Tempted

loosen. “I
can
follow my own path,” I said with more conviction than I’d felt since first realizing I was A-ya reincarnated. Then I frowned. There was no denying that she and I were connected. Call it essence or soul or spirit or whatever—it tied me to an immortal being as surely as the earth had imprisoned him for centuries. “I’m not A-ya,” I repeated more slowly, “but I’m not through with Kalona. What do I do, Grandma?”
    Grandma took my hand in hers and squeezed. “As you said, you follow your path. And right now that path is leading you to a soft, warm bed and a full
day’s
sleep.”
    “One crisis at a time?”
    “One
thing
at a time,” she said.
    “And it’s time you followed your own advice, Sylvia,” Sister Mary Angela said as she bustled into the room with a Dixie cup of water in one hand and pills in another.
    Grandma smiled wearily up at the nun and took the medicine from her. I noticed that her hands were shaking as she placed the pills on her tongue and drank the water.
    “Grandma, I’m going to let you rest now.”
    “I love you,
u-we-tsi-a-ge-ya.
You did well today.”
    “I couldn’t have done it without you. I love you, too, Grandma.” I bent and kissed her forehead, and as she closed her eyes and settled back against her pillows with a contented smile, I followed Sister Mary Angela from the room and fired questions at her as soon as we were in the hall. “Did you find rooms for everyone? Are the red fledglings doing okay? Do you have a clue if Stevie Rae got Erik and Heath and whoever else together to check out the area around the abbey? Is everything safe out there?
    Sister Mary Angela held her hand up to stop my word flood. “Child, take a breath and let me speak.”
    I suppressed a sigh but managed to stay quiet as I followed her down the hallway while she explained that she and the nuns had set up a cozy dormlike area for the red fledglings in the basement, after Stevie Rae had told her they’d be most comfortable down there. My gang was upstairs in the guest dorms, and yes, the kids had given an all clear on the Raven Mockers outside.
    “You know, you really are incredible.” I smiled at her as we paused outside a closed door at the end of a long hall. “Thank you.”
    “I am my Lady’s servant, and you are most welcome,” she said simply and held the door open for me. “This is the stairwell that leads down to the basement. I’ve been told that most of the kids are down there already.”
    “Zoey! There you are. You have to come check this out. You willnot believe what Stevie Rae did,” Damien said as he hurried up the stairs toward us.
    I felt my stomach clench. “What?” I immediately started down to meet him. “What’s wrong?”
    He grinned at me. “Nothing’s wrong. It’s incredible.” Damien took my hand and pulled me with him.
    “Damien’s right about that,” said Sister Mary Angela, coming down the stairs after us. “But I think incredible is the wrong word for it.”
    “Is the right word more like terrible or horrible?” I asked.
    He squeezed my hand. “Stop being such a worrier. You beat Kalona and Neferet tonight; everything’s going to be okay.”
    I squeezed his hand back and made myself smile and look less worried, even though I knew deep in my heart, deep in my soul, that what had happened tonight had not been an ending or even a victory. It had been a terrible, horrible beginning.

    “Wow.” I stared around in shocked disbelief.
    “Wow squared is more like it,” Damien said.
    “Stevie Rae really did this?”
    “That’s what Jack told me,” Damien said. He and I stood side by side and peered into the darkness of the newly hollowed earth.
    “Okay—creepy.” I spoke my thoughts aloud.
    Damien gave me an odd look. “What do you mean?”
    “Well,” I paused, not entirely sure what I did mean, even though the tunnel definitely made me feel uneasy. “Um, it’s, uh . . .
really dark
.”
    Damien laughed. “Of course it’s dark. It’s supposed to be dark. It’s a hole in the ground.”
    “To me it feels more natural than a hole in the ground,” said Sister Mary Angela as she joined us at the mouth of the tunnel, peering with us down its black length. “For some reason it comforts me. Perhaps it’s the way it smells.”
    The three of us sniffed. I smelled, well,
dirt.
But Damien said, “It smells rich and healthy.”
    “Like a newly plowed field,” the nun agreed.
    “See, it’s not creepy, Z. I’d