Dragon

A Sword Master notices everything. It's part of what makes him successful-what keeps him alive. Though it didn't take his preternatural abilities of observation for Dragon Lankford to know something was going on with Zoey's inner group. It only took following his instincts and asking one simple question.

Shortly after second hour was underway Dragon instructed his students to begin their warm-up exercises, and told them he would return momentarily. Instinct had been niggling at him, driving him, prodding him, worrying him. Darius and Stark were talented Warriors-both more than capable in their specialized areas of weaponry. Darius was probably the most gifted knife thrower Dragon had ever known, and Stark's infal ibility with bow and arrow was, indeed, awe inspiring.

Neither of those abilities meant they should be in charge of training young, impressionable fledglings. Teaching was a gift in itself, and Dragon very much doubted that two such youthful vampyres had the experience and wisdom needed to be true professors.

She had been young when she was made a professor, so very young. That was how he'd met her-his mate-his life-his own. He knew what Anastasia would say were she here. She would smile kindly and remind him that he should not judge others harshly because of their youth-that once he had known how that felt. She would remind him that he was in the perfect position to mentor the youths-to be sure they developed into worthy Warriors and exceptional teachers.

But Anastasia was as dead as the past and because of that his life was utterly changed. Dragon did not want to supervise or mentor or oversee young professors, especially in light of the fact that they had begun this extra class so that he would not have to suffer the presence of the Raven Mocker turned boy. But Dragon was finding that duty was an odd thing. Even though he had stepped away from the path he'd walked with his mate and his Goddess, it seemed he had not become entirely free of the bonds that tied him to honor and responsibility.

So, begrudgingly, Dragon gave in to the instinct that was telling him to check on the young Warriors and made the short trek from the field house to the arena of Lenobia's stables where Stark and Darius had set up their Warrior training.

As soon as he placed foot inside the sawdust arena, Dragon knew he'd been right to be concerned. The two vampyres weren't conducting training-the human stable man was. Lenobia was nowhere to be seen, and the two Warriors were following Aphrodite from the stables. Dragon shook his head in disgust.

"Darius!" he called. The young vampyre paused, gestured for Stark and Aphrodite to go ahead, and then he hurried over to Dragon. "Why is a human leading your class?"

"It cannot be avoided," Darius said. "Stark and I must escort Aphrodite and Zoey."

"Escort them? Where?"

Dragon could see that Darius was not comfortable discussing the subject with him, but he really had very little choice. No matter their differing views on Rephaim and Neferet and some of the new red fledglings, Dragon was still Darius's ranking Warrior, and as thus he owed the Sword Master an answer.

"Thanatos is going to lead Zoey and her circle in a ritual at her grandmother's farm. The spell involved is supposed to reveal the manner of her mother's death."

Dragon felt the shock of it-this was major spell work, and one that entailed some measure of danger, even if the threat was more emotional than physical. I should have been informed. I should have been included.

Dragon kept his thoughts veiled and only asked, "Why now, during school hours, is this ritual taking place?"

"This is the fifth night after her murder."

Dragon nodded, understanding. "One night for each of the elements. Four would be incomplete. Six would be too late. It must be tonight."

"Yes, that is how Thanatos explained it, too." Darius added, obviously uncomfortable, "May I have leave to go, Sword Master? My Prophetess awaits."

"Yes, you may."

Darius bowed and Dragon watched him go. Then, with a grim set to his handsome face, Dragon Lankford changed direction and made his way quickly to the classroom Thanatos had made her own.

He was relieved to see the High Priestess was still there, looking through one of the cupboards in the rear of the room and gathering candles and herbs, which she placed carefully in a large spell work basket that was all too familiar to him. It had been Anastasia's favorite.

The sight of it made him feel raw and exposed. Nevertheless, he cleared his throat and said, "Priestess, may I have a word with you?" Thanatos turned at the sound of his voice. "Certainly, Sword Master."

"Darius tells me you are leading Zoey's circle in a reveal ritual and some major spell work at her grandmother's farm." Though he didn't frame the words in a question, Thanatos nodded. "Yes."

"Priestess, I was under the impression that you are aware that I am Leader of the Sons of Erebus at this House of Night."

"I am aware of your position here, Sword Master," she agreed.

"Then, though I do not mean to admonish you or show you disrespect, I must ask your reasons for not informing me of and including me in an undertaking of such rare importance as well as danger."

Thanatos hesitated, and then she nodded, as if agreeing with him. "You are correct, because of your position at this school I should have informed you of my plans. I did not for a very simple reason: I decided that your presence at the ritual would be a distraction; therefore, I did not include you and did not inform you. I apologize if that seems I did not respect your position. That was not my intention."

"A distraction? Why would I be a distraction?"

"As Stevie Rae's Consort and protector, Rephaim will be attending the ritual." Thoroughly annoyed Dragon retorted, "What does Rephaim have to do with me being a distraction?"

"If you harm the Consort of the Priestess who embodies the earth element, that will definitely distract her from performing her very pivotal part in the reveal ritual, and it will hinder the spell work to follow."

"I would be there to protect our students. Not to harm them." Dragon forced the words through clenched teeth.

"And yet Aphrodite has been given a vision wherein you appear to be harming Rephaim."

"I would not do that unless he was endangering the other students!"

"Be that as it may, your presence would be a distraction. Dragon, two other Warriors will be present, and the power of Zoey's circle will be strong. The students are protected. And, Sword Master, let me add that I have seen a deep, disturbing change in you since the death of your mate."

"I grieve her loss."

"Sword Master, I think the truth is that you are lost. And even were Rephaim not going to be at the ritual, I would not want you present."

"Then I will leave you so as not to be a distraction." Dragon spun on his heels, but before he could exit the room, Thanatos's words snared him.

"Please let me explain. I would not want you present at any ritual wherein a spell was cast to reveal the truth about death with the intent to bring about justice and closure. I do not mean to insult you, but I sense that you are in such conflict in your own life that your presence would simply go against the very heart of the spell."

As if her words had formed a wall before him, Dragon stopped. He did not turn to look at the High Priestess. In a voice he hardly recognized as his own, he spoke. "My presence would go against the very heart of the spell. Is that what you said to me?"

"I spoke the truth to you as I know it."

"Is that all you wish to say to me, Priestess?" He still did not turn to look at her.

"Yes, except that I wish you to blessed be, Sword Master."

Dragon didn't bow to her. He didn't fist his hand over his heart in respect. He could not. If he didn't get away so that he could think Dragon felt as if he would explode. He stumbled out into the hallway and started moving blindly. Ignoring the curious glances from students, he made his way from the main House of Night building and stumbled outside.

Memories bombarded him. Words swirled around and around through his mind. He'd been present when a different Warrior had been kept from attending another Priestess so, so many years ago, but he could hear Anastasia's voice as clearly as if she'd just spoken the words.

I do not mean to insult you, but I cannot cast a peace spell while I'm being guarded by a Warrior. It simply goes against the very heart of the spell ...

The High Priestess at Tower Grove House of Night had agreed with her young professor of Spells and Rituals and commanded that Dragon escort Anastasia in place of a vampyre Warrior. He'd been tasked with protecting her that night-with watching over her while she cast a peace spell in the heart of St. Louis.

And he'd failed Anastasia.

Oh, she'd lived. She'd not been killed that night, but Dragon had allowed evil to escape his sword. That same evil, one hundred and seventy-seven years later, had murdered his love, his life, his own.

Dragon was breathing hard. He was leaning against something that felt cool and soothing to the heat that boiled in his body. Blinking, he looked up and realized where his feet had taken him. Dragon was leaning against the statue of Nyx that stood before her temple. As he gazed at the Goddess's marble face, the whispering wind blew the clouds from the moon and silver light caressed Nyx, ill uminating her eyes.

She seemed, for a heartbeat, alive and looking at him with such a terrible sense of sadness that it made his heart, which he'd thought had been broken into so many pieces that it would never feel again, ache.

It was then that Dragon understood what he must do.

"I am going to the ritual. I'll watch and not interfere-unless evil tries to strike again. If it does, this time I give you my oath I will cut it down." Zoey

"Are you sure we shouldn't ask Shaylin to come?" Stevie Rae asked. She was sitting with Rephaim in their usual place on the bus while we waited for Thanatos to join us.

"I really think it's not right for her to come," I said. "She's only been Marked for just a few days. She hasn't had time to even settle in as a fledgling, let alone figure out her True Sight thing."

"Plus, we're not advertising that she has True Sight," Aphrodite said. "The less people know about our business, the better."

"She was part of Kramisha's poem, though," Stevie Rae said.

"We don't know that for sure. The poem said"-I squinted, like that could help my memory and then, mostly accurately I recited-"the poem said,

'Seen with True Sight, Darkness doesn't equate to evil, and Light doesn't always bring good.' What if the True Sight part is the same as most of Kramisha's poems-meant to be symbolic and not literal?"

"Goddess, I hate poetry," Aphrodite said.

"Kramisha's not comin', either?" Stevie Rae said, sounding weirdly whiny. "Shouldn't we get her?"

"No, Stevie Rae, we need to stick with our circle-our core group," I said.

"The Herd of Nerd, plus the guys and moi," Aphrodite said. "Bumpkin, what's your issue? It's not like we haven't taken on the world before and come out mostly ahead."

"You sound scared," Damien said.

Stevie Rae glanced behind me where Damien was sitting midway back with Erin.

"I am scared," she admitted softly.

"Do not be scared." Rephaim slid his arm around her. "Aphrodite's vision has forewarned us. Nothing will happen to me."

"Uh, I'm not so sure being scared isn't smart." I spoke up, letting my gut help me reason through my thoughts. "I'm gonna see how my mom was killed. That scares me, so I know I'm gonna have to be ready for something terrible and super hard to watch. Aphrodite had a vision of Rephaim's death, probably during the ritual we're getting ready to go do. I think it's okay if Stevie Rae is scared, you should be scared, too, Rephaim-just enough so you'll both be prepared and ready for bad stuff if it happens."

"I'm frightened," Damien admitted. "Jack's death is still too raw, too close, and thinking about seeing another death frightens me."

"We'll all be with you," I told him. "We're all in this together."

"I'm scared. I've never circled without being a Twin," Shaunee blurted.

There was a very uncomfortable silence, and then from the middle of the bus Erin said, "I'm still here. I'm still water to your fire. You won't be alone."

"We all need to be scared safe, not scared stupid," I said, feeling incredibly relieved that the Twins were kinda sorta talking.

"Fear can be beneficial if it is tempered with common sense and courage." We jumped as Thanatos seemed to magickally appear in the front of the bus. She was holding a ginormic spell work basket and wearing a long, hooded cloak that was a beautiful sapphire blue color. She looked powerful and ancient and scary. Then she smiled, and her scary changed to somehow include us and I relaxed just a little bit.

"We're all here," I said after I swallowed down the heart that was in my throat. "We're ready."

"You are almost ready. Before we leave campus I have to task each of the five circle members. Because it is a reveal ritual, and the spell I cast will allow those present to see that which has been hidden, each of you must bring to the altar something that reveals a truth about yourself that is usually hidden."

"Oh, boy." I sighed.

"Take a moment to think about what it is you need to reveal about yourself, and then go collect something to symbolize it. Quickly. We must complete our ritual and set the spell this night, before it passes midnight and a new day begins." Shaunee was the first of us to get up. She looked determined as she hurried off the bus. Damien followed her. Then Stevie Rae. Then Erin. I had a sudden thought, and dug through my purse. In the bottom of it, with the used Kleenexes, topless ChapStick, and purse crud, I found it. Satisfied, I looked up to see Stark, Darius, Rephaim, and Aphrodite all gawking at me.

"Do you need help figuring out this assignment?" Aphrodite said, only semi-sarcastically.

"Zoey already has what she needs with her," Thanatos said.

"Yeah. She's right. I do." I had the very immature urge to stick my tongue out at Aphrodite, which I didn't do (of course). Instead I settled for crossing my arms and looking smug.

We didn't have long to wait for my circle to come back. Stevie Rae was first. She looked unusually frowny. She wasn't carrying anything, but when she sat down I saw her rest her hand over one of her front jeans pockets, as if she was protecting something there.

Damien left with his man purse and came back with it. He gave Thanatos an overly perky smile and said, "Mission accomplished!" Shaunee came back next. She didn't say anything. She just went back to her seat and resumed staring out the window.

Erin finally came back. She was carrying a little thermal sack. The kind high-end grocers (like Petty's at Utica Square) give you to carry home ice cream and frozen stuff. "What?" She snapped at us. "I'm back. We're ready. Let's go." Thanatos quelled Erin's outburst with one hard look, which sent the half of an ex-Twin skulking to the back of the bus. Then she told Darius, "Take us to the lavender farm of Sylvia Redbird." Darius pulled the short bus out of the House of Night campus. I expected Thanatos to sit down (uh, like a normal teacher) and bounce along with the rest of us. Instead she took a firm hold of the handicapped (sigh) rail with one hand, and with the other she reached into her super-loaded spell work basket and pulled out a big bundle of something that looked like a bunch of weeds that had clusters of little white flowers just like I'd seen at the side of the road and in Oklahoma fields and ditches about a thousand times.

"As you all know, we are going to perform a reveal ritual, and I am going to cast a spell invoking death that will, hopefully, ill uminate images from the past, specifically those of Zoey's mother's murder. It is a difficult ritual and a complex spell." Thanatos had been speaking to all of us, but now she turned her attention to Stevie Rae. "As I mentioned before, earth is the key to unlocking this spell. The success of the vision rests on the power of your connection to the earth, as well as the commitment of the circle to bringing alive the images of the events of the past."

"I'm real connected to earth. Promise," Stevie Rae said.

Thanatos's lips tilted up. "That is an excellent beginning."

"I think my circle is real committed to this ritual, too," I said.

I heard my friends around me echoing my words with yeses and uh-huhs.

"What's with the weeds?" Aphrodite asked.

Thanatos shook one plant free of the others and held it up so we could see it. Like I'd thought to begin with, it was just a plain old weed that had a bunch of ordinary, but kinda pretty, white flowers clustered at the end of it, a little like baby's breath.

"This is not a weed. It is a wonderful wild flower called angelica. Its properties are unusually strong and pure. It is a flower of communication.

When used in spell work its nature is to reveal what is hidden to the conscious eye. During tonight's ritual you, my young Red High Priestess, are going to wear a crown woven by your friends of this magickal flower."

"Ooooh! That's super cool!"

Thanatos handed the bundle of wildflowers to Stevie Rae. "Pass these out. The rest of you braid the plants you get together into a circle. Stevie Rae will stack the circles on her head before the ritual."

"Braid?" Stark muttered.

Stevie Rae dropped a bunch of flowers in our laps. I raised my brows at Stark. "Yep," I said. "Braid. Death orders it."

"Well, in that case..." He sighed and started to awkwardly braid the long stems together.

While we all braided (even Rephaim, who actually seemed to have some kind of weird gift with knotwork and ended up doing a cool intricate braid and helping Stark with the mess he was working on) Thanatos walked up and down the aisle of the bus and talked to us. It was weirdly like being in a mobile classroom.

"From the moment our feet touch the earth of our ritual site, we must concentrate on the intent of our spell. Try to wipe the rest of the world from your minds. Concentrate only on one small thing-that we be allowed to see the truth of Linda Heffer's death."

"Murder," I heard myself saying. "She didn't just die. She was killed." Thanatos turned and her gaze met mine. She nodded. "I stand corrected.

We are seeking truth, and so we must speak the truth. Your mother did not die of old age or disease. She was murdered. We are asking to be allowed to witness it."

"Thanks," I said, and then went back to braiding.

"It is fortuitous that the murder took place on a lavender farm. Lavender is a powerful magick herb. It has cleansing properties, but at its purest lavender is the embodiment of tranquility. It calms and soothes. It evokes peace and tranquility."

"Why is that good? Z's mom was killed in the middle of what amounts to a giant mound of lavender. Looks like its calming stuff didn't work too well," Aphrodite said.

"An herb cannot force the actions of someone who is committed to their destructive path. Lavender could not have saved Zoey's mother. But the fact that she was killed surrounded by land that nurtures lavender means that the earth itself is uneasy with the violence committed on a space intended for peace."

"And that's good for us because..." I asked, feeling more than a little dense.

"Because the land will want to be rid of the violence inflicted upon it. It should give the images over eagerly, if not easily."

"Why not easily?" Damien said.

"Rituals and spells that deal with great emotion are never easy," Thanatos said. "Death spells are particularly tricky. Death rarely cooperates, even when we just want to glimpse it versus embrace it fully."

"So when my momma used to say nothin' good ever comes easy, she was tell in' the truth," Stevie Rae said.

"She was," Thanatos said. "So, let us continue to prepare. The spell will have three parts. The first will take place between here and the physical site of our ritual. It is known as the Releasing. In order for us to be successful tonight we must all be of one accord with our intent. Clear your minds.

Concentrate."

"On death?" Stevie Rae asked.

"No, on truth. Concentrate on our shared desire to seek and find the truth tonight."

"True Sight."

I didn't realize I'd spoken the words out loud until Thanatos nodded and said, "Yes, indeed. True Sight is an excellent way to put it. Tonight we wish to see with true sight."

Thanatos moved to the back of the bus to check on Erin's angelica braiding. I felt eyes on me and looked up from my own wildflower wreath to see Aphrodite and Stevie Rae staring at me.

"Tonight, 'seen with True Sight,'" Aphrodite quoted quietly. "'Darkness does not always equate to evil. Light does not always bring good.'"

"I told you we should have brought Kramisha," Stevie Rae whispered.

"I think we should have brought a damn tank," Stark said.

"Clear your minds! " I practically hissed the whisper, giving all of them a hard look. Then I went back to braiding.

I tried to clear my mind.

I tried to think about truth.

But I was too young-too scared-too worried. So the truth I found myself concentrating on was simple, but definitely not what Thanatos meant: The truth is I need my mom and I'd give just about anything to have her alive and on my side again.