Hidden

caught up in it, like it lifted me from the earth and put me in a happy blue ocean bubble. Sorry. I know that sounds crazy.” I held my breath, waiting for Lenobia to laugh and Travis to scoff.

They didn’t do either. Instead, Lenobia began to cry. I mean, seriously. She did the big, shoulder-shaking, snot bawl that I tend to be prone to. Travis just held her closer to him. He looked down at her as if she was a miracle personified. “I’ve known you before. That’s why you feel like home to me.”

Lenobia nodded. Then, through her tears, she told me, “Travis is my only human mate, my only love, returned to me after two hundred and twenty-four years. I vowed never to love another after him, and I have not. We met and fell in love on the ocean in a ship that carried us from France to New Orleans.”

“So the Seer Stone showed me the truth?”

“Yes, Zoey. It absolutely did,” Lenobia said before she turned her face into Travis’s chest and wept while he held her, releasing two centuries of waiting and loss and pain.

I stood and took Stark’s hand again, pulling him away so that the two of them could be alone. As we walked into the stables he said, “This does not mean Aurox is Heath come back to you. You know that, right?”

Stevie Rae saved me by rushing up and gushing, “Ohmygoodness! Where have you been? I can’t wait to tell you ’bout Lenobia and Travis.”

“Been there. Done that,” Stark said. “Where are Aphrodite and Darius?”

“They’re already in front of Nyx’s Temple at the funeral pyre,” Stevie Rae said. “We’re meeting them there real soon.”

“I’ll go find Erin and Shaunee and Damien. We need to get going.”

“What’s up with him?” Stevie Rae asked, watching Stark stride away.

“Heath may really be inside Aurox,” I said.

Stevie Rae echoed my thoughts exactly by saying, “Ah, hell!”

CHAPTER TWELVE

Kalona

Being on the side of Light wasn’t as interesting as he remembered. Truth be told, Kalona was bored. Yes, he understood why Thanatos had told him to stay in the background and not draw attention to himself until after Dragon’s funeral. It was then that she was going to announce to the school that he was her new Warrior, and would take the position of Sword Master and Leader of the Sons of Erebus at the Tulsa House of Night. Until then his presence would be confusing, if not insulting to the other Warriors.

The problem was Kalona had never minded being insulting. He was a powerful immortal. Why should he be bothered by the inconsequential feelings of others?

Because those I find most inconsequential sometimes surprise me: Heath, Stark, Dragon, Aurox, Rephaim. The last name in his mental list startled him. Rephaim had seemed inconsequential to him at one time, but he’d been wrong. Kalona had realized he loved his son—needed his son.

What else had he been wrong about?

Probably quite a lot of things.

The thought depressed him.

He paced back and forth along the darkest, most shadowy side of Nyx’s Temple. There he was within hearing distance of Dragon’s pyre, so he could come when Thanatos called, but he was also out of sight.

Being told what to do annoyed him. It had always annoyed him.

And there was this fledgling who had an affinity for fire, Shaunee. She seemed to have the ability to prod him, to make him consider things he was unused to spending his time considering.

She’d done it before. He’d meant to manipulate her—to get information about Rephaim and the Red One. What had happened was that she had gifted him with something ridiculously mundane and simple: a cell phone. That small gift had saved his son’s life.

Now she’d made him think about all those eons he’d spent apart from Nyx.

“No!” he spoke the word aloud, causing the little grove of redbuds that had been planted on the west side of Nyx’s Temple to shake as if a storm threatened them. Kalona focused his thoughts and quieted his temper. “No,” he repeated using a voice that was no longer filled with otherworldly power. “I will not think of the centuries I have spent apart from her. I will not think of her at all.”

Laughter danced around him, causing the redbud grove to shimmer, shift, and then burst into full bloom as if the summer sun had suddenly beamed down upon them. Kalona clenched his fists and looked up.

He was sitting on the stone eaves of the temple. There was little light on that side of the building, which was why Thanatos had commanded he wait there, but Erebus was a light unto himself.

Erebus—his brother—Nyx’s immortal Consort. The one being in this universe who was most like him, and the one being in this universe Kalona hated even more than he hated himself. Here! In the mortal realm after all these eons? Why?

Kalona hid his shock with disdain. “You are shorter than I remembered.”

Erebus smiled. “Good to see you, too, brother.”

“As usual, you put words in my mouth.”

“I apologize. I do not need to. Not when your own words are so interesting. I will not think of her at all.” Not only was Erebus almost a mirror image of Kalona, he also mimicked his brother’s voice perfectly.

“I was speaking of Neferet.” Kalona quickly collected his thoughts and lied easily. It had been eons, but he used to be good at lying to Erebus. Kalona found he still had the knack.

“I doubt you not, brother.” Erebus leaned forward, spread his golden wings, and floated gracefully to the ground before Kalona. “You see, that is exactly why I made this little visit.”

“You came to the earthly realm because I was Neferet’s lover?” Kalona crossed his arms over his broad chest and met his brother’s amber gaze.

“No, I came because you are a liar and a thief. The rape of the last of Neferet’s goodness is just one of your many crimes,” Erebus said. He, too, crossed his arms over his chest.

Kalona laughed. “You have not been spying well enough if you believe rape had anything to do with what Neferet and I shared. She was more than willing, more than ready for my body.”

“I was not speaking of her body!” Erebus’s voice had risen and Kalona could hear the sound of vampyres calling, questioning what was happening over by Nyx’s Temple.

“As usual, brother, you have appeared to cause problems for me. I was supposed to remain in the shadows, unseen and waiting to be summoned. Though, as I consider more fully, it will be amusing to watch you deal with mortal discovery. A quick word of advice—even vampyres tend to overreact when meeting a god.”

Erebus didn’t hesitate. He lifted both hands and commanded, “Conceal us!”

There was a rush of wind and a feeling of lightness that Kalona found so familiar, so bittersweet, that only two responses came to his mind—anger or despair. He would not allow Erebus to see his despair.

“You defy Nyx? She has proclaimed that I may not enter the Otherworld. How dare you take me here!” Kalona’s night-colored wings were fully extended and he tensed, ready to attack his brother.

“You always play the impetuous fool, brother. I would never go against my Consort’s proclamations. I did not bring you to the Otherworld. I only brought a piece of the Otherworld to you to shield us, if only for a few moments, from mortal eyes.” Erebus smiled again. This time he did not dim the beauty of his expression. Sunlight glowed from his body. His wings glistened with feathers of gold. His skin was perfect as if he had been fashioned from the rays of the sun.

He had been, Kalona thought with disgust. He had been fashioned when the sky kissed the sun. Just as I had been fashioned when the sky kissed the moon. The sky, like most immortals, is a fickle bastard who took as he pleased and then paid no attention to the offspring he left behind.

“How does it feel? Better than when you snuck in, chasing after that little fledgling, Zoey Redbird. Then you were only spirit. You could not feel the magick of Nyx’s realm against your skin. And you always were so impressed by anything you could touch, could physically claim as your own.”