Текст книги "Awakened"

Автор книги: P. C. Cast

Соавторы: Kristin Cast,P. C. Cast
сообщить о нарушении

Текущая страница: 12 (всего у книги 16 страниц)

“Thank you.” I tried to tell him with my eyes how much I loved and appreciated his loyalty and his trust.

He smiled and moved off with the rest of the group. Well, except for Aphrodite. And Darius, who hovered about like her shadow.

“What?” I said.

“Like we can leave you alone?” Aphrodite rolled her eyes. “Seriously. How clueless are you? Neferet managed to cut off Jack’s head without actually being there. Darius and I aren’t leaving you alone to comfort Erik the Douche.”

I looked at Darius, but he shook his head and said, “Sorry, Zoey, Aphrodite has a point.”

“Could you at least stay back here out of earshot?” I asked in exasperation.

“Like we want to hear Erik’s crybaby crap? No problem. Just hurry up. No one needs to be kept waiting for a douche bag,” Aphrodite said.

I didn’t even bother to sigh as I walked away from them, making a path to Erik. Okay, seriously. The guy didn’t even know I was there. I was standing in front of him. His face was in his hands and he was crying. Really crying. Knowing what an excellent actor he was, I cleared my throat and got ready to be semi-sarcastic, or at the very least passive-aggressive.

When he looked up at me everything changed. His eyes were puffy and red. Tears soaked his cheeks. Snot even ran out of his nose. He blinked a couple of times, like he was having a hard time focusing on me. “Oh, uh, Zoey,” he said, and made an effort at pulling himself together. He sat up straighter, and wiped his snotty nose on the back of his sleeve. “Um, hey. You’re back.”

“Yeah, I landed a little while ago. I’m going to light Jack’s pyre. Wanna come with me?”

A sob erupted from deep within him. Erik bowed his head and began to weep.

It was totally awful.

I so didn’t know what to do.

And I swear I heard Aphrodite snorting off in the distance.

“Hey.” I sat next to him and awkwardly patted his shoulder. “I know it’s terrible. You guys were really good friends.”

Erik nodded his head. I could see he was making an effort to get himself under control, so I sat there and babbled while he sniffed and wiped his face on his sleeve (eesh).

“It really sucks. Jack was too darn nice and sweet and young and everything to have something like this happen to him. We’re all gonna miss him so much.”

“Neferet did this.” He spoke quietly, and I saw him glancing around like he was scared of being overheard. “I don’t know how. I don’t fucking even know why, but she did it.”

“Yeah,” I said.

Our eyes met.

“Are you going to do something about it?” he said.

My gaze didn’t falter one little bit. “Absolutely everything in my power.”

He almost smiled. “Well, that’s good enough for me.” He wiped his face again and ran a hand through his hair. “I was leaving.”

“Huh?” I said brilliantly.

“Yeah, going. Leaving the Tulsa House of Night for L.A. They want me there—in Hollywood. I was supposed to be the next Brad Pitt.”

“Was?” I asked, totally confused. “What’s stopping you?”

Slowly, Erik raised his right hand and held it, palm out, toward me. I blinked several times, not really understanding what I was seeing.

“Yeah, it’s what you think,” he said.

“It’s Nyx’s Labyrinth.” Of course I recognized the raised sapphire-colored tattoo that filled his palm, but it was like my mind was having a hard time catching up with my eyes, and I wasn’t getting it until Aphrodite’s voice came from behind me. “Oh, for shit’s sake! Erik’s a Tracker.”

Erik’s eyes shifted from me to Aphrodite. “Happy now? Go ahead and laugh. You know this means I can’t leave the Tulsa House of Night for four years—that I have to stay here and follow a damn essence and be the asshole who is there when every kid for the next four years is Marked and finds out he might or might not die, but for sure has to change his life forever.”

There was a moment of silence and then Aphrodite said, “Is that what’s bothering you? That you’re the new Tracker and it’s a tough job, or is what’s really bothering you that you have to put off Hollywood for four years and in that time there’s sure to be ‘the next Brad Pitt’?”

I whirled around and faced her. “He was Jack’s roommate! Do you remember what it’s like to lose a roommate?” I saw her expression shift and soften, but I just shook my head. “No. You and Darius go on. I’ll follow you.” When Aphrodite still hesitated I spoke directly to her Warrior. “As your High Priestess I’m commanding you. I want to be alone with Erik. Take Aphrodite and meet me at Jack’s pyre.”

Darius didn’t hesitate for another second. He bowed solemnly to me, then he took Aphrodite by the elbow and literally pulled her away. I sighed deeply and sat down next to Erik on the bench.

“Sorry about that. Aphrodite means well, but like Stevie Rae would say, she’s not very nice sometimes.”

Erik snorted. “You don’t need to tell me that. She and I dated, remember?”

“I remember,” I said quietly. Then added, “You and I dated, too.”

“Yeah,” he said. “I thought I loved you.”

“I thought I loved you, too.”

He looked at me. “Were we wrong?”

I looked back at him. Really looked back at him. Goddess, he was hot in a seriously Superman/Clark Kent kind of way. Tall and dark and blue eyed and muscly. But there was more to him than that. Yeah, he was controlling and arrogant, but somewhere inside him I knew there was a really, really good guy. I just wasn’t the right girl for that guy.

“Yeah, we were wrong, but that’s okay. Recently I’ve been reminded that it’s okay not to be perfect, especially if you learn from your mess-ups. So how about we learn from ours? I think we could make better friends anyway.”

His gorgeous lips turned up. “I think you might be right.”

“Plus,” I added, bumping him with my shoulder, “I don’t have enough pretty straight guys as my friends.”

“I’m a pretty straight guy. I mean, a really straight guy who is also, as you say, pretty.”

“Yep, you are,” I said. Then I held out my hand. “Friends?”

“Friends.” Erik took my hand in his and then, with a rakish smile, he dropped gracefully from the bench to one knee. “My lady, let’s always be friends.”

“Okie dokie,” I said, kinda breathlessly, ’cause, well, no matter how much I loved Stark, Erik was seriously hot and a super good actor.

He bowed and kissed my hand. Not in a creepy I’m-trying-to-get-into-your-pants way, but in a real old-school-gentleman way. Still on his knee, he looked up at me and said, “You have to say something tonight that gives us hope and helps Damien, because right now lots of us are just floating out there wondering what the fuck—and Damien is seriously not doing well.”

My heart clenched. “I know.”

“Good. No matter what else, I believe in you, Zoey.”

I sighed. Again.

He smiled and stood up, pulling me up with him. “So please let me escort you to this funeral.”

I took Erik’s arm and stepped into a future I couldn’t have begun to imagine.

* * *

It was an awesome, sad, incredible sight. Unlike the last time a funeral pyre had burned for a vampyre at the House of Night, the entire school was there. Fledglings and vampyres made a huge circle around a benchlike structure that had been built in the very center of the school grounds. I could still see the charred grass that bore witness to the fact that not long ago Anastasia Lankford’s body had been consumed by the Goddess’s fire in that very same place. Only the school hadn’t come out to witness and show respect for her then. Too many of them had been under the control of Kalona—or just downright scared. Tonight was different. Kalona’s control had been broken and Jack was getting a Warrior’s sendoff.

My eyes found Dragon Lankford even before I looked at the funeral pyre. He was standing behind Jack in the shadow of the closest oak tree. But the shadows didn’t cloak his pain. I could see tears falling silently down his chiseled face. Goddess help Dragon, was my first prayer of the night. He’s such a good man. Help him find peace.

Then I looked at Jack.

What I saw made me gasp and smile through my tears. As was traditional for vampyre funerals, he’d been wrapped, head to toe, in the traditional vampyre shroud, but Jack’s covering was purple. Super shiny. Super brilliant. Super purple.

“She actually did it.” Erik’s choked voice came from beside me. “I knew purple was his favorite color, so I went to The Dolphin at Utica Square and bought purple sheets. Lots of them. Then I told Sapphire over in the infirmary to wrap Jack in them, even though I didn’t think she really would.”

I turned to Erik, went up on my tiptoes, and kissed his cheek. “Thank you. Jack would absolutely love that you did that. You were a good friend to him, Erik.”

He nodded and smiled but didn’t say anything, and I saw that he was crying again. Before I could join him and bawl so hard I couldn’t possibly be mistaken for anyone’s High Priestess, I looked away from him and my eyes found Damien. He was on his knees at the head of Jack’s pyre. Duchess was sitting beside him and his chubby cat, Cammy, was curled up mournfully between his knees. Stark was standing next to Duchess and I could see that he was petting her and murmuring to the dog and Damien at the same time. Stevie Rae was next to Stark, looking super miserable and bawling steadily. Aphrodite stood at Damien’s other side, with Darius right behind her. The Twins were to her left. And from each side of my group of best friends, the entire school stretched in a quiet, respectful circle around the pyre. Many of the fledglings and vampyres, including Lenobia and most of the other professors, were holding purple candles. It didn’t seem like anyone except Stark was talking, but I could hear lots of sobbing.

Neferet was nowhere to be seen.

“You can do it,” Erik whispered.

“How?” I barely spoke the word.

“Like you always do—with Nyx’s help,” he said.

“Please, Nyx, help me. I can’t do this on my own,” I whispered aloud. And then Professor Missal was there, ushering me forward. So, moving with what I hoped were the confident strides of a grown-up real High Priestess, I walked directly to Damien.

Stark saw me first. When his eyes met mine I didn’t see any hint of jealousy or anger, even though I knew Erik was walking right behind me. My Warrior, my Guardian, my lover, stepped aside and bowed formally to me.

“Merry meet, High Priestess.” His voice rang over the school grounds. Everyone turned to me and it seemed, as one, the House of Night bowed, acknowledging me as their High Priestess.

It gave me a feeling like I’d never had before. Professors, vampyres hundreds of years old, and the youngest of fledglings were all looking to me—believing in me, trusting in me. It was as terrifying as it was awesome.

Do not ever forget this feeling, the Goddess’s voice sang through my mind. A true High Priestess is humble as well as proud, and never forgets the responsibility that being a leader entails.

I stopped before Damien and bowed to him, fist closed over my heart. “Merry meet, Damien.” Then, not caring that I was deviating from the vampyre funeral etiquette text that I’d read on the plane, I took Damien’s hands and tugged, so that he stood up. I wrapped my arms around him and repeated, “Merry meet, Damien.”

He sobbed once. His body felt stiff and he moved slowly, like he was afraid he might break into a zillion pieces, but he hugged me back really hard. Before I stepped away from him I closed my eyes, centered myself, and whispered, “Air, come to your Damien. Fill him with lightness and hope, and help him get through this night.” Air responded instantly. It lifted my hair and wrapped around Damien and me. I heard him suck in a breath, and when he exhaled, some of the terrible tightness went out of his body. I stepped back and met his sad eyes. “I love you, Damien.”

“I love you, too, Zoey. Go ahead.” He nodded toward Jack’s purple-shrouded body. “Do what you have to do. I know Jack’s not really there anyway.” He paused and choked back a sob and then added, “He’d be glad it’s you, though.”

Instead of bursting into tears and falling to the ground in a soggy puddle like I wanted to, I turned to face the pyre and the House of Night. I drew two deep breaths, let them out, and with the third I whispered, “Spirit, come to me. Make my voice loud enough for everyone to hear.” The element with which I have the closest affinity filled me and strengthened me. When I began speaking my voice was like a beacon from the Goddess, and it echoed with sound and spirit over the school grounds.

“Jack isn’t here. In our minds we all understand that. Damien just said it to me, but tonight I want you all to know it.” I could feel everyone’s eyes on me, and I spoke slowly and distinctly the words that were Goddess-touched as they came to my mind. “I’ve been to the Otherworld and I can promise you that it is as beautiful and amazing and real as your hearts want to believe. Jack is there. He doesn’t feel any pain. He’s not sad or worried or scared. He’s with Nyx in her meadows and groves.” I paused and smiled through the brightness of tears. “He’s probably frolicking gaily in those meadows and groves.” I heard Damien’s surprised giggle echoed by a few of the fledglings. “He’s meeting familiar friends, like my Heath, and probably decorating like crazy.” Aphrodite snorted a laugh and Erik chuckled. “We can’t be with him right now.” I looked at Damien. “It’s hard. I know it’s hard. But we can be sure that we’ll see him again—in this life or the next. And when we do, no matter who we are or where we are, I promise you that one thing about our spirit, our essence, will stay the same: love. Our love lives on and will last forever. And that’s a promise that I know comes straight from the Goddess.”

Stark handed me a long wooden staff that had something sticky wrapped around the other end of it. I took it, but before I walked to the pyre my eyes found Shaunee.

“Will you help me?” I asked her.

She wiped away her tears, faced south, lifted her arms, and in a voice magnified by love and loss, she called, “Fire! Come to me!” The hands she held up over her head glowed as, with me, Shaunee walked to the head of the giant pile of timber on which Jack’s body lay.

“Jack Swift, you were a sweet, special boy. I’ll always love you like a brother and a friend. Until next time I see you, merry meet, merry part, and merry meet again.” When I touched the end of my torch to the pyre, Shaunee flung her element into it, instantly setting it to light with an otherworldly glow that shimmered yellow and purple.

I’d turned to Shaunee and was opening my mouth to thank her and her element when Neferet’s voice pierced the night.

“Zoey Redbird! Fledgling High Priestess! I ask that you stand witness!”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Zoey

I didn’t have to look hard to find her. Neferet was standing on the steps of Nyx’s Temple, off to my left. As everyone turned to whisper and stare at her, I felt Stark move to my side, so that it would only take one quick motion for him to come between Neferet and me. I was also aware of Stevie Rae. Suddenly she was there on my other side, and from the corners of my vision I could see the Twins and even Damien. My circle of friends surrounded me, letting me know wordlessly that they had my back.

When Neferet began to walk toward me I automatically began centering myself. I thought, She must have gone totally, utterly insane to ask me to perform the funeral and then attack me in front of the entire school. But sane or insane, it really didn’t matter. She was evil and dangerous and coming against me, and I Was Not Going To Run.

So her next words shocked me almost as much as what she began to do.

“Hear me, Zoey Redbird, Fledgling High Priestess, and bear witness. I have wronged Nyx and you and this House of Night.”

Her voice was strong and clear and beautiful, and it seemed to make music in the air around her. In the tempo she was creating, Neferet began to take her clothes off.

It should have been embarrassing or uncomfortable or erotic, but it wasn’t any of those things. It was simply beautiful.

“I have lied to you and to my Goddess.” Her shirt came off, fluttering behind her like a petal falling from a rose. “I have deceived you and my Goddess about my intentions.” She unwrapped the black silk skirt she was wearing and stepped out of it as if it were a pool of dark water. Completely naked, she walked directly up to me. The purple and yellow flames of Jack’s pyre flickered against her flesh, making her look like she, too, burned, only without being consumed. When she reached me she dropped to her knees, threw back her head, and opened her arms, saying, “Worst of all, I allowed a man to seduce me away from the love of my Goddess and her Path. Now here, bared to you, our House of Night, and to Nyx, I ask to be forgiven for my wrongdoings, for I find that I cannot live this terrible lie another moment.” As she finished speaking she lowered her head and her arms and then formally, respectfully, deeply, Neferet bowed to me.

In the complete silence that followed her pronouncement my mind whirred in a cacophony of conflicting thoughts: She’s pretending—I wish she wasn’t—it’s because of her that Heath and Jack are dead—She’s a master manipulator. Trying to figure out what I should say—what I should do—I looked around, helplessly, for some clue. The Twins and Damien were staring openmouthed at Neferet, totally shocked. I glanced at Aphrodite. She was staring at Neferet, too, but the look on her face was open disgust. Stevie Rae and Stark were both looking at me. Ever so slightly, without saying a word, Stark shook his head once, no. I looked from him to Stevie Rae, who mouthed two words to me: she lies.

Hardly breathing, I glanced around the circle made by the House of Night. Some were looking at me questioningly, expectantly, but most of them were gawking at Neferet in awe, openly sobbing with what was obviously a mixture of happiness and relief.

At that moment, one thought crystallized and sliced daggerlike through all of the others in my mind: If I don’t accept her apology the school will turn against me. I’ll look like a vindictive brat, and that is exactly what Neferet wants.

I had no choice. All I could do was react and hope my friends trusted me enough to know that I could tell the difference between truth and manipulation.

“Stark, give me your shirt,” I said quickly.

He didn’t hesitate. He unbuttoned it and handed it to me.

Being sure my voice still carried the power of spirit with it I said to her, “Neferet, for myself I forgive you. I never wanted to be your enemy.” She looked up at me; her green eyes were absolutely guileless.

“Zoey, I—,” she began.

I spoke over her, cutting off the sweet sound of her voice. “But I can only speak for myself. You’ll have to seek the Goddess for her forgiveness. Nyx knows your heart and your soul, so it’s there that you’ll find her answer.”

“Then I already have it, and it fills my heart and soul with joy. Thank you, Zoey Redbird, and thank you, House of Night!”

There were murmurs all around the circle of “Thank the Goddess!” and “Blessed be!” I made myself smile as I bent and wrapped Stark’s shirt around her shoulders. “Please, get up. You shouldn’t be on your knees in front of me.”

Neferet stood gracefully, and put on Stark’s shirt, buttoning it carefully. Then she turned to Damien. “Merry meet, Damien. May I have your permission to send my personal prayer for Jack’s spirit up to the Goddess?”

Damien didn’t speak. He just nodded, and I couldn’t tell through the sadness and grief on his face whether he believed Neferet’s show or not. She continued to act her part perfectly.

“Thank you.” Neferet stepped closer to Jack’s fiery pyre, put her head back, and lifted her arms. Unlike me, she didn’t amplify her voice. Instead she spoke so softly that none of us could hear her. Her face was tilted just right so that I had a perfect view of it. Her expression was serene and sincere, and I wondered how it was possible that something I was sure was so rotten inside could have such a gorgeous outside.

I think it was because I was staring at her so hard, trying to find the chink in her armor, that I saw all of what happened next.

Neferet’s expression changed. Her face was still tilted up, but it was obvious, at least to me, that she’d seen something above us.

Then I heard it. It was a kinda familiar sound. I didn’t recognize it right away, even though it made the hairs on my arms rise. I didn’t look up, though. I kept watching Neferet. Whatever she was looking at was annoying and worrying her. She didn’t change her posture or stop speaking her “prayer,” but her eyes did dart around as if she was checking to see if anyone else had noticed what she’d seen. I snapped my eyelids shut and hoped that I looked like I was praying, meditating, concentrating—anything but watching her. I gave it a couple of seconds, then slowly opened my eyes.

Neferet definitely wasn’t looking at me. She was staring at Stevie Rae, but my BFF wasn’t aware of it. Stevie Rae was too busy gawking straight up, too. Only her expression wasn’t annoyed or worried—it was radiant, as if she was looking at something that filled her with utter happiness, utter love.

Confused, I looked back at Neferet. She was still watching Stevie Rae, and her expression had shifted again. I saw her eyes widen, as if in realization, and then her face was suffused with pleasure, like what she’d just figured out had made her super happy.

I couldn’t seem to take my eyes off Neferet, but I was reaching for Stark’s hand automatically, as if I knew my world was getting ready to explode when Dragon Lankford’s voice was a clarion call that changed everything.

“Raven Mocker above! Professors, get the fledglings under cover! Warriors, to me!”

Time started to move in fast-forward then. Stark pushed me behind him while he stared upward. I heard him curse, and I knew it had to be because he didn’t have his bow with him.

“I want you to get into Nyx’s Temple!” Stark shouted above the sound exploding around us, already moving me in that direction.

Over his shoulder I could see the pandemonium that had broken out. Some of the kids were screaming; professors were calling to their students and trying to reassure them; Sons of Erebus Warriors had weapons drawn, ready for the coming battle. Everyone was moving except Neferet and Stevie Rae.

Neferet was still standing beside Jack’s burning pyre—still staring at Stevie Rae and smiling. Stevie Rae looked like she’d been rooted to her spot. She was gazing upward, shaking her head back and forth, back and forth, and she was sobbing.

“No, wait,” I told Stark, moving around him so he quit pushing me toward the temple. “I can’t go. Stevie Rae is—”

“FALL FROM THE SKY, FOUL BEAST!”

Neferet’s shout cut me off. She’d flung her arms up, fingers outstretched like she was trying to grab something out of the air.

“Can you see that?” Stark asked me urgently, staring up at the sky.

“What? See what?”

“Black, sticky, threads of Darkness.” He grimaced in horror. “She’s using them. And that means she was lying her ass off about asking for forgiveness,” he said grimly. “She’s definitely still allied with Darkness.”

Then there wasn’t time to say any more because, with a terrible scream, an enormous Raven Mocker fell from the sky, landing in a heap in the middle of the school grounds.

I recognized him right away. It was Rephaim, Kalona’s favored son.

“Kill it!” Neferet commanded.

Dragon Lankford didn’t need the order. He was already moving. Blade flashing in the firelight, he descended on the Raven Mocker like an avenging god.

“No! Don’t hurt him!” Stevie Rae screamed and hurled herself between Dragon and the fallen creature. Her arms were raised, palms outward, and she was glowing green, like her body had suddenly grown iridescent moss. Dragon hit the glowy green barrier and bounced off it like he’d smacked into a giant rubber ball. It was creepy and cool at the same time.

“Ah, hell,” I murmured, already moving toward Stevie Rae. I had a bad feeling about what was going on. A really, really bad feeling.

Stark didn’t try to stop me. He just said, “Stay close to me and out of that damn bird’s reach.”

“Why are you protecting this creature, Stevie Rae? Are you in league with it?” Neferet was standing beside Dragon, who had gotten back on his feet and was literally trembling with the effort it took not to rush against Stevie Rae again. Neferet sounded baffled, but her eyes flashed fiercely, like she was a cat and Stevie Rae was her trapped mouse.

Stevie Rae ignored Neferet. She looked at Dragon and said, “He’s not here to hurt anyone. I promise.”

“Free me, Red One.” The Raven Mocker spoke as I finally reached Dragon and Neferet. He, too, had gotten to his feet, which surprised me because it seemed that the fall should have killed him. Actually, the only evidence I could see of him being hurt at all was a gash in his disturbingly human-looking bicep that was just beginning to weep blood. He was backing slowly away from Stevie Rae, but a weird green bubble had formed around them, and it wouldn’t let him get very far from her.

“It’s no good, Rephaim. I’m not gonna lie and pretend anymore.” Stevie Rae glanced at Neferet and at the crowd of fledglings and professors who had stopped running away and instead were watching her, shock and horror clear on their faces. Then, setting her jaw and lifting her chin, Stevie Rae looked back at the Raven Mocker. “I’m not that good of an actress. I don’t ever want to be that good of an actress.”

“Do not do this.”

The Raven Mocker’s voice shocked me. It wasn’t because he sounded human. I’d heard him speak before and knew that, if he wasn’t hissing in anger, he could talk like a guy. What shocked me was the tone of his voice. He sounded scared and very, very sad.

“It’s already done,” Stevie Rae told him.

And that’s when I finally found my voice. “What in the hell is going on, Stevie Rae?”

“I’m sorry, Z. I wanted to tell you. I really, really wanted to. I just didn’t know how.” Stevie Rae’s eyes pleaded with me to understand.

“Didn’t know how to tell me what?”

Then it hit me—the smell of the Raven Mocker’s blood. With a rush of horror, I knew the scent of it. It had been on Stevie Rae before, and I realized what she was talking about, what she’d been trying to tell me.

“You’ve Imprinted with that creature.” I was thinking the words, but Neferet was the one who said them out loud.

“Oh, Goddess, no, Stevie Rae,” I said, my lips feeling cold and numb. Disbelieving, I kept shaking my head back and forth like denial could make this whole nightmare go away.

“How?” The words sounded ripped from Dragon.

“It was not her fault,” the Raven Mocker said. “I am responsible.”

“Do not speak to me, monster.” Dragon sounded deadly.

The Raven Mocker’s red-tinged gaze moved from the Sword Master to me. “Do not blame her, Zoey Redbird.”

“Why are you talking to me?” I yelled at it. Still shaking my head I looked at Stevie Rae. “How could you have let this happen?” I asked, and then clamped my mouth shut as I realized how much I suddenly sounded like my mother.

“Holy shit. I knew something freaky was going on with you, Stevie Rae, but I had no clue about a weirdness of this degree,” Aphrodite said, coming up beside me.

“I shoulda said somethin’,” Kramisha said from several feet away where she was standing beside the Twins and Damien, who were all staring disbelievingly back and forth from Stevie Rae to the Raven Mocker. “I knew them poems ’bout a beast and you and such was bad. I just didn’t know they was literal.”

“Because of the alliance between these two, Darkness has already tainted the school,” Neferet said solemnly. “This creature must be responsible for Jack’s death.”

“That’s a bunch of hogwash!” Stevie Rae said. “You killed Jack as a sacrifice to Darkness ’cause it gave you control of Kalona’s soul. You know it. I know it. And Rephaim knows it. That’s why he was up there watching you from a distance. He wanted to be sure you didn’t do anything too terrible tonight.”

I watched Stevie Rae stand up to Neferet and recognized the strength and the hopelessness I saw in my BFF, because I’d felt both things the times I’d stood up to Neferet, too—especially back when it was just me against her and an entire school full of vamps and fledglings had no clue that she was anything less than perfect.

“He has utterly twisted her,” Neferet said, speaking to the regathering crowd. “They should both be destroyed at once.”

My gut lurched and, with a certainty I felt only when I was being Goddess-led, I knew I had to do something.

“Okay, that’s enough.” With Stark moving restlessly at my side and keeping his gaze trained on the birdguy, I moved closer to Stevie Rae. “You gotta know how bad this looks.”

“Yeah, I do.”

“And you really are Imprinted with him?”

“Yeah, I am,” she said firmly.

“Did he attack you or something?” I asked, trying to make some sense of it.

“No, Z, the opposite. He saved my life. Twice.”

“Of course he did. You’re in league with the creature and allied with Darkness!” Neferet turned to face the watching fledglings and vampyres.

The green glow surrounding Stevie Rae intensified as did her voice. “Rephaim saved me from Darkness. He was why I survived accidentally invoking the white bull. And just because most of these folks can’t see what you’re doing, don’t ever forget that I can. I see the threads of Darkness that follow your command.”

“You sound very familiar with that subject,” Neferet said.

“ ’Course I am,” Stevie Rae said angrily. “Before Aphrodite’s sacrifice I was filled with Darkness. I’ll always recognize it; just like I’ll always choose Light over it.”

“Really?” Neferet’s smile was smug. “And that’s what you’re doing when you choose this creature? Choosing Light? Raven Mockers were created in anger and violence and hatred. They live for death and destruction. This one killed Anastasia Lankford. How can that be mistaken for Light and the Path of the Goddess?”

“It was wrong.” Rephaim wasn’t speaking to Neferet. He was looking directly at Stevie Rae. “What I was before I knew you was wrong. Then you found me and pulled me from a dark place.” I held my breath as the Raven Mocker slowly, gently, touched Stevie Rae’s cheek, wiping a tear away. “You showed me kindness and for a little while I glimpsed happiness. That is enough for me. Release me, Stevie Rae, my Red One. Let them exact their vengeance upon me. Perhaps Nyx will take pity on my spirit and allow me to enter her realm where someday I will see you again.”