The cost will be

Your true love from thee

I had no choice. Either Stark dies or the world as I know it dies. “You have my oath. I agree!” I said, promising silently to myself, When this is over, I’ll follow Stark. I’ll know where to find him. Under the wishing tree …

The Fey bowed their glowing heads briefly in acknowledgment of my oath, then they formed a circle around me.

Go to the Dark Goddess.

I did as they commanded, moving past Stark.

“Zoey? What the hell?”

“Stay there, Stark! Keep fighting them. I’m going to her.” I couldn’t look at Stark. I knew he wouldn’t listen to me. I knew he wouldn’t stay up on the stairs where he had a chance against the tendrils. “James Stark, I will always love you!” I shouted.

Then I ran. The Fey surrounded me and moved with me, a solid shield of ancient power, repelling any tendril that approached them. I circled around behind Neferet. And then, using my Fey shield as a battering ram, I hurled myself at her.

The Fey hit her from behind. Blinded by blood and pain, she didn’t see us coming. I knocked her toward the grotto. One step, then another.

Hissing at me like she was a cobra, she whirled around and her terrible, long fingers sliced through the Fey closest to her.

It was a water Fey, a mermaid, and the beautiful blue sprite gave a horrible, inhumane shriek of pain and dissolved into the ground.

I gritted my teeth and took another step toward her.

“You little bitch! That is you inside there. Do you think Old Magick will stop me from killing you? I truly command Old Magick! A mortal cannot defeat me!”

She struck again, and a fire sprite exploded.

I battered her back another step, and she hacked through a Fey in the shape of a graceful heron.

With only a forest nymph between Neferet and me, I ran at her. Neferet raked her talons through the Fey, who screamed and disappeared, but the dark Goddess was off balance from the uneven Oklahoma sandstones beneath her feet, and she fell.

Finally! Close enough!

“Damien, where are you?” I cried.

“Here!” His head popped up from behind a clump of azaleas to my left. “Air, I call you to our circle!” I shouted, and wind rushed around us.

“I’m here!” Shaunee yelled, stepping out from behind a fire-blackened tree.

“Fire, I call you to our circle!” I felt the heat of her element.

“Children! Stop her! Kill her!” Neferet commanded.

I stood my ground, even as I felt a tendril of Darkness slice into my leg. “Shaylin!”

“Right here!” She jumped and waved from the top of the ridge to my right.

“Water, I call you to our circle!”

“Stevie Rae!” I cried, as I grabbed a snake-creature as it shot toward my throat and bashed it against a rock.

“I’m right behind you, Z, and I got your back!”

I turned. Rephaim’s sword sang in an arc around us, while I called, “Earth, I call you to our circle!” I breathed in the scents of a meadow as I completed my casting by calling, “Spirit, I call you to our circle!”

A wide silver ribbon of light crackled into being, connecting the five of us and completely encircling Neferet.

“Do you think a circle will hold me?” Neferet was on her hands and knees. Her face was bloody but already healing. She looked at me and laughed. “You’ve just made this easier. I destroy this circle, I destroy you. Come to me, children! All of you come to me!”

Her creatures obeyed her. They slithered from all the shadows within the park, a dark tide rising around her.

I ignored her and the creatures she called to execute me. I raised my arms. “Air, fire, water, earth, and spirit—hear me! I am Zoey Redbird. My ancestors danced beneath the sky, evoking you in the name of the Great Earth Mother, in respect and love, themselves caretakers of this land, keepers of the mortal realm’s balance of Light and Darkness. Tonight I invoke your aid as a daughter of those ancient caretakers. This Tsi Sgili and her creatures defile us all and create unbalance. So as the Wise Women before me did, I beg of you, Great Earth Mother and the powers of Old Magick, entrap Neferet and her children!” Imagining myself as a fountain and the elements as streams of power shooting up from the bowels of the earth and through me, I threw air, fire, water, earth, and spirit at Neferet.

The silver ribbon that connected me to the circle rushed from me, closing like a noose around Neferet and her tendrils of Darkness, and drawing them back, together, into the open mouth of the grotto.

“Stevie Rae, help me!” Instantly, she was at my side, taking my hand.

“Earth,” she commanded, “close ’em in!” A green glow lit up the rocks all around the grotto. The earth beneath our feet began to shake, harder and harder, until the stones fell free, avalanching to seal the mouth of the grotto.

The silence that followed was incredible. I felt wobbly. My knees were weak. Stevie Rae and I were still holding hands.

“Stark!” I called. “Where are you?” My eyes were already beginning to tear. I knew he wouldn’t answer. I staggered, and Aurox caught me.

He was a boy again, bloody but alive.

“Take it easy,” he said as he and Stevie Rae helped me sit down. “Everything’s going to be okay.”

No, nothing is going to be okay.

“Take a few deep breaths, and before you close the circle, borrow some energy from spirit,” Aurox said.

I nodded numbly, staring at the silver ribbon that still circled me.

“Z! We did it!” Damien cried as he hurried up to us.

“That was super scary,” Shaylin said.

“But awesome,” Shaunee agreed.

They were all around me—all of my circle. And we had done it. We’d trapped Neferet. I was the only one who knew the cost, though.

“Yeah, it was awesome, but painful,” he said.

I looked up, and through my tears saw Stark. He was standing there, smiling down at me. He had a bunch of cuts on his arms and legs, and he was bleeding like crazy, but he was alive!

“Stark! Ohmygoddess!” I was in the process of hurling myself into his arms when the mound of rocks that were supposed to be sealing Neferet inside the grotto began to move.

“Oh, shit!” Stark said. “The tendrils—they’re boring holes through the rocks.”

I stood, in the center of my circle, and raised my hands again. I noticed there was blood all over them. I didn’t care. Stark was alive!

The cost will be

Your true love from thee

The Feys’ voices echoed in my mind, and I realized why Stark was alive.

They hadn’t meant they were taking Stark away from me. They’d meant I was going. It was my turn. This time I had to love my friends and my world enough that I would be the sacrifice that would make it right. I had to exchange my life for entombing Neferet.

“You promised to be sure they’re safe,” I said to Stark.

He narrowed his eyes. “Z, what are you up to?”

I drew a deep breath, readying myself. I lifted my Seer Stone and started walking forward. Grandma said it. Sgiach said it. And, most important, Nyx said it. My blood is special. There’s ancient power in it, living in the modern world. And I’m going to use my blood to seal that tomb.

“It won’t work.” Aurox was suddenly there in front of me, blocking my path.

“Get out of my way,” I told him. “And keep Stark out of my way. I know what I’m doing. You were right. Everything is going to be okay.”

“No, Zoey. You’re strong and wise, but you’re wrong about this. You aren’t an immortal. No matter what you do. No matter what you’re willing to sacrifice, you don’t have enough power to hold her. But I do. I was created from Old Magick as a tool of Darkness.”

“But you chose Light. You changed.”

“Because Heath’s spirit within me gave me a choice. I’m making that choice now, out of love. Not just for you, Zo, but for all of you. This is the right thing to do. I know I’m right. Zo, make Stark take care of Skylar for me, ’kay?” He smiled, and I saw Heath within his moonstone eyes. “Oh, and remember the two things I wanted? Got one of them tonight. Nyx spoke to me through you.” He reached out and took the Seer Stone from me, putting it over his head so that it dangled, flashing silver, in the middle of his chest. “I am the Old Magick you had to wield.”