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“I have never allowed it to control me as if I were a fool!” Neferet’s eyes flashed with anger.

Aurox wanted to beg Grandma, don’t antagonize her—be silent until I can free you!

Grandma did not stay silent. “Accepting love does not make you a fool. It makes you human, and that is exactly what you are not, Tsi Sgili. You only glory in your victory over humanity because what you have become is a thing tainted, and absolutely unlovable.”

Aurox could see that the old woman’s words profoundly affected Neferet. The Tsi Sgili stood and, with a smile that made her look reptilian, she commanded him, “Vessel, call the beast and kill Sylvia Redbird!”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Aurox

Though Aurox needed the command to get close enough to Grandma Redbird to save her, the words made his stomach tense and his heartbeat speed. He stood and began moving toward the cage made of tendrils of Darkness.

“Just break her neck. Don’t damage her body any more than my children already have. I want to be quite sure Zoey can identify her.”

“Yes, Priestess,” Aurox said woodenly.

He did not look at the terrible pool of congealing blood and broken turquoise that had gathered, staining the carpet beneath the cage. His gaze met Grandma Redbird’s. Aurox tried to tell her with that one look that she needn’t be afraid—that he would never hurt her. He mouthed two words to her, Run—Balcony.

Grandma’s eyes never left his. She nodded and then said, “I will miss sunrise, lavender, and my u-we-tsi-a-ge-ya, but death holds no terrors for me.”

Aurox was almost within reaching distance of the cage. He knew what he needed to do. The tendrils would open to him. Grandma would run. He would give chase, keeping his body between hers and Neferet’s slithering children, and catching her outside—on the balcony—where he would hold her, until Kalona lifted her to safety.

Then the elements would abandon him and the beast would have to fight for his own freedom. Aurox had little hope he would win, but he clung to the thought that freeing Grandma Redbird was a victory in itself. Aurox raised his hands to part the threads.

“Why have you not called the beast?” Neferet’s voice was inches from him.

Grandma Redbird cringed back, staring over his shoulder.

Aurox turned. Neferet was there, floating on a nest of slithering tendrils. He could not see her feet. From her knees down she appeared to have become a part of the Dark children she had so long fed.

He felt fear then. It shivered through him like winter wind. Within him fire sent a surge of warmth and Aurox found his voice. “Priestess, the beast does not listen to my commands as it did before the reveal ritual. But I do not need it to break one old woman’s neck.”

“But I do so enjoy beasts. I will help you call it forth.” Quick as a striking snake, Neferet slapped Aurox.

The beast quivered and earth soothed the stinging pain, granting Aurox control of the creature once more.

Neferet’s brow lifted. “Isn’t that interesting? I don’t sense so much as the slightest bit of the creature’s presence.” Her nest of Darkness carried her even closer to Aurox. He could smell her breath. It was rancid as if she had been eating rotted meat. He forced himself not to move as she leaned into him, putting her arms around him as if he were her lover. “But you know what I do sense?”

Aurox couldn’t speak. He could only shake his head.

“I shall tell you.” She ran her sharp-tipped fingernail down his cheek. Blood welled and the tendrils around them quivered in response. “I sense betrayal.” She slapped him again, this time using her hand like a claw and drawing more blood from his face. “You are a Vessel, created as a gift for me. You are mine to command. The beast is mine to call.” Neferet struck him again, drawing more blood. The beast stirred, but spirit strengthened Aurox, allowing him to keep control.

“Spirit? How can spirit be present within you?” Neferet towered over him, fury causing her children to multiply and expand. “Strike him!” The Tsi Sgili hurled a thread of Darkness at him. This time Aurox lifted his arm to block the blow. The tendril cut deeply the length of his forearm. The beast quivered, feeding on Aurox’s pain.

Instantly, the other four elements joined calming spirit and water soothed, air cooled, earth grounded, and fire strengthened him.

Neferet’s rage was terrible. “The elements are with you! Where is that bitch, Zoey, and her circle?”

“Safe from you, witch!” Aurox yelled, then he turned and ripped open the cage of Darkness. Pulling Grandma Redbird into his arms, Aurox ran.

“Strike! Cut! Cause Aurox unbearable pain is my demand!”

The tendrils caught Aurox around his ankles, cutting deep and tripping him. He dropped Grandma Redbird. The old woman cried out, “Aurox!”

He tried to answer her, to tell Grandma to run to the balcony where freedom awaited, but Neferet was quicker, completing the spell in less than a breath.

“Fashioned from Darkness, beast come forth! Obey my command!”

Aurox was engulfed in the tendrils of Darkness. They did not simply cut him. They pressed their bodies against him. His skin rippled and began absorbing the terrible, snake-like creatures. Pain seared under his skin. With each beat of his frantic heart, Darkness pulsed through Aurox’s body, battering the elements until they fled and waking the beast.

Grandma Redbird was sobbing and reaching toward him. The pain within him was unbearable and with a terrible shudder his body began to shift. “No! Go!” Aurox managed to shout. His voice had changed. It was impossibly powerful and completely inhuman.

The beast came forth, birthed in pain and rage and despair.

The old woman got to her feet and began to limp toward the broken door to the balcony.

“Kill her. Now!” Neferet commanded.

Within what remained of his mind, Aurox screamed as the beast roared and obeyed.

Zoey

I shook my head at Aphrodite as she ordered her third glass of champagne. “How can you drink?”

“By using my fake ID that says I’m twenty-five-year-old Anastasia Beaverhousen.”

I rolled my eyes.

“Oh, all right. My fake name is really Kitina Maria Bartovick.”

“And that’s so much less obviously fake,” I said, rolling my eyes again.

“Whatever. It works.”

“You missed my point about the zillions of glasses of champagne,” I said.

“No, I didn’t, but you missed a sense a humor.” She sipped the bubbly pink stuff. “By the by, all of a sudden you look like shit. What’s up with that?”

I wiped my hand across my brow. It was shaking. My stomach was killing me.

Aphrodite leaned closer to me, pretending to be interested in the open geometry book, and whispered, “If you start coughing blood and die you will seriously screw up tonight’s Plan.”

“I am not dying. I’m just—” My words broke off as I was filled with a surge of energy. “Oh, no!”

“What is it?”

“Spirit. The element’s back.” I was already punching Thanatos’s number on my phone. Through the huge front window I saw Shaunee’s shoulders jerk, like something had just slammed into her, too, and I swear the air around her sparkled with fire. She whirled around. Our eyes met. She picked up her red candle.

Thanatos answered on the first ring. “Does Kalona have Grandma?” I asked.

“No. There has been no sign of her. Zoey, you can’t—” I hung up on her and grabbed the little purple votive candle.

“She’s not safe?”

“No.” I was on my feet. “I’m going up there.” Without waiting to see if she’d argue with me, I sprinted from the restaurant and across the lobby to the elevators. Shaunee and Darius met me there. She was holding her candle. Its flame was burning a lot brighter than my little purple votive, but both candles were still burning.