“Okay, no problem. If you need to stay with Jack, I totally understand,” I said.
“No!” Jack wiped the tears from his face as he bravely choked back tears. “You’ll need Damien’s brains. And you’ll need air if it comes to a fight with two Neferets. I’ll—I’ll be okay.”
With Jack tucked safely under Damien’s arm they headed back to the professors’ quarters where they shared a room when they weren’t staying at the depot.
“I’m going to change these boots,” said Aphrodite.
“Are you sure you want to come?” I asked.
“Are you fucking kidding me? I need to see if it looks like it did in my vision. Plus, I’m a Prophetess of Nyx. I belong at my High Priestess’s side during trouble.”
“Thanks,” I said. “I’ll be glad to have you there.”
“I will go arm myself,” said Rephaim.
“And while he does that, I’ll be puttin’ on some real shoes,” said Stevie Rae.
“Find Lenobia. Tell her what’s going on. She’s High Priestess in my absence. Also, get Kacie. I need a full circle, and since this weather has grounded Shaunee and Shaylin, she’s my fire and water. Do you think she’s ready?” Not that anyone could ever really be ready to take on two Neferets, I added silently.
“She’s smart and tough. I think she’s as ready as you were when you first faced off against Neferet,” said Stevie Rae.
“I had my friends to back me up,” I said.
“And so does she, Z. She has us.” Stevie Rae saluted me formally and said, “BRB, High Priestess.” Then she took off, sliding down the sidewalk toward the stables.
That left Kevin, Grandma, and me alone.
“Let’s get inside,” said Grandma. “I’ll pour cups of hot tea before you have to leave.”
“Grandma,” I said as we walked into the main part of the big stone buildings that made up the House of Night, “I don’t want you to be scared. You’ll be safe here.”
“Oh, u-we-tsi-a-ge-ya, when danger comes there is no place I’d rather be than at the House of Night.”
17
Other Stark
Meeting the alternative version of himself was the weirdest thing to happen to Other Stark in a young life that hadn’t been lacking in weirdness. In the infirmary Stark left him alone with the nurse while he went to his room to get a shirt that wasn’t all bloody. In Nyx’s Realm the arm hadn’t hurt—or at least it hadn’t much—but here, in this world, it felt like it was on fire, especially when the nurse flushed and then cleaned it.
“You need stitches,” said the nurse as Stark hurried back into the room, carrying a black House of Night sweatshirt over his shoulder.
“Will butterfly stitches do?” Other Stark asked her.
“They will, but regular stitches will allow it to heal easier.”
He shook his head. “Yeah, but they’ll take more time. I need to go to Woodward Park with the Warriors. Just use the butterflies and wrap it up. I’ll drink a bunch of blood and heal just fine.”
Stark tossed the sweatshirt to him and he caught it, laying it across his lap as he tried to ignore the pain in his arm. The guy who looked exactly like him, every detail a perfect copy save for the color of his tattoo, studied the knife wounds as the nurse got together a tray of disinfectants and bandages.
“I recognize this work. You didn’t happen to pass through Skye to get here, did you?”
Other Stark snorted in surprise. “I did. Do you know Seoras?”
“I did. He was killed last year.”
“Damn, that’s too bad. He was kind of an asshole, but also sorta a distant relative,” said Other Stark.
“Yeah, that’s him. Check this out. It looks like you have my scar.” Stark lifted up his sweatshirt to expose his chest, which was covered with scars that were eerily like the new broken arrow slashes on his bicep.
“Huh. Well, I guess it’s only right that I have your scars. Apparently, you have my girl.”
From the other side of the room the nurse gasped, and then, very slowly, Stark met his gaze and said, “Yeah, you’re me all right—but me from a while ago. So, let me help you out and maybe you won’t have to go through all the shit I did to understand this. Zoey isn’t mine. She isn’t yours, either. Zoey belongs to herself. Am I her Oathbound Warrior? Yes. Actually, I’m more than that, but we’d need Seoras and a lot more time than I have right now to explain that part to you. And anyway, the most important thing for you to get is that Z is her own person. She makes her own decisions. I’ve sworn to protect her, and I will do that as long as I’m alive—no matter what. So, if she decides she wants to be with you while you’re in this world, that is completely her decision to make and doesn’t have shit to do with me.”
“And you’d be okay with it if she hooked up with me?”
“Hooked up with you?” Stark laughed and, behind them, the nurse snorted. “Damn, you’re definitely old me. Okay, look, whether I’m okay with anything that goes on between you and Zoey isn’t the point. The point is that there’s nothing you could do that would mess up the bond Z and I have.”
“I’m not sure what you’re telling me.”
“Yeah, I can see that, and that’s too bad. But if you’re around very long, Z will set you straight.”
“Hey, I don’t want there to be problems between us,” he told this strange version of himself that seemed wiser and calmer and somehow older too.
“That’s part of what I’m trying to explain to you. There isn’t any problem with me—nor will there be. Well, unless you try to be an asshole to Z. She can handle douchebags, but know if you piss her off, I’ll be standing right beside her—and I’ll be doubly pissed.”
“I hear you—loud and clear.”
“Awesome. I’ll grab my extra bow for you and a quiver of arrows, then I’ll
