Awakened

Sgiach smiled and her gaze went from the piece of dangling marble to Seoras. “About once every five hundred years it does.”

“Aye, that’s about right,” Seoras said, returning her smile with an intimacy that made me feel like I should look away.

“In my opinion, once every five hundred years is more than enough for some poor Warrior dude to do the Shaman thing.”

My stomach give a silly little flip-flop of pleasure at the sound of his voice and I looked from the queen and her Guardian to see Stark standing in the shadows behind the arched doorway, rumpled and squinting at what was left of the fading light in the picture window. He was wearing jeans and a T-shirt, and he looked so much like his old self that a pang of homesickness—the first real one I’d felt since I’d returned to myself—speared through me. I’m going home. The thought had me smiling as I hurried toward Stark. Sgiach made a gesture with her hand. The heavy drapes were drawn over the last of the sunlight, allowing Stark to step from the shadows and take me into his arms.

“Hey, I didn’t think you’d be up for an hour or so,” I said, hugging him tightly.

“You were upset, and that woke me up,” he whispered into my ear. “Plus, I was having some majorly weird dreams.”

I pulled back so I could look into his eyes. “Jack’s dead.”

Stark started to shake his head in denial, and then stopped, touched my cheek, and blew out a long breath. “That’s what I felt. Your sadness. Z, I’m so sorry. What the hell happened?”

“Officially an accident. Really it was Neferet, but no one can prove it,” I said.

“When do we leave for Tulsa?”

I smiled my thanks at him as Sgiach said, “Tonight. We can arrange for you to leave as soon as you have your bags packed and ready.”

“So, what’s with this stone?” Stark asked, taking my hand.

Sgiach lifted it again. I was thinking how pretty it looked when it twisted gently on the chain and my gaze was pulled to the perfect circle in the center. The world narrowed and faded away around me as my entire being became focused on the hole in the stone because for an instant I caught a glimpse of the room through the hole.

The room was gone!

Fighting a wave of nauseating vertigo, I stared through the seer stone at what had looked like an undersea world. Figures floated and flitted around, all in hues of turquoise and topaz, crystal and sapphire. I thought I saw wings and fins and long, swirling cascades of drifting hair. Mermaids? Or are they sea monkeys? I have utterly lost my mind, was my last thought before I lost my battle with dizziness and ended up flat on my back on the floor.

“Zoey! Look at me! Say something!”

Stark, looking completely freaked, was bent over me. He’d grabbed me by the shoulders and was currently shaking the bejeezus outta me.

“Hey, stop,” I said weakly, trying unsuccessfully to shove him away.

“Just let her breathe. She’ll be fine in a moment,” came Sgiach’s uber-calm voice.

“She fainted. That’s not normal,” Stark said. He was still gripping my shoulders, but he had stopped rattling my brains around.

“I’m conscious and I’m right here,” I said. “Help me sit up.”

Stark’s frown said he’d rather not, but he did as I asked.

“Drink this,” Sgiach held a goblet of wine under my nose that I could smell was laced heavily with blood. I grabbed it and drank deeply while she said, “And it is normal for a High Priestess to faint the first time she uses the power of a seer stone, especially if she is unprepared for it.”

Feeling much better after the bloody wine (eesh, but yum), I raised my brows at her and stood up. “Couldn’t you have prepared me for it?”

“Aye, but then a seer stone only works for some High Priestesses, and if it hadnae worked for yu, yu’d have had yer feelins hurt, now wouldn’t ya?” Seoras said.

I rubbed my backside. “I think I’d rather have risked the hurt feelings instead of the hurt butt. Okay, what the heck did I see?”

“What did it look like?” Sgiach asked.

“A weird undersea fishbowl through that little hole.” I pointed in the direction of the stone, but was careful not to look at it.

Sgiach smiled. “Yes, and where have you seen beings like that before?”

I blinked in understanding, “The grove! They’re water sprites.”

“Indeed,” Sgiach nodded.

“So it’s like a magick finder?” Stark asked, giving the stone a sideways glance.

“It is, when used by a High Priestess with the right kind of power.” Sgiach lifted the chain and placed it around my neck. The seer stone settled between my breasts, feeling warm like it was alive.

“This really finds magick?” I put my hand reverently over the stone.

“Only one kind,” Sgiach said.

“Water magick?” I asked, confused.

“It isnea the element that matters. ’Tis the magick itself,” Seoras said.

Before I could say the huh that was obviously all over my face, Sgiach explained, “A seer stone is in tune with only the most ancient of magicks: the kind I protect on my isle. I am gifting you with it so that you might, indeed, recognize the Old Ones if any still exist in the outside world.”

“If she finds any of that kind of magick, what should she do?” Stark asked, still giving the stone leery looks.

“Rejoice or run, depending on what you discover,” Sgiach said with a wry smile.

“Mind, lass, it was the old magick that sent yur Warrior to the Otherworld, and the old magick that made him yur Guardian,” Seoras said. “It hasnea been watered down by civilization.”

I closed my hand around the seer stone, the memory of Seoras standing over Stark, trance-like, cutting him over and over again so that his blood ran down the ancient knotwork in the stone they called the Seol ne Gigh, the Seat of the Spirit. Suddenly I realized I was trembling.

Then Stark’s warm, strong hand covered mine and I looked up into his steady gaze.

“Don’t worry. I’ll be with you, and whether it’s time to run or rejoice, we’ll be together. I’ll always have your back, Z.”

Then, for at least that moment, I felt safe.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Stevie Rae

“She’s really coming home?”

Damien’s voice was so soft and shaky that Stevie Rae had to lean down over the bed to hear him. His eyes were glassy and more than a little vacant, and she couldn’t tell if that was because the drug/blood cocktail the vamps in the infirmary had come up with was actually working, or whether he was still in shock.

“Are you kiddin’? Z got on the first plane outta there. She’ll be home in, like, three hours. If you want, you can come to the airport with me to pick her and Stark up.” Stevie Rae was sitting on the edge of Damien’s bed, so it was easy for her to give Duchess’s head a rub—since the dog was curled around Damien. When he didn’t make any response except to stare blankly at the wall in front of him, she gave Duchess another pat. In return the Lab thumped her tail weakly once, twice. “You’re a dang good dog and that’s all there is to it,” Stevie Rae told the blond Lab. Duchess opened her eyes and gave Stevie Rae a soulful look, but her tail didn’t thump again and she didn’t make her usual happy huffing dog noise. Stevie Rae frowned. Did she look thin? “Damien, honey, has Duch had anything to eat recently?”

He blinked at her, looked confused, looked at the dog curled around him, and then his eyes actually began to