As they walked on, Kevin focused on enjoying the sliver of time he’d been granted with Aphrodite. He wished he could hold her hand, but instead he walked beside her, talking about nothing and everything and memorizing each detail of her face, her eyes, and the way she looked at him and smiled.
There was no way to judge how long they’d been moving through Nyx’s Grove when Aphrodite stopped abruptly and Stark almost walked through her. “There—that’s the door to the world you need to enter.”
The grove hadn’t thinned. It had opened to reveal a large, oval-shaped portal that looked like a whirlpool of stars and moons and galaxies had been stirred together and poured onto the surface of a glistening mirror. The longer Kevin stared at it, the dizzier he felt.
He swallowed past the sudden dryness in his throat. “What do we do now?”
“Walk into it. Oh, and think about where you want to be. It’d suck for you if you were dropped, like, into the middle of the ocean or the Mojave or whatever. No way your cell service extends to alternative worlds—well, unless something major has changed with the different carriers.”
Kevin said to Stark, “We need to go to the Tulsa House of Night.”
“Definitely,” Stark said. “How about the statue of Nyx in the courtyard across from her temple.”
Kevin nodded. “Sounds good to me.” Then he turned to Aphrodite and drew a deep breath. “I’ll see you again on the way back—that’s what Sgiach said.” Her face softened, and Kevin thought she’d never looked so lovely.
“I’ll be listening for your call. Hey, it’s going to be hard, but you have to remember she’s not me. She has her own world and life … and love.” Aphrodite said the last word softly. “Don’t let it break your heart.”
Kevin wiped at the tears tracking down his face. “I know. And I’ll try not to let it get to me.”
“If she comforts you—accept it for what it is.”
“And what is it?” Kevin said.
“You’ll have to ask her, but when she answers you, remember what she says and know that she’s telling you the truth—her truth. Just as it is my truth that I loved you when I was alive, and I love you still. I always will.”
Kevin couldn’t speak. He could only nod.
Aphrodite went to Stark. “Bow Boy, this trip is going to be difficult for you too, but for different reasons. It’s up to you to learn from it … or don’t,” she shrugged. “But if you don’t, it’ll make you even douchier.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. You know, you didn’t call me Bow Boy much when you were alive.”
Aphrodite laughed. “Oh, poor Bow Boy! Yes, I did—in my mind. Constantly, in my mind.” Then she began backing into the grove. “Go now,” she said. “You’re needed there.”
Kevin watched her smile one more time and blow him a kiss, then it was like the grove absorbed her, and Aphrodite disappeared. Reluctantly, he joined Stark at the portal.
Kevin cracked his knuckles. “Please take us to Nyx’s statue in the courtyard of the Tulsa House of Night.”
Stark ran his fingers through his hair, sighed, and said, “To the statue of Nyx at the Tulsa House of Night.”
Together, they entered the portal.
12
Other Lynette
As usual, Lynette woke before Neferet. In the kitchen that someone—Lynette guessed bottom-of-the-pecking-order Kelsey—had cleaned, she hurriedly prepared Neferet’s meal, then boiled an egg for herself and made toast with jam and a pot of coffee, which she took upstairs to her room to eat in peace as she waited for dusk and for Neferet to wake.
She went to the upstairs sitting room that bordered the balcony from which they’d observed Neferet the night before. Lynette pulled one of the overly ornate little tables over to the wall of windows and gazed out at a world covered with diamonds as she sipped her coffee and opened her borrowed laptop.
Ice blanketed everything, turning the lovely courtyard and rear grounds of the villa into something magickal enough for the sprites to call home.
“We have electricity. But let’s see how bad it is,” Lynette mused as her fingers danced across the keys. “Hum, Tulsa is a mess, but they aren’t calling it an icepocalypse—or at least not yet they aren’t.” She glanced out the windows again. The sky still spit ice, but not like it had the night before. Lynette guessed that a drive to Woodward Park would be almost impossible. “But a walk, that should be just fine.”
She was nervous about what the night would bring, but Lynette trusted Neferet. She knew her mistress would handle whatever situation arose. The truth was, she was hoping Neferet would fail—that the sacrifice of five vapid mortals would not be enough to siphon power to this world’s totally crazy version of her friend. A fail tonight would be all it would take for Lynette to convince Neferet that they really must return to their world, if only to regroup and come up with plan B.
Lynette tapped her chin contemplatively. I’d like to live in Scotland. I’ll bet Neferet would too. We were happy at Balmacara Mains. I could wait there while Neferet goes to Skye and gains her immortality. That was their original plan, and it was a good one.
She gazed out the window as she thought about this world—about how similar yet utterly unlike it was to hers. Lynette never imagined she’d miss Tulsa, but she would happily return there if it meant leaving this place.
And then a thought struck her, and after it did she was amazed that it had taken her so long to consider it.
“I wonder who my mirror image is in this world?” she murmured at the computer screen.
For a moment her fingers froze over the keys. What if she’d never gotten out of Camino Villa trailer park in Broken Arrow? Lynette shuddered. Could she leave a version of herself here to rot in
