by P. C. Cast
“Grandma, do you trust me?” I said.
“Of course I trust you, daughter,” came her unhesitating reply.
“You need to come here,” I said simply.
The phone was silent, and I could almost see Grandma thinking. “I’ll pack just a few things,” she finally said.
“Bring some of those feathers,” Aphrodite said. “I’m betting we’re going to have to do more smudging.”
“I will, child,” Grandma said.
“Come now, Grandma.” I hated the sense of urgency I was feeling.
“Tonight, Zoeybird? I can’t wait a few hours until morning?”
“Tonight.” As if to punctuate my request through the phone, Aphrodite and I heard the chilling sound of a raven’s deep, creepy, croaking cry. It was so loud, it could have been in her warm, tidy living room with her. “Grandma! Are you okay?”
“They’re spirit creatures, u-we-tsi-a-ge-ya. They can cause me real harm only if I am near death, and I can assure you—I am nowhere near death,” she said firmly.
I remembered the freezing fear they’d brought with them and the stinging welt that had risen on my hand, and wasn’t convinced she was one hundred percent right about that. “Just hurry, Grandma. I’ll feel a lot better when you’re here,” I said.
“Me, too,” Aphrodite said.
“I’ll be there within two hours. I love you, Zoeybird.”
“I love you, too,” Grandma.
I was just getting ready to click the phone closed when Grandma added, “And I love you, too, Aphrodite. This might very well be twice that you are responsible for saving my life.”
“Bye. See you soon,” Aphrodite said.
I did click the phone closed then and was surprised to see that Aphrodite’s eyes, which were now almost entirely clear blue again, had filled with tears and she was pink-cheeked. She felt me watching her and shrugged one shoulder and wiped at her eyes, looking totally uncomfortable. “What? So I kinda like your Grandma. Is that a crime?”
“You know, I’m beginning to think that somewhere inside you there’s a nice Aphrodite hiding.”
“Well, don’t get all warm and tingly. As soon as I find her, I’m going to drown her in the bathtub.”
I just laughed at her.
“Don’t you think you should get going? You have a lot to do.”
“Huh?” I said.
She sighed. “You have to round up the nerd herd, brief them on the poem and whatnot, and figure out where your grandma’s staying, which means you’ll probably have to okay something with Shekinah, since I’ll bet you don’t want to have a cozy one-on-one with Neferet, and there’s still the nanny cam you have to have Jack set up in the morgue. Good luck with all of that.”
“Crap, you’re right. While I’m doing all of that, what are you gonna be doing?”
“I am going to be resting so I can be refreshed and ready to put the scarily awesome powers of my brain to work on the poem puzzle.”
“So you’re gonna take a nap?”
“Basically. Hey, cheer up. We managed to skip out on a whole day of school,” she said.
“You managed to skip out on a whole day of school. I managed to make the one class my ex-boyfriend is teaching just in time to do a really uncomfortable and more than slightly embarrassing improvisation scene with him in front of the entire class.”
“Ooooh! I want to hear all about that!”
“Don’t hold your breath,” I said over my shoulder as I went out the door.
Damien and the Twins weren’t hard to find. They were downstairs in the main room of the dorm, snarfing down bags of pretzels and baked chips. (Ugh! It was such a pain in the butt that the vamps made us eat healthy stuff.) It was obvious when everyone shut up at first sight of me and then all began to babble at once that they were also gossiping about me.
“Oh, honey. We just heard about Erik and Drama class,” Damien said, giving me a little sympathetic pat on my arm.
“Yeah, but we haven’t heard enough about it,” Shaunee said.
“We definitely need details from the horse’s mouth,” Erin said.
“And you’re the horse,” Shaunee finished.
I sighed. “We did an improv scene. He kissed me. The class went nuts. Everyone left when the bell rang. I stayed. He ignored me. The end.”
“Oh, nuh-uh. You’re not getting away with just those little details,” Erin said.
“Yeah, we got better dirt from Becca. You know, Twin, I do believe that girl has a crush on our Erik,” Shaunee said.
“Do tell, Twin? Should we claw her eyes out for Z?” Erin said. “I haven’t done a nice eye-clawing in ages.”
“You two are so banal,” Damien said. “Erik and Zoey are broken up, remember?”
“Yeah, well, your vocab is a ba-pain in our ba-asses,” Erin said.
“Ba-exactly,” Shaunee said.
“Holy crap! Would you guys stop bickering? We’ve got some major life stuff going on that makes my pathetic love life stuff seem even more ridiculous than it already is. Now I’m gonna get myself a brown pop and try like hell to find some real chips in the kitchen. While I do that, get your butts upstairs and meet me in Aphrodite’s room. We have stuff we have to figure out.”
“Stuff?” Damien said. “What kind of stuff?”
“The same old stuff of the scary, life-shattering, world-ending variety we’re so familiar with,” I said.
Damien and the Twins blinked at me for a couple of seconds; then all three muttered, “Okay, cool. We’re in.”
“Oh, and Damien,” I said. “Get Jack. He’s part of this, too.”
Damien looked surprised and then happy, and then a little sad. “Z, is it okay if he brings Duchess? The dog won’t let him out of her sight.”
“Yeah, she can come. But warn him that Aphrodite has a new cat, and the cat is a weird furry clone of Aphrodite.”
“Oh, ewww,” the Twins said.
Shaking my head, I disappeared into the kitchen, determined not to let any of them give me another headache.
“Ohmigod, I feel faint!” Jack fanned himself while he looked really, really pale and kept shooting glances at the heavily draped window. Duchess, who was crammed into Aphrodite’s room in the midst of all of us and her snarling cat, leaned against him and whined. Jack had been the first to speak after the long silence that followed Aphrodite and me clueing them in on her vision, the poem, and Grandma’s story about the Tsi Sgili, Raven Mockers, and Kalona.
“Okay, that’s the creepiest story I’ve heard in ages.” Shaunee sounded practically breathless. “I swear it’s even scarier than all of the Saw movies put together.”
“Ohmygod, Twin. Saw Four scared the bejezzus right outta me,” Erin said. “But you’re right. This Kalona stuff is even freakier. And I think it was a good idea to get your grandma here, Z.”
“Ditto, Twin,” Shaunee chimed in.
“Oh, Z!” Jack cried, petting Duchess’s ears frantically. “Just thinking about those disgusting raven things croaking at your sweet grandma sitting there in her little house on that lavender farm way out in the boondocks gives me the heebie-jeebies.”
“Nice,” Aphrodite said. “As if Zoey isn’t freaked out enough without you three feeling the need to twist the knife in her gut.”
“Oh, jeesh! I’m so sorry, Zoey!” Jack was instantly contrite, clutching Damien with one hand and petting Duchess with the other. He looked like he was going to cry.
I expected the Twins to puff up and hiss at Aphrodite as per usual, but instead they shared a look and then turned to me.
“Sorry, Z,” Erin said.
“Yeah, the hag—I mean Aphrodite—is right. We shouldn’t have freaked you out about your grandma,” Shaunee said.
“Damn. Did the Dorkamese Twins just say I was right about something?” Aphrodite pressed the back of her hand against her forehead and pretended to be about to faint.
“If it makes you feel any better,” Shaunee said.
“We still hat
e you,” Erin finished.
“Uh, can we please remember that Duchess has been through a bunch of bullpoop in the past day?” Crouching in front of the big blond Lab, I took her face between my hands. Her eyes were calm and knowing, like she already understood way more than we ever would. “You’re a better girl than all of us, aren’t you?”
Duchess licked my face, and I smiled. She reminded me of Stark—the living, breathing, confident Stark—and I felt a rush of hope that maybe he would come back for his dog (and for me). Even though that would only add to the complexity of my life, it also somehow made me feel like maybe things weren’t so scary as I’d thought they were. Then Damien shattered my illusion.
“Let me see the poem.” Typical for Mr. Studious, he went right to the point, bypassing a good portion of the drama.
Feeling utterly relieved to have another brain trying to figure it out, I stood up and handed him the poem.
“First, you know calling it a poem is really a misnomer,” Damien said.
“Grandma called it a song,” I said.
“It’s not actually that, either. Or at least in my opinion it’s not.”
I had some major respect for Damien’s opinion, especially on anything vaguely academic, so I said, “If it’s not a poem or a song, what is it, then?”
“It’s a prophecy,” he said.
“Well, shit! He’s right,” Aphrodite said.
“Sadly, I have to agree,” Shaunee said.
“Gloom and doom to come put in confusing what-the-fuck language. Yep, definitely a prophecy,” Erin said.
“Prophecy, like in Lord of the Rings about the return of the king?” Jack said.
Damien smiled at him. “Yes, just like that.”
Then they all looked my way. “Feels right to me,” I said lamely.
“All right. Let’s get to work deciphering it.” Damien studied the prophecy. “Okay, so, it’s written in an abab cdcd ee rhyme scheme, breaking it into three stanzas.”
“Is that important?” I asked. “I mean, we’re calling it a prophecy now instead of a poem, so do we care about that abab stuff?”
“Well, I’m not one hundred percent sure, but it is written in poetic form, so my best guess is that we should use poetic rules to decipher it.”
“Okay, sounds logical,” I said.
“Poetic stanzas are roughly synonymous to paragraphs in prose—each one being self-contained with its own subject, even though it has to fit together as a whole.”
“That’s my boy!” Jack said, grinning and hugging Duchess.
“Damn, the kid is smart,” Shaunee said.
“Seriously a brainyack,” Erin said.
“Just watching him gives me a headache,” Aphrodite said.
“And it means we need to look at the stanzas separately at first,” I said. “Right?”
“It can’t hurt,” Damien said.
“Read it out loud,” Aphrodite said. “It was easier to understand when Zoey read it out loud.”
He cleared his throat and read the first stanza in his excellent reading voice.
Ancient one sleeping, waiting to arise
When earth’s power bleeds sacred red
The mark strikes true; Queen Tsi Sgili will devise
He shall be washed from his entombing bed
“Well, it’s obvious that the ancient one it’s referring to is Kalona,” Damien said.
“And Aphrodite and I already decided that the earth bleeding could come from someone being killed, like Professor Nolan.” I paused and swallowed. I should have added Loren, but I couldn’t make myself say his name.
“When I found her, there was—there was so much blood all over the grass that it—it hadn’t soaked in, so it really did look like the earth had been bleeding.” Aphrodite’s voice was shaky with the memory.
“Yeah, it definitely could have been described as the earth bleeding,” I agreed. “And if the person or vamp who had been killed was powerful, that would fit with the reference to power.”
“Okay, that works, especially when you add the next two lines. Obviously this Queen Tsi Sgili devises the whole thing.” Damien stopped and squidged his forehead, then added, “You know, it could be a trick reference. Tsi Sgili devises, or brings about what happens, but it’s her powerful blood that makes the earth bleed and washes him from his bed.”
“Ugh, nasty,” Shaunee said.
“So who’s the Queen of the Tsi Sgili?” Erin asked.
“We don’t know for sure. Grandma had no idea. Actually, she doesn’t know much about the Tsi Sgili, except that they are dangerous and feed off death,” I said.
“All right, then we need to keep our eyes open for a potential queen,” Damien said.
“Even though we don’t have a clue who she or he could be?” Shaunee said.
“We do have a clue,” Erin said. “Zoey’s grandma said the Tsi Sgili feed off death, so it has to be someone who gets stronger after someone dies.”
“Also Zoey’s grandma said that often the Tsi Sgili have something called . . . uh . . . ane li—what was it, Zoey?” Aphrodite said.
“Ane li sgi,” I said. “It means they’re majorly psychic.” I took a deep breath and barreled on. “I think we all know one particular vamp who might fit into this description.”
“Neferet,” Damien whispered.
“Okay, we know that she’s not what she appears to be,” Erin said.
“But does that mean that she’s as evil as it sounds like a Tsi Sgili has to be?” Shaunee said.
Aphrodite and I exchanged a look. I made the decision and nodded.
“She’s chosen a different path from Nyx,” Aphrodite said.
The Twins gasped. Jack hugged Duchess, and I swear he made a little doggy whining sound.
“You know that for sure?” Damien said, his voice sounding shaky.
“Yes. We know it for sure,” I said.
“Then chances are Neferet is the queen the prophecy refers to.”
I felt my stomach turn as more pieces of the puzzle started to fall into place. “Neferet has been different ever since the deaths of Professor Nolan and Loren.”
“Oh, Goddess! Are you saying she had something to do with those horrible murders?” Jack gasped.
“I don’t know whether she had something to do with them, or whether she just fed off their effects,” I said. And I remembered the scene I’d witnessed between Loren and Neferet shortly before he was killed. They’d been lovers—that had been obvious. And he’d been in love with her, but she’d used him to get to me—used her lover to seduce and then Imprint me. How could she really have loved him and sent him to do that?
What if her version of love was as twisted as she had become? Did that mean she could murder what she professed to love?
“But we all thought the People of Faith had something to do with those killings,” Shaunee was saying.
“Maybe that’s what the Tsi Sgili queen wanted us to think,” Damien said, avoiding the use of Neferet’s name, which I thought was smart.
“You’re right. First those murders, then Aphrodite has a couple whammy visions one right after another about me being killed—and Neferet was definitely involved in at least one of those, and then another vision and this prophecy surfaces? It’s too much of a coincidence. Maybe it was supposed to look like a religious hate crime,” I said, thinking about the really nice nuns I’d just met who had definitely made me think twice about believing all Christians were narrow-minded jerks out to get anyone who believed differently.
“When really it was a power crime,” Aphrodite said. “Because Neferet wants Kalona to rise.”
“Uh, let’s just call her the queen for right now, okay?” I said quickly.
Everyone nodded—Aphrodite shrugged. “Okay with me.”
“Wait, the prophecy could mean that the queen’s death makes it possible for Kalona to rise. Let’s just say we might know this queen, and if she’s who we think she might be, no way do I see her sacrificing herself for
someone else to come into power,” Damien said.
“Maybe she knows only part of the prophecy. I mean, Grandma said that no one had written the Raven Mockers’ song down—that it’s remembered only in little tiny bits and pieces, so it’s basically been lost for a zillion years.”
“Uh-oh,” Aphrodite said.
We all looked at her. “What?” I said.
“Okay, I might be wrong, but what if Kalona is somehow reaching out from his grave or whatever you want to call it? He’s been there a long time. What if the earth that has been holding him is losing its grip? He’s an immortal. Maybe he can reach from where he is and get inside people’s brains. Nyx can do it. She can whisper things to us. What if he can, too?”
“Whisper! That’s what Nyx said—that Neferet was listening to the whispers of someone else.” I shivered at the thought and at the gut feeling that told me we were on to something.
“It would be logical that the people whose minds he could reach easiest would be those who were open to death and evil,” Damien said.
“Like the Tsi Sgili,” Erin said.
“Especially their queen,” Shaunee said.
“Ah, crap,” I said.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“Okay, let’s go on to the next stanza,” Damien said. Then he read:
Through the hand of the dead he is free
Terrible beauty, monstrous sight
Ruled again they shall be
Women shall kneel to his dark might
“Then, of course, the couplet at the end concludes it.” Damien finished it by reading:
Kalona’s song sounds sweet
As we slaughter with cold heat
“Sadly, most of the rest of it isn’t too tough to figure out,” Erin said. We all gawked at her. “Okay, I’ll admit—under duress—that I actually learned something last semester in Poetry class. So sue me. Anyway, except for the first line, it’s just saying that he’s gonna start raping and pillaging women again when he’s free.”