Redeemed (House of Night #12)(101)

“Zoey! Get back to the Hummer! Lock yourself in!” Stark yelled at me as he shot his last arrow. “I’ll follow you!”

“I’m not going anywhere,” I said.

He looked up at me and smiled grimly. “Then neither am I.” Stark planted his feet wide and held his fists up, ready to battle the tendrils with his bare hands.

Instantly, a longsword materialized before him, glistening with deadly beauty.

Stark’s hand closed around the Guardian Sword’s hilt, and with a triumphant shout, he began slicing through the tendrils of Darkness that dared try to get past him.

And still Neferet wasn’t close enough.

Grimly, I slashed the arrowhead across my other palm. This time deeper, causing my blood to rush into my hand. I held up the Seer Stone. “Sprites of air, fire, water, and earth—come to me!” I blew my blood through the center of the stone, and Fey appeared all around me in the forms of birds and fairies, merefolk and forest nymphs. “No matter the cost, I’ll pay it. Just get me to Neferet.”

The cost will be

Your true love from thee

I had no choice. Either Stark dies or the world as I know it dies. “You have my oath. I agree!” I said, promising silently to myself, When this is over, I’ll follow Stark. I’ll know where to find him. Under the wishing tree …

The Fey bowed their glowing heads briefly in acknowledgment of my oath, then they formed a circle around me.

Go to the Dark Goddess.

I did as they commanded, moving past Stark.

“Zoey? What the hell?”

“Stay there, Stark! Keep fighting them. I’m going to her.” I couldn’t look at Stark. I knew he wouldn’t listen to me. I knew he wouldn’t stay up on the stairs where he had a chance against the tendrils. “James Stark, I will always love you!” I shouted.

Then I ran. The Fey surrounded me and moved with me, a solid shield of ancient power, repelling any tendril that approached them. I circled around behind Neferet. And then, using my Fey shield as a battering ram, I hurled myself at her.

The Fey hit her from behind. Blinded by blood and pain, she didn’t see us coming. I knocked her toward the grotto. One step, then another.

Hissing at me like she was a cobra, she whirled around and her terrible, long fingers sliced through the Fey closest to her.

It was a water Fey, a mermaid, and the beautiful blue sprite gave a horrible, inhumane shriek of pain and dissolved into the ground.

I gritted my teeth and took another step toward her.

“You little bitch! That is you inside there. Do you think Old Magick will stop me from killing you? I truly command Old Magick! A mortal cannot defeat me!”

She struck again, and a fire sprite exploded.

I battered her back another step, and she hacked through a Fey in the shape of a graceful heron.

With only a forest nymph between Neferet and me, I ran at her. Neferet raked her talons through the Fey, who screamed and disappeared, but the dark Goddess was off balance from the uneven Oklahoma sandstones beneath her feet, and she fell.

Finally! Close enough!

“Damien, where are you?” I cried.

“Here!” His head popped up from behind a clump of azaleas to my left. “Air, I call you to our circle!” I shouted, and wind rushed around us.

“I’m here!” Shaunee yelled, stepping out from behind a fire-blackened tree.

“Fire, I call you to our circle!” I felt the heat of her element.

“Children! Stop her! Kill her!” Neferet commanded.

I stood my ground, even as I felt a tendril of Darkness slice into my leg. “Shaylin!”

“Right here!” She jumped and waved from the top of the ridge to my right.

“Water, I call you to our circle!”

“Stevie Rae!” I cried, as I grabbed a snake-creature as it shot toward my throat and bashed it against a rock.

“I’m right behind you, Z, and I got your back!”

I turned. Rephaim’s sword sang in an arc around us, while I called, “Earth, I call you to our circle!” I breathed in the scents of a meadow as I completed my casting by calling, “Spirit, I call you to our circle!”

A wide silver ribbon of light crackled into being, connecting the five of us and completely encircling Neferet.

“Do you think a circle will hold me?” Neferet was on her hands and knees. Her face was bloody but already healing. She looked at me and laughed. “You’ve just made this easier. I destroy this circle, I destroy you. Come to me, children! All of you come to me!”

Her creatures obeyed her. They slithered from all the shadows within the park, a dark tide rising around her.

I ignored her and the creatures she called to execute me. I raised my arms. “Air, fire, water, earth, and spirit—hear me! I am Zoey Redbird. My ancestors danced beneath the sky, evoking you in the name of the Great Earth Mother, in respect and love, themselves caretakers of this land, keepers of the mortal realm’s balance of Light and Darkness. Tonight I invoke your aid as a daughter of those ancient caretakers. This Tsi Sgili and her creatures defile us all and create unbalance. So as the Wise Women before me did, I beg of you, Great Earth Mother and the powers of Old Magick, entrap Neferet and her children!” Imagining myself as a fountain and the elements as streams of power shooting up from the bowels of the earth and through me, I threw air, fire, water, earth, and spirit at Neferet.