No, it would not be better if Rephaim had died.
And Nyx was not unforgiving. She’d forgiven his son. It was only him she refused to forgive.
Kalona spoke to the heavens, “It is ironic that in doing my son a kindness, you have done me a cruelty. You’ve taken from me the last creature in this world that truly loved me.” His voice was lost quickly to the night and he was completely alone. Goddess, he was tired of being alone!
He missed Rephaim’s company.
Kalona’s shoulders slumped.
It was then that he felt the presence of Darkness. It was subtle and well cloaked, but Kalona had known Darkness too long, both battling against it and fighting beside it, to be fooled.
Kalona put the phone away from him and schooled his features to an impassive, neutral mask. He had no idea why the white bull was lurking this night, but he knew his presence portended great trouble and tribulations for this world and, perhaps, even for him.
He understood something Neferet was too intoxicated by power to realize: the incarnation of Darkness could never truly be an ally. The white bull had only one objective: to destroy and consume the black bull. He would use anything or anyone to gain his objective, just as he would destroy anything or anyone who got in his way.
If Neferet believed she was his Consort, she was utterly, completely incorrect. The white bull of Darkness did not have Consorts—it had conquests.
The presence dissipated and Kalona breathed a sigh of relief. Then he straightened, considering.
He glanced down at the iPhone. How long had they been watching him? What had they heard? What did they know?
Was Rephaim in danger?
Kalona surged to his feet and launched himself into the sky. His mighty wings beat against the night as he rode the air currents swiftly and silently, heading east into the pre-dawn glooming.
He reached the depot moments before sunrise, landing on the gravely ground near the railroad tracks, well away from the high front entrance that Shaunee had already explained to him was unused. Kalona was pacing, staring at an old metal grate and silently cursing the fact that he’d left the damned phone on the rock when the rusting grate was pushed aside and his son ran from the building.
Kalona began to move toward him, relieved beyond words that they boy was whole and well, when his son’s mouth opened and he shrieked—a terrible sound to hear. Then he watched Rephaim’s body shiver, writhe, morph
Moving on instinct alone, Kalona took to the sky following the raven. The immortal stayed well aloft, high above the prying eyes of the city, though in truth the raven spent very little time in the city. Instead he flew west and a little south, eerily following the same path Kalona had taken. It wasn’t long before the raven was on the ridge perched in an old oak whose branches spread like a protective giant around the hunters’ blinds. There Rephaim the Raven stayed, only occasionally feeding, sometimes climbing the sky, but always, always circling back to the ridge.
As sunset approached the bird flew. This time he did not circle, but instead he faced the east and made wing toward Tulsa. Kalona followed and as the sun dipped below the horizon, the raven landed just outside the basement entrance to the depot. The bird shrieked a cry that changed into a shout of agony, and then there was Rephaim, naked, breathing hard, and on his knees.
Kalona backed into the shadows and watched his son dress and then the sound of metal grating being moved had them both looking.
“You’re back! Yeah!” The Red One hurled herself into his son’s arms. He caught her and held her close, laughing and kissing her. Hand in hand the two of them disappeared inside the basement of the building.
Kalona, suddenly weak-kneed and feeling unimaginably old, sat upon the rusted railway track and spoke aloud to the night and to the Goddess that was its personification.
“You forgave him, and yet still you make him suffer as a beast. Why? Because he is paying for my transgressions? Damn you, Nyx. Damn you.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
So, I was nervous about first hour and what Thanatos was gonna say about losing a parent—specifically my mom—but the day was starting out really well. For the first time in a really long time Stark was awake before me, and so I got woken up with kisses and him calling me Sleeping Beauty. He wolfed down the most ginormic bowl full of Cap’n Crunch I’d ever seen, and in the parking lot outside the depot he was messing around with Darius, doing a little mock boxing match while kids were filling up the short bus.
I was already on the bus watching him out the window with what I’m sure was a goofy happy smile on my face when Aphrodite emerged from the depot. I was surprised to see her ’cause I figured she’d be so hungover and exhausted that she would definitely not be going to school today. She squinted and then put on sunglasses, even though it was 7:30 P.M. and there was no sun at all.
“She don’t look good,” Kramisha said from her seat behind me.
“How can you tell from this far away?”
“She got flats on and her hair’s in a ponytail. That girl never wears flats and her hair usually looks like Barbie,” Kramisha said. “I mean regular Barbie and not none of those weird dolls like Tennis Barbie or Go to the Gym Barbie.”
“Everyone knows Barbie doesn’t have to work out to keep her kick-ass body,” Shaunee said.
“Bull truth,” Stevie Rae said.
“Huh?” I said, totally befuddled.
“Just trust us. Aphrodite don’t look good,” Kramisha repeated.
“She doesn’t even have any lip gloss on. Bad sign,” Erin said.
“If she doesn’t have on any eye makeup, Hell has officially frozen over,” Shaunee said, which was interesting because that’s as close as she’d gotten to a Twin comment in days.
I glanced at Shaunee, who was sitting in the front seat of the bus, as far away from Erin’s place in the back as she could get. Shaunee was digging in her purse like she’d misplaced a tube of one of MAC’s seasonal lipsticks that you buy and fall in love with AND THEN THEY DISCONTINUE IT BECAUSE THEY REALLY HATE US AND WANT US TO BE CRAZY.
Anyway, I was sure Shaunee’s cheeks looked pink. So, was she embarrassed about the kinda accidental Twin comment she had made, or excited about it? I didn’t have much time to consider which it could be because Aphrodite climbed into the bus and sat heavily in the first seat behind the driver’s chair, which was directly in front of me.
“Coffee,” she croaked. “I told Darius we have to swing the short bus through Starbucks at Utica on the way. I’m going to die if I don’t get an uber-sweet caramel double espresso coffee drink and a giant slab of their blueberry coffee cake.”
“Them’s a lot of calories,” Kramisha told her.
“If you try to stop me I will kill you dead,” Aphrodite said.
“I think your hair looks good like that,” Shaunee told her.
“For shit’s sake, I don’t need the pity of half a brain-sharer. I do not feel that damn bad.”
Shaunee skewered her with a look. “I’m not half of anything and I’m not giving you any pity. I was just sayin’ I like your hair ’cause you usually don’t wear it like that, but if you’re too much of a bitch to accept a compliment then you can fuck yourself.”
The entire bus inhaled a giant breath. The silence was total and frightening. I wasn’t sure whether I should summon elements or run. Then Aphrodite pulled her sunglasses down her nose and looked over their rims at Shaunee. Her eyes were pink-tinged and bruised and just all-around horrendously unattractive, but they were shining with humor. “I think I like you using a brain of your own.”
“Yeah, well, I haven’t decided if I like you at all, but your hair still looks good.”
