Hidden (House of Night #10)(29)

"I know that sounds like a good thing to you, but I'm fine with the 'other kinds of smart' part." Damien laughed, and Shaunee added, "I'm gonna head to the pyre. Maybe hanging around there will help."

"Help you or the Warriors?"

"Either. Both. I don't know," Shaunee said with a sigh.

"I'm going to believe that it'll help both," he said. "I'm going to move around-like air. I'll try to blow away some of the Darkness that's clinging to this place."

"You feel it, too?"

He nodded. "I can feel that the energy here is bad. Too much negative has happened in too short a time." Damien cocked his head, studying Shaunee. "Now that I've considered it more, I don't think you should stay away from the stables. Fire isn't bad. You're not bad. Lenobia knows that. Remember how you made the horses' hooves heat up so that we could ride them through the ice storm?"

"I remember." Shaunee did, and the memory made her feel lighter.

"Then go to the pyre-help there-but go to the stables, as well. Remind everyone that fire can do a lot more than destroy. It's how it's wielded that's important."

"I'm guessing you mean something like it's how fire is used that's important?"

Damien's grin widened. "See, I told you that you might be good at school. Wield is an excellent vocab word: to have or be able to use, as in power or influence."

"You're making my head hurt," Shaunee said, but she also laughed.

"So, I'll see you at the stables later?"

"Yeah, you will."

Damien started to walk away and then turned back to her, giving Shaunee a quick, tight hug. "I'm glad you became your own person. And if you need a friend, I'm here for you," he told her, and then he hurried off in the general direction of the stables.

Shaunee blinked back tears and smiled, watching his fluffy brown hair bounce around in his own little breeze. "Fire," she whispered, "send a little spark with Damien. He deserves to find a hot guy to make him happy, especially because he always tries so hard to make others happy."

Feeling better than she had in weeks, Shaunee walked in a different direction. Her steps were slower, more deliberate than Damien's, but she wasn't dreading where she was going anymore. She wasn't looking forward to the pyre and the burning-she wasn't Erin. She couldn't just shut out sadness and pain by freezing her feelings. And you know what? I wouldn't want to be cold and frozen inside, even if it meant I didn't hurt as much, she decided silently.

Shaunee was centering herself and drawing strength from the steady warmth of her element. Thank you, Nyx. I'll try to wield it well, was what she was thinking when the immortal's voice intruded.

"I have not thanked you."

Shaunee looked up to see Kalona standing near the big statue of Nyx that stood before the school's Temple. He was wearing jeans and a leather vest, one that looked a lot like what Dragon used to wear. Only this vest was bigger and it had slits through which Kalona's black wings emerged and then tucked against his back. This vest also didn't bear the insignia of the Goddess on it, but that was hard to think about when he was staring at her like that with his otherworldly amber eyes.

He really is absolutely, inhumanly gorgeous. Shaunee shook the thought from her mind and focused instead on what he'd said. "Thank me? What for?"

"For giving me your cell phone. Without it Stevie Rae would not have been able to call me. Rephaim might be dead were it not for you."

Shaunee's face was warm. She shrugged, not sure why she suddenly felt so nervous. "You're the one who came when she called. You could've just not answered and kept being a shitty dad." Shaunee realized what she'd said after she blurted it and pressed her lips together, telling herself stop speaking!

There was a long, uncomfortable silence, and then Kalona said, "What you say is the truth. I have not been a good father to my sons. I am still not being a good father to all of my sons."

Shaunee looked at him, wondering exactly what he meant. His voice sounded weird. She would have expected him to be sad or serious or even pissed. Instead he just seemed surprised and a little awkward, as if the thoughts he was thinking were just now occurring to him. She wished she could see his expression, but his face was turned away from her. He was gazing at Nyx's statue.

"Well," she began, not really having a clue what to say to him. "You're fixing your relationship with Rephaim. Maybe it's not too late to fix your relationship with your other sons, too. I know if my dad showed up and wanted to have something to do with me, I'd let him. I'd at least give him a chance." The immortal's head turned and he stared at her. Shaunee felt jittery, like those amber eyes could see too much of her. "What I mean is, I don't think it's ever too late to do the right thing."

"You believe that, honestly?"

"Yeah. Lately I've believed it more and more." She wished he'd look away from her. "So, how many kids do you have?"

He shrugged. His massive wings lifted slightly before settling again. "I have lost count."

"Seems like knowing how many kids you have is a good place to start in the whole I'd-like-to-be-a-good-dad thing."

"Knowing a thing and acting on a thing are distinctly different," he said.