by P. C. Cast
“Second greatest?” Stark asked.
Lenobia smiled seraphically. “Why, Stark, I’m surprised you have to ask.” Her distinctive gray eyes found mine. “Zoey Redbird, what is our greatest power?”
“Love,” I said automatically. “Always, love.”
“Indeed,” Lenobia said.
“May I ask something?” Rephaim raised his hand like a good little student.
“Of course. And you don’t have to raise your hand,” I said.
“Are you sure Father visited you in Capri?”
“Well, yeah. I’ve been there before, and he’s been there before—I mean, in my dreams. Believe me, those visits are seared into my memory.”
“Because of their negative nature?” Rephaim asked.
I cleared my throat, uncomfortable with the memories this conversation was unearthing. “Yes. Because of their negative nature.”
“And it was Father who caused the negative parts of the old dreams?”
“Rephaim, if you have something to say, just say it. I’m not sure what you’re getting at,” I said.
“I don’t mean to offend,” he said, looking as uncomfortable as I felt.
“Oh, for shit’s sake! We don’t have time for tiptoeing around each other’s feelings. Just get to the point, Bird Boy,” Aphrodite said.
He glanced from Aphrodite to me, and I nodded. “Then here’s my point: Father visits my dreams often, but never in a place from the past that has negative associations for him. I asked him about it once—why he only enters my dreams when they’re set in new places where he and I have not been before. He said that he cannot bear to relive any memory from when he was lost to Darkness.”
“Wait, you’re telling me that over the past year Kalona has never, not once visited you in a dream in a place where he had done something bad?” A really awful fear frosted up my spine.
“That’s exactly what I’m telling you,” Rephaim said. “With the addition that Father explained it to me. His exact words were …” He paused, thinking, then he quoted Kalona, “Son, I will never revisit the past. I cannot bear the remembrance of what I allowed Darkness to do.”
“Rephaim, can you, um, call Kalona or something and ask him why he visited me on Capri, even though that place was definitely from a time he was filled with Darkness?” I asked.
Rephaim grinned, suddenly boyish. “I don’t call him. I send prayers to him.”
“Just a moment. Are you likening Kalona to a god to whom you pray?” Damien said. “That doesn’t feel right to me.”
“Father is definitely not a god, but he did die. Damien, do you not believe our dead loved ones can hear our prayers?”
I watched Damien’s face blanch white, and then flush a bright, happy pink. “I’d always hoped so, but …” Damien left his chair and went to Rephaim, hugging him as he said, “Thank you so much for that.” He smiled and wiped his eyes, returning to his place at the round table.
Stark, Aphrodite, Darius, and I stared mutely at Damien’s happy expression. I knew what my friends were thinking, and I hated, hated that I had to be the one to take that joy from him.
But, like I’d said earlier. We aren’t kids anymore. We’re the High Council. Adulting often sucks—right now it super sucked.
“So, after the Kalona dream and Kramisha’s prophetic poem, Stark, Aphrodite, Darius, and I decided we needed to go to Woodward Park and be sure nothing weird was going on with Neferet,” I said. “Aphrodite, fill them in on what you found when we cut through the rose gardens.”
Aphrodite quickly recounted her talk with the old rose-garden guy, describing the bizarre black roses and their tendril-like canes.
“That is highly disturbing,” Lenobia skewered Aphrodite with her sharp gaze. “My guess is you had a vision not long after that.”
“Smart lady,” Aphrodite said. Then she looked to me. I nodded.
“All right. Here’s what I saw. Damien, I want to say that I’m sorry about this first.”
“About what?” Damien asked.
“About how hard this is going to be for you.” Aphrodite’s gaze flicked to mine and I nodded. She sighed and continued. “I’m going to tell it like I felt it. I’m not sugarcoating anything.”
“Blame me,” I said. “This is too important for any details to be lost, even if not losing them hurts you.”
“I don’t like where this is going,” Damien said.
Without me asking them to, Stevie Rae, Shaunee, and Shaylin got up from their places around the table and went to Damien. They surrounded him, physically and emotionally, with the elements they embodied as well as their love.
Damien drew a deep breath. “All right. I’m ready now. Go ahead, Aphrodite. What did your vision show you?”
Aphrodite shared her vision without leaving out details. She spoke with little emotion, as if she was reading a news story about something bad that had happened on the other side of the world. It was awful, but there was a sense of detachment that allowed for us to be aware of the elements of her vision and possible dangers we might be facing, without freaking out.
Damien didn’t speak. He listened intently, only showing emotion twice. First, when Aphrodite described Jack emerging from the bloody fountain. His eyes widened and filled with tears, which he brushed from his cheeks impatiently with a hand that trembled slightly. Then, when she told how he’d rushed to his lover, only to be met with teeth and death, Damien’s face lost all color and he clutched his hands together as if in silent prayer.
Stevie Rae was crying silently. She placed one hand on Damien’s shoulder.
Shaunee looked like she was going to be sick, but she, too, rested her hand on Damien.
Shaylin’s hand shook, but she placed it beside fire and earth, firmly on air’s shoulder.
There was a long silence when Aphrodite concluded after adding, “Zoey wanted to know if my vision was metaphoric, like some of my dream visions have been. My answer is the same then as it is now—it didn’t feel symbolic at all. It felt real—like when I dreamed of Z getting her head chopped off. That real. The only thing dreamlike in the vision was the appearance of Jack. I honestly don’t know what to make of that.”
“Damien,” I spoke gently, glad my voice didn’t sound as trembly as I felt. “If you need to step out—wash your face—take some time for yourself, we completely understand.”
“No,” he started to speak and his voice broke. He paused to clear his throat, and began again. “No. I need to be here. I need to help you figure out what this is about.”
“Are you sure?”
“Completely.” Damien wiped his eyes with a tissue from a box of Kleenex Stark slid across the table for him. When he spoke again, there was no weepy emotion clinging to his voice. Damien was all business.
“As much as I want it to be true, I know what you all know. Jack can’t be alive,” he said. “Let’s consider this thing logically. Aphrodite, you said your vision felt literal, though at least part of it must be metaphoric because of that one important fact—Jack can’t be alive,” he repeated.
“Yes. It’s confusing—even for one of my visions, which are always confusing to some extent.”
“I have a hypothesis,” Damien said. “What if the vision was both—figurative and literal?”
“Can you explain?” I asked.
“I’ll try. From Kalona’s warning and the strange roses, it appears as if Neferet must be stirring. Or, at the very least, she’s found a way to influence the mortal world from within her prison. What if the vision was meant to be taken as both—a literal warning that Neferet is exerting her influence on the world, much as she exerted her influence on dead fledglings, turning them into the red fledglings that were once devoid of goodness—hence the red fledglings emerging from a fountain of blood situated near her prison. And figurative—by including the resurrection of Jack in a v
ision, Nyx could be alluding to our loved ones being in danger from Neferet’s awakening influence.”
“It feels logical,” Lenobia said. “Disturbing, but logical.”
“Though I still wonder about Father’s part in this. I’ll be interested to ask him why he chose to appear to Zoey in a place so riddled with negative memories,” Rephaim added.
“And that’s a good next step,” I said. “Rephaim, how long does it usually take Kalona to answer your, um, prayers?”
“Not long,” he said.
“He’s really turned into a good daddy,” Stevie Rae said. “I mean except for the part about him being dead and all.”
“Okay, while Rephaim sends up his prayer request, I strongly believe we need to take action,” Damien said.
“What are you thinking?” I asked.
“I think we should proceed as if Neferet has discovered some way to exert her influence, even from her prison. And when someone’s worried about a prison break, what is the logical step for the wardens to do?” he asked.
“If I was a warden, I’d dang sure hire more guards,” Stevie Rae said.
“Exactly,” Damien said.
“Huh?” I asked.
“You need to do what a warden would do, Z,” Damien continued. “Be sure Neferet’s prison guard is increased.”
“Aurox sacrificed his immortality to trap Neferet. Unless you know an immortal who doesn’t mind joining Aurox, I have no clue what to do,” I said.
“Wait, don’t think so literally,” Shaunee said. “We don’t need another immortal. Neferet hasn’t escaped. We don’t need to retrap her. We just need to boost what’s already holding her.”
“Like a protection spell!” I said, feeling a flutter of hope. “I can do that—we can do that.”
“Hells to the yes!” Shaunee said.
“And once the additional protection is set, if the black roses go away, along with Aphrodite’s vision and Kalona’s dream visits—then we’ll know that’s the answer,” I said.
“Partially,” Lenobia spoke over the relieved sounds my friends were making.
“Partially?” I asked her.
“If the problem is that Neferet has found a way to exert influence over the mortal world, then a protection spell is just the first part of the solution to the problem, unless you cast a very special protection spell—perhaps one that is linked specifically to you, Zoey.”
“Why would Zoey want to do that?” Stark asked the question that was buzzing through my mind.
“I don’t think it’s so much something that Zoey wants to do, but rather something she needs to do,” Lenobia explained. “If the spell is linked to Zoey, then if it begins to be breached, our High Priestess will know.”
“Hopefully, that means I’ll also know how to fix the breach.” Under the table I started to pick nervously at my fingernails.
“You will, Z.” Stevie Rae’s voice was filled with a confidence I wasn’t feeling. “All you need to do is to call us, and your cavalry will arrive to save the day.”
“The Herd of Nerds rides again,” Aphrodite said, only semisardonically.
“You’re part of that herd,” I said.
“The most attractive part,” she quipped.
I rolled my eyes, feeling more and more normal. We had a plan—and that was a relief. And I had my circle around me—that was a blessing.
“Okay, so here’s what we need to do. First, everyone needs to read Neferet’s journal.”
“I’ll make copies,” Shaunee said.
“I’m going to the media center to research protective spells,” I said. “I’d appreciate any help you want to give me.”
“No problem,” Damien said. “My specialty is research.”
“Awesome, so we all know what to do. Let’s break until after dinner.” I glanced at the clock on the wall. “It’s not quite midnight. When’s sunrise, Stark?”
“Tomorrow it’ll be at 7:36 a.m.”
“Okay, how about we meet in the media center at 4:00 a.m. Oh, Lenobia, would you please make an announcement that the media center will be closed to students until further notice?”
“Of course,” Lenobia said.
“Hopefully, we’ll find the perfect spell quickly and then we can—”
Aphrodite’s purposeful throat-clearing interrupted me.
“Problem?” I asked.
“Potentially,” she said. “Sorry, Damien. Again. But as Nyx’s prophetess I’m going to insist on this. Damien cannot represent air when you cast the circle for the protective spell.”
“Of course I have to represent air! I am air,” Damien practically sputtered. “And I absolutely have to be there when the spell is cast.”
“Why?” Aphrodite asked, meeting his gaze steadily.
“Because I’m air,” Damien said stubbornly.
“I can stand in for you,” Aphrodite said. “You can’t be there.”
“I must be there!”
“Why?” she repeated the question in a calm, reasonable voice.
“Because I have to be!” Damien shouted.
Into the after-shout silence I spoke to him softly, kindly. “Jack won’t be there, Damien, but Aphrodite’s vision was clear about one thing. We don’t know why, but your life is in danger.”
“But it could be a metaphor,” he said miserably.
“Could be isn’t enough,” I said. “Take Jack out of the vision, and you’d know that.”
Damien hung his head. “I—I don’t know what to say.”
“Say that you’ll help Z find the perfect spell,” Stevie Rae said, squeezing Damien’s shoulder.
“Say that you understand we can’t let anything happen to you,” Shaylin said.
“Say that you know how well-loved you are, even though Jack isn’t here,” Shaunee said.
Damien lifted his head. His eyes were bright with tears. “I think all I can say right now is thank you, my friends. Thank you.”
“That’s a good start,” Aphrodite said. “Would you also say you forgive me?”
I was surprised by Aphrodite’s question until I remembered the agony in her voice as she’d come out of the vision—how she’d screamed Damien’s name over and over. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that Aphrodite feels things deeply, personally—even though she doesn’t often feel safe enough to show her feelings.
“There is nothing to forgive, my friend,” Damien said.
I watched the last of the tension relax out of Aphrodite’s shoulders.
“Thank you,” she said. Then she turned to me. “I’m coming to the media room with you.”
“I thought you hated research,” I said.
“I hate sitting and waiting more.”
“Well, okay then.”
“We’re gonna put our suitcases in our rooms, then we’ll meet you there, too,” Stevie Rae said.
“Rooms? Don’t you mean your visiting professors’ quarters?” I asked.
“No, um. Well. That was another part of your birthday surprise,” Stark said.
“Jesus effing Christ, Bow Boy!” Aphrodite exploded. “Do you have to give away all of it?”
“WTF?” I asked.
“Please don’t,” Aphrodite said. “Cuss or don’t cuss. But give up the abbreviations.”
“Oh, just tell her!” Shaunee said.
“I’ll tell her.” Stevie Rae skipped over to me, grinning like a crazy person. “We’re gonna be staying in our old dorm room. Well, at least for the next few nights we are. That was part of Stark’s gift to you. He had our room done up like it used to be.”
“He did?” I looked from my BFF to Stark. “You did?”
“Yep.”
“You mean, my dorm room—the one I shared with Stevie Rae—looks like it used to?”
“Yep again. You two can sl
umber party to your heart’s content. Surprise!”
I turned to him. “James Stark, that is the nicest birthday gift I’ve ever been given.” I kissed him then, like no one was watching.
“Ugh. Get a room,” Aphrodite grumped.
“She can’t! She’s sharing it with me, me, me!” Stevie Rae giggled.
“I hope this doesn’t mean I have to stay in the dorm, too,” Shaunee said as everyone began shuffling for the door.
“Goddess, how I hope that’s not what it means,” Damien said. “I’m loving the guest rooms at the tunnels. And that restaurant—delicious.”
“I only fixed up Z’s room,” Stark said, his arms still around me.
“Thank the Goddess,” I heard Shaylin whisper to Nicole. “I’m so done with twin beds.”
I hung back, keeping Stark with me until we were the only people left in the Council Chamber.
He waggled his brows at me. “Want to make out?”
“I’d usually say yes, but right now something else is on my mind. Here’s what’s bothering me.” I kept my voice low, even though we were definitely alone. “Kalona said Nyx didn’t think we should be worried, which is why he visited me without her knowing. But real soon after his stealthy dream visit, Aphrodite was given a vision—and her visions are always from Nyx. So, someone isn’t telling the truth.”
“Do you mean Kalona, Nyx, or Aphrodite is lying?” Stark asked.
“I’m afraid I do.”
8
Zoey
“It’s okay. Go ahead and teach your archery class. The school needs to stay as normal as possible for as long as possible. Hopefully the fledglings won’t even know anything weird is going on because the protection spell will work so well. That’s why I didn’t call Kramisha out of her poetry class.” I tiptoed and kissed Stark at the media center door, then gave him a little push down the hall. “Remember, normal. As far as the fledglings and most of the other professors know—everything is normal.”
“Got it. I’ll meet you back here as soon as my class lets out.”
“Text me first. It’ll be time for dinner and if we’re still working you can stop by the dining hall and give them an order to be delivered to the media center.”
