by P. C. Cast
“Yes!” we all said together.
Laughing and feeling lighter than I had in days, I clambered on the short bus with my friends, and bumped my shoulder against Stark as we took our seats. He barely glanced at me. It was about then that I realized he really hadn’t had much to say to me (or anyone) since we’d woken up. Remembering how close we’d been—how he’d touched me and made the world seem all right again—had me chewing my lip and feeling super confused. I snuck another glance at him. He was staring out the window. He looked tired. Really tired.
“Hey, what’s up with you?” I asked as the bus bounced its way along Cincinnati Street heading toward midtown
“Me? Nothin’.”
“Seriously, you look really tired. Are you feeling okay?”
“Zoey, you woke me up and kept me up through most of the day yesterday. Then you made that call to Thanatos to get the whole ‘return to school’ thing in motion, which was not exactly a calm, quiet conversation. I’d just got to sleep when you yelled whatever and woke me up again. Making love was great.” He paused and for a second smiled and looked almost normal. Then he opened his mouth and ruined it by saying, “Afterward you did some serious tossing and turning before you passed out. I couldn’t get back to sleep. So I’m tired. That’s all.”
I blinked at him. Twice. And tried not to feel like he’d just slapped me in my face. Keeping my voice down because I didn’t want to deal with all my friends knowing, I said, “Okay, putting aside the whole I-had-to-call-Thanatos-to-get-us-back-to-school thing, which is what I shoulda done ’cause I’m the High Priestess in charge, and the fact that you came on to me when all I meant to do was cuddle and sleep, my mom is dead, Stark. Nyx let me see her enter the Otherworld. As of right now I don’t know how or why that happened. I’m trying like hell to act semi-normal. I haven’t even talked to my grandma yet.”
“That’s right, you haven’t. I told you that you should have called her right away—or at least called your mom. What if it was all just a dream?”
I looked at Stark in utter disbelief, struggling to keep my voice and my emotions under control. “You are the one person in this world who should understand better than anyone else that I can tell the difference between really seeing the Otherworld and dreaming it.”
“Yeah, I know, but—”
“But are you saying I should have gone through all of that and not disturbed your precious sleep? Well, except to have sex with you!”
I clamped my mouth shut and tried to look normal when I saw Aphrodite turn around and glance back at me with a question mark on her face.
Stark blew out a long breath. “No, that’s not what I mean. I’m sorry, Z.” Then he took my hand in his. “Seriously. I’m sounding like a jerk.”
“Yeah, you are,” I said.
“Sorry, again,” he said, and then he butted my shoulder with his. “Can we rewind this conversation?”
“Yeah,” I said.
“Here goes—I’m tired and it’s making me stupid. And about your mom, we don’t know what really happened and I think it’s freaking both of us out. But no matter what I love you, even if I’m a jerk. Okay? Better?”
“Okay. Yeah. Better,” I said.
Still letting him hold my hand I looked out of the window as we took the left on Fifteenth Street, passed Gumpy’s Garden, which always made the air smell like piñon wood, and traveled down Cherry Street. By the time we were on Utica, and passing Twenty-first, I was completely distracted by worry about my mom and my grandma—and wondering if maybe Stark could be right to question what I thought had been my vision. I mean—I hadn’t heard from Grandma. What if it had all been a bad dream …
“It’s always so pretty.” Damien’s voice drifted back from the front seat he’d automatically chosen as his own. “When you look at it from here, it’s so hard to believe that such horrible, heartbreaking things could happen there.”
I heard the sob in his voice, squeezed Stark’s hand once before letting it go, and then lurched up the aisle to sit beside Damien.
“Hey,” I said, sliding my arm through his. “You have to remember that wonderful, heartmaking things happen there, too. Don’t ever forget that’s where you met Jack and fell in love with him.”
Damien stared at me and I thought he looked sad but really, really wise.
“How are you doing without Heath?”
“I miss him,” I said honestly. Then something made me add, “But I don’t want to be like Dragon, eaten up by sadness.”
“Me, either,” Damien said softly. “Even though sometimes it’s hard not to be.”
“It hasn’t been very long.”
Clamping his lips tightly together, as if to keep himself from crying, he nodded his head.
“You’ll get through this,” I said. “And so will I. We will. Together,” I said firmly.
Then we were going through the iron gate that had the crescent moon crest on the middle of it, and driving around to the side entrance of the school.
“School Council Meeting begins at seven thirty,” said the Son of Erebus Warrior as the bus came to a halt. “Classes begin at eight o’clock sharp, just like they should.”
“Thank you,” I said to him like he’d actually been friendly (or at least respectful). Then I glanced at my phone: 7:20 P.M. Ten minutes until the meeting and forty before school started. I stood up and looked back at the group of obviously nervous kids.
“Okay,” I said. “Just go to your old homerooms and wait there for what to do next. Stevie Rae, Stark and I are going to the Council Meeting and, as they’d say on the Isle of Skye, get Rephaim’s and your permanent schedules sorted.”
“How ’bout me? Ain’t I comin’ to the Meeting?” Kramisha asked. “It’s usually borin’, but I bet today it’ll be better than usual.”
“You’re right,” I said. “It’s about time they started to automatically include you, along with Stevie Rae and me.”
“Where do I go?” Rephaim asked from the back of the bus.
I was thinking, trying to figure out where the heck he should go when Damien stood up beside me. “You can come with me—at least for today. If that’s okay with Zoey and Stevie Rae.”
I smiled at Damien. I don’t think I’d ever been so proud of him. Everyone would be worried about him and handling him like he could break down into hysteria at any second, so if he latched onto Rephaim, no way would anyone question him—they’d be too scared of upsetting Damien.
“Thank you,” I said.
“That’s a real good idea, Damien,” Stevie Rae said.
“All right. Try to act normal,” I said. “And I’ll see you guys back here after school.”
“My first hour was Spells and Rituals,” I heard Aphrodite mutter to Darius. “And there’s that new vamp teaching it who looks like she’s twelve. This should be fun.”
“Remember,” Stevie Rae said, giving Aphrodite a hard look she totally ignored, “be nice.”
We filed off the bus. I could see how difficult it was for Stevie Rae to let Rephaim go with Damien. We didn’t really know what he could be walking into, but we did understand that the chances of him being accepted and treated like the normal kid he longed to be were slim to none.
When Stevie Rae, Stark, and Kramisha and I were alone I said, “Ready to enter the lion’s den?”
“I’m thinkin’ it’s more like headin’ into a nasty wasp nest,” Kramisha said. “But I’m ready.”
“Me, too. Let’s cowboy up and get this done.”
“Deal,” I said.
“Deal,” they repeated.
And we walked into a future that was already making my stomach clench and feel like a raging IBS episode was going to hit me at any moment.
Ah, hell.
CHAPTER THREE
Kalona
He didn’t have to fly long to find his sons. Kalona followed the thread that connected him to his offspring. My loyal children, he thought as he circled the tree-covered rolling hills of the less populated
and heavily wooded land that was just a short distance southwest of Tulsa. At the very topmost part of the highest of the ridges Kalona dropped from the sky, easily navigating between the thick, winter nude branches to stand in the middle of a small clearing. Around him, built into the trees themselves, were three wooden structures, crude but sturdily made. Kalona’s sharp gaze saw into the windows of the structures where scarlet orbs glowed in his direction.
He opened his arms. “Yes, my sons, I have returned!” The sound of wings was balm to his soul. They burst from the raised shacks and knelt around him, bowing low and respectfully. Kalona counted them—seven.
“Where are the others?”
All of the Raven Mockers stirred restlessly, but only one face tilted up to meet his gaze and only one hissing voice responded.
“Wessst hiding. Lossst in the land.”
Kalona studied his son, Nisroc, cataloguing the differences between this Raven Mocker and the one who used to be his favorite child. Nisroc was nearly as evolved as Rephaim. His speech was almost human. His mind was almost sharp. But it had been that almost, that fine line between them, that had made Rephaim the son upon which Kalona had depended and not Nisroc.
Kalona clenched and unclenched his jaw. He had been foolish to lavish such attention on Rephaim alone. He had many sons from which to choose and to show favor. It was Rephaim who had lost when he’d chosen to leave. Rephaim had but one father, and he would find poor substitute in an absent goddess and a vampyre who could never truly love him. “It is good that you are here,” Kalona said, cutting off thoughts of his absent son. “But I would have preferred that all of you stayed together and awaited my return.”
“Hold them, I could not,” Nisroc said. “Rephaim dead—”
“Rephaim is not dead!” Kalona snapped, causing Nisroc to shudder and bow his head. The winged immortal paused and regained control of his temper before he continued. “Though it would be better for him if he were dead.”
“Father?”
“He has chosen to serve the red vampyre Priestess and her Goddess.”
The group of Raven Mockers hissed and cringed as if he had struck them.
“Posssible? How?” Nisroc said.
“It is possible because of females, and their manipulations,” Kalona said darkly. He knew all too well how one could fall prey to them. He’d even been brought low by …
In sudden realization, the immortal blinked and spoke, more to himself than his son, “But their manipulations do not last!” He shook his head and almost smiled. “Why did I not consider it sooner? Rephaim will tire of being the Red One’s pet, and when he does he will realize what a mistake he has made—a mistake that is not entirely his and his alone. The Red One manipulated him, poisoned him, turned him against me. But it is only temporary! When she rejects him, because ultimately she will, he will leave the House of Night to return to my—”
Kalona broke off his words, deciding quickly. “Nisroc, take two of your brothers with you. Return to the House of Night. Watch. Be vigilant. Observe Rephaim and the Red One. When opportunity arises speak to him. Tell him that even though he has made this terrible mistake and turned from me…” Kalona paused, clenching and unclenching his jaw, utterly uncomfortable with the sadness and loneliness that washed over him whenever he thought too long about Rephaim’s choice. The winged immortal ordered his thoughts, commanded his feelings, and continued giving Nisroc direction. “Tell Rephaim that even though his misguided choice was to leave me, there is still a place awaiting him at my side, but that place would be better served if he remained at the House of Night, even after he wants to depart.”
“He spiesss!” Nisroc said, and the other Raven Mockers mirrored his excitement with their distinctive croaks.
“He does, but at the moment he may not know he spies,” Kalona said. Then he added, “You understand, Nisroc? You are to watch him. To remain unseen by all except Rephaim.”
“Not to kill vampyresss?”
“Not unless you are threatened—then do as you will, without being taken or killing any High Priestess,” Kalona said slowly and distinctly. “It is never wise to needlessly provoke a goddess, so Nyx’s High Priestesses are not to be killed.” He frowned at his son, remembering his other child who had almost killed Zoey Redbird not long ago—and who had died for it. “Do you understand my command, Nisroc?”
“Yesss. Tell him I will. Rephaim to watch. Rephaim to ssspy.”
“Do so, and return before dawn lightens the sky. Fly high. Fly fast. Fly quietly. Make yourselves like the night wind.”
“Yesss, Father.”
Kalona glanced around, nodding at the thickness of the surrounding woodland, and appreciating the fact that his children had found a high, isolated spot in which to nest.
“Humans, they do not come here?” he asked.
“Only huntersss, and they no more,” Nisroc said.
Kalona raised his brows. “You killed humans?”
“Yesss. Two.” Nisroc moved, agitated and excited. “Against rock we threw them.” He pointed a little way ahead of them and, curious, Kalona strode forward to look down on the steep side of the ridge where the massive power lines that carried electric magick for the modern world stretched before him. The humans had cleared the area surrounding the tall pylons so that the land fell away from him in a wide ribbon that stretched to the horizon. The clearing had left exposed jagged outcroppings of huge chunks of Oklahoma sandstone, clean and lethal and jutting toward the sky.
“Excellent,” Kalona said, nodding in appreciation. “You made it look like an accident. That was well done.” Then he turned back to the clearing and the Raven Mockers who clustered there with all of their attention focused solely on him. “This place is well chosen. I want all of my sons around me here. Nisroc, go to the Tulsa House of Night. Do my bidding. The rest of you fly to the west. Call to your brothers—call them here to me. Here we will wait. Here we will watch. Here we will make ready.”
“Make ready? For what, Father?” Nisroc asked, cocking his head.
Kalona thought about how his body had been entrapped and his soul ripped from him and sent to the Otherworld. He thought about how after he’d returned she’d lashed him, enslaved him, and treated him as if he’d been her property to command
“We make ready for Neferet’s destruction,” he said.
Rephaim
Everyone looked at him with suspicion. Rephaim hated it, but he understood it. He’d been an enemy. He’d killed one of their own. He’d been a monster.
The truth was he could still be a monster.
As third hour began and a professor who called herself Penthasilea read from and then spoke about a book written by an ancient vampyre named Ray Bradbury entitled Fahrenheit 451, and the importance of the freedoms of thought and expression, Rephaim tried to school his new human features into a semblance of attention and interest, but his mind kept slipping away. He wanted to listen to the professor and have nothing more to worry about than what she called “deciphering symbolism,” but the change from boy to raven obsessed him.
It had been as painful and terrifying as it had been thrilling.
And he remembered almost nothing of what had happened to him after it.
Image and sensation were all that remained with him from the day and his transformation into a raven.
Stevie Rae had gone with him up from the deep, earthen tunnels to the tree nearest the depot—the one that, not so long ago, had served as an escape route for them from the blistering sun.
“Go back inside now. Dawn is breaking,” he’d said to her, touching her cheek gently.
“I don’t wanna leave you,” she said, throwing her arms around him and hugging him close.
He’d only allowed himself to return the embrace for a moment, then he’d gently unwound her from around him, and guided her firmly back to the shadowed, grated entrance to the basement.
“Go below. You’re exhausted. You need to sleep.”
“I’m gonna watch
until you’re, uh, you know. A bird.”
She’d whispered the last part as if not saying it aloud would change whether it was so. It was probably foolish, but it made him smile.
“It does not matter whether you say it or not. It’s going to happen.”
She’d sighed. “I know. But I still don’t wanna leave you.” Stevie Rae had reached forward, out into the lightening morning, and taken his hand. “I want you to know I’m here for you.”
“I do not believe a bird knows very much of the human world,” he’d said because he hadn’t known what else to say.
“You’re not gonna be just any bird. You’re gonna turn into a raven. And I’m not a human. I’m a vampyre. A red one. Plus, if I don’t stay here how are you gonna know what to come back to?”
He’d heard a sob in her voice that had made his heart ache.
Rephaim kissed her hand. “I’ll know. I give you my oath. I’ll always find my way home to you.” He’d been about to give her a little shove through the entry to the basement when a sickening pain had torn through his body.
Looking back on it he realized he should have expected it. How could it not be painful to change form from a human boy to a raven? But his world had been filled with Stevie Rae and the simple but complete joy of taking her in his arms, kissing her, holding her close …
He’d not spent time considering the beast.
At least he’d be prepared next time.
The pain had ripped him. He’d heard Stevie Rae’s scream echo his own. His last human thought had been worry for her. His last human sight had been of her crying and shaking her head back and forth. She’d reached for him as animal had completely replaced human. He remembered spreading his wings as if he was stretching after being imprisoned in a tiny cell. Or a cage. And flying.
He remembered flying.
At sunset he’d found himself cold and naked beneath the same tree beside the depot. He’d just pulled on his clothes that had been left neatly folded for him on a little stool when Stevie Rae burst from the basement.
With no hesitation she’d hurled herself into his arms.