Loved (House of Night Other World #1)(5)

He shrugged. “The chamber is of no importance to me. The journal isn’t even of any importance to me. I have never read it. Neferet told me about it, though. She named it a recounting of what made her strong. She used to liken herself to a sword forged in fire. One night she told me that she’d dug up the journal and put it to rest under the floorboards beneath her bed.”

“I wonder why she dug it up,” I heard myself asking.

“She said it was there lest she forget,” he said.

“Hum, well, okay. I’ll have Stark help me move the bed and find it. Good thing I decided against wall-to-wall carpet when I redecorated.”

“You truly will read it?” He seemed genuinely relieved.

“Well, yeah. Like you said, if what you sense has anything to do with Neferet, I’ll need all the help I can get.” I paused and added, more to myself than to him, “I wonder if I should tell the rest of my circle. I mean, they’re scattered all around the country right now, but maybe they should be prewarned, too.”

“Do what you believe is best, Zoey. Your circle is strong, even though you are not still together. Perhaps I give them more credit than does Nyx because of the time I spent with all of you, but I believe you and your circle can handle the worry.” He grinned a little sheepishly, lessening what I could have taken as his being critical of Nyx.

“Alright, I’ll get the journal and put my circle on prealert.”

“Excellent,” he said.

“Good,” I said. We just stood there and I finally blurted, “So, how’s your brother doing?”

“Erebus is well,” he said.

“And Nyx? The goddess is good, too?”

“Nyx is spectacular.”

“Good to hear it. Tell her I said hi.”

“I would rather not,” Kalona said, looking super awkward. Again.

“Huh?”

“She asked that I not worry you,” he said.

“Oh, right. I get it. Okay, so, have you talked to Rephaim lately?” I continued to try to make small talk with him, wishing Shaunee were with me. She was a lot better at talking normally to Kalona than me.

He opened his mouth to answer and then his words broke off as he tilted his head like he was listening to a voice on the wind only he could hear. “Forgive me, Zoey Redbird, but I must return to the Other World. The goddess calls. And I do apologize, again, if I went about this in the wrong way. I hope we part as friends.”

“Friends? Sure. And no problem about all of this.” I gestured out at the gorgeous Mediterranean Sea. “I do like it here. Thanks for the warning. I’ll be sure I—” It was about then that I realized Kalona had gone. “Well, that’s typical. He’s not on the Dark Side anymore, but he can still be weird as hell.” Shaking my head, I stared out at the moonlit sea, trying to process the decidedly bad news he’d just delivered.



Preoccupied by the moon and the message, Zoey didn’t notice that as Kalona departed, his shadow wavered, shivered, and changed, morphing from the familiar winged immortal into swirling smoke—white smoke that formed the outline of an enormous bull before disappearing completely.





2


Zoey


“Me-uf-ow!”

I opened my eyes to find Nala so close to my face that she was just a fat orange and white blur.

“Good morning,” I whispered, trying not to wake the warm body pressed against my side.

Nala promptly sneezed directly in my face and then climbed over my chest (how can such a fat cat have such little, tiny, sharp paws?) to circle three times and curl in donut form against my hip, where she turned her purr machine on high.

“Why does she sneeze so much? Do you think she’s allergic to people?”

I turned my head to look into Stark’s gentle brown eyes. “Sorry,” I was still whispering. “I didn’t mean to wake you up. And I’m pretty sure Nala sneezes so much because she likes to sneeze on people—not because she allergic to people. I mean, how often do you hear her sneezing randomly when she’s not near someone’s face?”

“Good point. Why are you whispering?”

“Because I didn’t want to wake you up,” I said in a normal voice.

“Too late. You started mumbling and twitching in your sleep a little while ago. I could feel something going on with you. Bad dream? But wait. Before we get into that—come here, my High Priestess. My Queen.” With one hand Stark lifted the covers he’d cocooned around himself, showing me a lovely amount of his bare, muscly chest, while his other hand slipped under my shoulders, drawing me against him.

I snuggled close eagerly, putting off the bad news Kalona had delivered for at least a few more minutes. I kissed his neck and then let my hand trace the broken arrow–shaped scar that had been burned into the flesh over his heart. I kissed him again, this time lingering. His lips were warm and eager, and when his hands slid down my back, kneading the tension Kalona had brought on, I felt like Nala and wished I could purr.

Instead I explored his body, which never got old. His chest was the right amount of muscle. And I loved his scent. He was sexy man mixed with red cherry licorice, his current snack obsession. He was smooth in all the right places and hard in all the right places—and we fit together perfectly.