Tempted

to leave because I no longer believed I served my Goddess well. At first it felt as if I had made a terrible mistake, and then I rose from the earth to find a new realm and a new mistress. Lately I have begun to believe I could, indeed, serve my Goddess again, only this time through her representative on earth.”
    Duantia’s gracefully arched brows rose as she followed his gaze, which rested on me. Her eyes widened only slightly. “Zoey Redbird. The Council recognizes you.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

Zoey

    Feeling hot and cold at the same time, I dragged my gaze from Kalona and stood to face the Council. “Thank you. Merry meet,” I said.
    “Merry meet,” Duantia responded and then continued smoothly. “Our sister, Lenobia, notified us that in Neferet’s absence from your House of Night, you have been named High Priestess; therefore, you represent their will.”
    “It is entirely inappropriate for a fledgling to be named High Priestess,” Neferet said. I knew she was totally pissed, but instead of showing it, she smiled indulgently at me, as if I were a toddler who’d been caught playing dress up with her mom’s clothes. “I am still High Priestess of Tulsa’s House of Night.”
    “Not if your House’s Council has deposed you,” said Duantia.
    “The appearance of Erebus and the death of Shekinah has shaken Tulsa’s House of Night greatly, especially following so soon after the terrible and tragic murders of two of our professors by local humans. It saddens me, but the Council members of my House are not thinking clearly.”
    “That the Tulsa House is in turmoil is undeniable. Nevertheless, we recognize their right to make the appointment of a new High Priestess, though it is highly unusual for a fledgling to be named to the position,” Duantia said.
    “She is a highly unusual fledgling,” Kalona said.
    I heard the smile in his voice.
    I couldn’t look at him.
    Another Council member spoke up. Her dark eyes flashed and her voice was sharp, almost sarcastic. I thought she must be Thanatos, the vampyre who’d taken on the Greek name for death. “Interesting you speak in support of her, Erebus, as Lenobia says Zoey believes another version of who it is you are.”
    “I said she was unusual, not infallible,” Kalona said. Several of the other Council members chuckled, as did many vampyres in the audience, though Thanatos appeared unamused. I could feel Stark stiffen where he sat beside me.
    “So tell us, unusual and very young Zoey Redbird, who do you believe our winged immortal to be?”
    My mouth was so dry I had to swallow twice before I could speak. And then when the words finally came, what I said took me by surprise, as if my heart said them without asking my mind’s permission.
    “I believe he’s been lots of different things. I think he used to be close to Nyx, though he isn’t Erebus.”
    “And if he isn’t Erebus, who is he?”
    I focused on the wisdom in Duantia’s eyes and tried to block out everything else as I spoke only the truth. “My grandmother’s people are Cherokee, and they have an old legend about him. They called him Kalona. He lived with the Cherokee after he fell from Nyx’s Realm. I don’t think he was himself then. He did terrible things to the women of the tribe. He fathered monsters. My grandmother told me how he was trapped. There was even a song the people used to sing that told how he could be freed from his imprisonment—directions Neferet followed, which is why he’s here now. I think he’s with Neferet because he wanted to be the consort of a goddess, and I think he messed up in his choice. Neferet isn’t a goddess. She isn’t even a goddess’s High Priestess anymore.”
    My proclamation was met with exclamations of outrage and disbelief, the loudest coming from Neferet herself.
    “How dare you! As if you—a fledgling
child
—can know who I am to Nyx?”
    “No, Neferet,” I faced her across the Council Chamber. “I don’t have any idea who you are to Nyx anymore. I don’t begin to understandwhat you’ve become. But I do know who you
aren’t.
You aren’t Nyx’s High Priestess.”
    “Because you think you’ve supplanted me!”
    “No, because you turned from the Goddess. It doesn’t have anything to do with me,” I said.
    Neferet ignored me and appealed to the Council. “She’s infatuated with Erebus. Why must I be subjected to this jealous child’s slander?”
    “Neferet, you have made it clear that it is your intention to