Burned(The seventh book in the House of Night series)Kristin Cast and P C Cast
Acknowledgments
P. C.:
This book would not have been possible had three very special men not opened their history, their lives, and their hearts to me. I owe a debt of gratitude to Seoras Wallace, Alain Mac au Halpine, and Alan Torrance. Any errors in my fictionalization and retelling of their Scottish/Irish mythos are mine and mine alone. Warriors, I thank you. In addition: THANK YOU, Denise Torrance, for saving me from all that Clan Wallace testosterone!
While I researched on the Isle of Skye, my home base was the lovely Toravaig House. Id like to thank the staff there for making my stay so pleasanteven if they couldnt do anything about the rain!
Sometimes I need to go into what my friends and family call my writers cave to finish a book. That was the case with Burned, and my cave was made verrrry bearable by Paawan Arora, at the Grand Cayman Ritz Carlton, as well as Heather Lockington and her wonderful staff at the amazing Cotton Tree (www.caymancottontree.com). Thank you, thank you for helping me make Cayman my second home and hiding from the world so I could write and write and write.
Ive used a little Gaelic in this book. Yes, its hard to pronounce (kinda like Cherokee), and there are many different versions of it (again, kinda like Cherokee). With the help of my Scottish expert(s), Ive used Gaelic mainly from the ancient Dalriadic and Gallovidian languages from the west coast of Scotland and northeast coast of Ireland. This dialect is commonly referred to as Gal-Gaelic or GalGael. Any mess-ups are mine.
Kristin:
Thanks to Coach Mark with Bootcamp Tulsa and Precision Body Art for helping me feel strong, empowered, and beautiful.
And thank you to The Shawnus for giving me some peace and quiet!
Both:
As always, we appreciate our team at St. Martins Press: Jennifer Weis, Matthew Shear, Anne Bensson, Anne Marie Tallberg, and the amazing design team that keeps coming up with such fabulous covers! WE HEART SMP!
Thank you to MK Advertising, who does such cool Web site work for www.pccast.net as well as www.houseofnightseries.com.
As always, Kristin and I send our love and thanks to our wonderful agent and friend, Meredith Bernstein. The House of Night would not exist without her.
And, finally, thank you to our loyal fans. Yall are absolutely The Best!
Chapter 1
Kalona
Kalona lifted his hands. He didnt hesitate. There was no doubt whatsoever in his mind about what he had to do. He would not allow anything or anyone to get in his way, and this human boy was standing between him and what he desired. He didnt particularly want to kill the boy; he didnt particularly want the boy alive, either. It was a simple necessity. He didnt feel remorse or regret. As had been the norm during the centuries since hed fallen, Kalona felt very little. So, indifferently, the winged immortal twisted the boys neck and put an end to his life.
No!
The anguish of that one word froze Kalonas heart. He dropped the boys lifeless body and whirled around in time to see Zoey racing toward him. Their eyes met. In hers were despair and hatred. In his was an impossible denial. He tried to formulate the words that might make her understandmight make her forgive him. But there was nothing he could say to change what she had seen, and even if he could work the impossible, there was no time.
Zoey threw the full power of the element spirit at him.
It hit the immortal, striking him with force that was beyond physical. Spirit was his essencehis corethe element that had sustained him for centuries and with which he had always been most comfortable, as well as most powerful. Zoeys attack seared him. It lifted him with such force that he was hurled over the huge stone wall that separated the vampyres island and the Gulf of Venice. The icy water engulfed him, smothering him. For an instant the pain within Kalona was so deadening that he didnt fight it. Perhaps he should let this terrible struggle for life and its trappings end. Perhaps, once again, he should allow himself to be vanquished by her. But less than a heartbeat after he had the thought, he felt it. Zoeys soul shattered and, as truly as his fall had carried him from one realm to another, her spirit departed this world.
The knowledge wounded him worse than had her blow against him.
Not Zoey! Hed never meant to cause her harm. Even through all of Neferets machinations, through all of the Tsi Sgilis manipulations and plans, hed held tight to the knowledge that, in spite of everything, he would use his vast immortal powers to keep Zoey safe because ultimately she was the closest he could come to Nyx in this realmand this was the only realm left to him.
Fighting to recover from Zoeys attack, Kalona lifted his massive body from the clutching waves and realized the truth. Because of him, Zoeys spirit was gone, which meant she would die. With his first breath of air, he released a wrenching cry of despair, echoing her last word, No!
Had he really believed since his fall that he didnt truly have feelings? Hed been a fool and wrong, so very wrong. Emotions battered him as he flew raggedly just above the waterline, chipping away at his already wounded spirit, raging against him, weakening him, bleeding his soul. With blurred, blackened vision, he stared across the lagoon, squinting to see the lights that heralded land. Hed never make it there. It would have to be the palace. He had no choice. Using the last reserves of his strength, Kalonas wings beat against the frigid air, lifting him over the wall, where he crumpled to the frozen earth.
He didnt know how long he lay there in the cold darkness of the shattered night as emotions overwhelmed his shaken soul. Somewhere in the far reaches of his mind, he understood the familiarity of what had happened to him. Hed fallen again, only this time it was more in spirit than in bodythough his body didnt seem his to command any longer either.
He felt her presence before she spoke. It had been like that between them from the first, whether he truly wished it or notthey simply sensed one another.
You allowed Stark to bear witness to your killing of the boy! Neferets voice was more frigid than the winter sea.
Kalona turned his head so that he could see more than the toe of her stiletto shoe. He looked up at her, blinking to try to clear his vision.
Accident. Finding his voice again he managed a rasping whisper. Zoey should not have been there.
Accidents are unacceptable, and I care not one bit that she was there. Actually, the result of what she saw is rather convenient.
You know that her soul shattered? Kalona hated the unnatural weakness in his voice and the strange lethargy in his body almost as much as he hated the effect Neferets icy beauty had on him.
I imagine most of the vampyres on the island know it. Typically for her, Zoeys spirit wasnt exactly quiet in its leave-taking. I wonder, though, how many of the vampyres also felt the blow the chit dealt you just before she departed. Neferet tapped her chin contemplatively with one long, sharp fingernail.
Kalona remained silent, struggling to center himself and draw together the ragged edges of his torn spirit, but the earth his body pressed against was too real, and he had not the strength to reach above and feed his soul from the wispy vestiges of the Otherworld that floated there.
No, I dont imagine any of them felt it, Neferet continued, in her coldest, most calculating voice. None of them are connected to Darkness, to you, as I am. Is that not so, my love?
We are uniquely connected, Kalona managed, though he suddenly wished the words were not true.
Indeed . . . she said, still distracted by her thoughts. Then Neferets eyes widened as a new realization came to her. I have long wondered how it was that A-ya managed to wound you, such a physically powerful immortal, badly enough that those ridiculous Cherokee hags could entrap you. I believe little Zoey has just provided the answer youve so carefully withheld from me. Your body can be damaged but only through your spirit. Isnt that fascinating?
I will heal. He put as much strength as possible in his voice. Return me to Capri and the castle there. Take me to the rooft op, as close to the sky as I can be, and I will regain my strength.
I imagine you wouldwere I so inclined to do that. But I have other plans for you, my love. Neferet lifted her arms, extending them over him. As she continued to speak she began weaving her long fingers through the air, creating intricate patterns, like a spider spinning her web. I will not allow Zoey to interfere with us ever again.
A shattered soul is a death sentence. Zoey is no longer any threat to us, he said. With knowing eyes, Kalona watched Neferet. She drew to her a sticky blackness he recognized all too well. Hed spent lifetimes battling that Darkness before he embraced its cold power. It pulsed and fluttered familiarly, restlessly under her fingers. She shouldnt be able to command Darkness so tangibly. The thought drifted like the echo of a death knell through his weary mind. A High Priestess shouldnt have such power.
But Neferet was no longer merely a High Priestess. She had grown beyond the boundaries of that role some time ago, and she had no trouble controlling the writhing blackness she conjured.
She is becoming immortal, Kalona realized, and with the realization, fear joined regret and despair and anger where they already simmered within the fallen Warrior of Nyx.
One would think it would be a death sentence, Neferet spoke calmly as she drew more and more of the inky threads to her, but Zoey has a terribly inconvenient habit of surviving. This time I am going to ensure she dies.
Zoeys soul also has a habit of reincarnating, he said, purposefully baiting Neferet to try to throw off her focus.
Then I will destroy her over and over again! Neferets concentration only increased with the anger his words evoked. The blackness she spun intensified, writhing with swollen power in the air around her.
Neferet. He tried to reach her by using her name. Do you truly understand what it is you are attempting to command?
Her gaze met his, and, for the first time, Kalona saw the scarlet stain that nested in the darkness of her eyes. Of course I do. Its what lesser beings call evil.
I am not a lesser being, and I, too, have called it evil.
Ah, not for centuries you havent. Her laughter was vicious. But it seems lately youve been living too much with shadows from your past instead of reveling in the lovely dark power of the present. I know who is to blame for that.
With a tremendous effort, Kalona pushed himself to a sitting position.
No. I dont want you to move. Neferet flicked one finger at him, and a thread of darkness snaked around his neck, tightened, and jerked him down, pinning him to the ground again.
What is it you want of me? he rasped.
I want you to follow Zoeys spirit to the Otherworld and be sure none of her friendsshe sneered the wordmanage to find a way to coax her to rejoin her body.
Shock jolted through the immortal. I have been banished by Nyx from the Otherworld. I cannot follow Zoey there.
Oh, but you are wrong, my love. You see, you always think too literally. Nyx ousted youyou fellyou cannot return. So you have believed for centuries that is that. Well, you literally cannot. She sighed dramatically as he stared at her blankly. Your gorgeous body was banished, thats all. Did Nyx say anything about your immortal soul?
She need not say it. If a soul is separated from a body for too long, the body will die.
But your body isnt mortal, which means it can be separated indefinitely from its soul without dying, she said.
Kalona struggled to keep the terror her words filled him with from his expression. It is true that I cannot die, but that does not mean I will remain undamaged if my spirit leaves my body for too long. I could age . . . go mad . . . become a never dying shell of myself . . . The possibilities swirled through his mind.
Neferet shrugged. Then you will have to be sure you finish your task soon, so that you may return to your lovely immortal body before it is irreparably damaged. She smiled seductively at him. I would very much dislike it if anything happened to your body, my love.
Neferet, dont do this. You are putting into motion things that will require payment, the consequences of which even you will not want to face.
Do not threaten me! I released you from your imprisonment. I loved you. And then I watched you fawn over that simpering teenager. I want her gone from my life! Consequences? I embrace them! I am not the weak, ineffective High Priestess of a rule-following goddess any longer. Dont you understand that? Had you not been so distracted by that child, you would know it without me telling you. I am an immortal, the same as you, Kalona! Her voice was eerie, amplified with power. We are perfectly matched. You used to believe that as well, and that is something you will believe again, when Zoey Redbird is no more.
Kalona stared at her, understanding that Neferet was utterly, truly mad, and wondering why that madness only served to feed her power and intensify her beauty.
So this is what I have decided to do, she continued, speaking methodically. I am going to keep your sexy, immortal body safely tucked away underground somewhere while your soul travels to the Otherworld and makes sure Zoey does not return here.
Nyx will never allow it! The words burst from him before he could stop them.
Nyx always allows free will. As her former High Priestess, I know without any doubt that she will allow you to choose to travel in spirit to the Otherworld, Neferet said slyly. Remember, Kalona, my true love, if you ensure Zoeys death, you will be removing the last impediment to us reigning side by side. You and I will be powerful beyond imagining in this world of modern marvels. Think of itwe will subjugate humans and bring back the reign of vampyres with all the beauty and passion and limitless power that means. The earth will be ours. We will, indeed, give new life to the glorious past!