by P. C. Cast
Duchess’s howl of agony and her pitiful whines that followed will be forever be imprinted in my mind with my first sight of the new Stark. He moved forward like a ghost. His skin was eerily pale, and his eyes the red of old blood. The crescent on his forehead was red, too, like the fledglings who filled my circle, but he was different than they were. The thing Stark had become stood there beside Neferet, glaring, madness shining in his eyes. Looking at him, I felt like I was going to be sick.
“Stark!” I meant to call his name loud and strong, but it came out of my mouth as little more than a broken whisper.
Still he turned his face in my direction. I saw the blood color in his eyes fade, and for just a moment I thought I glimpsed the boy I knew.
“Zzzzoey . . .” He said my name in something like a hiss, but it gave me an instant of hope.
I took a stumbling step toward him. “Yes, Stark, it’s me,” I said, trying hard not to cry.
“Ssssaid I’d come back to you,” he murmured.
I smiled through the tears that were filling my eyes as I moved closer and closer to where he stood just outside the circle. I had opened my mouth to tell him it’d be okay, that somehow we’d figure out a way for it to be okay, but suddenly Aphrodite was there beside me. She grabbed my wrist, pulling me back from the edge of the circle.
“Don’t go to him,” she whispered. “Neferet is setting you up.”
I wanted to shake her off, especially when Shekinah’s voice came from the other side of the circle. “What has been done to this child is quite horrible. Zoey, I must insist that you close this ritual for this evening. We shall take the fledglings inside, and contact the Council of Nyx to come and judge these events.”
I could feel the red fledglings stir restlessly at my back, drawing my attention from Stark. I turned and met Stevie Rae’s eyes. “It’s okay. That’s Shekinah. She’ll know the difference between lies and truth.”
“I know the difference between lies and truth, and I carry a judgment with me greater than some distant Council.” I heard Neferet speak and turned to face her again.
“You’ve been found out!” I yelled at her. “I didn’t do this to Stark, or to the other red fledglings. You did, and now you’re going to have to face what you’ve done.”
Neferet’s smile was more of a sneer. “And yet the creature calls your name.”
“Zzzzzoey,” Stark called me again.
I stared at him, trying to see the guy I’d know within his haunted face. “Stark, I’m so sorry this has happened to you.”
“Zoey Redbird!” Shekinah’s voice was a whip. “Close the circle now. These events must be reviewed by those whose judgment can be trusted. And I will take this poor fledgling into my care.”
For some reason, Shekinah’s command made Neferet begin to laugh.
“I have a bad feeling about this,” Aphrodite said, pulling me back toward the center of the circle.
“Me, too,” Stevie Rae said from her northernmost position in the circle.
“Don’t close the circle,” Aphrodite said.
Then in the middle of everything, Neferet’s voice whispered across the circle to me, Don’t close the circle and you’ll look guilty. Close it and you’ll be vulnerable. Which do you choose?
I met Neferet’s eyes across my circle. “I choose the power of my circle and the truth,” I said.
Her smile was victorious. She turned to Stark. “Aim for the true mark—the one that will make the earth bleed. Now!” Neferet commanded him. I saw him pause, as if he was fighting against himself. “Do as I command, and I will give you your heart’s desire.” Neferet whispered the words for Stark’s ears alone, but I read them on her ruby lips. The effect they had on him was instantaneous. Stark’s eyes blazed red and with the swiftness of a striking snake, he lifted the bow I hadn’t noticed he was holding at his side, sighted an arrow, and shot. Slicing the air in a deadly line, it struck Stevie Rae in the center of her chest with such force that it buried itself to the dark feathers on the end of its shaft.
Stevie Rae gasped and fell to the ground, crumbling in on herself. I screamed and ran toward her. I could hear Aphrodite yelling at Damien and the Twins not to break the circle, and I silently blessed her for her cool head. I reached Stevie Rae and dropped to the ground beside her. Her breath was coming in painful little gasps, and her head was bowed.
“Stevie Rae! Oh, Goddess no! Stevie Rae!”
Slowly she raised her head and looked at me. Blood was pouring from her chest—more blood than I thought any one person could hold. It was soaking the ground around her, which was lumpy from the roots of the big oak. The blood mesmerized me. Not because of its sweet, intoxicating smell, but because I realized what it looked like. It looked like the earth at the base of the great oak was bleeding.
I stared over my shoulder at Neferet, who stood smiling triumphantly just outside my circle. Stark had fallen to his knees beside her, and he was staring at me with eyes that were no longer red, but were now filled with horror. “Neferet, you are the monstrosity, not Stevie Rae!” I shouted.
My name is no longer Neferet. From this night on call me Queen Tsi Sgili. The words were spoken in my mind just as plainly as if Neferet had been standing beside me whispering them in my ear.
“No!” I cried, and then the night exploded.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
The ground beneath my feet, soaked through with Stevie Rae’s blood, began to shudder, rippling like it was no longer solid earth but had suddenly turned to water. Through panicked cries, I heard Aphrodite’s voice again, as calm as if she was only yelling at Damien and the Twins about their fashion choices.
“Move in to us, but don’t break the circle!”
“Zoey.” Stevie Rae gasped my name. She looked up at me with pain-filled eyes. “Listen to Aphrodite. Don’t break the circle. No matter what!”
“But you’re—”
“No! I’m not dying. I promise. He’s just taken my blood, not my life. Don’t break the circle.” I nodded, then stood up. Erik and Venus were closest to me. “Get on either side of Stevie Rae. Hold her up. Help her keep the candle, and no matter what, don’t let it go out and don’t let the circle be broken.”
Venus looked shaky, but she nodded and moved to Stevie Rae. Erik, white-faced with shock, just stared at me.
“Make your choice now,” I said. “You’re either with us or with Neferet and the rest of them.”
Erik didn’t hesitate. “I made my choice when I volunteered to be your consort tonight. I’m with you.” Then he hurried to help Venus lift Stevie Rae.
Stumbling over the shifting ground, I staggered to Nyx’s table and caught my purple spirit candle just before it fell over and went out. Clutching it close to me, I turned my attention to Damien and the Twins. They were following Aphrodite’s calm instructions and, in the midst of the screaming chaos that was outside our circle, they were walking slowly together, tightening the circumference of the silver thread toward Stevie Rae, until we were all of us, Damien, the Twins, Aphrodite, Erik, the red fledglings, and me clustered together around Stevie Rae.
“Start moving her away from the tree,” Aphrodite said. “All of us, without breaking the circle. We need to head to the trapdoor in the wall. Now.”
I stared at Aphrodite, and she nodded solemnly. “I know what’s going to happen next, and it’s not going to be good.”
“Then let’s get out of here,” I said.
We started to move as a group, taking small steps over the bucking earth, having to be ultra-careful with Stevie Rae and the candles and the circle that seemed so important to maintain. You’d think fledglings and vampyres would be in our way. You’d think at least Shekinah would have said something to us, but it seemed we existed in a weird little bubble of serenity amidst a world suddenly awash in blood and panic and chaos. We kept moving away from the tree, following the wall, slowly and carefully making progress. I’d noticed that the grass underneath our feet was smoother and completely dry of St
evie Rae’s blood when Neferet’s terrible laughter floated across the grounds to me.
The oak, with a horrible ripping sound, tore apart. I had been walking backwards, helping to prop Stevie Rae up from the front, so I had a clear view of the tree when it split. From underneath the middle of the destroyed oak a creature rose. At first all I saw were huge black wings that completely enfolded something. Then he stepped from the destroyed oak, straightening his mighty body and unfurling his night-colored wings.
“Oh, Goddess!” The cry was ripped from me at my first sight of Kalona. He was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. His skin was smooth and completely unmarred, and was gilded with what looked like the kiss of the sun’s loving rays. His hair was as black as his wings, and fell loose and thick around his shoulders, making him look like an ancient warrior. His face—how can I ever fully describe his beautiful face? It was like a sculpture come to life, and it made even the most handsome mortal, be he human or vampyre, look like a sickly, unsuccessful attempt at imitation of his glory. His eyes were the color of amber, so perfect, they were almost golden. I found myself wanting to get lost in them. Those eyes called to me . . . he called to me . . .
I had stumbled to a stop, and I swear I would have broken the circle right then so that I could run back and fall at his feet, had he not raised his gorgeous arms and called in a voice that was deep and rich and full of power, “Arise with me, children!”
Raven Mockers burst from the hole in the ground and filled the sky, and it was the fear that filled me at the sight of their terribly familiar misshapen bodies that broke the spell Kalona’s beauty had cast on me. They shrieked and circled their father, who laughed and held his arms up higher so that their wings could caress him.
“We have to get out of here!” Aphrodite hissed.
“Yes, now! Hurry,” I said, totally myself again. The ground was no longer shaking, so we were able to increase our pace. I was still moving backwards, so I watched in fascinated horror as Neferet approached the newly freed angel. She stopped before him and swept a low, graceful curtsey.
He inclined his head regally, his eyes already glinting with lust as he looked at her. “My Queen,” he said.
“My Consort,” she said. Then she turned to face the crowd that had stopped milling around in panic and was instead staring in fascination at Kalona.
“This is Erebus, come to earth finally!” Neferet proclaimed. “Bow to Nyx’s consort, and our new Lord on earth.”
Many of the watching crowd, especially the fledglings, instantly dropped to their knees. I looked for Stark, but didn’t see him. I did see Shekinah begin to stride forward, picking her way around worshipful fledglings, her wise face guarded, her expression fixed in a deep frown. As she walked, many of the Sons of Erebus joined her, looking alert, but I couldn’t tell if they were questioning Kalona, as Shekinah obviously was, or if they thought to protect him from the High Priestess. Before Shekinah could break through the crowd and confront the risen angel, Neferet lifted her hand and made a slight flicking motion with her wrist. It was a gesture so small and insignificant that had I not been watching for it, I would not have seen it.
Shekinah’s eyes went wide, she gasped, grabbed her neck, and then crumpled to the ground. The Sons of Erebus rushed to her body.
It was at that moment that I took the cell phone out of my pocket and keyed up Sister Mary Angela’s number.
“Zoey?” she answered on the first ring.
“Get out. Get out now,” I said.
“I understand.” She sounded utterly calm.
“Take Grandma! You have to take Grandma with you!”
“Of course I will. Look after yourself and your people. I shall look after her.”
“I’ll call you when I can.” I flipped the phone shut.
When I looked up from the phone I saw that Neferet had turned her attention to us.
“We’re there!” Aphrodite said. “Get that damn door open now!”
“It is already open,” said a familiar voice. I glanced behind me at the wall to see Darius standing beside a cracked trapdoor that seemed to appear magically in the bricks and rock. And, with a huge rush of relief, I saw that Jack was standing beside the warrior, bawling his eyes out, but in one piece with Duchess close to his side.
“If you’re with us, you have to be against them,” I told Darius, jerking my chin back toward the House of Night and the Sons of Erebus who filled the school grounds and who were not making one move against Kalona.
“I’ve made my choice,” said the warrior.
“Can we please get out of here? She’s looking at us!” Jack said.
“Zoey! You’ve got to buy us some time,” Aphrodite said. “Use the elements—all of them. Shield us.”
I nodded and closed my eyes, centering myself. Vaguely in the back of my mind I knew Aphrodite was ordering around the red fledglings and telling them to stay close, stay inside our circle, even if it was mushed and not really circle-shaped anymore as we crammed ourselves through the trapdoor. But I was only partly there. The rest of me was commanding wind, fire, water, earth, and spirit to cover us, protect us, to blot us from Neferet’s view. As they hurried to obey me, I felt a drain on my strength like I’d never known before. Of course I’d never tried to command all five of the elements at once to do such powerful work for me—it felt as if my mind, my will, was trying to sprint a marathon.
I gritted my teeth and held on. The elements swarmed above and around us. I could hear the wind and smell the salt of ocean as a strong breeze swirled a thick mist around us. Then thunder rolled in the suddenly cloudy sky and with a crack! a shard of lightning sizzled down, hitting a tree a few yards in front of us. The tree seemed to expand as earth magnified it, so that I opened my eyes as one of the red fledglings was guiding me backwards and through the trapdoor to see our little group completely shielded by the fury of the elements. In the midst of that chaos, I heard the wonderful sound of “mee-uf-ow!” and I looked through the trapdoor to see Nala sitting on the ground outside the school at the head of a bevy of cats, including the horrible and very disheveled-looking Maleficent, who was staying close to the Twins’ hateful Beelzebub.
I got one last glimpse of Neferet as she looked wildly around, clearly not wanting to believe that we had somehow escaped her. And then the trapdoor closed, sealing us out of the House of Night.
“Okay, reform up the circle. Tighten it up. Twins! You’re too close together. You’re making it lopsided. Cats! Stop hissing at Duchess. We don’t have time for it.” Aphrodite was calling orders like a drill sergeant.
“The tunnels.” Stevie Rae’s weak voice seemed to slice through the night.
I looked at her. She couldn’t stand up. Erik had lifted her in his arms, and he was holding her like a baby, careful not to touch the arrow that was sticking out of her back. Her face was completely chalk white except for her red tattoos.
“We have to get to the tunnels. We’ll be safe there,” she said.
“Stevie Rae’s right. He won’t follow us there, and neither will Neferet, not anymore,” Aphrodite said.
“What tunnels?” Darius asked.
“They’re under the city, old Prohibition hiding places. The entrance is through the depot downtown,” I said.
“The depot. That’s a good three miles or so away, through the heart of the city,” he said. “How are we going to—?” His words broke off as we heard terrible screams coming from all around us outside the House of Night. Bright balls of fire were blossoming in the sky like terrible, deadly flowers.
“What’s happening?” Jack asked, moving closer to Damien.
“It’s the Raven Mockers. They have their bodies back, and they’re hungry. They’re feeding on humans,” Aphrodite said.
“They can use fire?” Shaunee asked, looking supremely pissed.
“They can,” Aphrodite said.
“Like hell they can!” Shaunee started to lift her arm, and I felt heat begin to swirl in the air around us.
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br /> “No!” Aphrodite yelled. “You can’t call attention to us. Not tonight. If you do, we’re finished.”
“You’ve seen this?” I asked.
She nodded. “All this and more. Those who don’t get underground will be their prey.”
“Then we get to Stevie Rae’s tunnels,” I said.
“How?” one of the red fledglings I didn’t recognize said. She sounded young and very afraid.
I braced myself, already exhausted by manipulating all five of the elements to such an extent. I didn’t want them to know how draining I was finding all of this. They had to believe I was strong and sure and in control. I drew a deep breath. “Don’t worry. I know how we move without being seen. I’ve done it before.” I smiled wearily at Stevie Rae. “We’ve done it before.” My gaze took in Aphrodite. “Haven’t we?”
Stevie Rae managed to nod weakly.
“Yep, we sure have,” Aphrodite said.
“So what’s the plan?” Damien asked.
“Yeah, let’s get with it,” Erin said.
“Ditto. I’m getting a cramp from smooshing so close to everyone,” Shaunee muttered, obviously still pissed she couldn’t fight fire with fire.
“Here’s the plan. We become mist and shadows, night and darkness. We don’t exist. No one sees us. We are the night and the night is us.” As I explained it, I felt that familiar shiver of my body and saw the red fledglings gasp, and knew when they looked at me, they were seeing nothing but mist covered with darkness, steeped in shadow. I thought how weird it was that blending with the night felt easier now that I was exhausted . . . it was like I could just fade away and finally sleep . . .
“Zoey!” Erik’s voice shook me out of my dangerous trance.
“Fine! I’m fine,” I said quickly. “Now you guys do it. Concentrate. It’s no different than when you used to sneak out of the House of Night to meet boyfriends or go to off campus rituals, only you’re going to focus even more. You can do it. You are mist and shadow. No one can see you. No one can hear you. Only night is here, and you are part of night.”
