P. Cast: Destined

“Not for long,” Thanatos said gently. “Take what time is left to say your farewells. Death has marked Rephaim for her own.”

Kalona’s amber gaze seemed to skewer the High Priestess. The power in his voice was as terrible as was his grief. “Death cannot have him! He is my son, and I am an immortal. He cannot die.”

“Did you not renounce him and name him no longer your child?”

The pain that flashed across Kalona’s face was heartbreaking. I could see that he was trying to speak, but the words wouldn’t come.

Stevie Rae touched the immortal’s arm. His gaze turned to her.

“We all say things we don’t mean sometimes, ’specially when we’re mad. If you didn’t mean it, why don’t you try just sayin’ you’re sorry?” She looked from the immortal to his son. “Tell Rephaim. Maybe he’ll hear you.” Then she scooted back, leaving Kalona by himself, kneeling beside Rephaim.

Kalona leaned forward and pulled his son to him, so that Rephaim rested across his lap. The immortal looked down at him for what seemed like a very long time and then, in a voice unsteady with emotion he said, “Rephaim, I am sorry. You are my son. You will always be my son. Forgive me for my anger and my foolishness.” And then Nyx’s fallen Warrior closed his eyes, bowed his head, and added, “Goddess, please. Do not let him pay for my mistakes.”

A single tear tracked down Kalona’s cheek and fell onto Rephaim’s forehead and the bloody wound that gaped there. There was a flash of light, so brilliant and pure that I was blinded for a moment. As I blinked the dots from my vision I saw Rephaim take a deep breath and open his eyes. The gash on his forehead was gone. He looked a little baffled. Kalona moved awkwardly to help him sit up on his own, which Rephaim did easily. Rephaim’s smile was tentative, but he sounded perfectly normal when he said, “Hello, Father. When did you get here?”

Stevie Rae wrapped her arms around Rephaim and hugged him hard, but her face was tilted up so that it was obvious she was speaking to Kalona when she said, “Just in time. Your daddy got here just in time.”

Kalona stood. At that moment he wasn’t an alluring, powerful, downright scary immortal. He was just a dad who didn’t have a clue what to say to his kid.

“The Red One—” Kalona paused, and then began again. “Stevie Rae called. I came.”

First Rephaim smiled, and then his happiness faltered as he obviously remembered. “Dragon. Where is he? He wasn’t trying to hurt me. I know he wasn’t.”

Stevie Rae bit her lip. Tears spilled from her eyes as she said, “Yeah, we know. Dragon saved you from Aurox.”

“Aurox? Neferet’s creature? He was here?” Kalona asked.

“He was. He tried to kill your son and disrupt the reveal ritual. Dragon Lankford gave his life to save him,” Thanatos said.

All of our eyes went to Dragon’s shrouded body.

I didn’t know what to say. How the hell was I going to explain to them that I’d really seen Heath’s soul inside Aurox? And what the hell was I going to do about it?

“You must know that Neferet has allied herself with Darkness,” Kalona said.

“I do,” Thanatos agreed. “And the Vampyre High Council will now know it, as well.”

“What’s going to happen?” I asked Thanatos.

“Neferet will be stripped of her title of High Priestess and shunned by all vampyres,” Thanatos said.

“She will fight,” Kalona said grimly. “And she has powerful allies in Darkness, her creature, and the Red Ones who follow her.”

“Then we will defend ourselves,” Thanatos said.

“Does that mean you are staying in Tulsa? Or are you going to return to your Italian isle and leave these children to battle Darkness?” Kalona asked.

Thanatos narrowed her eyes at him. “The Tulsa House of Night has a new High Priestess, and she is Death.”

Kalona stared at Thanatos, then he looked from her to his son. I could see the indecision on his face and I figured he was getting ready to fly away—actually the thought passed my mind that even though he’d said sorry to Rephaim and seemed to have a truce with us, we couldn’t really be sure he wasn’t still involved with Neferet. I mean, I’d believed in him before and Heath had died because of it.

But when the immortal finally moved it wasn’t because he was flying away. He strode over to Thanatos, and then he knelt on one knee and said, “It seems your House of Night will also need a new Sword Master. I pledge myself body, heart, and soul to protect you, High Priestess. I believe it is just that I serve as Death’s Warrior. Will you accept my oath?”

“Holy shit!” I heard Aphrodite murmur.

Beside me Stark moved restlessly and I saw him share a look with Darius.

“I do accept your oath, Kalona, and I will hold it as binding.”

Kalona bowed his head and fisted his hand over his heart saying, “Thank you, High Priestess.” When he stood, his gaze went directly to his son.

Rephaim’s smile was brilliant, even though his face was washed with tears. “You did the right thing,” he told his father.

Kalona nodded. “Yes. At last.”

“Well, then. Shall we return to our House of Night and see what awaits us there?” Thanatos asked.

We all nodded, even though I know I wasn’t the only one whose stomach hurt and who absolutely wanted to run screaming from whatever we were going to find back in Tulsa.

But none of us ran. None of us said much of anything as we followed Death and her winged Warrior to the bus. Darius and Stark carried Dragon’s cloak-wrapped body. I kissed Grandma good-bye and stared out of the bus’s window as we drove past the circle that had been blighted by Darkness and which was now filled to bursting with lavender plants in full, beautiful bloom.

“Wait,” I called to Darius. “Stop the bus.”

I opened my window and heard my friends all do the same. Then, as one, we breathed deeply, inhaling the magickal scent of reblessed lavender.

“Look!” Stevie Rae cried, pointing above the circle.

I looked up and there, hovering, was our Goddess. She was dressed in robes the color of night and wore a headdress decorated with stars. Her smile took in us all, and with the fragrance of the flowers, her words drifted through the bus:

Hold to the memory of the healing that happened here this night.

You will need that strength and peace for the upcoming fight.

I closed my eyes, bowed my head and thought, ah, hell …

Marked

Betrayed

Chosen

Untamed

Hunted

Tempted

Burned

Awakened

The Fledgling Handbook 101

Dragon’s Oath

#1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling author P. C. CASTis an award-winning fantasy and paranormal romance author, as well as an experienced speaker and teacher. Her novels have been awarded YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers, and have received the prestigious Oklahoma Medallion, Beacon, Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice, and Affaire de Coeur Awards. She lives in Oklahoma, with lots of dogs, cats, horses, and a burro. KRISTIN CASTis a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author who teams with her mother to write the House of Night series. She has stand-alone stories in several anthologies, as well as editorial credits. Currently Kristin attends college in Oklahoma, where she is focusing on attaining her dream of opening a no-kill dog-rescue shelter in midtown Tulsa.