Burned (House of Night #7)(30)

It wasn't like I didn't know where I was. I mean, I knew I was in the Otherworld but not dead, and that I was with Heath, who definitely was dead.

Goddess! It was so weird that it was becoming more and more normal to think of Heath as DEAD.

Anyway, besides that, stuff just wasn't right.

At this moment I was curled up with Heath. We were spooning like an old married couple at the base of a tree on a mossy mattress made by the joining of ancient roots in a roughly bedlike oval. I should have been majorly comfortable. The moss was definitely soft, and it really did seem like Heath was alive. I could see him, hear him, touch him - he even smelled like Heath. I should be able to relax and just be with him.

So why, I wondered as I stared at a gaggle of dancing blue-winged butterflies, am I so restless and generally "out of sorts" as Grandma would say?

Grandma . . .

I did miss her. Her absence was like a mild toothache. Sometimes the feeling went away, but I knew it was there, and it would come back - probably worse.

She must really be worried about me. And sad. Thinking of how sad Grandma would be was hard, and my mind skirted away from it quickly.

I couldn't keep lying there. I moved away from Heath, careful not to wake him up.

Then I started to pace.

That helped. Well, it seemed to for a little while. I walked back and forth, back and forth, making sure I could see Heath. He did look cute while he slept.

I wished I could sleep.

I couldn't, though. If I rested - if I closed my eyes - it was like I lost pieces of myself. But how could that be? How could I be losing myself? It reminded me a little of the time I had strep throat and such a high fever that I had a super weird dream where I kept spinning around and around until pieces of my body started to fly off me.

I shivered. Why was that so easy to remember when a bunch of other stuff in my head was so foggy?

Goddess, I was really tired.

Distracted, I kinda tripped over one of the pretty white rocks that jutted up out of the grass and moss, and caught myself from falling by throwing up a hand and grabbing the side of the closest tree.

That's why I saw it. My hand. My arm. It didn't look right. I stopped and stared, and I swear my skin rippled, like in one of those gross horror movies where nasty stuff gets under an almost naked girl's flesh and crawls around, making her -

"No!" I wiped frantically at my arm. "No! Stop!"

"Zo, babe, what's wrong?"

"Heath, Heath - look." I held my arm out for him to see. "It's like a horror movie."

Heath's gaze went from my arm to my face. "Uh, Zo, what's like a horror movie?"

"My arm! My skin! It's moving." I flailed at him.

His smile didn't hide the worry on his face. He reached out and slowly ran his hand down my arm.

When he got to my hand, he threaded his fingers with mine.

"There's nothing wrong with your arm, babe," he said.

"You really don't think so?"

"Really, seriously, I don't think so. Hey, what's going on with you?"

I opened up my mouth to tell him that I thought I was losing myself - that bits of myself were floating away - when something caught my eye at the edge of the tree line. Something dark.

"Heath, I don't like that," I told him, pointing a shaking hand at the spot of shadows.

The breeze stirred the wide green leaves of the trees that seemed suddenly not as thick and sheltering as they had moments ago, and the scent came to me, sickening and ripe, like three-day-old roadkill. I felt Heath's body jerk, and knew I wasn't imagining it.

Then the shadows out there stirred, and I was sure I heard wings.

"Oh, no," I whispered.

Heath's hand tightened on mine. "Come on. We need to get farther inside here."

I felt frozen and numb all at the same time. "Why? How can trees save us from whatever that is?"

Heath took my chin in his hand and made me look at him. "Zo, can't you feel it? This place, this grove, is good , purely good. Babe, can't you feel your Goddess in here?"

The tears that filled my eyes made him all blurry. "No," I said softly, as if I could barely form the words.

"I can't feel my Goddess at all."

He pulled me into his arms and hugged me tight. "Don't worry, Zo. I can feel her, so it'll be okay. I promise." Then, while I was still cradled by one of his arms, Heath guided me deeper into Nyx's grove as my tears overflowed and fell wet and hot down my cold cheeks.

Chapter Eleven

Stevie Rae

"Skye? Really? Where is that? Ireland?" Stevie Rae said.

"It's Scotland, not Ireland, retard," Aphrodite said.

"Aren't they kinda the same thing? And don't say 'retard.' It's not nice."

"How about if I say bite me? Is that nice enough? Just listen and try not to be so asstarded, bumpkin. I need you to go back and do more of your weird commune with the earth or whatthef*ckever it is you do, and see if you can come up with some info about Light and Darkness - you know, with a capital L and D. Also pay attention if a tree or whatnot says something about two bulls."

"Bulls? You mean like cows?"

"Are you not from the country? How is it that you don't know what a bull is?"

"Look, Aphrodite, that's an ignorant stereotype. Just 'cause I'm not from a big city does not mean I automatically know about cows and stuff. Heck, I don't even like horses."