House of Night 09 - Destined

Mississippi River and a warm brush of humid, summer breezes where sunflowers nodded their heavy heads as if in approval.
    “No!” he shouted, dispelling the memory. “That’s all gone. You’re gone. I have nothing left. I didn’t make this choice, your Goddess did when she let you be taken from me because all those years ago I was merciful.” He shook his head. “I will not make that same mistake again.”
    Ignoring the emptiness inside him, Dragon Lankford drove on.
    Zoey
    As we got closer and closer to Grandma’s house I got more and more nervous. My stomach was killing me. I had a headache. My angelica wreath was crap. Stark had to help me finish it. Seriously. Stark. And that boy is not what you’d call skilled at braiding.
    My mom is the truth. That’s all I know.
    “Remember,” Thanatos said as we turned down Grandma’s familiar lane. “Intent is important. We are here to reveal the truth so that we might bring about justice for a life cut short. Nothing more. Nothing less.” She looked at me. “You can do this. You do not lack courage.”
    “Are you sure?”
    She smiled just a little. “Your soul was shattered. That should have been a death sentence, yet you lived and you returned to yourself, bringing your Warrior with you. That has never before been done. You do not lack courage,” she repeated.
    Stark squeezed my hand. I nodded my head like I was agreeing with her, but inside I was shrieking a different truth: If I’d been really courageous I would have been able to save Heath and my soul wouldn’t have ever shattered and Stark wouldn’t have needed rescuing!
    Thankfully, before any of that could slip out of my mouth and mess up everything Thanatos was trying to help us do, Darius stopped the bus and opened the door.
    We all just sat there. Finally, Thanatos said, “Zoey, you must touch the earth first. It is your mother who was killed here.”
    I got up and, still clutching Stark’s hand, climbed down the bus stairs.
    We’d parked in front of Grandma’s house. The bus looked weirdly out of place in the little gravel parking lot beside Grandma’s Jeep.
    I guess because I knew Grandma wasn’t staying in her house during the seven-day cleansing ritual, I’d expected it to be dark and strange looking, but it was the opposite. Every room was lit. The place was so bright that I had to squint to look at it straight on. The windows twinkled like the glass had been newly polished. The big front porch was alight, too, showing comfy rocking chairs and little lemonade-ready tables.
    And then Grandma was there, pulling me into her arms and filling my world with the scent of my childhood.
    “Oh, u-we-tsi-a-ge-ya, it does my heart great joy to see you!” she said after she and I finally were able to let loose of each other.
    She was wearing her favorite buckskin dress. I knew it was so old that she and her mom had worked together on the purple and green beadwork that decorated the bodice. She’d often told me the story of how when she was a girl, she’d traded one of the Wise Women of her tribe a belt she’d spent all one winter beading for the shells and glass beads that she’d threaded into the fringe on the sleeves and hem. I remembered when the dress was so pure white that I thought it looked like the clouds, but now it had yellowed. That should have made it old and shabby, but it didn’t. To my eyes it made it look well loved and valuable beyond any price tag in a store or an auction war on eBay.
    I also couldn’t help but notice Grandma had lost weight and there were dark shadows under her expressive eyes.
    “How are you doing, Grandma?”
    “Better now, my daughter. And after tonight’s ritual, I believe I will be even better yet.” Grandma fisted her hand over her heart and respectfully bowed to Thanatos. “Blessed be, High Priestess.”
    “Blessed be, Sylvia Redbird. It is a pleasure to meet you face-to-face. I only wish it could be under different circumstances.”
    “As do I. I would love to sit and chat with Death,” Grandma said, with a hint of the old sparkle in her eyes.
    “You honor me,” Thanatos said. “Though I do not claim to be Death. I only have an affinity for her.”
    “Her?” Grandma asked.
    “It is a mother who brings each of us into this world. Does it not stand to reason it would be a mother who calls us to pass from this world as well?”
    “Huh. I’d never thought of it like that,” Shaunee said.
    “It makes it seem kinda nice,”