Burned (House of Night #7)(37)

somethin' important. But first I'm gonna light this, 'cause I think you'll like it a lot." Stevie Rae held the dried sweetgrass in the flame and then set the candle at her feet when the braid took light. She blew softly on it, so that the grass began to smoke. Stevie Rae turned and, grinning at Dallas, walked around the inside of the circumference of her circle, wafting the grass until the entire area was hazy with gray smoke and heady with the scent of summertime on the prairie.

When she returned to the top of the circle, Stevie Rae faced north again, the direction most closely allied with her element, and began to speak. "My friend, Zoey Redbird, said that sweetgrass draws positive energy, and I definitely need some energy tonight, 'specially since it's for Zoey that I'm asking your help.

I know you remember her - she has an affinity for you, just like she does for all the elements. She's special, and not just 'cause she's my BFF. Z's special 'cause," Stevie Rae paused, and then the words came to her, "she's special 'cause Zoey has a little bit of everything inside her. I guess it's kinda like she represents all of us. So we need her back. Plus, she's hurtin' where she is, and I think she needs help to find her way out. So her Warrior, a guy named Stark, is gonna go after her. He definitely needs your help. I'm asking that you show me the way for Stark to help Zoey. Please."

Stevie Rae wafted the still-smoking braid around her one more time, and then she waited.

The smoke was sweet and thick. The night was unusually warm because of the presence of her element.

But nothing else was going on.

Sure, she could feel earth there, surrounding her, willing to do her bidding.

But nothing was happening.

At all.

Not sure what else to do, Stevie Rae wafted the sweetgrass braid around her some more and tried again.

"Well, maybe I wasn't specific enough." She thought for a second, trying to remember everything Aphrodite had told her, and added, "With the power of earth, and through the energy of this sacred grass, I call the white bull from the old days to my circle because I need to know how Stark can get to Zoey so that he can protect her while she finds a way back together and back to this world."

The sweetgrass that had been gently smoking until then turned red-hot. With a cry, Stevie Rae dropped it. Thick, black smoke billowed from the sizzling braid, like it was a snake belching darkness. Pressing her burned hand against her body, Stevie Rae stumbled back.

"Stevie Rae? What's happening?"

She could hear Dallas, but when she looked behind her she couldn't see him anymore. The smoke was just too thick. Stevie Rae turned around, trying to peer through the darkness at him, but she couldn't see one dang thing. She looked where her burning earth candle should be, and it, too, had been covered by the smoke. Disoriented, she yelled, "I don't know what's goin' on. The sweetgrass got weird all of a sudden and - "

The earth beneath her feet, that tangible part of her element that Stevie Rae felt so connected to - so comfortable with - began to shake.

"Stevie Rae, you need to come outta there now. I don't like all this smoke."

"Can you feel that?" she called to Dallas. "Is the ground shakin' out there, too?"

"No, but I can't see you, and I got a bad feeling 'bout this."

Before Stevie Rae saw it, she felt its presence. The feeling it gave her was terrifyingly familiar and in the heartbeat of an instant, Stevie Rae understood why. It reminded her of the moment she'd realized she was dying. The moment she'd begun to cough, grabbed Zoey's hand, and said, I'm scared, Z . The echo of that terror paralyzed Stevie Rae, so that when the tip of the first horn took form and glinted at her, white and sharp and dangerous, all she could do was stare and shake her head back and forth, back and forth.

"Stevie Rae! Can you hear me?"

Dallas's voice seemed to be miles away.

The second horn materialized, and, along with it, the bull's head began to form, white and massive, with eyes so black they glistened like a bottomless lake at midnight.

Help me! Stevie Rae tried to say, but fear trapped the words in her throat.

"That's it. I'm comin' in there and getting' you, even if you don't want me to break the circle and - "

Stevie Rae felt the ripple when Dallas reached the boundary of her circle. So did the bull. The creature turned its great head and snorted a gust of fetid air into the inky smoke. The night shivered in response.

"Shit! Stevie Rae, I can't get inside the circle. Close it and get out of there!"

"I-I c-c-can't," she stammered, her voice a broken whisper.

Fully formed, the bull was a nightmare come alive. Its breath gagged Stevie Rae. Its eyes trapped her.

His white coat was luminous in the all-encompassing darkness, but it wasn't beautiful. Its brilliance was slimy, its glistening surface cold and dead. One of the beast's enormous cloven hoofs lifted and then fell, tearing the earth with such malice that Stevie Rae felt an echo of the pain of the wound within her soul.

She ripped her gaze from the bull's eyes to stare down at his hooves. She gasped in horror. The grass around the beast was broken and blackened. Where he had pawed the earth - Stevie Rae's earth - the ground was torn and bleeding.

"No!" The dam of terror broke enough for her words to finally escape. "Stop! You're hurting us!"