I was trying to convince myself that this ritual was going to be a snap. I'd just cast a quick circle, offer up prayers for Professor Nolan, announce that Aphrodite was rejoining the Dark Daughters (which would be obvious after she showed her affinity for earth), and then say that because of the stress that the school has been dealing with I've decided not to Tap any new Prefect Council members till the end of the school year. It really should be an easy ritual, I told my knotted stomach over and over again. Nothing like last month when Stevie Rae died. Nothing that bad could happen tonight. Dressed and as ready as I was going to be, I opened the door to find Aphrodite standing there.

"Take a breath, will ya?" she said, backing out of my way. "Hello! They have to wait for you."

"Aphrodite, has no one ever told you that it's rude to keep people waiting?" I said as I hurried down the hall, practically skipped down the stairs two at a time, and rushed out of the dorm with Aphrodite scrambling to keep up with me. I nodded at Darius, who had taken up his position outside, and he saluted me.

"You know, those warriors really are some totally hot-looking vamps," Aphrodite said, craning her neck around to get a last view of Darius. Then she shot me a curled lip look and said in her stuck-up, rich-girl's voice, "And no, no one has ever told me it's rude to keep people waiting. I was raised to keep people waiting. As far as my mother's concerned, the sun waits for her before it rises and sets." I rolled my eyes.

"So how did Neferet's ritual go?"

"Fabulous. She set a protective curtain around the school. No one gets in or out without her knowing about it. Couldn't be better. Oh, that is, unless you're us."

Even though there was no one around us, Aphrodite lowered her voice. "She's still gulping down the bags of blood?"

"She's barely hanging on. We gotta do something soon."

"I don't know what the hell you think we're gonna do," Aphrodite said. "You're the one with the mega-powers. I'm just along for the ride." She paused and lowered her voice even more. "Plus, I don't know what you expect to do. She's gross and more than a little bit scary."

"She's my best friend," I whispered fiercely.

"No. She used to be your best friend. Now she's a scary undead dead girl who drinks blood like pop."

"She's still my best friend," I repeated stubbornly.

"Fine. Whatever. Then heal her."

"Okay, it's so not that simple."

"How do you know? Have you tried?"

And I stopped totally dead in my tracks. "What did you just say?" Aphrodite raised an eyebrow at me, shrugged, and looked utterly bored. "Something like, have you tried?"

"Holy crap! Could it be that easy? I mean, I've been spending all this time looking for a spell or a ritual or a ... a ... something specific and amazing and totally magical, and maybe all I needed to do is just ask Nyx to heal her." And as I stood there basking in my ohmygod moment, I heard Nyx's voice echo through my mind, repeating what the goddess had told me a month ago right before I used my elemental powers to break the blocks Neferet had put in my memory: I wish to remind you that the elements can restore as well as destroy.

"Holy crap? You said holy crap? You know, that's another almost cuss. I'm starting to worry about your terrible potty mouth."

Feeling suddenly so utterly happy and hopeful that not even Aphrodite could piss me off, I laughed. "Come on! Worry about my mouth later." I took off again, almost jogging down the sidewalk. There was another of the warriors standing outside the rec hall, a huge black vamp who looked like he should have been a professional wrestler. Aphrodite made a little purring sound at him, and he gave her a sexy, yet somehow still warrior-like smile. She hung back to do more flirting.

"Don't be late!" I hissed back at her.

"Relax your panties. I'll be in there in a sec." She waved me off and shot me a look that reminded me it was better if she and I weren't seen hanging out together. I gave her a tight little nod and went on in.

"Z! There you are." Jack came scampering over to me with Damien close behind him.

"Sorry. I hurried as fast as I could," I said.

Damien smiled. "Not a problem. Everything's ready for you." His smile faded a little. "Well, except Aphrodite. She's nowhere to be seen."

"I've seen her. She's coming. Go ahead and take your place." Damien nodded. He went back to the circle and Jack moved over to the audio equipment area (the kid is a genius with any kind of electronic equipment).

"Whenever you're ready, just let me know," he called.

I smiled at him, then looked back at the circle. The Twins waved at me from their places in the south and west. Erik was standing near the empty spot behind the earth candle. He caught my eyes and winked at me. I smiled back, but wondered why he was standing so close to where he knew Aphrodite was going to be. Speaking of... Annoyed that she had managed to make me wait for her, I glanced at the door in time to see Aphrodite twitch into the room. I watched her hesitate, and thought her face went kinda pale as she looked over at the circle of waiting Dark Daughters and Sons. Then she lifted her chin and tossed back her blond mane, and ignoring everyone, she strutted straight over to the northernmost part of the circle to stand behind the green candle. As kids caught sight of her, the easy talking was cut off like someone had pressed a mute button. No one said anything for a couple seconds, and then low whispering started. Aphrodite just stood there behind the candle, looking calm and beautiful and very stuck-up.

"Better get this thing started before you have a mutiny."

This time I didn't jump at the sound of Loren's deep, sexy voice coming from close behind me. I did turn around, though, mostly so that people (Erik) couldn't see what I'm sure was an inappropriate-for-public-consumption look on my face as I smiled up at him.

"I'm as ready as I'll ever be," I said.

"And she's supposed to be here?" Loren jerked his chin in the direction of Aphrodite.

"Sadly, yes," I said.

"This should be interesting."

"That's me and my life-interesting. As in a isn't-that-car-wreck-interesting kind of a way." Loren laughed. "Break a leg."

"To me that would happen literally." I sighed, settled my face, and turned back around to face the circle. "I'm ready," I said.

"I'll cue the music. You start your dance to the center as I recite the poem," Loren said. I nodded and concentrated on my breathing and settling myself. When the music started, the whispering circle went completely still. All eyes were on me. I didn't recognize the song, but the beat was steady, rhythmic, sonorous, reminding me of a pulse. My body automatically picked it up and I began to move around the outside of the circle.

Loren's voice complemented the music perfectly.

"I have been one acquainted with the night.

I have walked out in rain-and back in rain..."

The words of the old poem set the mood perfectly, somehow conjuring images of the otherworldliness that I'd begun to be comfortable with during my solitary trips away from campus.

"I have looked down the saddest city lane.

I have passed by the watchman on his heat

And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain. "

I could almost feel the darkness of last night and how it seemed to seep into my skin. And I knew again the sense that I belonged more to it than to the human world that surrounded me. As I moved into the circle, I shivered and heard Damien's small gasp of surprise, and I knew that mist and magic had taken over my body.

"And further still at an unearthly height,A luminary clock against the sky Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.

I have been one acquainted with the night."

Loren's voice faded away and I twirled around one last time, willing away the sense of mist and magic, so that I was now fully visible. Still filled with night magic, I picked up the ritual lighter from the riches-laden table in the center of the circle and realized that maybe for the first time I felt like a true High Priestess of Nyx, drenched in the Goddess's magic and complete with her power. All the stress I'd been dealing with was washed away by a wave of happiness. I walked lightly over to stand in front of Damien. He smiled and whispered, "That was really cool!"

I smiled back at him and lifted the lighter. The words that came instinctively to my mind had to have come from Nyx. I'd definitely never been so poetic. "Soft and whispering winds from afar, greetings be unto thee. In the name of Nyx I call you to blow clear and fresh and free, and call you here to me!" I touched the flame to the wick on Damien's yellow candle and was instantly surrounded by a sweet, caressing wind. I hurried to Shaunee and her red candle. Deciding to go with the special sense of priestess magic I was feeling, I began the invocation without lifting the lighter. "Warming and quickening fire from afar, with the warmth that brings forth life, and in the name of Nyx, I send greetings unto thee, and call you here to me!" I flicked my fingers at the candlewick, and it burst into a beautiful flame. Shaunee and I grinned at each other before I followed the circle around to Erin.

"Cool waters of lake and of stream from afar, I offer greetings to thee. Flow clear and pure and swift in magical presence here. In the name of Nyx manifest so that we shall see, as I call you here to me!" I touched the lighter to Erin's blue candle and loved how the kids standing closest to her gasped and laughed as water that was visible, but that didn't actually touch them, lapped all around Erin's feet.

"Easy-peasy," Erin whispered.

I grinned and moved clockwise to stand in front of Aphrodite and her green candle. The gentle laughter and happy whispering that had been traveling through the group with me quieted. Aphrodite's face was an emotionless mask. It was only in her eyes that I could see her nervous fear, and I wondered for a second how long she'd been hiding her emotions. Knowing her nightmare parents, I figured it had been a long time.

"It's going to be okay," I whispered almost without moving my lips at all.

"I may puke," she whispered back.

"Nah!" I grinned. And then lifted my voice and spoke the beautiful words that were floating through my mind.

"Lands afar and wild places of the earth, greetings I say unto thee. Awaken from your mossy sleep to bring forth bounty and beauty and stability. In Nyx's name I call earth here to me!" I lit Aphrodite's candle and the fresh, rich scent of a newly mown hay field completely filled the rec hall. The sound of chirping birds surrounded us. Lilacs made the air so sweet that it was like we'd been spritzed with the lightest and most perfect perfume ever. I met Aphrodite's shining eyes, and then turned to glance around the rest of the circle. Everyone was staring at Aphrodite, shocked into absolute silence.

"Yes," I said simply, cutting through all the questions I knew were milling around in their heads, and (hopefully) putting an end to their doubts. They might not like her-they might not trust her-but they had to accept the fact that Nyx had blessed her. "Aphrodite has been blessed with an affinity for the element earth." Then I went to the center of the circle and picked up my purple candle. "Spirit filled with magic and night, whispering soul of the Goddess, friend and stranger, mystery and knowledge, in Nyx's name I call thee here to me!" My candle lit, and I stood very still while the familiar cacophony of all five elements filled me, body and soul.

It was so amazing I almost forgot to breathe.

When I settled myself again, I lit the braided rope of dried eucalyptus and sage, and then blew them out, breathing deeply of the herbs and concentrating on the properties my grandmother's people had prized them for-eucalyptus for healing, protection, and purification, and white sage for its ability to drive out negative spirits, energies, and influences. With the spicy smoke swirling around me, I faced outward and began speaking, as conscious of all the eyes on me as I was of the glistening silver thread that so visibly tied together my circle. "Merry meet!" I cried, and the group responded with, "Merry meet!" I could feel my tension start to relax as I addressed them. "You all know by now that yesterday Professor Nolan was killed. It was as horrible and true as the rumors have made it out to be. Right now I'd like to ask you to join me in asking Nyx to soothe her spirit and also to soothe us." I paused and found Erik. "I haven't been here very long, but I know a lot of you were really close to Professor Nolan." Erik tried to smile, but his obvious sadness wouldn't let his lips turn up, and he blinked hard to keep the tears that were making his blue eyes sparkly and liquid from falling down his cheeks. "She was a good teacher, and a nice person. We're going to miss her. Let's send her spirit a final blessed be." The kids responded automatically with a heartfelt shout of "Blessed be!" I paused to let them get quiet again, and then I continued. "I know I was supposed to announce who has been chosen to be Tapped for the Prefect Council, but because of everything that has happened in the past month I've decided to wait until the end of this school year, and then the Council and I will get together and have several names to pass along to you for your vote. Until then I have decided to automatically add one more fledgling to our Council." I was careful to speak matter-of-factly, as if I wasn't saying anything that most of them would think was a completely insane idea. "As you've already seen, Aphrodite has been given an affinity for earth. Like Stevie Rae, that gives her a position on our Council. Also like Stevie Rae, she has agreed to abide by my new rules for the Dark Daughters." I turned then so that I could meet Aphrodite's eyes, and was relieved when she gave me a tight, nervous smile, and then nodded her head once. Then, not giving them time to start to babble among themselves, I took the goblet of sweet red wine from Nyx's table and began the official invocation of the Full Moon Prayer.

"Again this month we find that with the full moon we have to face many new beginnings. Last month it was a new order of the Dark Daughters and Sons. This month it is a new member of the Prefect Council, and the sadness of a professor's death. I've only been your leader for one month, but already I know that I-" I paused and then corrected myself. "I mean that we can trust Nyx to love us and be with us, even when really awful things happen." I lifted the goblet and worked my way around the circle, reciting the beautiful old poem I'd memorized the month before.

"Airy light of the moon

Mystery of the deep earth

Power of the flowing water

Warmth of the burning flame

In Nyx's name we call to thee!"

I offered each fledgling a taste of wine, nodding as they smiled at me. I concentrated on trying to look like someone they could count on-someone they could trust.

"Healing of ills

Righting of wrongs

Cleansing of impurity

Desiring of truths

In Nyx's name we call to thee!"

I was glad that they all murmured "blessed be" after they drank, and that they didn't look particularly mutinous.

"Sight of the cat

Hearing of the dolphin

Speed of the snake

Mystery of the phoenix

In Nyx's name we call to thee

and ask that with us you will blessed be!"

I offered Aphrodite the last drink before me, and almost didn't hear her whispered, "Good job, Zoey," before she sipped from the goblet and handed it back to me, saying the standard "Blessed be" loud enough for everyone else to hear.

Feeling relieved and pretty darn proud of myself, I drank the last of the wine and put the goblet back on the table. In reverse order, I thanked each element and sent them away in turn, as Aphrodite, Erin, Shaunee, and Damien blew out their candles. Then I completed the ritual by saying, "This Full Moon Rite is ended. Merry meet and merry part and merry meet again!"

The fledglings echoed, "Merry meet and merry part and merry meet again!" I remember that I was grinning like a clueless moron when Erik cried out in pain and fell to his knees.