Hidden: House of Night: Book 10

eyes.
    He reallyis absolutely, inhumanly gorgeous.
Shaunee shook the thought from her mind and focused instead on what he’d said. “Thank me? What for?”
    “For giving me your cell phone. Without it Stevie Rae would not have been able to call me. Rephaim might be dead were it not for you.”
    Shaunee’s face was warm. She shrugged, not sure why she suddenly felt so nervous. “You’re the one who came when she called. You could’ve just not answered and kept being a shitty dad.” Shaunee realized what she’d said after she blurted it and pressed her lips together, telling herself
stop speaking!
    There was a long, uncomfortable silence, and then Kalona said, “What you say is the truth. I have not been a good father to my sons. I am still not being a good father to all of my sons.”
    Shaunee looked at him, wondering exactly what he meant. His voice sounded weird. She would have expected him to be sad or serious or even pissed. Instead he just seemed surprised and a little awkward, as if the thoughts he was thinking were just now occurring to him. She wished she could see his expression, but his face was turned away from her. He was gazing at Nyx’s statue.
    “Well,” she began, not really having a clue what to say to him. “You’re fixing your relationship with Rephaim. Maybe it’s not too late to fix your relationship with your other sons, too. I know if my dad showed up and wanted to have something to do with me, I’d let him. I’d at least give him a chance.” The immortal’s head turned and he stared at her. Shaunee felt jittery, like those amber eyes could see too much of her. “What I mean is, I don’t think it’s ever too late to do the right thing.”
    “You believe that, honestly?”
    “Yeah. Lately I’ve believed it more and more.” She wished he’d look away from her. “So, how many kids do you have?”
    He shrugged. His massive wings lifted slightly before settling again. “I have lost count.”
    “Seems like knowing how many kids you have is a good place to start in the whole I’d-like-to-be-a-good-dad thing.”
    “Knowing athing and acting on a thing are distinctly different,” he said.
    “Yeah, totally. But I said it’s a good place to
start.
” Shaunee jerked her head toward Nyx’s statue. “That’s also a good place to start.”
    “At the Goddess’s statue?”
    She frowned at him, feeling a little easier under his gaze. “There’s more to it than just hanging out at her statue. Try asking for her—”
    “Forgiveness is not granted to all of us!” his voice thundered.
    Shaunee felt herself begin to tremble, but her eyes shifted to Nyx’s statue. She could almost swear that the full, beautiful, marble lips tilted up, smiling kindly at her. Whether it was her imagination or not, it gave Shaunee the burst of courage she needed and the fledgling continued in a rush, “I wasn’t gonna say forgiveness. I was gonna say help. Try asking for Nyx’s help.”
    “Nyx would not hear me.” Kalona spoke so quietly that Shaunee almost didn’t hear him. “She has not heard me for eons.”
    “During those eons how many times did you ask for her help?”
    “Not once,” he said.
    “Then how do you know she’s not listening to you?”
    Kalona shook his head. “Have you been sent to me to be my conscience?”
    It was Shaunee’s turn to shake her head in denial. “I haven’t been sent to you, and Goddess knows I have enough trouble dealing with my own conscience. I sure as hell can’t be anyone else’s.”
    “I would not be so sure, young fiery fledging … I would not be so sure,” he mused, and then, abruptly, Kalona turned away from her, took several long, swift steps, and launched himself into the night sky.
    Rephaim
    He didn’t mind all that much that most of the other kids still avoided him. Damien was nice, but Damien was nice to just about everyone, so Rephaim wasn’t sure if the boy’s kindness had much of anything to do with him. At least Stark and Darius weren’t trying to kill him or keep him from Stevie Rae. Recently Darius even seemed a little friendly. The Son of Erebus Warrior had actually helped him when he’d stumbled onto the bus the night before, still weak from his magickally healed injury.
    Father savedme and then pledged himself as Death’s Warrior. He does love me, and he is choosing the side of Light against Darkness.
The thought of it made Rephaim smile, even though the former Raven Mocker was not as naïve and trusting as