be my life

carried forth

so that finally, eternally, I receive what to me is due!

Neferet flung her arms wide, and like dark lightning bolts, her children shot forth. The wall of fire flamed, engulfing the first wave of her children. Neferet shrieked her loss as they died. But their deaths did not stop the others. Her children surged forth, battering the flames. Where one burned, another took its place, and though tears washed down Neferet’s face, her shrieks of rage and loss turned to cries of victory as slowly, inevitably, the flames burned lower and lower, until finally, with a hiss of ice covering a candle, the protective wall was extinguished.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Shaunee

“It’s hard to stop thinking about it, isn’t it?” Shaunee said, as she and Erik had fallen into another silence while they stared at the spot Grandma Redbird and the other women had covered with sage and lavender—the spot where Kalona had died.

“It was amazing. I know Zoey and the rest of you guys have seen Nyx a bunch of times, but it still has my head spinning.”

“Hey, I totally understand. Yeah, I’ve seen Nyx before, but it’s not like I’ve gotten used to it. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it.”

“Kalona and Erebus—wow!”

Shaunee nodded, agreeing with him, and happy that he was still so awestruck by what he’d witnessed. She watched him out of the corner of her eye. He’d changed, and she liked the change.

“Thanks for sitting here with me,” she said, glancing at the four mounds the human women made in their sleeping bags, and then looking inside the tent at Thanatos, who had gone back into her silent meditation not long after everyone else had left. “It’d be lonely out here by myself if it wasn’t for you.”

“I’m glad I’m here,” Erik said. “I like being with you and—”

Waves of heat and pain slammed through Shaunee, and she doubled over with a terrible cry. Use me—channel through me—let me strengthen the spell, Shaunee recited over and over to herself as she rocked back and forth, trying to get control of the heat and the chaos and the pain that had exploded through her.

“It’s okay. You can do this, I know you can. Just focus and breathe. Try to relax, just like before,” Erik was saying.

“No!” Shaunee gasped. “Different—from—before! Bad.” She moaned and fell to her side. “Can’t—control.”

“Shaunee, listen to me!” Erik’s voice had gone from calm to concerned. “You can do this. Fire is your element. Remember that. Focus on that.”

Pain flooded Shaunee. It was like she was being torched from within. It was asking too much of her. She had no more to give. Suddenly she realized that, like Cleopatra, she was going to be engulfed by her own element.

Then, as quickly as it had torn through her, it was gone, leaving her gasping, lying in Erik’s lap. His arms were around her and, with a hand that trembled, he was smoothing her hair back from her damp forehead, murmuring, “You can do it … you can do it…”

Grandma Redbird and Sister Mary Angela were kneeling beside him, each holding one of her hands.

“Sweetheart, have you come back to us?” Grandma Redbird asked her.

“Y-yes,” Shaunee said. “It’s—it’s gone. Whatever happened, it’s over.”

“Shaunee!” Thanatos was standing at the entrance to her tent. Her face was completely white. She was weeping tears of blood. “Neferet has broken the spell. Warn Zoey.” Then she collapsed.

Shaunee struggled to get up, to rush to Thanatos. They all did. But before they could reach her, a smoky mist lifted from the ground in front of the High Priestess. The mist rolled like it was bubbling water and then took the form of a woman. She was beautiful and ethereal, but frightening. She held out her hand. Thanatos opened her eyes and took it, smiling beatifically.

And so finally, it is my turn to take your hand, Thanatos said.

Come with me where this world will no longer bind you. I have lifted the burden you have borne for me so long and so well. For you, my beloved daughter, the cares of this realm at last, at last, are over.

Still smiling, Thanatos stepped into the woman’s embrace, and both of them turned into smoke and then mist, which drifted slowly down until it was absorbed into the earth.

Sister Mary Angela crossed herself reverently. Shaunee heard her begin to recite the rosary.

“That was Death,” Erik said. “She took Thanatos away—all of her!”

Shaunee looked at where the High Priestess’s body had been. He was right. Her clothes lay flat and empty on the ground.

“Warn Zoey!” Grandma Redbird shook her shoulders. “Now!”

Shaunee pulled her thoughts together and met Grandma’s worried gaze. “I will. We’ll stop Neferet. Somehow we will.” She grabbed Erik’s hand. “Get me to the House of Night, fast!”

“We will pray for you,” said Rabbi Bernstein. All the women knelt under the Council Oak circle.

“May you all blessed be!” Grandma Redbird called after them.

Zoey

“Okay, so you each have your assignments,” Damien said as we stood and stretched and finally got ready to leave the dining room.

“Yes, Queen Damien, Shaylin and I are going to get with Kramisha and Lenobia. We’ll put our Prophetess superpowers together with what Lenobia knows about Neferet’s past, and see if we can figure out an Achilles’ heel in Crazy Town. After I work out,” Aphrodite said, and then stuffed another brownie in her face.

“Before,” I said. “This is more important than your butt.”

Aphrodite gave me a look that clearly said nothing was more important than her butt. Thankfully, she was too busy chewing to speak.

“I’m going ask Professor P to go to the media center with me to research old myths and legends. Hopefully, we can find something in them that will help us,” Damien said.

“Aurox, Rephaim, and I are going to relieve Darius, Detective Marx, and the fledgling Warriors they’ve recruited to patrol the walls,” Stark said.

“And we’re going to discuss more about Father’s past,” Rephaim said.

“I hate that you have to do that,” Stevie Rae said.

“He would want me to. He’d want anything that would help us stop Neferet,” Rephaim said.

“And Stevie Rae and I are going to Skype Sgiach. Again.” I lifted the yellow pad Aphrodite had given me. “Yes, I have the questions we all came up with to ask her.”

“Excellent,” Damien said, and I thought, not for the first time, that he was going to make a really good professor someday.

“It’s a few minutes after midnight,” I said. “Let’s meet back here about four thirty–ish. That’ll give us a chance to talk about what we’ve learned and have dinner before sunrise.”

“Okay, see you in a few—” Stark said, bending to give me a good-bye kiss, when Nicole burst into the room, followed by Shaunee and Erik.

“Thanatos is dead—the spell is broken—Neferet is free!” Shaunee said, gasping for breath.

“What happened? Are you okay?” I asked as Stark and Erik helped her to sit.

“I’ll be fine. And all I know about what happened is that a lot of something big and bad hit the wall at the same time. Fire couldn’t handle it. The force of it killed Thanatos.” Shaunee gulped the wine Aphrodite handed her.

“It almost killed Shaunee, too,” Erik said.

Marx and Darius ran into the room. “It’s Neferet. She’s loose and heading this way,” Darius said.

“I’m getting reports from the uniforms at the barricades. She’s taking them all out,” Marx said.

Inside of me, everything got calm. My thoughts were clear and focused. “Damien, Shaunee, Shaylin, Stevie Rae—come with me,” I said.

“You’re not going anywhere without me,” Stark said. “And why the hell aren’t we all staying here? At least there are walls around us.”

“A wall won’t protect us against Neferet. She’ll go right over it. She’ll kill everyone, starting with that big group of humans who came to us for protection,” I told him. “No, we’re not staying here. But yes, you are coming with me. So are you, Rephaim, and you, Aurox.”