Loved (House of Night Other World #1)(21)

“Love,” I said automatically. “Always, love.”

“Indeed,” Lenobia said.

“May I ask something?” Rephaim raised his hand like a good little student.

“Of course. And you don’t have to raise your hand,” I said.

“Are you sure Father visited you in Capri?”

“Well, yeah. I’ve been there before, and he’s been there before—I mean, in my dreams. Believe me, those visits are seared into my memory.”

“Because of their negative nature?” Rephaim asked.

I cleared my throat, uncomfortable with the memories this conversation was unearthing. “Yes. Because of their negative nature.”

“And it was Father who caused the negative parts of the old dreams?”

“Rephaim, if you have something to say, just say it. I’m not sure what you’re getting at,” I said.

“I don’t mean to offend,” he said, looking as uncomfortable as I felt.

“Oh, for shit’s sake! We don’t have time for tiptoeing around each other’s feelings. Just get to the point, Bird Boy,” Aphrodite said.

He glanced from Aphrodite to me, and I nodded. “Then here’s my point: Father visits my dreams often, but never in a place from the past that has negative associations for him. I asked him about it once—why he only enters my dreams when they’re set in new places where he and I have not been before. He said that he cannot bear to relive any memory from when he was lost to Darkness.”

“Wait, you’re telling me that over the past year Kalona has never, not once visited you in a dream in a place where he had done something bad?” A really awful fear frosted up my spine.

“That’s exactly what I’m telling you,” Rephaim said. “With the addition that Father explained it to me. His exact words were …” He paused, thinking, then he quoted Kalona, “Son, I will never revisit the past. I cannot bear the remembrance of what I allowed Darkness to do.”

“Rephaim, can you, um, call Kalona or something and ask him why he visited me on Capri, even though that place was definitely from a time he was filled with Darkness?” I asked.

Rephaim grinned, suddenly boyish. “I don’t call him. I send prayers to him.”

“Just a moment. Are you likening Kalona to a god to whom you pray?” Damien said. “That doesn’t feel right to me.”

“Father is definitely not a god, but he did die. Damien, do you not believe our dead loved ones can hear our prayers?”

I watched Damien’s face blanch white, and then flush a bright, happy pink. “I’d always hoped so, but …” Damien left his chair and went to Rephaim, hugging him as he said, “Thank you so much for that.” He smiled and wiped his eyes, returning to his place at the round table.

Stark, Aphrodite, Darius, and I stared mutely at Damien’s happy expression. I knew what my friends were thinking, and I hated, hated that I had to be the one to take that joy from him.

But, like I’d said earlier. We aren’t kids anymore. We’re the High Council. Adulting often sucks—right now it super sucked.

“So, after the Kalona dream and Kramisha’s prophetic poem, Stark, Aphrodite, Darius, and I decided we needed to go to Woodward Park and be sure nothing weird was going on with Neferet,” I said. “Aphrodite, fill them in on what you found when we cut through the rose gardens.”

Aphrodite quickly recounted her talk with the old rose-garden guy, describing the bizarre black roses and their tendril-like canes.

“That is highly disturbing,” Lenobia skewered Aphrodite with her sharp gaze. “My guess is you had a vision not long after that.”

“Smart lady,” Aphrodite said. Then she looked to me. I nodded.

“All right. Here’s what I saw. Damien, I want to say that I’m sorry about this first.”

“About what?” Damien asked.

“About how hard this is going to be for you.” Aphrodite’s gaze flicked to mine and I nodded. She sighed and continued. “I’m going to tell it like I felt it. I’m not sugarcoating anything.”

“Blame me,” I said. “This is too important for any details to be lost, even if not losing them hurts you.”

“I don’t like where this is going,” Damien said.

Without me asking them to, Stevie Rae, Shaunee, and Shaylin got up from their places around the table and went to Damien. They surrounded him, physically and emotionally, with the elements they embodied as well as their love.

Damien drew a deep breath. “All right. I’m ready now. Go ahead, Aphrodite. What did your vision show you?”



Aphrodite shared her vision without leaving out details. She spoke with little emotion, as if she was reading a news story about something bad that had happened on the other side of the world. It was awful, but there was a sense of detachment that allowed for us to be aware of the elements of her vision and possible dangers we might be facing, without freaking out.

Damien didn’t speak. He listened intently, only showing emotion twice. First, when Aphrodite described Jack emerging from the bloody fountain. His eyes widened and filled with tears, which he brushed from his cheeks impatiently with a hand that trembled slightly. Then, when she told how he’d rushed to his lover, only to be met with teeth and death, Damien’s face lost all color and he clutched his hands together as if in silent prayer.