Burned

me.”
    Her words settled over Stark like a mesh of steel. “What do you mean, Kalona and me?”
    “You went with me to Venice, and you knew the real truth of how much of a monster Kalona is before I did. Fire brought you here. The rest probably means something to you if you think about it enough.”
    “A double-edged sword . . .” Stark spoke the words softly. The claymore was double-edged. And he’d destroyed as well as released with it. He did know the truth about Kalona being dangerous when he followed him with Zoey to Venice . . . the fire of pain from Seoras’s cuts had brought him to here, a place that reminded him of earth, even though it was in the Otherworld. And Zoey was trapped here, needing to be released. And now he had to follow what his spirit knew about honor to bring this whole thing to an end. “Oh, shit!” He looked at Zoey, ever-moving beside him, and the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. “You’re right. The poem is for me.”
    “Good, then it shows you how to be free,” Zoey said.
    “No, Z. It shows me how to make both of us free,” he said. “Kalona and me.”
    Her troubled, restless eyes lit on his face before looking hastily away. “Free Kalona? I don’t understand.”
    “I do,” he said grimly, remembering the killing blow that had freed the Other. “There are a lot of different ways to be free.” He tugged on her hand, making her slow down and look at him. “And I do believe in you, Zoey. Even shattered, you still hold my Oath. I will protect you, and as long as I remember honor and don’t ever let you down again, I think anything is possible. That’s what being your Guardian’s all about: honor.”
    He lifted her hand and kissed it again before he began walking. He didn’t let her circular pacing control him. This time Stark led her in a straight line directly for the edge of the grove.
    “No. No. We can’t go over there,” Zoey said,
    “Over there is where we have to go, Z. It’ll be okay. I trust you.” Stark kept walking toward the widening bright spots between the green that marked the grove’s edge.
    “Trust me? No. It doesn’t have anything to do with trust. Stark, we can’t leave this place. Ever. There are bad things out there.
He’s
outthere.” Zoey was pulling at his hand hard, trying to get him to change direction.
    “Zoey, I’m gonna say some things to you really fast, and I know your concentration is messed up right now, but you gotta hear me.” Stark was almost dragging Zoey with him, but he kept relentlessly moving them ahead, to the boundary of the grove. “I’m not just your Warrior anymore. I’m your Guardian. And that means a major change for me
and
for you. The biggest change is that I’m bound to you by honor even more than I am by love. I’m not ever gonna let you down again. I can’t tell you what your change is gonna be.” The end of the grove shimmered in front of them. Stark stopped and, following a gut impulse, he dropped to one knee in front of his shattered queen. “But I do believe one hundred percent that you’re gonna be up to it. Zoey, you’re my Ace,
mo bann ri,
my queen, and you have to pull yourself together, or none of us are getting out of here.”
    “Stark, you’re scaring me.”
    He got to his feet. Stark kissed both of her hands, and then her forehead before saying, “Well, Z, stay tuned, ’cause I’ve only just started.” He gave her his old, cocky grin. “No matter what happens, at least I made it here. If we get back, we’ll be able to tell the sticks-up-their-asses Vampyre High Council ‘told ya so!’ ” Then he parted the leaves of two rowan trees and stepped over the rocky boundary of the grove.
    Zoey stayed within the grove but held the branches open so she could stare out at Stark as she rocked back and forth, causing the leaves to rustle like a murmuring audience.
    “Stark, come back!”
    “Can’t do that, Z. I got something to take care of.”
    “What? I don’t understand!”
    “I’m gonna kick some immortal ass. For you, for me, and for Heath.”
    “But you can’t! You can’t beat Kalona.”
    “You’re probably right, Z. I can’t. But
you can
.” Stark threw wide his arms and yelled into Nyx’s sky. “Come on, Kalona! I know you’rehere! Come get me. It’s the only way you’re going to be sure Zoey won’t get back, ’cause as long as I’m alive I’m gonna fight to save her!”
    The sky above Stark rippled, and the pristine blue began to gray.