Destined

moss and springtime.

“The Goddess’s hanging tree,” Stark whispered.

“You can see it, too?” I murmured to him.

“Yeah,” he said.

“So can I,” Aphrodite said.

“As can I,” Darius said—and all around me my friends nodded and whispered and stared in wonderment as a girl stepped from behind the tree. She was blond and smiling, and looked super gorgeous in a long skirt the color of blue topaz that had glass beads and shells and white leather fringe all around its hem and the neckline of the sleeveless, matching top. She was carrying a single sunflower.

“It’s Anastasia!” Damien said.

“She’s so young,” I blurted, and then closed my mouth, worried that I’d say something to shatter the vision.

But Anastasia didn’t seem to see us. Her attention was completely captivated by the young man who strode into view. His hair was long and thick and tied back and his brown eyes sparkled with unshed tears.

“It’s Dragon,” Shaunee said.

“No,” Thanatos corrected her. “It’s Bryan, her Bryan.”

The young Bryan Lankford touched Anastasia’s face reverently. “My own,” he said.

“My own,” she said. “I knew you would find yourself again.”

“And in doing so, I found you.” Smiling, he pulled her into his arms and as their lips met the sky shimmered again and the doorway to the Otherworld closed.

Stark handed me a balled-up Kleenex he pulled from his jeans pocket. I blew my nose.

“Is Rephaim gonna die now, too?”

Stevie Rae’s question pulled us firmly back to earth. I turned to see that she was still kneeling beside Rephaim. I was close enough now to see that he was bleeding from a deep gash in his head. He looked pale and still—too still.

“Your affinity is Death,” Stevie Rae continued. Wiping tears from her face with the back of her hand, she stared at Thanatos. “So, tell me the truth. Is Rephaim gonna die?”

There was a giant whooshing sound and Kalona dropped from the sky. Stark and Darius instantly raised their weapons and moved to stand between Aphrodite and me, and the immortal. But Kalona didn’t even glance at us. He hurried to Rephaim.

“You’re too late!” Stevie Rae yelled at him. “I called, but you came too late.”

Kalona looked from his son to Stevie Rae. “I did not hesitate. I came at your call.” Then he utterly shocked me by kneeling beside Stevie Rae. Slowly, he reached around her and touched his son’s face. “He lives.”

“Not for long,” Thanatos said gently. “Take what time is left to say your farewells. Death has marked Rephaim for her own.”

Kalona’s amber gaze seemed to skewer the High Priestess. The power in his voice was as terrible as was his grief. “Death cannot have him! He is my son, and I am an immortal. He cannot die.”

“Did you not renounce him and name him no longer your child?”

The pain that flashed across Kalona’s face was heartbreaking. I could see that he was trying to speak, but the words wouldn’t come.

Stevie Rae touched the immortal’s arm. His gaze turned to her.

“We all say things we don’t mean sometimes, ’specially when we’re mad. If you didn’t mean it, why don’t you try just sayin’ you’re sorry?” She looked from the immortal to his son. “Tell Rephaim. Maybe he’ll hear you.” Then she scooted back, leaving Kalona by himself, kneeling beside Rephaim.

Kalona leaned forward and pulled his son to him, so that Rephaim rested across his lap. The immortal looked down at him for what seemed like a very long time and then, in a voice unsteady with emotion he said, “Rephaim, I am sorry. You are my son. You will always be my son. Forgive me for my anger and my foolishness.” And then Nyx’s fallen Warrior closed his eyes, bowed his head, and added, “Goddess, please. Do not let him pay for my mistakes.”

A single tear tracked down Kalona’s cheek and fell onto Rephaim’s forehead and the bloody wound that gaped there. There was a flash of light, so brilliant and pure that I was blinded for a moment. As I blinked the dots from my vision I saw Rephaim take a deep breath and open his eyes. The gash on his forehead was gone. He looked a little baffled. Kalona moved awkwardly to help him sit up on his own, which Rephaim did easily. Rephaim’s smile was tentative, but he sounded perfectly normal when he said, “Hello, Father. When did you get here?”

Stevie Rae wrapped her arms around Rephaim and hugged him hard, but her face was tilted up so that it was obvious she was speaking to Kalona when she said, “Just in time. Your daddy got here just in time.”

Kalona stood. At that moment he wasn’t an alluring, powerful, downright scary immortal. He was just a dad who didn’t have a clue what to say to his kid.

“The Red One—” Kalona paused, and then began again. “Stevie Rae called. I came.”

First Rephaim smiled, and then his happiness faltered as he obviously remembered. “Dragon. Where is he? He wasn’t trying to hurt me. I know he wasn’t.”

Stevie Rae bit her lip. Tears spilled from her eyes as she said, “Yeah, we know. Dragon saved you from Aurox.”

“Aurox? Neferet’s creature? He was here?” Kalona asked.

“He was. He tried to kill your son and disrupt the reveal ritual. Dragon Lankford gave his life to save him,” Thanatos said.

All of our eyes went to Dragon’s shrouded body.

I didn’t know what to say. How the hell was I going to explain to them that I’d really seen Heath’s soul inside Aurox? And what the hell was I going to do about it?

“You must know that Neferet has allied herself with Darkness,” Kalona said.

“I do,” Thanatos agreed. “And the Vampyre High Council will now know it, as well.”

“What’s going to happen?” I asked Thanatos.

“Neferet will be stripped of her title of High Priestess and shunned by all vampyres,” Thanatos said.

“She will fight,” Kalona said grimly. “And she has powerful allies in Darkness, her creature, and the Red Ones who follow her.”

“Then we will defend ourselves,” Thanatos said.

“Does that mean you are staying in Tulsa? Or are you going to return to your Italian isle and leave these children to battle Darkness?” Kalona asked.

Thanatos narrowed her eyes at him. “The Tulsa House of Night has a new High Priestess, and she is Death.”

Kalona stared at Thanatos, then he looked from her to his son. I could see the indecision on his face and I figured he was getting ready to fly away—actually the thought passed my mind that even though he’d said sorry to Rephaim and seemed to have a truce with us, we couldn’t really be sure he wasn’t still involved with Neferet. I mean, I’d believed in him before and Heath had died because of it.

But when the immortal finally moved it wasn’t because he was flying away. He strode over to Thanatos, and then he knelt on one knee and said, “It seems your House of Night will also need a new Sword Master. I pledge myself body, heart, and soul to protect you, High Priestess. I believe it is just that I serve as Death’s Warrior. Will you accept my oath?”

“Holy shit!” I heard Aphrodite murmur.

Beside me Stark moved restlessly and I saw him share a look with Darius.

“I do accept your oath, Kalona, and I will hold it as binding.”

Kalona bowed his head and fisted his hand over his heart saying, “Thank you, High Priestess.” When he stood, his gaze went directly to his son.

Rephaim’s smile was brilliant, even though his face was washed with tears. “You did the right thing,” he told his father.

Kalona nodded. “Yes. At last.”

“Well, then. Shall we return to our House of Night and see what awaits us there?” Thanatos asked.

We all nodded, even though I know I wasn’t the only one whose stomach hurt and who absolutely wanted to run screaming from whatever we were going to find back in Tulsa.