Redeemed (House of Night #12)(39)

She didn’t speak it as a question, but he dropped from the bench to his knee and pressed her hand against his heart, saying, “Aphrodite, Prophetess of Nyx, I give you my oath that I will never lie to you. Should I not always speak to you the truth, may the earth swallow me whole so that my spirit never finds its way to the Otherworld.”

A terrible shiver passed through Aphrodite and she grabbed Darius and pulled him into her arms. “No, stop it! Anyone can accidentally tell a lie, anyone! I don’t accept that oath!”

Darius leaned back, holding her gently by her trembling shoulders and smiled. “But I am not anyone. I am yours. Your Warrior. Your lover. Your mate. I swear never to lie to you because that would wound you beyond bearing, and I would rather the earth swallow me forever than do that to you.”

As she stared at Darius and saw the truth in his eyes, something broke free inside Aphrodite—something small and sharp that had been lodged deep within her for a very, very long time. She gasped, drew a breath, then let it out slowly.

“It’s gone,” she whispered.

“What is gone, my beauty?”

“My fear. It’s gone, Darius. You chased it away.” Aphrodite knew she sounded young and silly. She didn’t care. For the first time in her life, she wasn’t afraid of losing love. “I can’t lose you!” she blurted.

“No,” he said, smiling again. “You cannot ever lose me. And I did not chase away your fear. You released it.”

“Oh,” she said softly, finally understanding. “Sorry that I took so long.”

“You took exactly as long as was necessary, and I don’t regret one moment of the wait.”

Darius kissed her then, and Aphrodite knew complete happiness.

Until Aurox’s voice interrupted. “Darius! There you are. Come quickly. They are at the gate!”

Aphrodite leaned on Darius’s shoulder and frowned up at Aurox. “Oh, for shit’s sake, if you messed up this moment because Zoey and the Nerd Herd are back, I am going to smack the crap right outta—”

“Not Zoey!” Aurox said. “Humans! There are humans at the gate asking to be let inside because they want us to protect them from Neferet!”

“Well, in that case, I suppose we should let them in,” Darius said, standing and offering Aphrodite his hand. “Don’t you think so, my beauty?”

She sighed and muttered, “Fine. Whatever. As long as there are no politicians with them.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Zoey

“Ah, hell! A mob? That’s all we need right now.” I sighed in frustration as we went through the Twenty-first Street light at Utica and got within sight of the school. It was a super-weird scene. By now it was after midnight, and the street was dark. It should have been empty, too, but the big iron school gates were open, and a whole bunch of people were crowded at least ten deep in front of them. The two gaslights encased inside weathered copper sconces threw flickering shadows in a semi-circle over the group. People also stretched down both sides of the street. Outside the reach of the school’s flames, I could see the dark shapes of the cars that were parked up on the sidewalk, looking abandoned and totally out of place.

“Do you see anything burning except our lanterns? Like a ginormous cross?” Shaunee’s head poked between Stark’s and mine as she tried to get a better view from the backseat.

“Stop and let me out of here. I shall deal with this!” Kalona said.

“No!” Thanatos and Marx and Grandma shouted together.

“They don’t appear angry,” Thanatos said.

Detective Marx braked and rolled down his window. We all strained to listen, then he said, “It’s hard to see, but I don’t hear any yelling.”

“My night vision is better than yours and I can see no shoving or panicked milling. Everything looks remarkably calm,” Thanatos said.

“Yeah, well, I’d rather be safe than sorry, so let’s be sure they know which side of the law the House of Night is on.”

The detective grabbed the portable cop light he’d brought from ONEOK and slapped it on his side of the roof of the Hummer. He flipped a switch and it started to rotate the blue and red strobe that was all too familiar to any of us who might have not fully stopped at the four-way down the street from South Intermediate High School on 101st and Lynn Lane. Not that I had any personal experience with that. I’m just sayin’ it was weird to be inside the cop car when the thing lit up.

Marx tapped at it again and an even more obnoxious siren shrieked twice. The light and the sound worked together perfectly. The crowd rippled and turned toward us and, recognizing the presence of the TPD, parted so that the Hummer was able to turn into the school’s entrance.

Standing where sturdy iron should have been safely closed, Aphrodite, Darius, Stevie Rae, Rephaim, Lenobia, and Aurox were lined across the driveway, making a human gate.

“What are they doing?” Stark asked the question we all had to be thinking.

“I hope they are making wise decisions,” Thanatos said.

Silently I agreed as my eyes went to Aphrodite first. If she looked pissed and/or had a drink in her hand, I’d know whatever was going on was bad—burning cross and shouting townsfolk or not. All she looked was confused. I mean, obviously confused. She had one hand on her hip and was shrugging her shoulders. At the same time Lenobia was nodding and speaking to someone in the crowd I couldn’t quite see.