Burned

ancient and barbaric past. A place that is essentially cut off from today’s civilization.”
    The answer jolted through Stark. “I have to go to the Isle.”
    “Exactly,” Darius said.
    “What the hell are you two talking about?” Aphrodite said.
    “They speak of the place where Warriors were first trained by Sgiach.”
    “Sgiach? Who is that?” Damien asked.
    “It is the ancient title for the Warrior who was called The Great Taker of Heads,” Darius said.
    “Sgiach was as raw and barbaric as it gets as a Warrior,” Stark said.
    “Okay, this is all well and good, but we need him to be alive today and not just an old story Warriors know, ’cause I’m pretty sure if Stark can’t travel to the Otherworld, he also can’t travel to the past,” Aphrodite said.
    “
She,
” Darius corrected.
    “She?” Aphrodite’s face was a question mark.
    “Sgiach was a female Warrior, a vampyre of amazing powers,” Stark said.
    “And those ‘old stories,’ my beauty, also say that there will always be a Sgiach.” Darius gave Aphrodite an indulgent smile. “She lives on the Isle of Women at the House of Night there.”
    “There’s an Isle of Women House of Night?” Erin said.
    “Why don’t we know about that?” Shaunee said. “Do you know about that?” she asked Damien.
    He shook his head. “Never heard of it.”
    “That’s because you’re not Warriors,” Darius said. “The Isle of Women is also known as the Isle of Skye.”
    “Skye, like in Scotland?” Damien said.
    “Yes. It is there that the very first vampyre Warriors were trained,” Darius said.
    “But not anymore, right?” Damien said, looking from Darius to Stark. “I mean, Warrior training goes on at all the Houses of Night. Like Dragon Lankford trains a bunch of Warriors who come from all over, and he’s definitely not in Scotland.”
    “You are correct, Damien. In the modern world the training of Warriors takes place at the House of Night schools throughout the world,” Thanatos said. “Around the turn of the nineteenth century, the High Council decided that would a more convenient way of doing things.”
    “More convenient and more civilized, I bet,” Aphrodite said.
    “You, too, are correct, Prophetess,” Thanatos said.
    “That’s it, then. I take Zoey to the Isle of Women and Sgiach,” Stark said.
    “And then what?” Aphrodite asked.
    “Then I get uncivilized so that I can figure out how to fight my way into the Otherworld without dying, and, once I’m there, I do whatever I have to do to bring Zoey back to us.”
    “Huh,” said Aphrodite. “That actually doesn’t sound like a bad idea.”
    “If Stark is allowed to enter the Isle,” Darius said.
    “It’s a House of Night. Why wouldn’t they let Stark come in?” Damien said.
    “It’s a House of Night like none other,” Thanatos said. “The High Council’s decision to move the training of the Sons of Erebus from Skye and spread them out among the Houses of Night worldwide was a decision that was the culmination of many, many years of tension and unease between the reigning Sgiach and the High Council.”
    “You make her sound like a queen,” Jack said.
    “In a way she is—a queen whose subjects were Warriors,” Thanatos said.
    “A queen in charge of the Sons of Erebus? I know the vamp High Council wouldn’t like that, not unless Queen Sgiach was part of the High Council, too,” Aphrodite said.
    “Sgiach is a Warrior,” Thanatos said. “And Warriors are not allowed on the High Council.”
    “But Sgiach is a woman. She should be able to be voted onto the Council,” Damien said.
    “No,” Darius said. “No Warrior can sit on the Council. That is vampyre law.”
    “And that probably pissed off Sgiach,” Aphrodite said. “I know it’d piss me off. She should be able to sit on the High Council.”
    Thanatos bowed her head in acknowledgment. “I agree with you, Prophetess, but many did not. When the training of the Sons of Erebus Warriors was taken from her, Sgiach withdrew to the Isle of Skye. She spoke to no one about her intention, but she didn’t need to. We all felt her anger. We also felt the protective circle she castaround her Isle.” Thanatos’s eyes were filled with the shadows of memories of the past. “No one had experienced its like since the mighty vampyre Cleopatra cast a protective circle around her beloved Alexandria.”
    “No one enters the Isle of Women without the permission of Sgiach,” Darius said.
    “If