The Goddess's fingerprint was all over it. It made his soul quiver with a pain that transcended the physical realm. The grove didn't stop him. It didn't forbid him from passing. It simply caused him an agonizing moment of remembrance.

So like Nyx's grove that I will never again see ...

Kalona turned from the verdant proof of Nyx's blessing on someone else and allowed his spirit to be drawn to Sgiach's castle. He would find Zoey there. If she was sleeping, he would follow their connection and enter the mystical Realm of Dreams.

As he passed over its grounds he glanced with approval at the human heads and the obvious battleready state of the ancient place. Sinking down through the thick gray stone that was speckled with the sparkling marble of the isle, Kalona considered how much he'd rather be living there instead of the gilded cage of the Mayo's penthouse in Tulsa.

He needed to complete this task and force Zoey back to the House of Night. Like moves in an intricate game of chess, this was just one more queen that had to be captured so that he could be free.

His spirit sank lower and lower. Using his soul sight, the power through which his immortal blood made visible to him the layers of reality that lifted and shifted, roiled and surged all around the mortal world, he focused on the Realm of Dreams, that fantastical sliver of reality that wasn't completely corporeal, nor was it only spirit, and pulled taut the thread of connection he'd been following, knowing that when the cacophony of colors shifting realities caused cleared, he would be joined to Zoey there.

Kalona was relaxed and confident and therefore utterly unprepared for what happened next. He felt an unfamiliar tug, as if his spirit had become grains of sand being forced through the narrow funnel of an hourglass.

Sight first, his senses began to stabilize. What he saw shocked him so badly he almost lost the thread of the spirit journey altogether and was jolted back to his body. Zoey smiled up at him with an expression filled with warmth and trust.

By the shades of reality surrounding him, Kalona knew immediately he hadn't entered the Realm of Dreams. He stared down at Zoey, hardly daring to breathe.

And the sense of touch returned to him. She was wrapped in his arms, her naked body, pliant and warm, pressed against him. She touched his face, letting her fingers linger over his lips. His hips automatically lifted to her and she made a small sound of pleasure as her eyes fluttered closed and she raised her lips to his.

Just before she kissed him and he settled deeply within her body, Kalona's sense of hearing returned.

"I love you, too, Stark," she said, and began to make love to him. The pleasure was so unexpected--the shock so intense--that the connection was severed. Breath ragged, Kalona pulled himself to his feet and leaned against the rooftop balustrade. Blood pumped hot and fast through his body. He shook his head in disbelief.

"Stark." Kalona spoke the name to the night, reasoning aloud. "The connection I followed wasn't to Zoey at all. The connection was to Stark." He understood, and then felt a fool for not anticipating what had happened. "In the Otherworld I breathed the spirit of my immortal soul within him. Some of that spirit has, obviously, remained." The smile that broke over the immortal's face was as fierce as his raging blood. "And now I have access to Zoey Redbird's Guardian and Oath Sworn Warrior."

Kalona spread his wings, threw back his head, and let his triumphant laughter ring into the night.

"What is so amusing and why are you not awaiting me in my bed?"

Kalona turned to see Neferet standing naked in the doorway to the suite, a look of irritation on her haughty face. But that look quickly changed as she gazed at his fully aroused body.

"I am not amused, I am joyous. And I am here because I wish to take you on the roof with the open sky stretching above us." He strode to Neferet, lifted her, carried her back to the balcony railing, closed his eyes, and imagined dark hair and eyes as he made her cry out in pleasure over and over again.

Stark

The first time it happened so quickly Stark couldn't be sure, totally, absolutely sure, it had happened at all.

But he should have listened to his instincts. His gut told him something had gone wrong, very wrong, even if it was only for a few minutes.

He'd been in bed with Zoey. They'd talked and laughed and basically just been having a good time being alone. The castle was awesome. Sgiach and Seoras and the rest of the Warriors were great, but Stark was really a loner. Here on Skye, no matter how cool it was, someone was always around. Just because the place was withdrawn from the "real" world didn't make it any less busy. There was shit going on constantly--training and castle maintenance, trading with the locals and such. And that's not even taking into account that he'd been that's not even taking into account that he'd been teamed with Seoras, which meant he was more or less the old dude's slave/errand boy/fodder for comedy.