by P. C. Cast
“I’ll go see to him,” said Grandma Redbird, patting Damien’s arm.
“Oh, G-ma,” Kevin said. “In the outside pocket of my backpack over there, you’ll find a copy of a poem. The other G-ma Redbird asked me to bring it to you. Apparently, it’s from a really old journal written by the women in our family. She wanted to get your take on it. Would you read it and make any notes that come to mind?”
“Of course, u-we-tsi. I shall study it as soon as I check on Jack. Actually, I will take it with me to see him. His mind is sharp. He can help me with it.”
“Thanks, G-ma.” Kevin kissed her soft cheek.
“Okay, so, we’re ready?” Zoey asked.
“Everyone’s here,” said Stark.
Z nodded at her Warrior and then turned to Darius. “Were you able to reach the Warrior on guard at the park?”
“No. His phone rang until it went to voicemail.”
“That’s bad,” said Damien.
“This whole thing is bad,” agreed Stark.
“Then let’s get it over with. Stark, should we cut through the neighborhood, or walk down Utica until we get to Twenty-First and approach the park from the street side where we’ll have a clear view of the grotto?”
“The clear view sounds good to me. You, Darius?”
Darius nodded. “If she’s there, we’ll know it soon enough.”
“Agreed,” Stark said. “Warriors, you lead. Be ready for anything. Remember, protect the priestesses.”
Zoey lifted her hand, and everyone turned their attention to her. “Damien, Aphrodite, Kacie, and Stevie Rae—if either or both Neferets are there, I want you to circle up around me immediately. I’ll call the elements and see if we can force one of the Neferets—or both—back into that grotto, or at least keep them away from us long enough for us to get back here and regroup.”
“Lenobia is casting an evil-repelling spell around the House of Night right now,” said Stevie Rae. “It won’t keep something as awful as the Neferets out forever, but it’ll definitely slow them down and buy us time.”
Z looked at Kevin. “Kev, has your Neferet become immortal?”
“Not as far as we can tell, but she has been messing with Old Magick,” he said.
“Alright. The Neferets have Old Magick and Darkness on their side,” Z said. “We have the elements and Nyx and Light with us. And remember what happens when you shine light into the dark.”
“It runs away,” said Kevin, putting his arm around his sister. “Let’s go make it run.”
18
Other Kevin
The ice changed to rain as the Warriors led their group down the sidewalk toward the Twenty-First Street intersection, which was less than a block away from the school. Kevin stayed in the rear, walking beside his sister. Stark was on the other side of her, with James behind them. Stevie Rae, Kacie, and Rephaim were to Kevin’s right, and behind him Aphrodite walked between Darius and Damien. He was glad he couldn’t see Aphrodite. It was hard to think when he looked at her.
“How’d you two get here? I didn’t feel you using Old Magick,” asked Z.
“Oh, that’s ’cause we didn’t use it. And FYI, you shouldn’t use it either. Stark—er, I mean James and I just got two major warnings about Old Magick. The first was from Sgiach.”
Stark peered around Zoey at Kevin. “He said you went through Skye. I really like that island.”
“You knew they went through Skye?” Z said.
“Well, yeah. Didn’t you recognize the cuts on his arm?”
“They were all bloody. I couldn’t see much.” Z turned her head and looked back at James. “It was Seoras, right?”
“Right.” He nodded and didn’t say anything else.
Kevin sighed. “Yeah, Sgiach totally wouldn’t let me ask the sprites for help. And by the way, when she called Oak just to get some simple info about whether Neferet was over here or not, the sprite acted super bitchy.”
“Really?” Zoey said. “That’s weird. When I was on Skye with our Sgiach the sprites seemed fine.”
“Well, maybe they used to be, before we started calling on them so much.” Kevin cracked his knuckles, rubbed his hands together, and then shoved them into his pockets—glad G-ma had made them all wear slickers. “They’ve changed. Or at least Oak has. Especially since the stadium … and what happened there.” He couldn’t say any more, but Z reached out and squeezed his arm.
As if an echo from his memory, Aphrodite’s voice drifted from behind him. “So, how’d you get here if you didn’t use Old Magick?”
He didn’t turn to look at her. He couldn’t. “Stark’s blood and my connection to spirit summoned the Black Bull, and he gave us a ride to Nyx’s Realm. I called you.” Kevin paused, cleared his throat, and corrected himself. “Sorry, I mean my world’s version of you—the one who’s dead. She led us through Nyx’s Grove to the portal.”
“Holy shit!” The words burst from Aphrodite.
“You saw her again!” Z said. “You okay?”
He nodded but didn’t meet his sister’s knowing gaze. “I’m good. Actually, it helped to see her. And she was the one who gave us the second warning about using Old Magick.”
“She said it’s addictive,” James added from behind them.
“Yeah, I can understand that,” said Z.
“So, I want to know more about Other Aphrodite’s ghost,” said Aphrodite. “And also, how are you getting back?”
“She gets pissed if you call her a ghost,” said James. “Even though she said that it’s all about love over there, she’s still pretty bitchy.”
Kevin did turn then so he could frown at James. “She’s not bitchy. She’s real. Don’t be an ass because she called you out on your shit.”
James put up his hands in surrender. “I didn’t mean anything. I’m glad all I have to do is cut myself and drop some blood on the ground before you call her to take us back. Losing a day of life for every day we’re here is bad enough. I don’t want to get sliced up again.”
“What?” snapped Zoey.
Kevin shrugged. “It was part of the price for traveling through Nyx’s Realm. For every day we’re here we lose one day of our lives. It’s not that big of a deal when you have a lifespan of a couple hundred years or so.”
“Huh,” James snorted. “Right now it doesn’t seem like a big deal. Wait ’till you only have a few days left and then talk to me about it.”
“Other Bow Boy has a point,” said Aphrodite.
“You need to go back ASAP,” said Z.
Kevin hiked his shoulders and didn’t say anything.
“And that’s how you’re getting back? She’s guiding you again?” Aphrodite prodded.
Kevin nodded without looking at her. “Yeah. Once James gives a blood sacrifice, then I just need to call her, and I guess the magick door thingy will appear again, and she’ll be there.”
They’d come to the intersection of Twenty-First and Utica and carefully crossed the icy street. To their right, Utica Square looked eerie and dead with no lights on. Across the street from the posh outside groupings of stores and restaurants, St. John’s Hospital was the only thing lit up—and that lighting seemed strange and pale, as they were clearly using generators that were having trouble keeping up with electrical demand.
Kevin was trying to think of something else he could say—something, anything, that might get Aphrodite to talk to him without making it obvious that he really, really wanted her to talk to him, when Zoey broke into his thoughts.
“So, how’s the truce going over there in your world?”
“It’s going, but it’s crappy.”
Behind them James snorted again. “Heavy on the crappy. There’s a whole group of vampyres who still support Neferet and her war.”
It was Z’s turn to look behind in shock. “Seriously? Like they didn’t learn
how awful war was and how twisted Neferet is?”
“Seriously,” James said. “We have a lot to deal with when we get back. Makes me wonder why the hell Neferet came over here. She talked to Loren Blake. He musta told her she still has a bunch of followers.”
Kevin snorted in disgust. “Not to mention they’re pretty easy to find on the internet.”
Kacie spoke up, and her voice sounded utterly certain—like she’d just had a discussion with Neferet. “She came over here to learn how to become immortal.”
“Exactly what I was thinking, Ice Cream Shoes,” said Aphrodite.
Kevin craned his neck around to look at Kacie while Damien said, “Oh, something else about Kacie. She knows stuff. And it’s stuff Aphrodite usually knows too.”
Stevie Rae grinned proudly at Kacie. “Yup. We have another prophetess in the makin’.”
“That could be helpful,” said James. “Especially since we’re short a prophetess in our world.”
“No Ice Cream Shoes over there?” Aphrodite asked.
“Not that I know of,” said James.
“Well, if Kacie and Aphrodite are right—and Aphrodite usually is,” said Kevin as he brushed rain from his face, “it means we have to find our Neferet ASAP, before she gets any more powerful.”
Zoey adjusted the hood of her slicker. “Well, here’s one bright spot. I don’t for one instant think our Neferet would help anyone become immortal—and especially not anyone who would then be her equal in power.”
“I hope you’re right about that, Z,” said Stevie Rae.
Silently, Kevin seconded that thought.
“Look sharp. We’re coming up on the park,” Darius said.
Everyone stopped talking as they crossed Rockford Street at the east edge of the park, walked past the beginning of the greenery and the arched wooden bridge that covered a small, frozen stream, and then moved quickly across Woodward Park Drive, the road that led up to the top section of the park, and the parking lot there.
Then the rock wall began.
“I wish those damn lights were on,” muttered Zoey.
And like she had conjured electricity, the streetlights flickered and came on to illuminate a terrible scene.
It was like someone had set off a bomb in the middle of the grotto. Boulders littered the expansive lawn that stretched between the man-made ridge and the sidewalk. There was no wall left, and only a remnant of the rock ceiling that used to enclose the grotto tomb.
There was nothing left of the grotto except for a hole in the ridge and a pool of water so dark it looked like frozen ink.
“Is that velvet?” Aphrodite asked.
Carefully, the Warriors moved their group closer and Kevin saw what Aphrodite’s sharp, fashion-attuned eyes had already caught. There were five piles of clothing scattered around the broken tomb.
“I think they’re capes,” said Zoey.
“What are those white things with them?” Stevie Rae asked.
Damien went to one of the piles and squatted down before it. He stood and looked at the rest of them, and his face was colorless except for his bold sapphire tattoo. “Bones,” he said. “They’re human bones.
A chill crawled up Kevin’s spine as he peered over Damien’s shoulder.
Kacie stumbled to a halt beside one of the discarded cloaks and a scattered pile of bones. “Oh, shit! I think I’m gonna be sick.”
Stevie Rae grabbed her arm and guided her away. “Come over here. I’ll hold your hair for ya, but don’t puke on the evidence.”
As Kacie retched into the bushes, the Warriors spread out and looked for signs of anyone left alive.
“Hang on. I need to call Detective Marx,” said Zoey. She stepped away and began to speak earnestly into her phone.
Kevin followed the debris trail around until he saw a puddle of something darker than water beside a cluster of fist-sized rocks. He knelt and touched it gently with his finger. “Z, I have blood over here. And it’s not human. Sta—I mean James, can you come over here?”
James hurried to him, with Zoey, Stark, Aphrodite, and Darius close behind.
Kevin stared at his blood-tipped finger. “Can you tell if this is our Neferet’s?”
“Why would he be able to—” Zoey began and then Kevin saw understanding in her expressive eyes. “Oh. You’ve, uh, tasted her blood.”
James grunted, but didn’t say anything as he crouched beside Kevin, dipped his finger into the slickness of congealing blood, and then licked it. He grimaced and wiped his finger on his jeans.
“Yeah, that’s definitely Neferet’s.”
Kevin stared down at the blood. “Is there a trail of this? She’s hurt, but unless there’s a lot more blood, she’s not hurt badly.”
They spread out, searching the dark, wet ground as rain continued to spit at them. Suddenly, Aphrodite shouted.
“Hey, over here!”
Kevin, Zoey, and James were closest, so they reached her first. Aphrodite was standing inside a clump of azalea bushes that hugged the ridge. It was shadowy within the bushes and they provided cover, but Kevin could see that if he parted one of them it was easy to peek through and have a good view of the grotto.
“Something feels weird over here. Get Ice Cream Shoes. I need a second opinion,” said Aphrodite. She had her hands out, palms down, like she was trying to feel heat rising from the earth.
“What are you doing?” Kevin asked her.
“Trying to figure something out.” Then her head snapped up and she took a step into the bushes and disappeared for an instant. “Ah, shit!”
Zoey didn’t hesitate. She pushed through the bushes to join Aphrodite with Kevin close behind.
Aphrodite was pointing at the icy ribbon of a stream that hugged the ridge and pooled at the base of the clump of azaleas. “That’s not a weird mirror,” she said.
“No. It’s a stream. What are you talking about?” asked Zoey.
“My vision. Remember when I said the only glimpse of Lynette I got was in what I thought was a mirror?”
Kevin and Z nodded.
“I recognize this. Z, what I saw in my vision happened right here. Lynette was here. Other Neferet was here, and so was our creepy, spidery Neferet.”
“Ah, hell. Does that mean she’s dead?” Z said.
“I honestly don’t think so. I know we didn’t do anything to change the vision—or at least if we did, we don’t know what it was, but my gut tells me that Lynette isn’t dead. At least not yet. Where’s her body? And that’s not her blood—it’s Other Neferet’s.”
Zoey paced, though she could only walk a couple feet before she had to turn around again. “Okay, according to your vision, Lynette was here with Other Neferet. They broke our Neferet out. Let’s say none of those piles of bones are Lynette—so, where is she now? And where is Other Neferet? And why the hell did you get that vision if it wasn’t so that we could change it?”
Kacie gasped as she peeked through the azaleas. “Wow! Can anyone else feel that?”
“Ah, good. Ice Cream Shoes,” Aphrodite brightened and pushed back through the bushes with Kevin and Z following. Intrigued, Kevin watched the young priestess hold her hands out, palms down, exactly where Aphrodite had been. “It’s the residue of something, right?” Aphrodite said.
Kacie nodded. “Totally. It was only here for a second, but it was crazy powerful.”
“Powerful enough to open a portal between worlds?” Aphrodite asked.
Kacie looked up at her. “This is Old Magick.”
“Exactly what I thought.” Aphrodite turned to Z, and Kevin was struck by how much more confident this world’s version of his Aphrodite was. My Aphrodite would have been strong enough to live if she’d had her confidence, he thought. And then he realized what she was getting at.
“My Neferet called Old Magick to take her—and Ly
nette—back to our world,” Kevin blurted.
“I wonder why? You think it was because she was hurt?” Zoey mused.
Aphrodite huffed. “Well, for whatever reason it seems to have saved Lynette’s life—and that was the important part of my vision.”
“Oh, shit! Do you think that means your Neferet went with them?” The thought made Kevin’s stomach flip-flop.
Zoey’s phone rang. She glanced at the screen and said, “It’s Marx,” before answering. “Yeah, we’re still at the park.” She paused and then said. “Yeah, yeah, I know where you mean.” And paused again. By the time she spoke again, all of the color had drained out of her face and her voice was thick with dread. “That’s horrible. Okay, I understand. See you soon.”
As Zoey disconnected, Darius jogged up to them with Stark beside him—both looking grim.
“We found the body of the Warrior who had been on duty. His throat was ripped out and he’d been drained of blood,” said Darius.
“Shit, that’s awful,” said Kacie.
Zoey wiped more rain from her face. “One of the Neferets is still here—and I’m pretty sure it’s ours. Detective Marx just got a call from the TPD. They’re just down the street a few blocks. You know those apartments that face Twenty-First before you get to the river?”
Stark and Darius nodded.
Zoey swallowed before she continued, like she was trying not to throw up. “It’s a slaughterhouse down there. There was one witness. She said things swarmed the complex. Awful things. They killed everyone. Maybe even took hostages with them. Marx can’t be sure yet because the woman is completely hysterical.”
“What does she mean by things?” asked Kevin.
“She means disgusting wormlike things with mouths full of teeth and no eyes,” said Z.
“Fuck! That’s what our Neferet’s tendrils of Darkness looked like in my vision,” said Aphrodite.
“Our Neferet’s tendrils are fat and big—like supersized water moccasins.” As Kevin spoke he watched Aphrodite, and not just because he was obsessed. He’d noticed that she looked more waterlogged than the rest of them and kinda wonky. Then she flipped back her hair with a shaking hand.
