Loved (House of Night Other World #1)(4)

“I didn’t need to tell her I was going to speak with you because she already made it clear I could visit whenever I so desired.”

“But you did tell her you felt danger coming to the House of Night?”

“Yes. And when I could not be more specific, she didn’t believe worrying you was worth it,” Kalona said.

“And yet here you are.”

“Yes, here I am. I wanted you to be forewarned and prepared,” Kalona said. “After what you’ve been through—what we’ve all been through—I decided to err on the side of being a worrier.”

He looked so uncomfortable, vulnerable even, that I realized this was probably difficult for him. He and I definitely had a past, and since he’d died and then been reconciled with Nyx almost a year ago, I could imagine that it would be super awkward for him to step outside his comfort zone and come to me with a warning his consort and goddess believed wasn’t necessary. Of course, that probably meant that his warning wasn’t necessary since Nyx knows her stuff—but still. I had to give him some credit for having his heart in the right place.

“Okay, well, that’s nice of you. So, I’ll keep my eyes open for trouble. And I’ll tell Stark, too. Thanks for the heads up.”

“There’s something else you can do,” he said. “You can read Neferet’s childhood journal.”

My body suddenly went cold. “Whoa, wait! Neferet has something to do with this feeling of yours?”

“Yes. No. I’m just not sure. And because I’m not sure, you need to be prepared for anything. That is why I want you to read her journal.”

“I don’t understand. What is this journal you’re talking about?”

“When Neferet was a child—before she was Marked, she was a human named Emily Wheiler.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know that. She lived in Chicago and when she was young, before she was Marked, her father raped her.”

“Yes, and she kept a journal—a diary of sorts—wherein she recounted all that happened to her. She buried that journal in Oklahoma more than one hundred years ago. I think it would be wise if you read it. If the danger that is coming is from Neferet, you’re going to need every piece of information available to defeat her.”

My mind was spinning and my stomach felt sick. “Don’t you mean defeat her again? And why the hell didn’t you mention this journal last year when she declared herself a goddess and tried to take over the world?”

He shuffled his feet and looked down. “I was embarrassed. It was through the energy that seeped from Neferet’s journal that I first began to influence her. I used her to free myself from imprisonment with A-ya. I made a terrible mistake and I feel great remorse, and embarrassment, because of it. When I joined you against Neferet I simply did not want to give you a reason to mistrust me again.”

I blew out a long, frustrated breath. “Okay, I get that. But you still should have told us about the journal.”

“I’m telling you now, even though I know it brings up the Darkness in my past. I hope that shows you how serious I am about the impending sense of danger I feel.”

I nodded. “Yeah, it definitely does that. So, where is this old journal?”

“She buried it at the base of the ancient Oklahoma rune stone in 1893.”

I blinked in surprise. “You mean the Heavener Runestone? I went there on a field trip in eighth grade. Ugh. Ticks.”

“Ticks?”

“Yeah, I remember picking like a zillion ticks off of my legs after we got back on the bus. Not important, just gross. At least it’s winter, so ticks won’t be an issue. There’ll be mud, though. It’s been raining like crazy, but I’ll take mud over ticks any day. Uh, 1893 was a long time ago. What if it’s all disintegrated and whatnot?”

“The journal is in delicate condition, but you won’t have to search through mud to find it. Neferet dug it up decades ago when she first came to be High Priestess at the Tulsa House of Night. She hid it under the floorboards beneath the bed in her chamber.”

“What? You mean it’s still there? Under my bed in my chamber?” It made me feel vaguely nauseous to think that Stark and I were at that very moment happily snoozing away just above Neferet’s crazy journal—almost like we were sleeping over her grave—if she wasn’t immortal and was actually dead, that is.

“Ah, of course. You took the High Priestess’ chamber.”

“Yeah, ’cause I’m the High Priestess,” I spoke confidently. Almost one year ago, I’d become the first High Priestess of the New North American High Council—a position and title I’d only recently begun to feel comfortable with. Well, I was fairly comfortable when I wasn’t dealing with the grumpy old High Council that still liked to try to rule North America from Italy. Like it was still the dark ages. Or at the very least the out of date, pre-Internet ages.

Kalona was looking at me oddly. “What?” I asked.

“It is just difficult for me to imagine you in Neferet’s bedchamber.”

“I redecorated.” My voice sounded bitchy, but only because I didn’t want to remember that he had, of course, been in Neferet’s bedroom—and bed—many times when he was still a bad guy and they’d been plotting to take over the world. “You wouldn’t recognize it.”