. “What the hell does ‘sure as sugar’ mean, anyway? Do you think she even graduated from the eighth grade?”
    “Just help her get the kids on the bus,” I said.
    Thankfully, the wind had picked up along with the rain, and both swallowed Aphrodite’s reply as she and Darius and the rest of my circle, plus Shaylin and Erik, walked off—in theory doing what I asked of them. Which left me alone with Stark, Lenobia, and Kalona.
    “Ready?” Stark asked me.
    “Yeah, of course,” I lied.
    “The field house it is then,” Lenobia said.
    Following Thanatos and Nicole, I tried to ready myself for something terrible, but my terrible quota had been filled for the night, and all I could do was wipe the rain from my face and put one foot in front of the other. I wasn’t really ready for anything but bed.
    It was warm and dry inside the field house, but it smelled like smoke. The sand under