Burned

his shoulder.
    “It’s feckn’
Seoras,
are yie deaf, too?” the Warrior said, enunciating slowly. Stark was surprised to see his lips curling up at Aphrodite’s bitchy tone.
    “Okay,
Seoras.
” She mimicked his accent with eerie accuracy. “I’m not a human. I was a fledgling who had visions. Then I wasn’t a fledgling anymore. And when I un-fledgling-ed, Nyx, for reasons I’m still pretty clueless about, decided to let me keep my visions. So now I’m the Goddess’s Prophetess. I’m hoping that, along with all the stress and eye-aches it gives me, this Prophetess stuff means I age gracefully, like your queen.” Aphrodite paused to bow her head to Sgiach, whose brows went up, but who didn’t strike her dead like Stark thought she deserved. “Anyway, Darius
is
my Oath Sworn Warrior. If I’m getting the allusion right, and here’s hoping ’cause I’m shitty at figurative language, I’m an Ace in my own way. So Darius does fit in with your Guardian Clan, blood tie or no blood tie.”
    Stark thought he heard Seoras mutter, “Arrogant feckr,” at the same time Sgiach whispered, “Interesting.”
    “
Failte gu ant Eilean nan Sgiath,
Prophetess and your Warrior,” Sgiach said.
    Without any further discussion, Stark, carrying Zoey, followed by Darius and Aphrodite, passed beneath the marble archway and entered the Isle of Women.

CHAPTER TWENTY
    Stark
    Seoras led them to a black Range Rover that was parked around the corner and out of sight of the archway. Stark stopped beside the vehicle. His face must have shown his surprise because the Warrior laughed, and said, “Did yie expect a wee cart an’ a Highland pony?”
    “I don’t know about him, but I did,” Aphrodite said, climbing in the backseat beside Darius. “And for once I’m super glad to be wrong.”
    Seoras opened the front passenger’s door for him, and Stark got in, holding Zoey carefully. The Warrior had started driving before Stark realized Sgiach wasn’t with them.
    “Hey, where’s your queen?” Stark asked.
    “Sgiach doesna need the motor tae be traveling her island.”
    Stark was trying to figure out how to ask his next question when Aphrodite spoke up.
    “What the hell does
that
mean?”
    “It means Sgiach’s affinity isnae limited tae any element. Sgiach’s affinity is with this island. She commands everyone and everything on it.”
    “Holy shit! Are you saying she can transport, like an undorky version of
Star Trek
? Not that it’s possible to be undorky about
Star Trek
,” Aphrodite said.
    Stark started to consider ways to gag her without Darius freaking on him.
    But the old Warrior was completely unruffled by Aphrodite. He simply shrugged, and said, “Aye, it will be as good an explanation as any.”
    “You know about
Star Trek
?” came out of Stark’s mouth before his brain could stop it.
    Again, the Warrior shrugged. “We do have the satellite.”
    “And the Internet?” Aphrodite asked hopefully.
    “And the Internetograph, too,” Seoras agreed, straight-faced.
    “So you do let in the outside world,” Stark said.
    Seoras glanced at him. “Aye, when it serves the queen’s purposes.”
    “I’m not shocked. She’s a queen. She likes to shop, ergo the Internet,” Aphrodite said.
    “She is a queen. She likes to be informed about the world and its goin’s on,” the Warrior said in a tone that didn’t invite further questions.
    They rode on in silence until Stark started to get worried about the lightening in the eastern sky. He was just about to tell Seoras what would happen to him if he wasn’t inside and under cover at sunrise when the Warrior pointed ahead and to the left of the narrow road, saying, “The Craobh—the Sacred Grove. The castle is just beyond on the shore.”
    Mesmerized, Stark gazed to the left of them at misshapen trunks of what must be deceptively spindly-looking trees because they held up an ocean of green. He only caught glimpses of what lay within the grove, layers of moss and shadow and clumps of more of the marble from which the archway had been made that appeared as splotches of sparkling light. And in front of all of it, like a beacon drawing travelers, was what looked like two trees twisted together to form one. From the branches of the strange joining, strips of brightly colored cloth were tied to it in a strange yet complementary contrast to its ancient, gnarled limbs.
    The longer Stark stared at it, the odder it made him feel.
    “I’ve never seen a tree like