Awakened

“Neferet was with us in the Council Chamber when this horrible accident happened,” Dragon said solemnly, touching Jack’s hair gently. “She was not responsible for this death.”

Stevie Rae couldn’t look at Jack’s poor broken body, so she was watching Neferet when Dragon spoke. Only she saw the flash of smug victory that passed over her face, quickly replaced by a practiced look of sadness and concern.

She killed him. I don’t know how, and I can’t prove it right now, but she did. Then, as quickly as that thought formed, another came on its heels: Zoey would believe me. She’d help me figure out how to expose Neferet.

Zoey has to come back.

CHAPTER NINE

Zoey

So, Stark and I had done it.

“I don’t feel any different,” I told the nearest tree. “I mean, except for feeling closer to Stark and kinda sore in unmentionable places, that is.” I walked over to a little stream that bubbled cheerily through the grove and peered down. The sun was in the process of setting, but it had been an unusually clear, cold day on the island and the sky still held enough of its dramatic coral and gold light that I could see my reflection. I studied myself. I looked like, well, me. “Okay, so technically I’d done it once before, but that had been a whole different thing.” I sighed. Loren Blake had been a giant mistake. James Stark was totally different, as was the commitment we’d made to each other. “So, shouldn’t I look different now that I am in a Real Relationship?” I squinted at my reflection. Didn’t I look older? More experienced? Wiser?

Actually, no. The squint just made me look nearsighted. “And Aphrodite would probably say it’ll give me wrinkles, too.”

A little pang went through me as I remembered saying bye to Aphrodite and Darius the night before. She’d been predictably sarcastic, and more than a little bitchy about me not going back to Tulsa with her, but our hug had been tight and genuine, and I knew I’d miss her. I already missed her. I missed Stevie Rae and Damien, Jack and the Twins, too.

“And Nala,” I told my reflection.

But did I miss them enough to go back to the real world? Enough to face everything from resuming school to possibly fighting Darkness and Neferet?

“No. No, you don’t.” Saying it made it even truer. I could feel some of the I miss them being diluted by the serenity of Sgiach’s island. “It’s magick here. If I could send for my cat, I swear I’d stay forever.”

Sgiach’s laughter was soft and musical. “Why is it we tend to miss our pets more than we miss people?” She was smiling as she joined me at the stream.

“I think it’s ’cause we can’t Skype them. I mean, I know I can go back to the castle and talk to Stevie Rae, but I’ve tried doing the computer video thing with Nala. She just looks confused and even more disgruntled than she usually does, which is pretty darn disgruntled.”

“If cats understood technology and had opposable thumbs, they’d rule the world,” said the queen.

I laughed. “Don’t let Nala hear you say that. She does rule her world.”

“You’re right. Mab believes she rules her world, as well.”

Mab was Sgiach’s giant, long-haired black and white tuxedo cat who I was just getting to know. I think she was possibly, like, a thousand years old and mostly stayed only semi-conscious and barely moving on the end of the queen’s bed. Stark and I had started calling her Dead Cat, but not within Sgiach’s hearing.

“By world you mean your bedroom?”

“Exactly,” Sgiach said.

Both of us laughed, and then the queen walked over to a large moss-covered boulder not far from the stream. She sat gracefully and patted the chair-sized area next to her. I joined her, wondering vaguely if my movements would ever be graceful and regal like hers—and doubting it.

“You could send for your Nala. Vampyre familiars fly as companion animals. It would only be a matter of showing her vaccination record to get her into Skye.”

“Wow, seriously?”

“Seriously. Of course that means you would need to commit yourself to staying here for at least several months. Cats don’t travel particularly well—and moving them from one time zone to another, and then back again, really isn’t good for them.”

I looked into Sgiach’s eyes and said exactly what I was thinking, “The longer I stay here the more I’m sure that I don’t want to leave, but I know it’s probably irresponsible of me to hide from the real world like that. I mean”—I hurried on when I saw the concern grow in her gaze—“it’s not like Skye isn’t real and all. And I know I’ve been through a bunch of bad stuff lately, so it’s okay for me to take a break. But I am still in school. I suppose I do have to go back. Eventually.”

“Would you feel that way if school came to you?”

“What do you mean?”

“Since you’ve come into my life I’ve begun to reflect on the world—or rather on how disassociated I’ve become from it. Yes, I have the internet. Yes, I have satellite TV. But I don’t have new followers. I don’t have student Warriors and young Guardians. Or at least I didn’t until you and Stark arrived. I find that I’ve missed the energy and input from young minds.” Sgiach looked away from me and deeper into the grove. “Your arrival here has awakened something that was sleeping on my island. I feel a change coming in the world, greater than the influence of modern science or technology. I can ignore it and let my island go back to sleep, perhaps to become completely separate from the world and its problems, perhaps even to be lost to the mists of time—like Avalon and the Amazons. Or I can open myself to it, meeting the challenges it might bring.” The queen met my gaze again. “I choose to allow my island to awaken. It is time Skye’s House of Night accepted new blood.”

“You’re going to take down the protective spell?”

Her smile was wry. “No, as long as I live and, hopefully, as long as my successor and, eventually her successors, live, Skye will remain protected and separate from the modern world. But I did think I would put out a Warrior’s Call. At one time Skye trained the best and brightest of the Sons of Erebus.”

“But then you broke from the Vampyre High Council, right?”

“Correct. Perhaps I could begin, slowly, to mend that break, especially if I had a young High Priestess as one of my trainees.”

I felt a stirring of excitement. “Me? You mean me?”

“I do, indeed. You and your Guardian have a co

“Wow, I’m seriously honored. Thank you so much.” My mind was whirring! If Skye became an active House of Night it wouldn’t be like I’d be hiding from everyone here. It would be more like I’d transferred to another school. I thought about Damien and the rest of the gang and wondered if they’d think about coming to Skye, too.

“Would there be a place here for fledglings who aren’t Warriors in training?” I asked.

“We could discuss that.” Sgiach paused, seemed to come to a decision, and added, “You do know, don’t you, that this island is rich in magickal tradition that encompasses more than just Warrior training and my Guardians?”

“No. I mean, yes. Like it’s obvious that you’re magick, and you’re basically this island.”

“I’ve been here so long that many do see me as the island, but I am more the caretaker of its magick than the possessor of it.”

“What do you mean?”

“Find out for yourself, young queen. You have an affinity for each of the elements. Reach out and see what the island has to teach you.”

When uncertainty had me hesitating, Sgiach coaxed, “Try the first element, air. Simply call it to you and observe.”

“Okay. Well, here goes.” I stood up and moved a couple of feet from Sgiach, into a mossy area that was kinda clear of rocks. I took three deep, cleansing breaths, settling into the familiar feeling of being centered. Instinctively, I turned my face to the east and called: “Air, please come to me.”