though. The professors here really get annoyed about tardiness.”
“I’ll make sure he hurries,” I assured Damien, and then I slowed down so that Rephaim and I stayed outside the building when everyone else went in. “What’s up?”
“My father is here. I can feel his presence.”
“Kalona? Where?” I knew my eyes were all big and googly as I looked around us like I expected the immortal to pop out of the shadows.
“I don’t know where, but I want you to know that I haven’t contacted him, haven’t seen him, haven’t talked to him since he freed me.” Rephaim shook his head. “I-I don’t want you and the rest of your friends to think I’m keeping things from you.”
“Okay. Well, at least that’s a good thing. Do you have any idea what he wants?”
“No!”
“Okay, okay, I’m not accusing you of anything. You came to me with this, remember?”
“Yes, but I—” His face went still again. Then his eyes met mine and the sadness in them was so intense that it made my stomach ache. “He’s calling me.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“Calling you? What the hell do you mean? I don’t hear anything.” I kept gawking around expecting the boogerman to jump at me.
“No.” He shook his head. “You wouldn’t hear it. I don’t even really
“Hey, it’s okay. You’re doing your best. I see the way you look at Stevie Rae. I know you love her. And Nyx herself forgave you.”
He nodded and swept a hand across his face, which made me notice he had started to sweat. A lot.
Obviously, he noticed me noticing, and said, “It’s difficult not to respond to his call. I’ve never resisted him before.”
“Look, you stay right here. I’m gonna go get Stark and Darius and Stevie Rae. Then you can follow Kalona’s call. We’ll all go with you and show him that you’re really one of us—that he needs to leave you alone.”
“No! I don’t want everyone to know he’s here. Especially not Stevie Rae. She thinks I have to completely turn my back on him, but it’s so hard!” He put his hands together like he was begging me to understand. “He’s still my father.”
Even though I wished I didn’t, I was beginning to understand what he was saying. “My mom was messed up. She chose a guy over me, but deep inside I still loved her and I wanted her to love me.
“Then you understand,” he said.
“Yeah, in a way I think I do, but I also agree with Stevie Rae. See, Rephaim, you might feel like every other kid who’s had a messed-up parent, but the problem with your situation is that your dad isn’t just Joe Schmoe down the block. He’s a dangerous immortal who’s on the wrong side in a very real battle of good versus evil.”
Rephaim closed his eyes like what I’d said had physically hurt him, but he nodded and when he opened his eyes and met my gaze I could see the strength of his decision. “You’re right. I have to stand up to him and make him understand that we really have gone separate ways. Come with me while I do that. Please, Zoey.”
“Well, okay. Let me go get Stark and I’ll—”
“Just you. I know it’s stupid, but I don’t want to humiliate Father, and me doing this in front of Stark would be a great insult.”
“Rephaim, I can’t come alone with you. Are you forgetting your dad tried to kill me?”
“Neferet held his body prisoner and forced him to follow you to the Otherworld. He didn’t want to. He’s never wanted to harm you. Zoey, my father has told me he will not kill you, or any High Priestess of the Goddess.”
“Seriously, get a clue.” I shook my head disbelievingly. “Kalona wouldn’t hesitate to kill
“You’ve been close to him since he escaped from the earth. Can you truly tell me that you have never seen a glimmer of Nyx’s Warrior still within him?”
I hesitated, not wanting to remember what a fool I’d been before Heath was killed. I lifted my chin. “Kalona killed Heath because I was stupid enough to let my guard down around him.”
“Heath was not a High Priestess in the service of Nyx. And you did not answer me. Speak truly. You’ve glimpsed what he used to be, have you not?”
For about the zillionth time I wished I was a better liar. I sighed. “Yeah, yes, okay. I thought I saw what he could have been. I thought I saw the Warrior of Nyx,” I said honestly, then added, “but I was wrong.”
“I don’t think you were, at least not completely. I think the Warrior is still within him. He did, after all, allow me the freedom to choose my own path.”
“But he’s not letting you stay free of him. He’s here, calling you.”
“What if he’s here calling me because he misses me!” Rephaim shouted, and then wiped a hand across his tense, sweaty face. In a more controlled voice he continued, “Please, Zoey. I give you my oath that I will not allow my father to hurt you, just like I will not allow him to hurt Stevie Rae. Please come with me and bear witness that I have broken with him so that no one at the House of Night can question my loyalties.” And then he said the thing that tipped me over into being Queen of Stupidville. “He hasn’t seen me since I’ve become a boy. Maybe when he sees evidence of Nyx’s forgiveness, the Warrior in him will awaken. Wouldn’t Nyx want you to give her Warrior one more chance?”
I looked at him and saw what Stevie Rae must have seen that made her fall for him—basically he was a real cute boy who wanted his dad to love him. “Ah, hell,” I said. “Fine. I’ll go with you as long as we don’t leave campus. And you should know if I get freaked or upset or scared or whatnot, Stark is gonna feel it and come running with his bow that cannot miss whatever he shoots at. And I promise you he will shoot. Nothing I can do about that.”
Rephaim took my arm and started practically dragging me toward the east wall. “I won’t put you in danger. You won’t feel any of those things.”
I was gonna say something about pigs flying, but instead I saved my breath and jogged to keep up with him.
Of course I knew where we were headed. It made sense. “The stupid tree by the stupid wall,” I panted. “I don’t like this at all.”
“It’s easy to get to and no one goes over there,” Rephaim said. “That’s why he’s there.”
“That doesn’t make it any better,” I said.
We sprinted across the lawn. I looked over my shoulder. I could see the gaslights of the stable that stretched toward this area of campus, and I was thinking that I probably should abdicate my Queenship in Stupidville and send out a big, scary, mental SOS to Stark when Rephaim suddenly slowed and then stopped.
I turned my attention and my gaze back to what was going on in front of me, and saw Kalona standing beside the shattered tree. His back was to us. Later I had time to think about the fact that he should have been at least facing the direction from which he knew Rephaim would be coming, but then his presence overshadowed everything, just as he knew it would. He was tall and strong and, as per usual, naked from the waist up. His incredible black wings were folded and at rest, and they looked like a god had fashioned them from pieces of the night sky.
I’d forgotten how beautiful and powerful and majestic he was. I clenched my jaw and mentally shook myself. I hadn’t forgotten how dangerous he was.
“Father, I am here,” Rephaim said in a voice that sounded so small and childlike that I put my hand over his where it still held on to my arm.
Kalona turned around. His amber eyes went wide. For a moment his face lost all expression and then he
