Awakened

the delicate chain over her head and held it up at my eye level. Hanging from the silver was a perfectly round milk-colored stone that was smooth and soft and reminded me of a coconut-flavor Life Saver. The torches that the Warriors had begun to light flickered against the stone’s surface, making it glisten, and I recognized the rock.
    “It’s a piece of Skye marble,” I said.
    “It is—a special piece of Skye marble called a seer stone. It was found more than five centuries ago by a Warrior on his Shamanic quest as he ran the Cuillin Ridge on this very island,” Sgiach said.
    “A Warrior on a Shamanic quest? That doesn’t happen very often,” I said.
    Sgiach smiled and her gaze went from the piece of dangling marble to Seoras. “About once every five hundred years it does.”
    “Aye, that’s about right,” Seoras said, returning her smile with an intimacy that made me feel like I should look away.
    “In my opinion, once every five hundred years is more than enough for some poor Warrior dude to do the Shaman thing.”
    My stomach give a silly little flip-flop of pleasure at the sound of his voice and I looked from the queen and her Guardian to see Stark standing in the shadows behind the arched doorway, rumpled and squinting at what was left of the fading light in the picture window. He was wearing jeans and a T-shirt, and he looked so much like his old self that a pang of homesickness—the first real one I’d felt since I’d returned to myself—speared through me. I’m going home. The thought had me smiling as I hurried toward Stark. Sgiach made a gesture with her hand. The heavy drapes were drawn over the last of the sunlight, allowing Stark to step from the shadows and take me into his arms.
    “Hey, I didn’t think you’d be up for an hour or so,” I said, hugging him tightly.
    “You were upset, and that woke me up,” he whispered into my ear. “Plus, I was having some majorly weird dreams.”
    I pulled back so I could look into his eyes. “Jack’s dead.”
    Stark started to shake his head in denial, and then stopped, touched my cheek, and blew out a long breath. “That’s what I felt. Your sadness. Z, I’m so sorry. What the hell happened?”
    “Officially an accident. Really it was Neferet, but no one can prove it,” I said.
    “When do we leave for Tulsa?”
    I smiled my thanks at him as Sgiach said, “Tonight. We can arrange for you to leave as soon as you have your bags packed and ready.”
    “So, what’s with this stone?” Stark asked, taking my hand.
    Sgiach lifted it again. I was thinking how pretty it looked when it twisted gently on the chain and my gaze was pulled to the perfect circle in the center. The world narrowed and faded away around me as my entire being became focused on the hole in the stone because for an instant I caught a glimpse of the room through the hole.
    The room was gone!
    Fighting a wave of nauseating vertigo, I stared through the seer stone at what had looked like an undersea world. Figures floated and flitted around, all in hues of turquoise and topaz, crystal and sapphire. I thought I saw wings and fins and long, swirling cascades of drifting hair. Mermaids? Or are they sea monkeys? I have utterly lost my mind, was my last thought before I lost my battle with dizziness and ended up flat on my back on the floor.
    “Zoey! Look at me! Say something!”
    Stark, looking completely freaked, was bent over me. He’d grabbed me by the shoulders and was currently shaking the bejeezus outta me.
    “Hey, stop,” I said weakly, trying unsuccessfully to shove him away.
    “Just let her breathe. She’ll be fine in a moment,” came Sgiach’s uber-calm voice.
    “She fainted. That’s not normal,” Stark said. He was still gripping my shoulders, but he had stopped rattling my brains around.
    “I’m conscious and I’m right here,” I said. “Help me sit up.”
    Stark’s frown said he’d rather not, but he did as I asked.
    “Drink this,” Sgiach held a goblet of wine under my nose that I could smell was laced heavily with blood. I grabbed it and drank deeply while she said, “And it is normal for a High Priestess to faint the first time she uses the power of a seer stone, especially if she is unprepared for it.”
    Feeling much better after the bloody wine (eesh, but yum), I raised my brows at her and stood up. “Couldn’t you have prepared me for it?”
    “Aye, but then a seer stone only works for some High Priestesses, and if it hadnae