"Would you feel that way if school came to you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Since you've come into my life I've begun to reflect on the world--or rather on how disassociated I've become from it. Yes, I have the internet. Yes, I have satellite TV. But I don't have new followers. I don't have student Warriors and young Guardians. Or at least I didn't until you and Stark arrived. I find that I've missed the energy and input from young minds." Sgiach looked away from me and deeper into the grove. "Your arrival here has awakened something that was sleeping on my island. I feel a change coming in the world, greater than the influence of modern science or technology. I can ignore it and let my island go back to sleep, perhaps to become completely separate from the world and its problems, perhaps even to be lost to the mists of time--like Avalon and the Amazons. Or I can open myself to it, meeting the challenges it might bring."

The queen met my gaze again. "I choose to allow my island to awaken. It is time Skye's House of Night accepted new blood."

"You're going to take down the protective spell?"

Her smile was wry. "No, as long as I live and, hopefully, as long as my successor and, eventually her successors, live, Skye will remain protected and separate from the modern world. But I did think I would put out a Warrior's Call. At one time Skye trained the best and brightest of the Sons of Erebus."

"But then you broke from the Vampyre High Council, right?"

"Correct. Perhaps I could begin, slowly, to mend that break, especially if I had a young High Priestess as one of my trainees."

I felt a stirring of excitement. "Me? You mean me?"

"I do, indeed. You and your Guardian have a connection to this Isle. I'd like to see where that connection takes us."

"Wow, I'm seriously honored. Thank you so much."

My mind was whirring! If Skye became an active House of Night it wouldn't be like I'd be hiding from everyone here. It would be more like I'd transferred to another school. I thought about Damien and the rest of the gang and wondered if they'd think about coming to Skye, too.

"Would there be a place here for fledglings who aren't Warriors in training?" I asked.

"We could discuss that." Sgiach paused, seemed to come to a decision, and added, "You do know, don't you, that this island is rich in magickal tradition that encompasses more than just Warrior training and my Guardians?" "No. I mean, yes. Like it's obvious that you're magick, and you're basically this island."

"I've been here so long that many do see me as the island, but I am more the caretaker of its magick than the possessor of it."

"What do you mean?"

"Find out for yourself, young queen. You have an affinity for each of the elements. Reach out and see what the island has to teach you." When uncertainty had me hesitating, Sgiach coaxed, "Try the first element, air. Simply call it to you and observe."

"Okay. Well, here goes." I stood up and moved a couple of feet from Sgiach, into a mossy area that was kinda clear of rocks. I took three deep, cleansing breaths, settling into the familiar feeling of being centered. Instinctively, I turned my face to the east and called: "Air, please come to me." I was used to the element responding. I was used to it stirring the breeze around me like an eager puppy, but all of my experience with my affinities didn't prepare me for what happened next. Air didn't just respond--it engulfed me. It swirled around me powerfully, feeling strangely tangible, which should have really been crazy because air isn't tangible. It's unseen yet everywhere. And then I gasped because I realized air had become tangible! Wafting around me, in the midst of the blustering wind that had sprung to me at my call, were the forms of beautiful beings. They were bright and ethereal, a little seethrough. As I gawked at them they changed form-- sometimes looking like lovely women, sometimes looking like butterflies, and then they'd change and look more like gorgeous fall leaves drifting in a wind of their own.

"What are they?" I asked in a hushed voice. Of its own accord, I lifted my hand and watched the leaves change to brilliantly colored hummingbirds, which settled on my outstretched palm. "Air sprites. They used to be everywhere, but they've left the modern world. They prefer the ancient groves and the old ways. And this island has both." Sgiach smiled and opened her own hand to a sprite that took on the form of a tiny woman with dragonfly wings and danced, weaving in and out of her fingers.

"It's good to see them come to you. There are rarely so many of them in one place, even here in the grove. Try another element." This time she didn't need to coax me further. I turned to the south and called, "Fire, please come to me!"