“You chased Zoey and Darius and the rest of the gang,” Stevie Rae said. “You threatened us. You commanded Stark to shoot Zoey. How do you excuse all of that?”
Neferet’s beautiful face seemed to crumple. She leaned on the table, and sobbed softly. “I know … I know. I was weak. I let the winged immortal taint my mind. He said Zoey had to be destroyed, and because I believed he was Erebus Incarnate, I also believed him.”
“Oh, that’s just a bunch of bull,” Stevie Rae said.
Neferet’s emerald eyes skewered her. “Have you never cared for someone, only to find out later that he was truly a monster in disguise?”
Stevie Rae felt all the blood drain from her face. She answered the only way she knew how—with the truth. “In my life, monsters don’t disguise themselves.”
“You did not answer my question, young Priestess.”
Stevie Rae lifted her chin. “I’ll answer your question. No, I’ve never cared for someone and not known what he was from the beginning. And if you’re talkin’ ’bout Dallas, I knew he might have issues, but I never expected him to turn to Darkness and go all crazy.”
Neferet’s smile was sly. “Yes, I heard about Dallas. So sad … so sad.”
“Neferet, I still need to understand the ruling of the High Council. As Sword Master and Leader of the Sons of Erebus at this House of Night, I am entitled to be kept informed regarding anything that might compromise the security of our school, whether I am in mourning or not,” Dragon said, looking pale but determined.
“You are quite right, Sword Master. It is really very simple. When the immortal’s soul returned to his body, he confessed to me that he killed the human boy because he thought Heath’s hatred for me was a threat.” Neferet shook her head, looking sad and contrite. “The poor child had somehow convinced himself that I was to blame for the deaths of Professor Nolan and Loren Blake. Kalona believed that by executing Heath, he was protecting me.” She shook her head. “He had been apart from this world for too long. He truly did not understand the human could pose no threat to me. His action in executing Heath was simply a misguided Warrior protecting his High Priestess, which is why the High Council and I have been so merciful in his punishment. As some of you are already aware, Kalona was flogged one hundred strokes and then banished from vampyre society and my side for one full century.”
There was a long stretch of silence, then Penthasilea said, “It seems like this entire debacle has been one tragic misunderstanding after another, but surely we have all paid enough for what has happened in the past. What is important now is that the school reconvene and we all get on with our lives.”
“I bow to your wisdom and experience, Professor Penthasilea,” Neferet said, inclining her head respectfully. Then she turned to face Dragon. “This has, indeed, been a difficult time for many of us, but you have paid the greatest price, Sword Master. So it is you I must look to for absolution for my mistakes, both personal and professional. Can you possibly lead the House of Night into a new era, creating a Phoenix from the ashes of our heartache?”
Stevie Rae wanted to scream at Dragon that Neferet was fooling them all—that what had happened at the House of Night wasn’t a tragic mistake, it was a tragic misuse of power by Neferet and Kalona. But her heart sank as she watched Dragon bow his head and in an utterly heartbroken and defeated voice say, “I would like us all to move on, for if we do not, I’m afraid I will not survive the loss of my mate.”
Lenobia looked like she wanted to speak up, but when Dragon began to sob brokenly, she kept silent and moved to his side to comfort him.
At that moment a weird noise drifted into the Council Chamber from the window that had been left open to the crisp night air. It was a horrible, mournful sound, and it caused the small hairs on Stevie Rae’s arms to lift.
“What is that?” Stevie Rae said, her head turned—along with everyone else’s—to the open window.
“I never heard nothin’ like it,” Kramisha said. “And it gives me the creeps.”
“It’s an animal. And it’s in pain.” Dragon instantly pulled himself together, his expression shifted, and he was, once again, a Warrior and not a heartbroken mate. He got to his feet and crossed the Council Chamber to the window.
“A cat?” Penthasilea said, looking distressed.
“I can’t see it from here. It’s coming from the east side of campus,” Dragon said, turning from the window and heading to the door purposefully.
“Oh, Goddess! I think I know the sound.” Tragic and broken, Neferet’s voice had them all turning their attention back to her. “It’s the howling of a dog, and the only canine on this campus is Stark’s Labrador, Duchess. Has something happened to Stark?”
Stevie Rae watched Neferet press one slim hand against her throat, as if to hold back the pounding of her heart at the terrible thought that something could have happened to Stark.
Stevie Rae wanted to slap her. Neferet could have received a dang Academy Award for Best Fake Tragic Performance by a Lead Bitch.
But Stevie Rae didn’t get a chance to confront Neferet. The moment Dragon opened the door to the hallway a cacophony of sound flooded everyone. Fledglings were rushing toward the Council Chamber. Most of them were crying and shouting, but above all of the noise—above even the horrible howling—one sound became distinctly recognizable: that of a person keening in grief.
Within the grief, Stevie Rae recognized the voice.
“Oh, no,” she said, rushing down the hallway. “That’s Damien.”
Stevie Rae was ahead of even Dragon, and when she wrenched open the outside door of the school, she barreled into Drew Partain with such force that both of them tumbled to the ground. “Jeeze Louise, Drew! Get outta my—”
“Jack’s dead!” Drew shouted, scrambling to his feet and pulling her up with him. “Over there by the broken tree at the east wall. It’s bad. Really bad. Hurry—Damien needs you!”
Stevie Rae felt a surge of nausea as she processed what Drew was saying. And then she was swept with Drew in a tide of vampyres and fledglings as they all rushed across campus.
When Stevie Rae got to the tree she had a terrible moment of déjà vu. The blood. There was so much blood everywhere! She flashed back to the night Stark’s arrow had opened her body and drained practically all of her life’s blood out of it at this very spot.
Only this time it wasn’t her. This time it was kind, sweet Jack and he really was dead, so it was terrible times ten. For a second the scene didn’t seem to make sense to her because no one moved—no one spoke. There were no sounds except Duchess’s howling and Damien’s keening. The boy and the dog were crouched beside Jack, who lay, facedown, on the blood-soaked grass, with the point of a long sword protruding several feet from the back of his neck. It had run through him with such force that it had almost severed his head from his body.
“Oh, Goddess! What has happened here?” It was Neferet who unfroze everyone. She hurried up to Jack, bending to rest her hand gently on his body. “The fledgling is dead,” she said solemnly.
Damien looked up. Stevie Rae saw his eyes. They were filled with pain and horror and maybe, just maybe, even a shadow of madness. As he stared at Neferet she watched his already pale face blanch almost colorless, and that jolted her.
“I’m thinkin’ you should leave him alone,” Stevie Rae said, moving so that she stood between Neferet and Jack and Damien.
“I am High Priestess here. It is my place to deal with this tragedy. What’s best for Damien is for you to step aside and let adults sort all of this out,” Neferet said. Her tone was reasonable, but Stevie Rae was looking into her emerald eyes and she saw something stir there that made her skin crawl.
Stevie Rae could feel everyone watching her. She knew there was some rightness in what Neferet was saying—she hadn’t been a High Priestess long enough to know how to deal with something as horrible as what had happened tonight. Heck, she was really only a High Priestess because there weren’t any other red fledgling girls who had Changed. Did she have any right to speak up as Damien’s “High Priestess”?
