“Oh, Goddess, no!” Stevie Rae sobbed. “Rephaim!”

I saw that she was turning, moving to step out of the circle and go to Rephaim.

“Do not break the circle! It is what Darkness wants; do that and any sacrifice here is made for nothing!” I couldn’t see Aphrodite, but in her voice echoed a majesty that I knew Stevie Rae recognized because instead of breaking the circle she dropped to her knees, exactly as Rephaim had only moments before. Stevie Rae bowed her head and, in a broken voice said, “Nyx, I trust in your mercy. Please, protect my Rephaim.”

The bull-thing turned and, tearing the earth with his hooves, he charged Rephaim again.

Dragon Lankford moved almost as preternaturally fast as the creature. He was there in time, standing between death and Rephaim. Lifting his sword he said, “A Sword Master of Nyx is here. I will protect Rephaim.”

Dragon clashed with the beast again. It battered him back, but in doing so Dragon was moving him away from Rephaim’s unconscious body. Then, snarling a frightening sound, the creature turned its head so that I could see its bestial face—and I felt like I’d been kicked in the gut. The creature’s eyes glowed with moonstones. I knew the thing was Aurox—fully changed and absolutely, totally, no longer human.

“Warriors, rally to me!” Dragon shouted as he faced Aurox’s next attack.

“Zoey, you must summon spirit and light the candle!” Thanatos grabbed my shoulders, turned me to face her and shook me. Hard. “Dragon will battle the beast. We must hold true to the circle and complete the spell or there is no hope for any of them.”

Any of them? Where was Stark? Where was Darius? I looked wildly around. My gaze passed over and through them before I actually understood what I saw. They were there, both of them, standing in the positions they had taken before we’d begun casting the circle, but they couldn’t help Dragon. They couldn’t even help themselves. Darius and Stark, my Warrior, my Guardian, were frozen zombies. Mouths open in silent screams of agony their eyes stared sightlessly at nothing.

“Threads of Darkness encase them,” Thanatos said, still gripping my shoulders. “Open the circle so that I may complete the spell. We need the power of Death and all five elements to battle this evil.”

“Zoeybird, do as she says.” Grandma lifted the purple candle.

With shaking hands I lit the match and yelled, “Spirit, join our circle!”

Thanatos raised her arms. Flinging salt around us she spoke the final words of the spell:

“Death’s dark door I command open to me

The truth Darkness has hidden we shall see!”

The scarlet rope expanded and with a deafening roar it funneled up and up, creating a chaos of glowing red that illuminated the bruised storm clouds filling the swollen sky above us.

“Keep control of your elements! Remember our intent!” Thanatos yelled. “Begin with air!”

Damien lifted both of his hands and in a strong, sure voice called, “Air, blow from this place concealing shadows past!”

A gale blew from Damien. It captured the chaotic red glow and changed it into a cone of swirling, concentrated energy.

“Fire!” Thanatos commanded.

Shaunee lifted her hands, shouting, “Fire, strike, burn, destroy what would prevent our sight!”

Lightning sizzled, magnet-like, drawn to the center of the glowing cone.

“Water!”

Erin’s arms weren’t lifted. Instead she was pointing to the spot where Grandma had found Mom’s body. “Water, with tide of truth wash clear sight-stealing time!”

Crack! A bolt spiked from the sky, striking the ground. As the earth opened, water rushed up from it, rippling in the red earth like a pool of blood.

“Earth!”

Stevie Rae, still on her knees, was staring at the battle Dragon waged with Aurox, watching it circle ever closer and closer to Rephaim’s still body. She was crying and her voice shook, but her words rang across the circle, carried by the power of her heartache. “Earth, your bosom nurtures and keeps this spell’s key.”

The water rippled. Images lifted from the pool’s depths as if the earth was vomiting them, but they wavered and were unclear, just unrecognizable glimpses of faces and vaguely human forms.

“Spirit!” Thanatos called.

My mouth opened and through me, spirit recited the correct words from the revealing spell. “Lost years, wasted tears you felt my mom’s cries. Spirit, release the truth before our eyes!”

Instantly, everything outside the circle—Aurox and Dragon, Darius and Stark and Aphrodite—ceased to exist for me. The only thing that was real was what was being revealed within the pool. The water cleared and, as if it was happening before my eyes I saw my mom on Grandma’s front porch. She answered the door, smiling but looking kinda confused. Then the scene expanded and the point of view changed and I could see Neferet, naked, standing on the other side of the open door, asking if Sylvia Redbird was home. I heard Grandma sob and I wanted to run to the pool of water, to stand between it and Grandma—to try and shield her from the grisly, unbearable vision I knew it was going to expose.

But I couldn’t move.

“No, wait.” Panicked, I looked down. The red glow that had outlined our circle had expanded. It carpeted the entire space, engulfing each of us. “This is too much! I don’t want Grandma to—”

“You cannot stop it,” Thanatos said. “Death has put this spell in motion. Only death can release us.”

Grandma managed to lift her arm. She slid her hand in mine. Trapped by the power of death unleashed through the elements, we saw everything. Neferet bound my mother with sticky, whip-like threads of black and then she slit her throat and let the threads drag her from the porch. In the middle of a blighted circle, the white bull of Darkness drank from her until the threads surrounding him were swollen and bloated. After Mom was dead and drained of blood, Neferet, laughing, mounted the beast and they disappeared together.

“It is true,” Thanatos said. “Neferet’s Consort is Darkness.”

Then Stevie Rae cried, “Help Rephaim! The bull’s gonna kill him!” I looked from the disappearing vision in the pool to Stevie Rae. I only had time to wonder why the hell she was on her cell phone before the world around me exploded into sound and blood.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Kalona

Rephaim hadn’t told him. His son had let him believe the Goddess had forgiven him, and in doing so she’d gifted him with the form of a human boy.

Rephaim hadn’t mentioned that he’d been condemned to be a bird, a beast who could only long for something that was, with a creature’s mind, forever unattainable.

“At least for the hours of daylight it is unattainable,” Kalona said, pacing across the top of the ridge.

“Help you, we will?”

Kalona’s anger exploded at the hissing, semi-human sound of his other son’s voice. He turned on Nisroc, raising his hand to cuff him into silence. The Raven Mockers who were clustered around scurried back, out of his reach. Nisroc cringed, but remained near and did not try to escape his father’s wrath.

Mid-swing, Kalona hesitated. He let his fist drop to his side. He stared at his silent son who crouched, waiting for the blow.

“Why?” Kalona allowed the desperation he was feeling to be heard in his voice. “Why would you want to help me?”

Nisroc raised his head. There was confusion in his red gaze. “You are Father.”

“But I have not been a good father,” Kalona heard himself say.

Nisroc’s gaze remained steady on his. “That mattersss not. Ssstill you are Father.”

Utterly defeated, Kalona could only shake his head, and in a voice gentled by emotions he barely understood, he said, “You cannot help me with this.” Kalona gestured to the sky. “Go on. It is full dark now. You may stretch your wings and ride the sky without being seen. Just be back before dawn.”