Page 17 of Lost

And then I heard her. Heardme.My gaze went from Neferet to the severed head that had rolled to land in a bloody pool beneath me, face up. As I stared in horror at it, the eyes opened suddenly and my own voice blasted inside my head.

You have to help Kevin stop her—nothing else matters!

From behind me someone grabbed my shoulder, and I screamed so loud it felt like my voice was tearing…

“Z! It’s just me! It’s okay!”

Still screaming, I sat up, smacking into Stark and almost breaking his nose. Persephone snorted and laid her ears back, as if looking for something to attack.

“Sssh, all is well, sweet mare.” Lenobia was suddenly there too, soothing Persephone while she sent me worried looks.

“Stark?” I glanced frantically around us, my heart beating so hard and fast I could feel it in my temples.I’m in the stall with Persephone. It was just a dream. It wasn’t real.

“Hey, yeah, of course it’s me. What the hell’s going on? I felt your fear like a branding iron. What happened?”

I opened my mouth to tell him about the dream—and I couldn’t. Because I realized I was wrong. It hadn’t beenjust a dream. It was a message. A message I had to, for now, keep to myself.

“Stark!” I let him pull me into his strong, safe arms. “I’m so sorry.” I turned my head so I could see Lenobia. Persephone had stood, and she was pressed against the horse mistress, looking frightened and worried. “Oh, no! I scared Persephone too!” Stark helped me to my feet and I went to the mare, petting and kissing her. “I’m so, so sorry, pretty girl. I’m okay. Everything is okay.”

“No. It’s not. I could feel how terrified you were. What. The. Hell. Happened?” Stark asked.

I attempted a laugh, which came out more as a sob. “This is really embarrassing. It was just a dream.”

“But often your dreams are more than just images from your imagination,” said Lenobia, not unkindly. “Last time a dream woke you, it was Kalona.”

“Only it wasn’treallyKalona,” Stark added. “So what was it?”

I wiped sweat from my face. “You guys, I really am sorry. It wasn’t anything like the Kalona/not-Kalona dream. It was spiders.”

“Spiders?” Lenobia said.

I nodded and shivered. “Spiders.”

Stark sighed and pulled me back into his arms. “She’s terrified of spiders,” he explained to Lenobia.

“In my dream I fell into a pool of them. It was awful,” I lied—feeling pool-of-spiders-awful about it.

“Well, that’s a relief,” said Lenobia. “But, Zoey, if spiders frighten you that much, you really should look into hypnotherapy. One of the High Priestesses at the St. Louis House of Night is a specialist in it. I’m sure she could help you.”

“Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind. I’m usually not bothered by my spider phobia much.”

“But you’ve been stressed and not sleeping,” said Stark. “So, maybe you could use some therapy.”

“Yeah, maybe. If I have another dream like that, definitely.”

Stark kissed my forehead. “Hey, would somepsaghetti madnessmake you feel better? You slept through lunch, so it’s almost dinnertime.”

I didn’t show how shocked I was to find out I’d slept forhoursinstead of twenty minutes or so. Instead I nodded and tried to appear enthusiastic. “Psaghettialwaysmakes me feel better.”

“That’s what I thought,” said Stark, taking my hand. “It’s been a long day for me too. Let’s go eat.”

“Sounds good.” I kissed Persephone one more time and smiled sheepishly at Lenobia as we left the stall. “Sorry about scaring you. I really do feel stupid about that.”

Lenobia was looking at me with her sharp, gray eyes. “You are forgiven,” she said. “And, High Priestess, if you need to talk, please remember I am here for you.”

“Thank you! I’ll remember.” I closed the stall door. Hand in hand, Stark and I left the stables, heading to the dining hall.

I’ll talk about it, but only when I’ve decided exactly what I’m going to do and how I’m going to do it.Truth be told, I already had an idea. I glanced at Stark, knowing he would be my biggest obstacle. He was going to be mad. Real mad.

Ah, hell…