Redeemed (House of Night #12)(80)

Even if he could not be by her side, Kalona longed to walk there again and to have the peace of the grove fill him once more.

His ascent concluded, Kalona stepped onto the rust-colored ground and waited.

Zoey

Kalona was dead! It was unbelievable but undeniable. I’d been standing next to Thanatos, holding the spirit candle, when he’d died—smiling and saying he hadn’t broken his oath.

Rephaim lost it. He was bending over his dad’s body, sobbing so hard it seemed like he was going to shake his body apart. Stevie Rae was behind me, still in the northern position of earth, but I could feel her restlessness. She was going to break the circle and go to Rephaim. I couldn’t blame her. I was just about to blow out my spirit candle and close the circle when Thanatos held out her hand, like she was offering it to Kalona as if he was going to reach up and take it. And I remembered what Thanatos had said as she told me to cast the circle, Zoey, ready your circle. I am going to need its borrowed power …

Thanatos had known Kalona was dying. She needs the circle for him!

“Stevie Rae, you have to stay there,” I said, looking over my shoulder at my BFF, who was bawling her eyes out. “We can’t close the circle. Thanatos needs it, and that means Kalona needs it, too.”

“But he’s dead!” Stevie Rae sobbed. “And Rephaim needs me now.”

“Stevie Rae, Thanatos is Death. Just like you’re Earth,” I said. “She asked us to cast this circle. Trust her to let us know when we can close it.”

Stevie Rae’s candle was trembling with her heaving shoulders, but she nodded and didn’t break the circle.

I turned my attention back to Thanatos. It looked like she was frozen with her outstretched hand. Her expressions changed, like she was having a psychic conversation with someone, but nothing else changed about her.

“Do you know what’s going on?” Detective Marx asked me. He looked pale and sad, and he was covered with Kalona’s blood.

I didn’t know for sure, but I took a chance and spoke from my heart. “Thanatos is helping Kalona’s soul. Remember, like in front of the Mayo.”

Marx squinted and lowered his voice to a whisper. “I don’t see any glowing lights.”

“Those were human souls. No matter what happened today, Kalona has been immortal for centuries and centuries. His soul probably looks way different.”

But I was wrong. Thanatos suddenly unfroze and threw up her arm as if she was slinging a Frisbee off into space, and a glowing silver orb—a whole lot like what she’d gathered in front of the Mayo—shot up into the thunderclouds of the predawn sky.

“Thanatos must have been right. We’re more alike than different,” Marx said.

“Ohmygoddess! Look up there!” Shaylin was pointing up.

We all looked, and the sky over the Arkansas River rippled and parted. Kalona was standing on a round space of red dirt in a place I remembered very well.

“It’s the entrance to the Otherworld and the hanging tree!” Stark said from his position just outside our circle.

“And Nyx’s Sacred Grove,” I added. My gaze met his and we shared a smile. We knew the place well. Stark had almost died there so that I could live.

“Son, turn your eyes from the shell that was your father and see what he has truly become,” Thanatos said, resting her hand on Rephaim’s shoulder.

He looked up in time to see Nyx step from her grove and approach Kalona. A winged immortal walked at her side. He looked almost exactly like Kalona except that his wings were gold and he seemed smaller, more delicately made.

“That has to be Erebus,” Damien said.

Then Kalona dropped to his knees and bowed his head, and we were too mesmerized by the scene unfolding to speak.

Nyx, I kneel before you and ask for your forgiveness. Kalona’s voice traveled easily between realms. I could even hear how vulnerable and unsure he sounded.

Do you truly ask her, or are you simply terrified that you might be forced to eternally wander the mortal realm? Erebus asked. He didn’t sound hateful. He sounded curious. But I could feel my hackles starting to rise. Why was he suddenly speaking for Nyx?

Kalona’s head remained bowed, as if he couldn’t bear to look at the Goddess, but he spoke again, this time with more confidence. Goddess, I am here only to ask for your forgiveness, and I fully accept whatever consequence I must face for the mistakes I have made.

As Erebus opened his mouth to say something else, Rephaim jumped to his feet, shouting, “Leave him alone! He’s not even talking to you!”

It didn’t seem like Kalona could hear him. But Erebus was silenced.

“That’s right!” Stevie Rae said with a little hiccup. “Leave Rephaim’s daddy alone. He’s asking for Nyx’s forgiveness, not yours.”

I held my breath as Nyx’s beautiful, loving eyes turned from Kalona to us. She stepped forward. I could see Kalona tremble as her gossamer robes brushed his arm. She raised her hand and swept the sky in front of her and suddenly they weren’t way up in the air anymore. They were right in front of us!

“Merry meet, beloveds,” the Goddess said.

Our answering “Merry meet” drifted around the circle that was now shining with such intensity that it was hard to look at.

Nyx approached Thanatos, who bowed deeply to her. “There is no need for such formalities between us,” Nyx said to her High Priestess, lifting her with a slight touch of her arm. “We have been acquainted too long for that.”