Awakened

the days that followed, she would remember her grin and wish she could hold on to the image of Jack making purple swords out of paper and singing “Defying Gravity,” eternally looking on the bright side of life, eternally sweet, eternally happy, and, most important, eternally safe.

CHAPTER SIX

    Jack

    “Duch, what is it, beautiful girl? Why are you acting so psycho today?” Jack pulled the pile of purple origami papers from under the blond Lab and put them up out of dog-butt reach on the wooden stool he was using as an outside table and sword stand. The big dog huffed, thumped her tail on the ground, and scooted closer to Jack. He sighed and gave her a loving but exasperated look. “You don’t have to be attached to my side. Everything’s fine. I’m just decorating.”
    “She is being more than a little codependent today,” Damien said, folding his legs and sitting on the grass beside Jack.
    Jack stopped working on the paper sword he’d been folding into shape and stroked Duchess’s soft head. “Do you think she can sense that S-T-A-R-K is still not feeling one hundred percent? Do you think she knows he’s not coming back tomorrow?”
    “Well, maybe. She is extraordinarily intelligent, but my guess is she’s more worried about you climbing up there than Stark being tired and tardy.”
    Jack fluttered his fingers at the eight-foot ladder that sat open and ready not far from them. “Oh, there’s nothing for Duch or you to be worried about. That ladder is perfectly safe. It even has an extra hold-it-open latch that makes it totally steady.”
    “I don’t know. It’s awful high up there.” Damien gave the top rungs of the ladder a wary look.
    “Nah, it’s not so bad. Plus, it’s not like I’m climbing up to the top—or at least not much. This poor tree has limbs that are hangy-downy now. You know, ever since he burst up from under it.” Jack said the last sentence in a stage whisper.
    Damien cleared his throat and gave the big oak they were sitting under the same wary glance he’d shot the ladder. “Okay, don’t get mad, but I really need to talk to you about choosing this particular spot for Zoey’s Celebration Ritual.”
    Jack held up his hand, palm out, in the universal stop signal. “I already know people are going to have issues with this location. I’ve just decided that my reasons for it are better than the reasons against it.”
    “Honey, you always have the best intentions,” Damien took Jack’s hand and held it in both of his. “But I think this time you need to consider that you might be the only one who can see anything positive about this place. Professor Nolan and Loren Blake were killed here. Kalona escaped from the earth, ripped open the ground, and split the tree right here. It just doesn’t feel very celebratory to me.”
    Jack’s free hand covered Damien’s. “This is a place of power, right?”
    “Correct,” Damien said.
    “And power isn’t negative or positive in its unused form. It only takes on those characteristics when outside forces take over and influence it. Right?”
    Damien paused, considered, and then reluctantly nodded. “Yes, I suppose you’re correct again.”
    “Well, I feel that the power in this place—this shattered tree and the area here by the east wall—has been misused. It needs a chance to be used for Light and goodness again. I want to give it that chance; I have to. Something inside me is telling me that I need to be here, getting Zoey’s Celebration Ritual ready for her return, even if she and Stark are going to be late.”
    Damien sighed. “You know I wouldn’t ever ask you to discount your feelings.”
    “So you’ll support me in this? Even when everyone is saying your boyfriend is super crazy?”
    Damien smiled at him. “Everyone isn’t saying you’re super crazy. They’re saying your zealous need to decorate and organize has tainted your judgment.”
    Jack giggled. “I’ll bet they didn’t say zealous or tainted .”
    “Their words were synonymous, if inferior.”
    “That’s my Damien—the wordsmith!”
    “And that’s my Jack—the optimist.” Damien leaned into Jack and kissed him gently on the lips. “You do what you need to do here. I know Zoey will be appreciative, when she finally gets home.” He paused, smiled sadly into Jack’s trusting eyes, and added, “Honey, you do understand that Zoey might not be coming back for quite a while? I know what Stark said to you, and I haven’t talked to