“So she doesn’t have an Achilles’ heel, like Kalona did,” I said.

“She doesn’t have a literal weakness, as did Kalona and Achilles,” Damien said in his teacher voice. “But maybe we can find something from her past that we can use against her.”

“We already tried that. The Seer Stone turned into a mirror that showed her past, when she’d been beaten up and raped by her dad,” I said. “The reason that worked then was that she was shocked enough that Aurox had a chance to gore her and throw her off the balcony. She won’t be surprised by that again.”

“But she was weakened enough to be defeated—even temporarily,” Aurox said.

“Talk about fighting creepy with creepy,” Aphrodite said. “No offense, Bull Boy, but you can be as gross as those spiders when you do that change-up thing.”

I shivered, not liking the memory that flashed in my mind of what lurked beneath Aurox’s normal-looking façade.

“No offense taken,” Aurox said.

“Aurox, can you kill her?” I asked.

He shook his head slowly. “I used all of my power against her at the penthouse, and that did not kill her. What we need is something like what you and I did to her, only more permanent. We need a prison fashioned to hold an immortal, not a weapon to slay one.”

“Holy crap,” I said, sitting up straighter. “A-ya!”

“What is A-ya?” Aurox asked.

“She’s a who, not a what,” I said, speaking fast, trying to keep up with my zooming thoughts. “A-ya was a maiden created from earth and breathed to life—”

“With Old Magick,” Aphrodite finished.

I nodded. “Yeah, with Old Magick. She lured Kalona underground.”

“Because unless they have ties to the earth, immortals are weakest underground,” Damien said, his voice mirroring my excitement.

“Neferet has no ties with the earth. She steals her power from souls as they die,” Shaylin said. “She is a soul leech.”

“The maiden A-ya was able to imprison Father because she was created with the Old Magick of the Great Earth Mother and elemental power focused by Wise Women who were defending their people,” Rephaim said. “He was trapped for centuries.”

“Until Neferet freed him,” I said.

“I don’t think she was ever a vampyre,” Stevie Rae said. “She’s more like a sorceress, a super-crazy, super-manipulative, super-mean one.”

“Ohmygoddess!” Damien exclaimed, his fingers flying across his iPad. “Nimue’s imprisonment of Merlin in the crystal cave created from his own magic! It’s more than a boring trope or a clichéd, overused parable. It’s our answer!”

“Oh, for shit’s sake, speak English. Modern English,” Aphrodite said.

Damien didn’t even take time to frown at her. “Merlin was King Arthur’s adviser, remember?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Wasn’t he a vampyre?”

Damien shook his head. “No, no, no, though people tend to make that mistake pretty often. The Arthurian legends were based on a human king who lived in medieval times. They were romanticized by authors like Alfred Lord Tennyson, T. H. White, and Marion Zimmer Bradley, who really just fictionalized everything—including Merlin.”

“I remember,” Stark said. “I read the Merlin Trilogy by Mary Stewart. Merlin basically makes Arthur king, and then isn’t there to help stop the downfall of Camelot because he’s trapped by his own magick used by Nimue—the apprentice he fell in love with. At least I think that’s how the story went. I read them when I was a kid.”

“I saw the Disney Sword in the Stone,” Stevie Rae said. “I liked it, but I don’t remember Nimue.”

“The specifics aren’t important,” Damien said. “It’s the heart of the myth that has the clue we need.”

“We use her own magick to trap Neferet,” I said.

“Not we, Zo. You,” Aurox said.

“Ah, hell,” I said. I sighed and took a big gulp of my brown pop. It was going to be a long night.

Lynette

The elevator opened to the mezzanine level, and Neferet walked gracefully around the balcony-like hallway, drawing the entire ballroom’s attention to her as she came to the wide marble stairway and descended to the level on which her throne sat. Lynette followed more slowly, her eyes automatically searching the crowd below for anything or anyone who could spoil the festive ambiance she had worked so hard to create.

She breathed a long, satisfied sigh as everything appeared as close to perfection as possible. Well, at least the only people left alive are the most attractive ones. That had definitely made her job easier. Studying them, Lynette had to admit that they were a pretty group—if one didn’t look too closely at their pale, worried faces, or notice the nervous way they tended to cluster into little groups, as if they were trying to make themselves as small and unnoticeable as possible. Lynette thought that the lack of light probably helped them feel more secure. They were running out of candles, so Lynette had told Judson to be sure the majority of the candelabrum trees were placed around Neferet’s landing, hoping she would be spotlighted and not take notice of the lack of illumination in the ballroom.

Apparently, Lynette’s plan was working. There was just enough light on the crowd so that the women’s jewelry flashed, leaving everyone except the Goddess washed in a soft sepia color.

Neferet lifted her arms. Lynette was standing in the corner of the landing behind her, so she couldn’t see the Goddess’s face, but Neferet’s voice broadcasted joy.

“My loyal supplicants, a grateful Goddess stands before you!” Lynette brought her hands up, miming applause. Neferet’s servants immediately mimicked her, and the rest of the people followed, though with less enthusiasm.

“Thank you, thank you, how lovely of you!” Neferet said. The applause trailed away and the Goddess continued. “We have been through much together. I want you, my first supplicants, to know that your Goddess will eternally remember that her reign on earth began here, in Tulsa, with you.”

Lynette decided not to interrupt with any more applause, especially since it died away so quickly. She’d save it until Neferet’s speech was finished, and then cue the finale ovation.

“I would like to show special appreciation for my staff. Judson, Kylee, could you and the rest of the staff come to the front of the ballroom, please?”

That’s unexpected, Lynette thought. She was just supposed to thank her supplicants with a rather long-winded speech, wait for the clock to strike midnight … Lynette glanced at the large clock that hung over the foyer, suspended in its elaborate art deco frame. Fifteen minutes until midnight. Neferet hadn’t said anything about any special recognition. Shit! I hope she wasn’t expecting me to have gifts to present to them.

Stress began to churn Lynette’s stomach. It can’t be good that Neferet’s gone off script. Lynette watched the staff members moving forward from their normal stations at the rear of the ballroom. She grimaced. They were so mechanical, with no will left of their own! She didn’t like to imagine what the serpents inside of them were doing to the actual people who were still in there.

Lynette repressed a shudder, glancing down to where there should have been a nest of the disgusting things slithering around Neferet’s ankles.

They were gone. There wasn’t one serpent anywhere around the Goddess.

That’s really strange. Maybe she told them to be invisible. But no, Lynette had been within hearing distance of Neferet since they left the penthouse. She hadn’t said anything to the creatures.

“Ah, my loyal staff.” Neferet was beaming down at the eighteen serpent-possessed people who were standing side by side just below the landing. “How nice you all look in your newly pressed uniforms. Your Goddess is pleased with you.”

Lynette was paying only partial attention to what Neferet was saying because she’d found the serpents. They had formed a black circle around the ballroom floor that was undulating slowly around and around.