Tempted

to fight.”
    He looked away from me, but not before I saw shame in his eyes. “Yes. I know.”
    “I’ve chosen a different path. I can’t love evil. And
that
is the truth,” I said.
    His eyes came instantly back to me. “And if I choose to reject evil? What then?”
    His questions threw me totally off guard, so I blurted the first thing that came to my mind. “You can’t reject evil, not while you’re with Neferet.”
    “What if I’m only evil with Neferet? What if the truth is that if I were with you, I could choose good?”
    “Impossible.” I was shaking my head back and forth, back and forth.
    “Why do you call it impossible? It has happened before. You know because you caused the choice for good. The warrior who is bound to you is proof of it.”
    “No. This version of you isn’t real. You’re not Stark. You’re a fallen immortal, Neferet’s lover. You’ve raped women—made people your slaves—killed people. Your sons almost killed my grandma. One of them did kill Professor Anastasia!” I grabbed on to all the negatives I could and hurled them at him. “The fledglings and professors at the House of Night started to question Nyx because of you. They’re still acting wrong. Whether it’s their choice or not, they’re filled with fear and hate and jealousy, just like you were with Nyx!”
    He acted like I wasn’t standing there shrieking at him. He simply said, “You saved Stark. Can’t you save me, too?”
    “No!” I screamed.
    And sat straight up in bed.
    “Zo, it’s okay. I got ya.” Heath was there, wiping sleep from his eyes with one hand and rubbing my back with the other.
    “Oh, Goddess,” I said, blowing out a long, trembling breath.
    “What’s wrong? Bad dream?”
    “Yeah, yeah. Weird, bad dream.” I glanced at the bed across the room. Stevie Rae hadn’t moved. Nala was curled by her shoulder. My cat sneezed at me. “Traitor,” I told her, trying to force myself to sound normal again.
    “Well, then, go back to sleep. This switching up days and nights is finally working for me and I want to stay in practice,” Heath said, holding his arms open for me to slide back into.
    “Okay, yeah, sorry.” I lay back, curling into a ball that was frighteningly similar to a fetal position.
    “Go back to sleep,” Heath repeated around a huge yawn. “Everything’s okay.”
    I lay awake for a long time wishing desperately that it was true.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Zoey

    When we woke up near dusk I couldn’t bear to think about Kalona and the dream, so I pounced on Heath. “Okay, time to call your mom and dad so they can tell you to come home.”
    “Are you okay, Z?” Stevie Rae asked while she towel-dried her hair. She and I had stuffed things in my book bag while Heath showered, then we’d taken turns getting ready. Her question made me realize that in all that time I hadn’t done much more than mumble monosyllabic responses to anything she or Heath said.
    “Yep. I’m okay. I’m just going to miss Heath, that’s all,” I lied. Okay, well, it wasn’t actually a lie, because I would miss Heath while we were in Italy, but that’s not why I hadn’t felt like talking.
    Kalona was why I hadn’t felt like talking. I was afraid that if I said too much last night’s dream would start to babble from my mouth and I’d tell Stevie Rae everything, and I didn’t want to do that in front of Heath. No, there was more to it than that. I didn’t want to tell anyone about the new version of Kalona I’d seen.
    I didn’t want to hear them tell me it was all smoke and mirrors.
    Heath’s hug made me jump. “Aw, that’s sweet, Zo,” he said, oblivious to the terrible deception going on inside my head. “But you’re not going to have to miss me. I have a good feeling about this phone call.”
    I shook my head at him. “No way is your mommy going to let you take off to Italy with me.”
    “Not with
you,
maybe. But with your school—that’s another thing.”
    Before I could say anything he punched his phone, and his end of the conversation began:
    “Hey, Ma, it’s me.”
    “Yep, I’m okay.”
    “Yep, I’m still with Zoey.” Here he paused and then looked at me and said, “Mom says to say hi.”
    “Tell her ‘hi’ for me.” Then I whispered: “
Get to it!
”
    He nodded. “Hey Ma, speaking of Zo, she and some of the House of Night kids are going to Italy. Venice actually, well more like that island that’s by Venice. You know, San Cle-something. Where the