Neferet turned to meet Lynette’s gaze. Her friend, her dearest one, smiled and nodded. “I believe you can do it.” Her voice was strengthened by the bubble of earth power that protected them.
Beside her, Zoey said, “I believe you can do it too, and while you do, we’ll keep Lynette safe.”
Aphrodite turned to Neferet and met her gaze. “You’re the only one who really knows how to stop her.”
Bleeding in Rephaim’s arms Anastasia said, “You must stop her, High Priestess.”
Tears filled Neferet’s eyes. “I have forsaken that title many times over.”
Anastasia reached out and grasped Neferet’s blood-slicked hand. “But Nyx has never forsaken you—nor will she ever.”
The truth of her words shivered through Neferet, and a dam broke within her, allowing the love of Nyx, her betrayed Goddess of Night, to pulse through her veins and fill her heart.
“Zoey, promise me that you will care for my Lynette, even should I not return.”
“I give you my word that if you fall, I will take Lynette back to my world with me and give her a home at the House of Night,” Zoey said solemnly.
“Oh, holy shit! I understand the vision now,” blurted Aphrodite.
Neferet turned to her. “Will you tell me—truly—what your vision foresaw?”
“Yes, High Priestess, I will,” said Aphrodite. “I saw Lynette fall—and with her fell two worlds. But now I get it. We’re here to protect Lynette. It’s not about Kalona. It’s not about us or weapons or Warriors. It’s about you. With your friend safe, you can take on Batshit.”
Neferet nodded. “With my dearest safe, I take on another version of myself, a version that could’ve so easily been my fate, and hope that for the first time since the day I was Marked, good will triumph over evil in my life. It did that day because it made me a vampyre, but I did not see that then. I saw only what had been broken within me and my desperate need to never be broken again. I know better now.”
Aphrodite fisted her hand over her heart and bowed to Neferet—and everyone in the circle, as well as the four who still held the circumference—did the same.
“If I survive this, I will be different,” said Neferet.
“You already are,” said Zoey.
Neferet squared her shoulders and smoothed her tattered dress. “Let me walk free of the circle.”
Zoey smiled at her. “We don’t have to let you. Those who are in the service of Nyx can enter and leave it whenever they want.”
Neferet drew a deep breath. “Then the first step is to see if our Goddess has forgiven me and taken me back into her service.” She turned her head and met Lynette’s gaze one last time. “I love you, my dearest sister.”
“I love you too. And I’m so, so proud of you.”
Neferet walked free of the circle, feeling only a caress of warmth as she broke through the green barrier.
35
Other Neferet
Neferet started forward, moving to the place where the Monstress still battled Kalona. She glanced back over her shoulder to see Zoey and her friends—her family—surrounding Lynette protectively, keeping her safe within their shield of earth and power.
Neferet had always longed for that—the safety of a family. But she’d forever been on the outside looking in at others who had attained it. Even when she was the High Priestess here, she’d never felt as if she belonged.
So, she’d chosen power and control and even fear because she’d believed they would keep her safe. Neferet had never tried love. Until Lynette, she’d never let love in, and she realized then that unless you allow love in so that it can shine light on the loneliness and destroy the Darkness, love cannot exist.
Which brought her to what she must do.
Neferet felt very calm as she strode toward the monster that was the darkest version of herself. Bullets whizzed by her but they did not strike her. She knew deep within her newly awakened heart that Nyx had granted her a small bit of protection. The Goddess would allow her to do what she must. Neferet fervently hoped the Goddess would continue to accept her afterward, but she did not let herself dwell on that hope. She was not doing this for Nyx, though she was content that this would serve the Goddess.
Neferet was doing this for love.
Some of her tendrils began detaching from the Warriors, but Neferet lifted her hand and called across the green. “No, children, remain with the Warriors.” Then she kept walking.
Her voice had caught the Monstress’s attention, and like a praying mantis, her head swiveled, and her lips lifted to expose her teeth in the parody of a smile.
“Ah, good! We were hoping you would come to us of your own will!” she said as she continued to battle Kalona.
“Kalona of the Silver Wings—step aside,” commanded Neferet.
The immortal did so, though he backed off only a few feet, hovering above the wall and the creature who crouched before it with her bloody spear.
The Monstress stood as Neferet came to her and stopped—just out of reach of that spear.
“We would ask whether you’ve come to your senses and joined us, but you already answered that question when you ordered your children to continue to beleaguer ours. So, do you simply come to embrace your inevitable death?”
“Perhaps,” Neferet said honestly. “But first, I’d like to ask you something.”
“How interesting. Ask, weak, pathetic version of what you should be.”
Neferet raised a brow. “You’re right about that. I have allowed myself to be a pathetic version of what I was meant to be. I hope to rectify that now. Tell me, Emily Wheiler, did he brutalize you too, the night you were Marked? Did he leave you broken and bleeding—raped and wronged?”
The Monstress’s
