“Fill her, spirit,” Zoey said.
Stevie Rae felt a shot of adrenaline rush from the circle of earth around her, up through her feet, and into her hand. Vine-like, green tendrils shot from the ground, making a caged barrier all around Rephaim and Kalona, completely halting the fighting.
They all turned to look at her.
“There, that’s better. Now we can figure this out,” Stevie Rae said.
“So, Zoey and your circle—you’ve decided to ally with Darkness, too,” Neferet said.
Before Z could respond Stevie Rae said, “Neferet, that’s as nutty as squirrel turds. Z just got back from hangin’ out with Nyx in the Otherworld. She managed to kick Kalona’s ass there, and bring her Warrior back safe and sound with her—somethin’ no other High Priestess has ever been able to do. She’s not exactly Darkness material.” Neferet opened her mouth to speak and Stevie Rae cut her off. “No! I only have one more thing to say to you—no matter who you fool, I want you to know I’ll never believe you’ve changed. You’re a liar, and you’re really, really not nice. I have seen the white bull, and I know the Darkness you’re playin’ with; I know just how wacked you are. Heck, Neferet, I can see that stuff slithering ’round you right now. So. Back. The. Hell. Off.”
She turned her back to Neferet and focused on Kalona. She opened her mouth and suddenly her words dried up. The winged immortal looked like an avenging god. His bare chest was spattered with blood and his black spear dripped gore. His eyes shined amber as they stared at her with an expression that was amusement mixed with disdain.
“Strengthen her, spirit,” Zoey’s voice whispered to her, carried on the wind Damien had conjured.
Stevie Rae pulled her gaze from Kalona’s, meeting Zoey’s eyes. Her BFF smiled. “Go on. Finish what you started. You can do it.”
Stevie Rae felt a rush of gratitude. As her gaze returned to Kalona, she pulled deeply from the roots she imagined connecting her to her element and with that lifeline of power, and the support of her friends, she finished what she’d started.
“Okay, everybody knows that you used to be Nyx’s Warrior, but that you’re here ’cause somethin’ messed up with that,” she said matter-of-factly, “which means
“I do,” he said clearly and distinctly so that his voice carried to everyone watching. “I love you, Stevie Rae.”
She took one moment to smile at him, full on, filled with pride, and happiness, and above all, love. Then she refocused on Kalona. “Yes, it’s weird. No, it’s never gonna be a normal relationship, and Goddess knows we’re gonna have to deal with lots of issues with my friends, but here’s what’s most important: I can give Rephaim kindness and a life where he’ll know peace and happiness. But I can’t do that unless you do somethin’ first. You have to free him, Kalona. You have to let him make his own choice between staying with you or changing his path. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and believe with everything inside me, that somewhere deep inside
Into the long silence where Kalona stared unblinkingly at Stevie Rae, Neferet’s voice intruded—disdainful and arrogant. “Enough of this silly charade. I’ll take care of the grass barrier. Dragon, exact your revenge on the Raven Mocker. And you, Kalona, you I order to be banished from my side as you were before. Nothing has changed between us.” As she spoke, Stevie Rae watched her pull from the shadows all around them, and from her own body, the slithering black tentacles that seemed to always be near her now.
Stevie Rae readied herself. It was going to be awful, but she was dang sure not backing down, and that meant she was gonna have to stand up to Darkness again.
But just as she felt the first tug of pain and chill, and the drain Darkness caused within the earth, the winged immortal raised one hand slightly, and said, “Halt! I’ve long allied with Darkness. Obey my command. This is not your battle.
“No!” Neferet shrieked as the sticky threads, invisible to almost everyone present, began to slither away to be reabsorbed into the shadows from whence they came. Neferet turned on Kalona. “Foolish creature! What are you doing? I ordered you to leave. You
“I am not under your control! Nor have I ever been.” Kalona’s smile was victorious and he looked so magnificent for a moment Stevie Rae’s breath caught at the sight of him.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Neferet recovered quickly. “It is I who was under your control.”
Kalona glanced around the school grounds, taking in the wide-eyed fledglings and the vampyres who were either armed against him or frozen somewhere between their desire to run from him and their desire to adore him. “Ah, children of Nyx, like me, many of you have stopped listening to your Goddess. When will you learn?”
Then the winged immortal looked to his right. Rephaim was standing there, silently watching his father.
“It is true you have Imprinted with the Red One?”
“Yes, Father. It is.”
“And you saved her life? More than once?”
“As she has saved mine in turn, more than once. It was she who truly healed me from the fall. It was she who filled the terrible wound Darkness ripped within me later, after I faced the white bull for her.” Rephaim’s eyes found Stevie Rae’s. “As payment for freeing her from Darkness, she touched me with the power of Light she wields, that of the earth.”
“I didn’t do that as payment. I did that because I couldn’t stand to see you hurtin’,” said Stevie Rae.
Slowly, as if it were difficult for him, Kalona lifted his hand and rested it on his son’s shoulder. “You know she can never love you as a woman loves a man? You will forever desire something she cannot, will not, give you.”
“Father, what she gives me is more than I have ever known before.”
Stevie Rae saw pain twist Kalona’s face, if only for an instant. “I have given you love as my son, my favorite son,” he said so softly she had to strain to hear him.
Rephaim hesitated and when he answered his father, Stevie Rae could hear the raw honesty in his voice, and the heartache the admission cost him. “Perhaps in another world, another life, that might have been true. In this one you gave me power and discipline and anger, but you did not give me love. Never love.”
Kalona’s eyes flashed, but Stevie Rae thought she saw more pain than anger within their amber depths. “Then in this world, in this life, I shall give you one more thing: choice. Choose, Rephaim. Choose between the father you have served and followed faithfully for eons and the power that service has afforded you, and the love of this vampyre High Priestess, who will never be completely yours because she will always, always be horrified by the monster within you.”
Rephaim’s eyes found hers. She saw the question in them and answered it before he could ask it aloud.
“I don’t see a monster when I look at you—not outside, not inside. So I’m not horrified by you. I love you, Rephaim.”
Rephaim closed his eyes for a moment, and she felt a quiver of unease. He was good—Stevie Rae believed that, but to choose her over his father would change the course of his life forever. He was part immortal, and forever could be a literal thing for him. Maybe he couldn’t—maybe he wouldn’t—maybe he—
“Father—” Stevie Rae opened her eyes the second she heard Rephaim’s voice. He was speaking to Kalona, but he was still looking at her. “I choose Stevie Rae, and the path of the Goddess.”
Her gaze darted to Kalona in time to see the grimace of pain pass over his face. “Then so be it. From this day forth you are no longer my son.” He paused and Rephaim turned his gaze from her to the winged immortal. “I would offer you Nyx’s blessing, but she no longer hears me. So instead I offer you a piece of advice: if you love her with everything within you, when you realize she does not love you in the same way—and she will not, cannot—it will kill everything within you.” Kalona unfurled his great wings, lifted both arms, and proclaimed, “Rephaim is free of me! So I have spoken. So let it be!”
