CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Zoey
Neferet’s command released total chaos. Threads of Darkness moved in a wave of teeth and writhing, muscular bodies toward the stone stairs.
There was a deafening roar, and Aurox rushed from behind the rocks that had been concealing him. He didn’t hesitate. He charged straight into the thick of them, goring with his horns, tearing and stomping with his cloven hooves.
He was as terrifying as he was magnificent.
“The betrayer vessel!” Neferet shrieked at him. “Broken! You will forever be broken!”
Unable to speak, Aurox’s only response was a roar, as he kept spreading carnage around him.
It was hard for me to look away from him. As I stared I realized that he, too, had changed.
“His horns,” I shouted to Stark. “They aren’t that sickening white anymore!”
“No,” Stark said. “They’re black, like Nyx’s night.”
“And like the other bull. The good one.”
“Stay sharp, Z. Good bull or not, they’re getting past him,” Stark told me. “Watch Neferet. The second she’s close enough, get that circle cast.” Then Stark raised his bow and said, “Kill those bastards of Darkness!”
Arrows rained down on them, all around Aurox. But Stark’s aim was true. The bull was not pierced by them, though tendrils of Darkness all around him were skewered to the ground.
“More!” Neferet called into the night. “I need more of my children!”
It seemed that the shadows vomited Darkness. The things swarmed from everywhere.
And still Neferet wasn’t close enough.
“Her face! Do it!” I told him.
“Strike Neferet’s vanity,” Stark commanded as he pulled his bow taut and let fly two arrows at once.
Both sailed in a beautiful arch, falling in perfect timing with one another. Together they sliced her cheeks, scoring bloody, gaping wounds through her sapphire tattoos.
Screaming over and over, Neferet staggered, holding her face in her hands, trying to keep the skin on her cheeks from flapping open.
I’d thought wounding her would at least confuse her tendrils of Darkness, make them pause if she was unable to call out commands.
I’d been wrong.
Wounding her worked on them like spurs on a horse. Suddenly they were everywhere, and Aurox’s roar was no longer one of challenge but of pain.
“Zoey! Get back to the Hummer! Lock yourself in!” Stark yelled at me as he shot his last arrow. “I’ll follow you!”
“I’m not going anywhere,” I said.
He looked up at me and smiled grimly. “Then neither am I.” Stark planted his feet wide and held his fists up, ready to battle the tendrils with his bare hands.
Instantly, a longsword materialized before him, glistening with deadly beauty.
Stark’s hand closed around the Guardian Sword’s hilt, and with a triumphant shout, he began slicing through the tendrils of Darkness that dared try to get past him.
And still Neferet wasn’t close enough.
Grimly, I slashed the arrowhead across my other palm. This time deeper, causing my blood to rush into my hand. I held up the Seer Stone. “Sprites of air, fire, water, and earth—come to me!” I blew my blood through the center of the stone, and Fey appeared all around me in the forms of birds and fairies, merefolk and forest nymphs. “No matter the cost, I’ll pay it. Just get me to Neferet.”
The cost will be
Your true love from thee
I had no choice. Either Stark dies or the world as I know it dies. “You have my oath. I agree!” I said, promising silently to myself, When this is over, I’ll follow Stark. I’ll know where to find him. Under the wishing tree …
The Fey bowed their glowing heads briefly in acknowledgment of my oath, then they formed a circle around me.
Go to the Dark Goddess.
I did as they commanded, moving past Stark.
“Zoey? What the hell?”
“Stay there, Stark! Keep fighting them. I’m going to her.” I couldn’t look at Stark. I knew he wouldn’t listen to me. I knew he wouldn’t stay up on the stairs where he had a chance against the tendrils. “James Stark, I will always love you!” I shouted.
Then I ran. The Fey surrounded me and moved with me, a solid shield of ancient power, repelling any tendril that approached them. I circled around behind Neferet. And then, using my Fey shield as a battering ram, I hurled myself at her.
The Fey hit her from behind. Blinded by blood and pain, she didn’t see us coming. I knocked her toward the grotto. One step, then another.
Hissing at me like she was a cobra, she whirled around and her terrible, long fingers sliced through the Fey closest to her.
It was a water Fey, a mermaid, and the beautiful blue sprite gave a horrible, inhumane shriek of pain and dissolved into the ground.
I gritted my teeth and took another step toward her.
“You little bitch! That is you inside there. Do you think Old Magick will stop me from killing you? I truly command Old Magick! A mortal cannot defeat me!”
She struck again, and a fire sprite exploded.
I battered her back another step, and she hacked through a Fey in the shape of a graceful heron.
With only a forest nymph between Neferet and me, I ran at her. Neferet raked her talons through the Fey, who screamed and disappeared, but the dark Goddess was off balance from the uneven Oklahoma sandstones beneath her feet, and she fell.
Finally! Close enough!
“Damien, where are you?” I cried.
“Here!” His head popped up from behind a clump of azaleas to my left. “Air, I call you to our circle!” I shouted, and wind rushed around us.
“I’m here!” Shaunee yelled, stepping out from behind a fire-blackened tree.
“Fire, I call you to our circle!” I felt the heat of her element.
“Children! Stop her! Kill her!” Neferet commanded.
I stood my ground, even as I felt a tendril of Darkness slice into my leg. “Shaylin!”
“Right here!” She jumped and waved from the top of the ridge to my right.
“Water, I call you to our circle!”
“Stevie Rae!” I cried, as I grabbed a snake-creature as it shot toward my throat and bashed it against a rock.
“I’m right behind you, Z, and I got your back!”
I turned. Rephaim’s sword sang in an arc around us, while I called, “Earth, I call you to our circle!” I breathed in the scents of a meadow as I completed my casting by calling, “Spirit, I call you to our circle!”
A wide silver ribbon of light crackled into being, connecting the five of us and completely encircling Neferet.
“Do you think a circle will hold me?” Neferet was on her hands and knees. Her face was bloody but already healing. She looked at me and laughed. “You’ve just made this easier. I destroy this circle, I destroy you. Come to me, children! All of you come to me!”
Her creatures obeyed her. They slithered from all the shadows within the park, a dark tide rising around her.
I ignored her and the creatures she called to execute me. I raised my arms. “Air, fire, water, earth, and spirit—hear me! I am Zoey Redbird. My ancestors danced beneath the sky, evoking you in the name of the Great Earth Mother, in respect and love, themselves caretakers of this land, keepers of the mortal realm’s balance of Light and Darkness. Tonight I invoke your aid as a daughter of those ancient caretakers. This Tsi Sgili and her creatures defile us all and create unbalance. So as the Wise Women before me did, I beg of you, Great Earth Mother and the powers of Old Magick, entrap Neferet and her children!” Imagining myself as a fountain and the elements as streams of power shooting up from the bowels of the earth and through me, I threw air, fire, water, earth, and spirit at Neferet.
The silver ribbon that connected me to the circle rushed from me, closing like a noose around Neferet and her tendrils of Darkness, and drawing them back, together, into the open mouth of the grotto.
“Stevie Rae, help me!” Instantly, she was at my side, taking my hand.
“Earth,” she commanded, “close ’em in!” A green glow lit up the rocks all around the grotto. The earth beneath our feet began to shake, harder and harder, until the stones fell free, avalanching to seal the mouth of the grotto.
The silence that followed was incredible. I felt wobbly. My knees were weak. Stevie Rae and I were still holding hands.
“Stark!” I called. “Where are you?” My eyes were already beginning to tear. I knew he wouldn’t answer. I staggered, and Aurox caught me.
He was a boy again, bloody but alive.
“Take it easy,” he said as he and Stevie Rae helped me sit down. “Everything’s going to be okay.”
No, nothing is going to be okay.
“Take a few deep breaths, and before you close the circle, borrow some energy from spirit,” Aurox said.
I nodded numbly, staring at the silver ribbon that still circled me.
“Z! We did it!” Damien cried as he hurried up to us.
“That was super scary,” Shaylin said.
“But awesome,” Shaunee agreed.
They were all around me—all of my circle. And we had done it. We’d trapped Neferet. I was the only one who knew the cost, though.
“Yeah, it was awesome, but painful,” he said.
I looked up, and through my tears saw Stark. He was standing there, smiling down at me. He had a bunch of cuts on his arms and legs, and he was bleeding like crazy, but he was alive!
“Stark! Ohmygoddess!” I was in the process of hurling myself into his arms when the mound of rocks that were supposed to be sealing Neferet inside the grotto began to move.
“Oh, shit!” Stark said. “The tendrils—they’re boring holes through the rocks.”
I stood, in the center of my circle, and raised my hands again. I noticed there was blood all over them. I didn’t care. Stark was alive!
The cost will be
Your true love from thee
The Feys’ voices echoed in my mind, and I realized why Stark was alive.
They hadn’t meant they were taking Stark away from me. They’d meant I was going. It was my turn. This time I had to love my friends and my world enough that I would be the sacrifice that would make it right. I had to exchange my life for entombing Neferet.
“You promised to be sure they’re safe,” I said to Stark.
He narrowed his eyes. “Z, what are you up to?”
I drew a deep breath, readying myself. I lifted my Seer Stone and started walking forward. Grandma said it. Sgiach said it. And, most important, Nyx said it. My blood is special. There’s ancient power in it, living in the modern world. And I’m going to use my blood to seal that tomb.
“It won’t work.” Aurox was suddenly there in front of me, blocking my path.
“Get out of my way,” I told him. “And keep Stark out of my way. I know what I’m doing. You were right. Everything is going to be okay.”
“No, Zoey. You’re strong and wise, but you’re wrong about this. You aren’t an immortal. No matter what you do. No matter what you’re willing to sacrifice, you don’t have enough power to hold her. But I do. I was created from Old Magick as a tool of Darkness.”
“But you chose Light. You changed.”
“Because Heath’s spirit within me gave me a choice. I’m making that choice now, out of love. Not just for you, Zo, but for all of you. This is the right thing to do. I know I’m right. Zo, make Stark take care of Skylar for me, ’kay?” He smiled, and I saw Heath within his moonstone eyes. “Oh, and remember the two things I wanted? Got one of them tonight. Nyx spoke to me through you.” He reached out and took the Seer Stone from me, putting it over his head so that it dangled, flashing silver, in the middle of his chest. “I am the Old Magick you had to wield.”
“And what about the second thing you wanted? What about the girl?” I asked, my eyes filling with tears.
“Next time around, Zo. How ’bout you and me, we make a date for my next time around. ’Cause it’s true. The one thing that never dies is love, always love!”
Then Heath disappeared within Aurox’s sweet, serious eyes. He turned, lowered his head, and roared an ancient challenge. As Aurox charged the grotto, his body convulsed, shifted, and changed so that by the time he reached the stones and the tendrils that were trying to slither free, he had taken the form of a powerful, beautiful black bull. He gored the rocks, and his body changed again, expanding into a huge black shield that folded over the grotto, closing it, sealing Neferet forever within.
There was a terrible rumbling that became a deafening thunder, coming from the east and the west.
“What is it?” Stark yelled.
I started to say I didn’t know, and then I saw the shadow. It spread from the east—an enormous black cloud, taking shape as it grew—horns, mighty chest, and cloven hooves.
“The west! Look to the west!” Shaunee cried.
My gaze went there, and I saw the twin of the other bull taking form, only this one was the white of frost, of death, of the grave.
The two bulls met in the sky above us with a crash that had us covering our ears, even though the sound couldn’t be muffled. Pain flashed through my forehead, and I heard my friends cry out with me. I fell to the ground, feeling like my head was going to explode. Stark was holding me. I looked around wildly, and I could see that Rephaim had gone to Shaylin, and Stevie Rae was rushing from Damien to Shaunee. All of them were collapsed in pain with me.
What was happening to us? Ohmygoddess, what now?
Just when I thought I couldn’t stand any more pain, the sky flashed with a blinding light, and both bulls disappeared together, taking with them the terrible agony in my head.
Shakily, I sat up.
“Z, are you okay? What happened—” His smile interrupted his words. “Oh, that’s what happened!”
I frowned. What was he talking about? I rubbed my face. Man, my forehead hurt.
“Ohmygoddess! That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen!” Stevie Rae practically squealed.
Still confused, I glanced over to where she was, kneeling beside Shaunee. Shaunee looked as dazed as I felt. Blinking, she turned her head to me—and I understood.
My gaze went from her to Damien and from Damien to Shaylin.
“All of them!” I said. “They all made the Change!”
“All of you. You all Changed, Z. Even you!” Stark reached forward and traced a delicate filigree pattern that now spread down around my cheekbones—a real Mark for a real vampyre.
I looked up, through eyes filled and overflowing with grateful tears, and saw the moon shinning full and glorious down on us.
“Thank you, Nyx. Oh, thank you so much!” I called to the moon.
Zoey Redbird, may you and your faithful friends, eternally blessed be …
THE END. REALLY.