House of Night 09 - Destined

slowly and carefully to stand before Grandma, who was sitting, unharmed, in the center of the elemental tumult. Her face was pale, but her hands were completely steady as she lifted the purple candle.
    Thanatos began the spirit invocation:
    “Come spirit, faithful, eternal and wise
    Sealed with salt we ask the truth to reveal
    Lost years, wasted tears you felt Linda’s cries
    Darkness be gone! Spirit’s strength we shall feel.”
    I was striking the match to light the purple candle when Stevie Rae’s shout disrupted everything.
    “Rephaim! Look out!”
    I glanced up in time to see Dragon Lankford burst out of the shadows. Sword upraised, he was sprinting toward Rephaim.
    “Trust me!” Dragon yelled. “Get down!”
    “No!” Stevie Rae screamed.
    Rephaim didn’t hesitate. Not even for an instant. He dropped to his knees as if he was sacrificing himself to Dragon’s sword. I wanted to puke. I heard Aphrodite shriek something about I told you so! but I couldn’t look at her. I was absolutely sure the Sword Master was going to cut the boy in two. I couldn’t stop staring at the train wreck that was happening to Rephaim.
    Dragon leaped over Rephaim’s kneeling body and with a terrible screeching sound his sword collided with the razor edge of the bull-like creature’s horns. At the last moment he managed to deflect the deathblow from Rephaim, but the creature’s momentum was too much—his body was too powerful. Not even Dragon could stop the impact. Rephaim disappeared, not gored but knocked aside with such force that he was airborne for what seemed like ages, and when he finally landed it was far from our circle and he did not move.
    “Oh, Goddess, no!” Stevie Rae sobbed. “Rephaim!”
    I saw that she was turning, moving to step out of the circle and go to Rephaim.
    “ Do not break the circle! It is what Darkness wants; do that and any sacrifice here is made for nothing!” I couldn’t see Aphrodite, but in her voice echoed a majesty that I knew Stevie Rae recognized because instead of breaking the circle she dropped to her knees, exactly as Rephaim had only moments before. Stevie Rae bowed her head and, in a broken voice said, “Nyx, I trust in your mercy. Please, protect my Rephaim.”
    The bull-thing turned and, tearing the earth with his hooves, he charged Rephaim again.
    Dragon Lankford moved almost as preternaturally fast as the creature. He was there in time, standing between death and Rephaim. Lifting his sword he said, “A Sword Master of Nyx is here. I will protect Rephaim.”
    Dragon clashed with the beast again. It battered him back, but in doing so Dragon was moving him away from Rephaim’s unconscious body. Then, snarling a frightening sound, the creature turned its head so that I could see its bestial face—and I felt like I’d been kicked in the gut. The creature’s eyes glowed with moonstones. I knew the thing was Aurox—fully changed and absolutely, totally, no longer human.
    “Warriors, rally to me!” Dragon shouted as he faced Aurox’s next attack.
    “Zoey, you must summon spirit and light the candle!” Thanatos grabbed my shoulders, turned me to face her and shook me. Hard. “Dragon will battle the beast. We must hold true to the circle and complete the spell or there is no hope for any of them.”
    Any of them? Where was Stark? Where was Darius? I looked wildly around. My gaze passed over and through them before I actually understood what I saw. They were there, both of them, standing in the positions they had taken before we’d begun casting the circle, but they couldn’t help Dragon. They couldn’t even help themselves. Darius and Stark, my Warrior, my Guardian, were frozen zombies. Mouths open in silent screams of agony their eyes stared sightlessly at nothing.
    “Threads of Darkness encase them,” Thanatos said, still gripping my shoulders. “Open the circle so that I may complete the spell. We need the power of Death and all five elements to battle this evil.”
    “Zoeybird, do as she says.” Grandma lifted the purple candle.
    With shaking hands I lit the match and yelled, “Spirit, join our circle!”
    Thanatos raised her arms. Flinging salt around us she spoke the final words of the spell:
    “Death’s dark door I command open to me
    The truth Darkness has hidden we shall see!”
    The scarlet rope expanded and with a deafening roar it funneled up and up, creating a chaos of glowing red that illuminated the bruised storm clouds filling the swollen