by P. C. Cast
I quickly added in my head: if it was almost 6:00 A.M. in Tulsa, it had to be almost noon in Scotland. What the heck was Sgiach doing awake? I took a closer look at the queen. She was seated at the huge wooden desk in her private library—that all seemed normal. But Sgiach wasn’t looking normal. Her hair was crazy messy. Her face was smudged with dirt and, I leaned closer to the screen to get a better look … “Blood! Why is there blood and dirt on you? Are you okay?”
“I live,” Sgiach said, which I didn’t think really answered my question.
“Where’s Shawnus?” Aphrodite asked, mispronouncing Sgiach’s Guardian’s name on purpose.
“Seoras,” the queen said, enunciating it correctly and giving Aphrodite a narrow-eyed look, “is leading the daylight guard and protecting the island.”
“Wait, protecting during the day?” I shook my head in confusion. “But your island protects itself, especially during the day.”
“That was true as long as Light and Darkness were in balance,” Sgiach said.
“Zoeybird.” Grandma touched my hand, as if lending me strength. “Neferet has unbalanced the world. Ancient Darkness has begun to extinguish Light.”
My knees gave out and I sank down in the chair. Stevie Rae sat heavily beside me. Aphrodite paced back and forth behind us, almost colliding into Detective Marx, and Shaunee chose a chair close to Lenobia. “But Neferet has been crazy for a really long time. I don’t understand why she’s suddenly messed everything up,” I said.
“Oh, child,” Thanatos said sadly. “This is not a sudden thing. It is a culmination of a terrible tide that has been rising since Neferet released Kalona from his imprisonment.”
I frowned at the winged immortal who was standing across the room by the main doorway, bare chested, stone faced, and silent.
“He’s on our side now. That should help, not hurt, the balance,” I said.
“This isn’t a game. These forces can’t be tallied,” Sgiach said. “It is the act of release that caused the flood to begin. Kalona was simply the first chink in a failing dam.”
“Then let’s plug the stupid thing back up!” Aphrodite said.
“Indeed,” Thanatos agreed. “That is why we called on Sgiach.”
“So, what do we do?” I asked.
“You harken to the wisdom of a different time, a different world. Ancient forces are at work. It is with ancient knowledge that you must stem the tide and repair the balance.”
“Can you be less cryptic than one of my damn visions?” Aphrodite said.
“Absolutely, arrogant young Prophetess.” I thought Sgiach was going to give Aphrodite a serious butt kicking via Skype, but instead she turned her gaze on me, and even across the thousands of miles that separated us, what she said had the little hairs on my arms standing up. “Detective Marx has explained what happened between you and the humans in the park. Thanatos and your grandmother tell me your violence against them wasn’t an isolated incident, and that it involved your Seer Stone.”
“Yeah, but I don’t even have it anymore,” I assured her quickly. “I’m not using it at all.”
“Child, you were never using it. It was using you,” she said.
I swallowed around a terrible dryness in my throat. “I know. That’s why I gave it to Aphrodite when I gave myself up to Detective Marx.”
“Tell me what you were feeling the day of and the days leading up to the incident in the park,” Sgiach said.
I hesitated and tried to order my thoughts. Finally, I began. “I was mad. Frustrated. Annoyed. It seemed like I felt pissed off all the time.”
“Did it get worse after you used the Seer Stone to reveal the mirror that reflected Neferet’s broken past to her?”
My eyes widened. “I haven’t thought about it, but yeah, it did get worse after that.” Instinctively I rubbed the raised scar on my palm. “It got hot a lot more often. And I lost time.” I blurted this last part quickly, not looking at my friends, who I hadn’t told about that.
“Did you see things during the time you lost?” she asked.
“Yes,” I admitted slowly, not liking the look on her face.
“Things like the Fey, the elemental sprites you saw on Skye when you were with me?”
“No.” I shuddered. “They might have been Fey, but they weren’t like the elementals on Skye. They were horrible.”
“Some of the Fey are horrible. As with the rest of us, not all of them choose Light. What you saw when you lost time, was that before or after you used the stone to save your Grandmother?”
“Before,” I said.
“Zoey, here is a truth you must hear: Old Magick can set the balance of Light and Darkness to right again, which means your Seer Stone is key to winning the battle.”
“Then I need to give it to someone else because what I was doing with it didn’t work. Everything got worse, not better,” I said.
“I wish it were that simple,” Thanatos said. She and Grandma and Sgiach shared a look, and I knew they’d been talking about the stone and me before I’d gotten there.
Sure enough, Grandma patted my hand and said, “No one else may wield the Seer Stone, u-we-tsi-a-ge-ya. The stone warms for you. That means it has chosen you, and you alone can wield Old Magick through it.”
“Okay, well, how do I do that?” I asked, hating how my stomach clenched just at the thought of touching the Seer Stone again.
“I’m with Zoey,” Aphrodite said. “Simple or not, tell her what she has to do.”
“Yeah, Z’s kicked Darkness and Neferet in the butt before—we all have,” Stevie Rae agreed.
“Because of the volatile nature of Old Magick, I can only tell you what I know not to do,” Sgiach said. “In order for its power to work to balance and not corrupt, it must be commanded by a Priestess who is neither aggressor nor victim. Her intent must be pure. It cannot be vindictive or defensive.”
“But Zoey has to use it defensively!” Marx shouted. “Neferet is a sociopathic killer, bent on enslaving Tulsa, maybe even the world.”
“It is not a maybe,” Kalona said. “Neferet wishes to do more than force a few unlucky humans into worshipping her. She wishes to rule as the one and only Goddess in this world, and to make us all her slaves.”
“So how the hell is this stone thing supposed to be a key to stopping her if Zoey can’t use it defensively?” Marx asked.
“Detective, Old Magick is neutral—it is power at it rawest. And it is shaped by the intent of the Priestess who wields it. If her motives are not completely altruistic, chaos will be the result.” She shifted her gaze to me. “You have evidence of that before you. From what we know of Neferet’s past, in light of what she has done in the present, I believe there are clear indications that she has been wielding Old Magick for a very long time, perhaps even before she was Marked.”
“But I’ve never seen her wearing a Seer Stone,” I said.
“A Seer Stone is only one conduit for Old Magick. Consider the tendrils of Darkness that shadow her everywhere. They are too base, too raw, to be anything but connected to the Ancient Powers of Light and Darkness. I know. In the Otherworld I battled Darkness in different forms for ages. It can be seductive and cunning. Darkness wears many faces, and some of those faces can seem, at first, like allies.”
“I don’t see how those disgustin’ snake-things could ever seem good,” Stevie Rae said.
“Neferet rarely speaks of it, but she was raped by her father on the night she was Marked,” Lenobia said. “Something helped her get through that terrible ordeal, and it wasn’t another fledgling or even her Mentor. The records at the Chicago House of Night clearly state that she returned to her family home and strangled her father to death before she had even completed the Change. The coroner recorded that the assailant was so strong that her father’s head was almost severed from his body.”
“And she got away with that?” Marx asked.
“The crime happened in the late 1800s in a far bigger world, Detective. The Chicago House
of Night Council, together with those of us on the Vampyre High Council, decided it would be best to secrete her from the state and allow her to start over on a new path whereby Neferet had the opportunity to heal from her tragedy,” Thanatos said.
Lenobia said, “And please remember, Detective, that this man raped and brutalized his sixteen-year-old daughter.”
“The High Council’s records reported that there were numerous bite marks—human bite marks—on Neferet, and that she had been horribly beaten and violated the night the Tracker found her,” Thanatos added in agreement with Lenobia.
I felt a shock of remembrance. “Right after I was Marked, Neferet mentioned something to me about being hurt by her parents.”
“Her mother died in childbirth. Her father was a monster,” Lenobia said. “All of us who knew Neferet from her youth knew the rumors about what had happened to her the night she’d been Marked.”
“I’m sorry about her past, but that doesn’t change the fact that Neferet is an unstable immortal who must be stopped,” Marx said.
“We do not mention Neferet’s past to excuse her present,” Sgiach said. “We mention it as a lesson for Zoey.” Sgiach’s gaze burned into mine. “Old Magick was drawn to Neferet, and Neferet discovered that she could wield it. Just as it has been drawn to you, and has been wielded by you.”
“Okay, yeah, but I don’t like being compared to Neferet,” I said.
“And yet what has been happening to you ever since you began using the Seer Stone is very like what happened to Neferet. It uses you, and as it does so, it corrupts you.”
I felt like she’d punched me in the gut. “I’d never be like Neferet!”
“Have you ever thought that if you could simply control everyone around you, then you could make everything better for your friends—for yourself?” Sgiach shot the question at me.
“Yeah, but I didn’t want anything bad to happen! I just wished I could make everyone act right so that all this craziness would stop.”
“Act right according to whom?” Thanatos asked.
“Well, me, I guess, since I was the one doing the wishing,” I protested, feeling trapped.
“Intent!” Sgiach blasted back at me. “Old Magick is neutral—it is shaped by the intent of the Priestess who wields it! And the Priestess’s intent cannot be revenge or frustration or anything self-serving. Your intent must be pure and entirely for the greater good—whether that means you survive being the vessel the magick uses or not.”
“I’m scared,” I admitted, and Grandma squeezed my hand, lending me strength. “And I don’t know how to do what you’re asking me to do. I need you to help me!”
“Only you can help yourself. Grow up, young Priestess. Show all of us why Nyx has chosen to gift you so greatly,” Sgiach said. “But do it quickly. You need to command the Seer Stone if we are to have a chance of stopping Neferet and setting the balance of Light and Darkness to right.”
The queen’s sharp gaze went to Thanatos. “High Priestess, understand that Neferet must be contained so that the contagion of evil is slowed.”
“What is your advice on containing her without using Old Magick?” Thanatos asked, making my cheeks feel warm. I knew she shouldn’t have had to ask Sgiach that question—I should be grown enough to use the Seer Stone to help her.
“Look to the most ancient rituals and spells,” Sgiach said. “Do not think to defeat Neferet—you cannot do that without Old Magick. Think to isolate her, distract her, annoy her—anything you can do that forces her to rethink her plots and plans, anything that is a stumbling block slows Neferet, thus aiding you.”
“And giving Zoey more time to discover the path to commanding Old Magick,” Grandma said.
I sent her a nervous smile, wishing I had the confidence in myself she had in me.
“I’ll try as hard as I can, I promise,” I said.
“You cannot try, Zoey. Trying is far too dangerous. You can do nothing until you know you have banished from yourself all negatives: fear and anger, selfishness, vindictiveness, hatred, and even annoyance and frustration. Only then will you command and control Old Magick. Until then Aphrodite is to keep the Seer Stone far from you. We do not need to be battling two immortals who once were gifted Priestess of our Goddess.”
I couldn’t believe what she’d just said! She was actually sounding like she believed I could turn out like Neferet!
“I’m not immortal! I’m just a kid who doesn’t want anything to do with Old Magick or that damn Seer Stone!”
“I would imagine a young Neferet would have said much the same thing, and she was far from ‘just a kid’ as well,” Sgiach said.
Before I could even begin to recover from that horrid statement, Thanatos added, “I have only known one other fledgling who was as gifted as you are, Zoey Redbird. Her name was Neferet.”
I held tight to Grandma’s hand, feeling like my world was falling away from me.
“And now I must tend to my own flood,” Sgiach said. “I trust you, Zoey. I believe you will find a way to bring the forces of Old Magick into our battle on the side of Light. Until I see you again, may you blessed be.”
Then the Skype connection clicked off, leaving the room in utter silence.
Zoey
“Obviously, this is your fault,” Aphrodite told Kalona before turning to me and adding, “If you start calling me Frodo I’m going to be pissed.”
“Not to be mean or anything, Aphrodite, but you are Frodo-ing for Z,” Stevie Rae said.
“If that’s true, then that would make you a short, fat Samwise Gamgee,” Aphrodite said.
“A teenager?” Marx’s voice grumbled from behind us. “Why would the power to balance good and evil be given to a teenager?”
I frowned at him.
“I have been wondering that for months,” Kalona said.
“I must insist on productive discussion only!” Thanatos’s voice cut through the room, making even Marx and Kalona look sheepish.
“Actually,” I said hesitantly, “Detective Marx’s comment got me thinking.”
“I didn’t mean it to sound so rude,” Marx insisted.
“Oh, I know,” I said. “What you said wasn’t rude—it was just the truth. Why would the balance of good and evil be dependent on me?” I hurried on, not wanting my thoughts to get interrupted. “Maybe it’s not me, or even us, that’s so important. Sgiach says Old Magick is what’s important. Basically, I’m just along for the ride because for some reason that none of us gets, it works through me. So, like I said, it’s not me who’s important. It’s the magick.”
“What are you getting at, Zoeybird?” Grandma asked.
“Well, Old Magick responds to Sgiach, too. Thanatos, Lenobia, please correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t Sgiach the personification of her island?”
“She is,” Thanatos said, and Lenobia nodded her agreement.
“Old Magick is in the land,” Grandma said, sitting up straighter in her chair. “Just as our Cherokee ancestors believed.”
“Oklahoma holds ancient power within its red dirt,” Kalona said. “I know. It drew me here not long after I was created, and again after I Fell.”
“And it entrapped you for centuries,” Thanatos said.
Kalona’s jaw tightened, but he nodded. “It did.”
“The day I was Marked, I ran away to your farm, remember, Grandma?” My voice was getting less hesitant as my thoughts discovered a path to follow. “I passed out trying to find you.”
“I remember,” Grandma said. “That was the first time Nyx appeared to you.”
“Yes! She told me that I was supposed to be her eyes and ears in a world that was struggling to find the balance of good and evil.”
“Even then the Goddess was warning us through you,” Thanatos said.
“Seems like it took way too long for us to listen,” Stevie Rae said.
“Not just you guys,” I said, “but me, too. I don’t think I really understood what Nyx was warning me about until now.
I mostly just paid attention to the part she said about Light not always being good, and Darkness not always equating to evil. I thought Nyx was telling me to beware of Neferet, because Neferet’s so gorgeous to look at, but she’s totally rotten inside.”
“Makes sense,” Aphrodite said.
“Totally true,” Stevie Rae said.
“Yeah, but check out what else Nyx said. I remember she told me that I was special, her first U-we-tsi-a-ge-ya V-hna-I Sv-no-yi.”
“Daughter of Night,” Grandma translated for me.
“That’s not all she said, though. Nyx said I was special because of my ancient blood combined with my understanding of the modern world.”
“And your blood holds within it the power of ancient Cherokee Wise Women,” Grandma said. “Women who drew strength from the land.”
“This land,” Thanatos said.
“Oklahoma is where the Trail of Tears ended,” Grandma said.
“And where I was drawn, as well as Neferet,” Kalona said. “Let us not forget that Zoey holds within her a piece of the soul of A-ya, the maiden formed from this land.”
I didn’t want to think too long about that, so I hastily added, “It’s also where Aurox was created by the blood sacrifice of my mother with power taken from the land of my grandmother.”
Marx frowned. “Aurox?”
“I am Aurox,” he said, moving forward out of the shadows.
“Hang on,” Marx said. “You don’t even have a crescent on your forehead. I thought you were just some guy who was the Consort of the High Priestess.”
The thought of Aurox being Thanatos’s Consort made me feel hot with embarrassment.
Aurox ignored me and looked questioningly at Thanatos. She nodded slightly. He turned to meet Marx’s gaze. Sounding strong and sure, he said, “I am not human, nor am I vampyre. I am a vessel created by Old Magick whose purpose was vengeance and destruction.”
“But who was also created with a soul, and given the ability to choose to turn from vengeance and destruction, which is what you have done,” Grandma said.
“Hell, that almost sounds good!” Marx said, studying Aurox carefully. “If he has these Old Magick powers, can’t he help us fight against Neferet?”