“I know why he died.”
“Tell me.”
“Neferet owed Darkness a life debt in payment for entrapping my father’s immortal soul. The debt had to be paid by the sacrifice of someone who was an innocent, incorruptible by Darkness.”
“That was Jack; she killed him. It’s frustrating as all get-out ’cause it looks like Neferet didn’t! She was talkin’ to the school’s High Council, right in front of me, when Jack’s accident happened.”
“The Tsi Sgili fed him to Darkness. She need not have been present. She needed only to have marked him as her sacrifice and then let loose the threads of Darkness to follow through with the actual killing. She didn’t have to witness the death.”
“How do I prove she was responsible?”
“You cannot. The deed is over. Her debt is paid.”
“Damn it! I’m so dang mad I could spit nails! Neferet keeps gettin’ away with all of this awful crap. She keeps winnin’. I don’t understand why. It’s not right, Rephaim. It’s just not right.” Stevie Rae blinked hard, forcing back tears of frustration.
For a moment, Rephaim touched her shoulder and she allowed herself to lean into his hand, to take comfort in the contact with him. Then he pulled back from her and said, “All that anger. All that frustration and sadness. I felt it from you earlier tonight, too, and I thought—” He hesitated, obviously trying to decide whether to keep speaking.
“What?” she asked softly. “You thought what?”
He met her eyes again. “I thought it was me you hated. Me you were so angry at. I heard you, too. You told the Sword Master tainted, unredeemable Darkness lurked outside. You were looking straight at me when you said it.”
Stevie Rae nodded. “Yeah, I saw you, and I knew if I didn’t say somethin’ to get Dragon and Damien outta there, they were gonna see you, too.”
“Then you were not talking about me?”
It was Stevie Rae’s turn to hesitate. She sighed. “I was seriously pissed and scared and upset. I wasn’t thinkin’ ’bout my words. I was just reacting ’cause I was freaked.” She paused again and then added, “I didn’t mean nothin’ against you, but Rephaim, I do need to know what’s goin’ on with Kalona and Neferet.”
Rephaim turned and walked slowly to the edge of the rooftop. She followed him and stood beside him as they stared out at the quiet night.
“It’s almost dawn,” Rephaim said.
Stevie Rae shrugged. “I got about half an hour before the sun rises. It’ll only take ten minutes or so to get back to the school.”
“You should leave now and not take any chances. The sun can cause you too much damage, even with my blood inside you.”
“I know. I’ll go pretty soon.” Stevie Rae sighed. “So, you’re not gonna tell me what’s up with your daddy, are you?”
He turned to look at her again. “What would you think of me if you knew I betrayed my father?”
“He’s not a good guy, Rephaim. He’s not worth your protection.”
“But he
Stevie Rae thought Rephaim sounded exhausted. She wanted to take his hand, to tell him it’d be okay. But she couldn’t. How the heck was it going to be okay with him on one side and her on the other? “I can’t fight against that,” she finally said. “You’re gonna have to come to terms with what Kalona is and isn’t yourself. But you need to understand that I have to keep my people safe, and I know he’s workin’ right beside Neferet, no matter what she says.”
“My father is bound to her!” Rephaim blurted.
“What do you mean?”
“He didn’t kill Zoey, so he didn’t fulfill his oath to Neferet, and now the Tsi Sgili holds dominion over his immortal soul.”
“Oh, great! So Kalona is like a loaded gun Neferet is holding.”
Rephaim shook his head. “He should be, but my father does not serve others well. He chafes uneasily under her command. I believe the analogy would be more accurate if you said that Father is like a
“You’re gonna have to be more specific than that. Give me an example—what do you mean?” She tried to keep the excitement from her voice, but by the way his eyes closed off from her, Stevie Rae knew she’d been unsuccessful.
“I will not betray him.”
“Okay, fine. I get that. But does that mean you can’t help me?”
Rephaim stared at her silently so long she thought he wasn’t going to answer, and she was trying to formulate another question in her head when he finally said, “I want to help you, and I will as long as it doesn’t mean betraying my father.”
“That’s a lot like the first deal you and I made, and that didn’t end up so bad, did it?” she asked, smiling up at him.
“No, not so bad.”
“And, really, aren’t we all basically against Neferet?”
“I am,” he said firmly.
“And your daddy?”
“He wants to be rid of her control.”
“Well, that’s practically the same thing as bein’ on our side.”
“I can’t be on your side, Stevie Rae. You have to remember that.”
“So you’d fight against me?” She met his gaze squarely.
“I could not hurt you.”
“Well, then—”
“No,” he interrupted. “Not being able to hurt you is different than fighting for you.”
“You’d fight for me. You already have.”
Rephaim grabbed her hand, squeezing it as if through touch he could make her understand him. “I’ve never fought my father for you.”
“Rephaim, do you remember that boy we saw in the fountain?” She changed his grip on her hand and threaded her fingers with his.
He didn’t speak. He only nodded.
“You know he’s inside you, don’t you?”
Again, Rephaim nodded, this time slowly and hesitantly.
“That boy inside you is your mama’s son. Not Kalona’s. Don’t forget about her. And don’t forget about that boy and what he’d fight for, too. Okay?”
Before Rephaim could reply, Stevie Rae’s phone rang with Miranda Lambert’s “Only Prettier.” She dropped Rephaim’s hand and groped in her pocket for it, saying “That’s Z’s ringtone! I have to talk to her. She doesn’t know about Jack yet.”
Before she could press the answer button, Rephaim’s hand caught hers. “Zoey needs to return to Tulsa. That’s one way all of us can fight Neferet. The Tsi Sgili hates Zoey, and her presence here will be a distraction.”
“A distraction from what?” Stevie Rae asked just before she hit the answer button and spoke quickly into the phone, saying, “Z, hang on. I gotta tell you something important but I need a sec.”
Zoey’s voice came through the line sounding like she was talking from the bottom of a well. “No problem, but call me back, ’kay? I’m seriously roaming.”
“Will do in two shakes of a dead cat’s tail,” Stevie Rae said.
“Do you know how gross that sounds?”
Stevie Rae smiled into the phone. “Yep and bye.”
“You mean yuck and bye. Talk to you in a sec.”
The line disconnected and Stevie Rae looked up at Rephaim. “So explain about Neferet.”
