"Hey, be careful, 'kay? I couldn't stand it if anything happened to you," I said.

"Don't worry. I'll be careful." "Good. So, sunset is in just a little over two hours.

As soon as Stark's up we'll get our stuff together and be on the first plane home," I heard myself say, even though it made my stomach feel sick.

"Oh, Z! I'm so glad! Besides needin' you back here, I've missed you so much."

I smiled into the phone. "I've missed you, too. And it'll be good to be home," I lied.

"So text me when you know what time y'all will get in. If I'm not in my coffin I'll be there to meet ya."

"Stevie Rae, you do not sleep in a coffin," I said.

"I might as well 'cause I'm seriously dead to the world when the sun's up."

"Yeah, Stark, too."

"Hey, how is your boy? Feelin' better?"

"He's good." I paused and added, "Real good, actually."

True to form, Stevie Rae's BFF radar heard between the lines. "Oh, nuh uh. Y'all did not?"

"What if I said we did?" I could feel my cheeks getting warm.

"Then I'd say a big ol' Oklahoma yee haw!"

"Well yee haw away then."

"Details. I want some serious details," she said, and then gave a giant yawn.

"You'll get details," I said. "Almost dawn there?"

"A little past, actually. I'm fadin' fast, Z."

"No problem. Get some sleep. I'll see ya soon, Stevie Rae." "Later, 'gator," she said around another yawn.

I ended the call and went over to stare at Stark where he slept like a dead guy in our canopied bed. That I was totally in love with Stark wasn't in question, but just then I would really, really have liked it if I could shake his shoulder and have him wake up like a normal guy. But I knew it would be useless to even try to get him up early. Today the sun was unusually shiny on Skye--I mean, super bright with not one speck of clouds. No way Stark would be able to communicate decently with me for--I glanced at the clock--two and a half more hours.

Well, at least that gave me time to pack and also to find the queen and break the news to her--that I was gonna leave this place that felt so right, so much like a home to me, this place that Sgiach had decided to bring back into the real world again, at least kinda sorta, because of what I'd brought back into her life.

And now I was going to take off and leave it all behind because ... My brain caught up with the babbling chaos of my thoughts and everything clicked into place.

"Because this isn't my home," I whispered. "Home is Tulsa. It's where I belong." I smiled sadly at my sleeping Guardian. "It's where we belong." I felt the rightness of it even as I understood all that was waiting for me there--and all that I was losing leaving here. "It's time I went home," I said firmly.

***

"Say something. Anything. Please." I'd just blurted my guts out to Sgiach and Seoras. Naturally, telling the story of Jack's horrible death had made me bawl and snot. Again. And then I'd babbled about having to go home and be a proper High Priestess even though I wasn't one hundred percent sure what that really meant, while both of them watched me silently with expressions that looked wise and unreadable at the same time.

"The death of a friend is always difficult to bear. It is doubly difficult if it comes too soon--too young," Sgiach said. "I am sorry for your loss." "Thank you," I said. "It doesn't seem real yet."

"Aye, well, it will, lass," Seoras said gently. "You should be rememberin', though, that a queen puts aside grieving fur duty. You cannae have a clear head if 'tis filled with grief."

"I don't think I'm old enough for all of this," I said.

"No one is, child," Sgiach said. "I would have you consider something before you take your leave of us. When you asked if you could remain here on Skye I said that you should stay here until your conscience bade you leave. Is it your conscience talking to you now, telling you the time is right for you to leave, or is it the machination of others that is--"

"Okay, stop," I said. "Neferet probably believes she's manipulating me into coming back, but the truth is that I have to go back to Tulsa because it's my home." I met Sgiach's eyes as I continued speaking, hoping that she would understand. "I love it here. On lots of levels it feels right to be here-- so right that it'd be easy for me to stay. But, like you've said, the path of the Goddess isn't easy--doing right isn't easy. If I stayed here and ignored my home I wouldn't just be ignoring my conscience, I'd be turning my back on it."