P.C. Cast: Untamed

"No. Yes. It wasn't like that," Jack squeaked. Duchess, who was pressed against his legs whined pitifully.

"Leave him alone!" Damien shouted from his place in the circle.

Neferet rounded on him. "So you continue to be blinded by her? You continue to follow her rather than Nyx?"

Before he could answer, Aphrodite spoke from beside me. "Hey, Neferet. Where's your Goddess insignia?"

Neferet looked from Damien to Aphrodite, and her eyes narrowed in anger. But everyone was now looking at Neferet and noticing what Aphrodite had said—that Neferet's exquisite black dress had no badge of Nyx over her breast. And then I noticed something else. She was wearing a pendant I'd never seen before. I blinked, not sure if I was seeing it correctly, and then, yep, I decided, I sure was. Dangling from a golden chain around her neck were wings—big, black, raven wings carved from onyx.

"What's that around your neck?" I asked.

Neferet's hand moved automatically to stroke the black wings hanging between her breasts. "The wings of Erebus, Nyx's consort."

"Um, excuse me, but, no, they're not," Damien said. "Erebus's wings are made of gold. They're never black. You taught me that yourself in Vamp Soc class."

"I have had enough of this meaningless babble," Neferet snapped. "It is time this little charade came to an end."

"You know, I think that's a darn good idea," I said.

I was just starting to scan the crowd to find Shekinah when Neferet stepped aside, crooking her finger at a shadowy shape that seemed to materialize behind her. "Come to me and show what it is they created tonight."

Duchess's howl of agony and her pitiful whines that followed will be forever be imprinted in my mind with my first sight of the new Stark. He moved forward like a ghost. His skin was eerily pale, and his eyes the red of old blood. The crescent on his forehead was red, too, like the fledglings who filled my circle, but he was different than they were. The thing Stark had become stood there beside Neferet, glaring, madness shining in his eyes. Looking at him, I felt like I was going to be sick.

"Stark!" I meant to call his name loud and strong, but it came out of my mouth as little more than a broken whisper.

Still he turned his face in my direction. I saw the blood color in his eyes fade, and for just a moment I thought I glimpsed the boy I knew.

"Zzzzoey . . ." He said my name in something like a hiss, but it gave me an instant of hope.

I took a stumbling step toward him. "Yes, Stark, it's me," I said, trying hard not to cry.

"Ssssaid I'd come back to you," he murmured.

I smiled through the tears that were filling my eyes as I moved closer and closer to where he stood just outside the circle. I had opened my mouth to tell him it'd be okay, that somehow we'd figure out a way for it to be okay, but suddenly Aphrodite was there beside me. She grabbed my wrist, pulling me back from the edge of the circle.

"Don't go to him," she whispered. "Neferet is setting you up."

I wanted to shake her off, especially when Shekinah's voice came from the other side of the circle. "What has been done to this child is quite horrible. Zoey, I must insist that you close this ritual for this evening. We shall take the fledglings inside, and contact the Council of Nyx to come and judge these events."

I could feel the red fledglings stir restlessly at my back, drawing my attention from Stark. I turned and met Stevie Rae's eyes. "It's okay. That's Shekinah. She'll know the difference between lies and truth."

"I know the difference between lies and truth, and I carry a judgment with me greater than some distant Council." I heard Neferet speak and turned to face her again.

"You've been found out!" I yelled at her. "I didn't do this to Stark, or to the other red fledglings. You did, and now you're going to have to face what you've done."

Neferet's smile was more of a sneer. "And yet the creature calls your name."

"Zzzzzoey," Stark called me again.

I stared at him, trying to see the guy I'd know within his haunted face. "Stark, I'm so sorry this has happened to you."

"Zoey Redbird!" Shekinah's voice was a whip. "Close the circle now. These events must be reviewed by those whose judgment can be trusted. And I will take this poor fledgling into my care."

For some reason, Shekinah's command made Neferet begin to laugh.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Aphrodite said, pulling me back toward the center of the circle.

"Me, too," Stevie Rae said from her northernmost position in the circle.

"Don't close the circle," Aphrodite said.

Then in the middle of everything, Neferet's voice whispered across the circle to me, Don't close the circle and you'll look guilty. Close it and you'll be vulnerable. Which do you choose?

I met Neferet's eyes across my circle. "I choose the power of my circle and the truth," I said.

Her smile was victorious. She turned to Stark. "Aim for the true mark—the one that will make the earth bleed. Now!" Neferet commanded him. I saw him pause, as if he was fighting against himself. "Do as I command, and I will give you your heart's desire." Neferet whispered the words for Stark's ears alone, but I read them on her ruby lips. The effect they had on him was instantaneous. Stark's eyes blazed red and with the swiftness of a striking snake, he lifted the bow I hadn't noticed he was holding at his side, sighted an arrow, and shot. Slicing the air in a deadly line, it struck Stevie Rae in the center of her chest with such force that it buried itself to the dark feathers on the end of its shaft.

Stevie Rae gasped and fell to the ground, crumbling in on herself. I screamed and ran toward her. I could hear Aphrodite yelling at Damien and the Twins not the break the circle, and I silently blessed her for her cool head. I reached Stevie Rae and dropped to the ground beside her. Her breath was coming in painful little gasps, and her head was bowed.

"Stevie Rae! Oh, Goddess no! Stevie Rae!"

Slowly she raised her head and looked at me. Blood was pouring from her chest—more blood than I thought any one person could hold. It was soaking the ground around her, which was lumpy from the roots of the big oak. The blood mesmerized me. Not because of its sweet, intoxicating smell, but because I realized what it looked like. It looked like the earth at the base of the great oak was bleeding.

I stared over my shoulder at Neferet, who stood smiling triumphantly just outside my circle. Stark had fallen to his knees beside her, and he was staring at me with eyes that were no longer red, but were now filled with horror. "Neferet, you are the monstrosity, not Stevie Rae!" I shouted.

My name is no longer Neferet. From this night on call me Queen Tsi Sgili. The words were spoken in my mind just as plainly as if Neferet had been standing beside me whispering them in my ear.

"No!" I cried, and then the night exploded.

The ground beneath my feet, soaked through with Stevie Rae's blood, began to shudder, rippling like it was no longer solid earth but had suddenly turned to water. Through panicked cries, I heard Aphrodite's voice again, as calm as if she was only yelling at Damien and the Twins about their fashion choices.

"Move in to us, but don't break the circle!"

"Zoey." Stevie Rae gasped my name. She looked up at me with pain-filled eyes. "Listen to Aphrodite. Don't break the circle. No matter what!"

"But you're—"

"No! I'm not dying. I promise. He's just taken my blood, not my life. Don't break the circle." I nodded, then stood up. Erik and Venus were closest to me. "Get on either side of Stevie Rae. Hold her up. Help her keep the candle, and no matter what, don't let it go out and don't let the circle be broken."