Redeemed (House of Night #12)(78)

“Darius! Stark! Help me! Something’s wrong with Thanatos. She passed out.”

“No,” Thanatos fought to speak. “Not me—Kalona!”

“What did she say?” Stark asked as he and Darius tried to make her comfortable.

“She said Kalona’s name.” Zoey’s voice was hushed, as if she already had guessed what Thanatos knew.

The scream of an ambulance siren drew closer and closer. “Help me stand. Help me stand!” Thanatos said. “Zoey, ready your circle. I am going to need its borrowed power, though not for the barrier.”

“I’m really sorry,” Zoey said, and grasped her hands, squeezing them briefly before she took the ritual matches and moved to stand before Damien in the east.

Thanatos grounded herself and made ready. Zoey returned to the center to face her, called spirit, and invoked, “Air, fire, water, earth, and spirit! Please fill our High Priestess, Thanatos, and lend her strength for what is to come.”

Thanatos straightened, drawing a deep breath and feeling the power of five elements flowing through her veins as if replacing her blood. She stepped free of Stark and Darius and their helping hands. The ambulance lurched to a stop in the middle of Cheyenne Avenue.

“Rephaim, come here to me, please.” The boy had been standing close to Stevie Rae, just outside the circle.

“You want me to enter the circle?”

“You must. And quickly, too.”

With a worried look at Stevie Rae, Rephaim approached the glowing silver thread that joined the elements and drew the circumference of the circle. The thread of light rippled and drew back on itself, opening just wide enough for Rephaim to step within before closing once more.

“Something is very wrong,” Rephaim said to her.

Thanatos held the boy’s gaze. “It is your father. Be strong for him.”

Rephaim’s face drained of color as the wide rear door of the ambulance opened, and police officers, led by Detective Marx, carried Kalona from within.

“Father!”

Thanatos put a restraining hand on his arm. “He needs to come to us. The circle will welcome him as it did you.” Thanatos raised her voice and called, “Detective Marx, bring my Warrior to me.”

There was a terrible crack of thunder, and lightning flashed across the sky, making the torches that Sylvia had lit throughout the park seem as insignificant as fireflies.

“I can’t carry him alone,” Marx said from just outside the glowing circumference of the circle.

“All who bear Kalona are welcome within,” Thanatos said.

Marx didn’t hesitate. He stepped forward. His men moved with him, bringing Kalona to her and laying him gently on the ground at her feet.

Rephaim was weeping. Thanatos looked from Kalona’s shattered wings to the scarlet soaked pads that did little stop the blood that seeped down the sides of his chest. Finally, her gaze rested on his colorless face. Still not looking away from her Warrior, she said, “Detective Marx, thank you for bringing him to me.”

“She shot him while he was in the air! Emptied a Glock into him. He was trying to save the people she was throwing from the balcony. There was not a damn thing I could do.”

“You have done what he needed. You were a good friend to him.”

“Wish I could have been one longer,” the detective said, wiping the tears from his face.

“He’s dying?” Rephaim’s eyes were glazed with shock and grief.

“Yes,” said Kalona, opening his eyes. “Come here, son.” His hand lifted weakly.

Rephaim dropped to his knees beside his father, clutching his hand. “No! You can’t die! You’re immortal!”

Kalona coughed, and foam flaked with blood came from his lips. His voice weakened as he spoke. “Knew this could happen. My choice, Rephaim. Remember, my choice.” Kalona’s gaze left his son for a moment to go to Stark, who stood silently beside Thanatos. “Use the piece of immortality I gave you for Light. Protect your Priestess.” His eyes seemed to be losing focus. He blinked, struggling to look around, then he found Zoey. “Forgive me—the pain I caused.”

“With my whole heart I forgive you,” Zoey said.

Kalona coughed more blood and grimaced, then he touched his son’s face. “You are the best of me. Find your brothers. Care for them. And watch over Stevie Rae. If you lose her, you will lose yourself.”

“I will do as you say, Father,” Rephaim said, sobbing. “I love you.”

“I will always love you. Always,” Kalona said. Finally, his fading gaze met Thanatos’s. “Thank you for trusting me.”

Thanatos’s chest felt heavy with grief, but she smiled at him. “I have never accepted a Warrior’s Oath before you, and there will be none to come after you. You have been a fine and worthy Guardian.”

Kalona’s red-flecked lips lifted in a satisfied smile. “I did not break my oath…” He drew a gasping half breath, and then his bloody chest did not rise again, his amber eyes lost their light, and Kalona died.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Kalona

Dying was more painful than Kalona had imagined it would be—though during his eons of life, he had rarely imagined it. He had been familiar with death in an abstract sort of way. He had, of course, killed countless times. Some of the killings had been justified; some had not. Since he had left the Otherworld, most of the deaths he had been responsible for had fallen into the latter category.