P.C. Cast - Burned

“By giving him over to the High Council, she takes suspicion from herself,” he said.

“Yeah, that makes sense. I know she wants Zoey dead. And she doesn’t care about Heath at all. Actually, Neferet would be cool with the fact that seeing Kalona about to kill Heath made Zoey throw the power of spirit at him and that not being able to stop Kalona caused her soul to shatter. Apparently, that’s just a half step away from death.”

Rephaim’s eyes were suddenly sharp on hers. “Zoey attacked my father with the element spirit?”

“Yeah, that’s what Lenobia and Dragon told me.”

“Then he has been gravely wounded.” Rephaim looked away and didn’t say anything else.

“Hey, you need to tell me what you know,” Stevie Rae said earnestly. When he didn’t speak, she sighed, and continued, “Okay, here’s my truth. I came here tonight ready to force you to talk to me about your daddy and the Otherworld and all that; but now that I’m here and actually talkin’ to you, I don’t want to force you.” Hesitantly, she touched his arm. His body jerked when her fingers met his skin, but he didn’t pull away. “Can’t we work together on this? Do you really want Zoey dead?”

His eyes found hers again. “I have no reason to wish your friend’s death, but you do wish my father harm.”

Stevie Rae blew out a breath of frustration. “How about this—how about I compromise in what I want. What if I told you I just want Kalona to leave all of us alone?”

“I don’t know if that could ever be possible,” Rephaim said.

“But it is possible for me to wish it. Right now, Zoey and Kalona are soulless. Now, I know your daddy’s an immortal, but it can’t be a good thing that his body’s just a shell.”

“No, it is not a good thing.”

“So let’s work together to see if we can get both of them back, and deal with what happens next when next actually happens.”

“I can agree to that,” he said.

“Good!” She squeezed his arm before taking her hand from him. “You said Kalona’s wounded. What did you mean?”

“His body can’t be killed, but if his spirit is damaged, he is physically weakened. That is how A-ya was used to entrap him. His spirit was clouded with emotions for her. It confused and weakened him, and his body became vulnerable.”

“And that’s how Neferet was able to dump him in front of the High Council,” Stevie Rae said. “Zoey hurt his spirit, so his body is vulnerable.”

“There has to be more to it than that. Unless he’s held captive, as A-ya had him within the earth, Father would begin to recover almost instantly. As long as he’s free, he can heal his spirit.”

“Well, obviously Neferet grabbed him before he was healed. She’s so dang evil, she probably zapped the crap outta him with that scary darkness she carries around with her and then—”

“That’s it!” He stood in excitement, then grimaced from the pain in his wing. Rubbing his wounded arm, he sat back down, holding it close to him. “She continued the attack on his spirit. Neferet is Tsi Sgili. It is through using the dark forces in the spirit realm that she gains power.”

“She killed Shekinah without even touching her,” Stevie Rae remembered.

“Neferet touched the High Priestess but not with her hands. She manipulated the threads from deaths she is responsible for, sacrifices she’s made, and dark promises she means to keep. That power is what killed Shekinah, and that is the power she wielded against my father’s already weakened spirit.”

“But what’s she doing with him?”

“Holding his body captive and using his spirit for her own means.”

“Which makes her look like one of the good guys to the High Council. I’ll just bet she’s bein’ all ‘Oh, poor Zoey’ and ‘I don’t know what Kalona was thinking’ to their faces.”

“The Tsi Sgili is very powerful. Why would she put on that pretense to your Council?”

“Neferet doesn’t want to let them know how evil she is ’cause she wants to rule the dang world. She might not be ready to take on the Vampyre High Council and the human world. Yet. So she can’t let the Council know she’s cool with Zoey being almost dead, even though she’s glad.”

“Father doesn’t want Zoey dead. He simply wants to possess her.”

Stevie Rae gave him a hard look. “Some of us think being possessed against our will is worse than death.”

He snorted. “You mean like being Imprinted by accident?”

Stevie Rae frowned at him. “No, that’s not what I mean at all.”

He snorted again and kept rubbing his arm.

Still frowning, she continued, “But what you’re sayin’ is that Kalona didn’t mean for what he did to Heath to cause Zoey’s soul to shatter?”

“No, because that would most likely lead to her death.”

“Most likely?” Stevie Rae pounced on the words. “Does that mean it’s not one hundred percent certain Z’s gonna die. ’Cause that’s what the vamps are sayin’.”

“Vampyres aren’t thinking with the mind of an immortal. No death is ever as certain as mortals believe. Zoey will die if her spirit doesn’t return to her body, but it is not impossible for her spirit to become whole again. It would be difficult, yes, and she would need a guide and a protector in the Otherworld, but—” His words broke off, and Stevie Rae saw shock in his eyes.

“What?”

“Neferet is using my father to ensure Zoey’s spirit doesn’t return. She trapped his body while he was wounded and commanded his soul to do her bidding in the Otherworld.”

“But you said Kalona was kicked out of there by Nyx. How could he go back?”

Rephaim’s eyes widened. “His body was banished.”

“And his body’s still in this realm! It’s his spirit that’s returned,” Stevie Rae finished for him.

“Yes! Neferet has forced him to return. I know my father well. He would never skulk back to Nyx’s Otherworld. He has too much pride. He would only return if the Goddess herself asked it of him.”

“How do you know that for sure? Maybe he’s going after Zoey because he finally gets it that she’ll never be with him, and, like a scary, psycho stalker, he’d rather see her dead than with someone else. That could’ve pissed him off bad enough that his pride could handle a little skulkin’.”

Rephaim shook his head. “Father will never believe Zoey won’t eventually choose him. A-ya did, and part of the maiden still lives within Zoey’s soul.” He paused, and before Stevie Rae could ask her next question, added, “But I know how you can be certain. If Neferet is using him, she will have Father’s body bound by Darkness.”

“Darkness? You mean like the opposite of light?”

“In a way that is what it is. It’s hard to define because that type of pure evil is ever-changing, ever-evolving. The Darkness of which I speak is sentient. Find someone who can perceive beings from the spirit realm, and that person should be able to see the chains the Tsi Sgili formed to bind Father, if they are there at all.”

“Can you sense the spirit world?”

“I can,” he said, meeting her gaze without faltering. “Would you have me give myself up to your Vampyre High Council?”

Stevie Rae chewed her bottom lip. Would she? It would be giving Rephaim’s life for Zoey’s, and maybe even her own because she’d have to go with him, and there was no way the mega-powerful vamps on the High Council wouldn’t be able to tell they were Imprinted. She would die for Zoey—of course she would. But it’d be nice if she didn’t have to. Plus, it’s not like Zoey would want her to die. Well, it also wasn’t like Zoey would want her to have saved and then Imprinted with a Raven Mocker. Heck, no one would want that. Goddess knows she didn’t even want it. Well, not most of the time anyway.