“Now that the immortal has fled, kill his son. I am not fooled by this charade.”

Stevie Rae felt the terribly familiar sting of Darkness breaking her connection to the earth, weakening her. She was unable to even cry out as she watched Dragon descend on Rephaim.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Rephaim

Rephaim hadn’t even had time to take in what had happened when Neferet ordered his death. He was watching Stevie Rae in wonder as she stared down at something white in the grass. Then chaos ensued. The green glow that had been surrounding him faded. Stevie Rae turned ghostly pale and swayed dizzily. The Raven Mocker was so focused on Stevie Rae that he didn’t even know Dragon was attacking, and then her friend Zoey was suddenly there before him, placing herself between him and the avenging Sons of Erebus.

“No. We don’t attack people who choose the path of the Goddess.” She spoke in an amplified voice, and the Warriors halted uncertainly in front of her. Rephaim noted that Stark had moved to stand on one side of her, and Darius on the other. Both Warriors had their swords raised, but their expressions spoke volumes; it was obvious neither of them wanted to strike their brothers.

My fault. It is my fault they stand against each other. Rephaim’s thoughts were jumbled with self-loathing and uncertainty as he hurried to Stevie Rae.

“Will you have Warrior turn against Warrior?” Neferet asked Zoey incredulously.

“Will you have our Warriors kill someone in the service of their Goddess?” countered Zoey.

“So now you are able to judge what is in another’s heart?” Neferet said, sounding smug and wise. “Not even real High Priestesses claim such a divine ability.”

Rephaim felt the change in the air before she materialized. It was as if a thunderstorm had been contained and its lightning had charged the air around them. In the middle of the surge of power and light and sound, the Great Goddess of Night, Nyx, appeared.

“No, Neferet, Zoey cannot claim such a divine ability, but I can.”

Every tentacle of Darkness that had been searching and draining and lurking slithered away at the sound of her divine voice. Beside him, Stevie Rae gasped, like she’d let loose the breath she’d been holding, and dropped to her knees.

From all around him Rephaim heard awestruck whispers of “It’s Nyx!” “It’s the Goddess!” “Oh, blessed be!”

And then his attention was consumed by Nyx.

She was, indeed, night personified. Her hair was like the full hunters’ moon, shining with a silver luminescence. Her eyes were the new moon sky—black and limitless. The rest of her body was almost completely transparent. Rephaim thought he caught a glimpse of dark silk lifting in a breeze of its own, and a woman’s curves—and perhaps even a crescent moon tattooed on her smooth forehead, but the more he tried to focus on the Goddess’s image, the more transparent and incandescent she became. It was then that he noticed he was the only one still standing. Everyone else had knelt to the Goddess, and he, too, knelt.

He quickly realized that he didn’t need to worry about his late response. Nyx’s attention was elsewhere. She was floating over to Damien, who, ironically, had no idea she approached because he was kneeling with his head bowed and his eyes closed.

“Damien, my son, look at me.”

Damien’s head lifted, and his eyes opened wide in surprise. “Oh, Nyx! It’s really you! I thought I’d imagined you here.”

“Perhaps in a way, you did. I want you to know that your Jack is with me, and he is one of the purest, most joy-filled spirits my realm has ever known.”

Tears filled and overflowed Damien’s eyes. “Thank you. Thank you for telling me that. It will help me try to get over him.”

“My son, there is no need to get over Jack. Remember him, and rejoice in the brief, beautiful love you shared. Choosing to do so does not mean forgetting or getting over, it means healing.”

Damien smiled through his tears. “I’ll remember. I’ll always remember and choose your path, Nyx. I give you my word.”

The Goddess’s hovering form turned so that her dark gaze took in the rest of them. Rephaim saw Nyx look fondly at Zoey, who grinned.

“Merry meet, my Goddess,” Zoey said, shocking Rephaim with the familiar tone of her voice.

Shouldn’t she be more respectful—more fearful—when addressing the Goddess?

“Merry meet, Zoey Redbird!” The Goddess returned the fledgling High Priestess’s grin, and he thought, for a moment, she looked like an exquisitely lovely little girl—a little girl who was suddenly familiar to him. With a jolt Rephaim recognized her. The ghost! The ghost had been the Goddess!

Then Nyx began speaking, addressing the entire gathering, and her visage shifted to an ethereal being so brilliant and beautiful it was difficult to gaze upon her and impossible to think about anything except the words that she spoke like a symphony over them all. “Much has happened here this night. Spirit-altering choices were made, which means, for some of you, new life paths have opened. For others, your paths have been sealed, your choices made long ago. And yet others of you are at a life precipice.” The Goddess’s gaze lingered on Neferet, who instantly bowed her head. “You have changed, daughter. You are not as you once were. Truly, can I still call you daughter?”

“Nyx! Great Goddess! How could I not be your daughter?”

Neferet did not raise her head as she spoke to the Goddess, and her thick fall of auburn hair completely covered her face, blanketing her expression.

“Tonight you asked for forgiveness. Zoey gave one answer. I shall give you another. Forgiveness is a very special gift, and it must be earned.”

“I ask humbly that you share that special gift with me, Nyx,” Neferet said, still bowing her head and hiding her face.

“When you earn the gift, you will receive it.” Abruptly, the Goddess turned from Neferet, her attention turning to the Sword Master, who closed his fist over his heart respectfully to her. “Your Anastasia is free of pain and remorse. Will you make Damien’s choice, and learn to rejoice in the love you had and move on, or will your choice destroy that which she loved so much about you—your ability to be both strong and merciful?” Rephaim was watching Dragon, waiting for a response from the Sword Master that did not come, when Nyx spoke his name.

“Rephaim.”

He looked Nyx full in the face for only an instant, and then Rephaim remembered what he was and he bowed his head in shame and spoke the first words that flooded his mind. “Please don’t look at me!”

He felt Stevie Rae’s hand slide into his. “Don’t worry. She’s not here to punish you.”

“And how do you know that, young High Priestess?”

Stevie Rae’s grip tightened spasmodically on his hand, but her voice didn’t falter. “ ’Cause you can see into his heart, and I know what you’ll find there.”

“What do you believe is in the Raven Mocker’s heart, Stevie Rae?”

“Goodness. And I don’t think he’s a Raven Mocker anymore. His daddy released him. So now I think he’s a-a new kinda, uh, boy-who’s-never-been-before.” She tripped over the words, but managed to finish.

“I see you are bound to him,” was the Goddess’s enigmatic response.

“I am,” she said firmly.

“Even if your bond means splitting this House of Night, and perhaps, this world, in two?”

“My mama used to prune her roses real fierce, and I thought she was gonna hurt them, maybe kill them. When I asked her about it she told me sometimes you have to cut away the old stuff to make room for the new. Maybe it’s time to cut away some old stuff,” Stevie Rae said.

Her words surprised him so much that Rephaim turned his eyes from the ground to Stevie Rae. She smiled at him and at that moment, he wished more than anything else, he could smile back at her and take her in his arms like a real boy would be able to do, because what he saw in her eyes was warmth and love and happiness with not even the slightest glimpse of remorse or rejection.