Sgiach nodded, looking pleased. "So your return comes from a place of power, not one of manipulation, though Neferet will not know that. She will believe that it only took one simple death to make you do her bidding."

"Jack's death isn't a simple thing," I said angrily.

"No, 'tisnae simple for you, but a creature of Darkness kills quickly, easily, and with nae thought beside her own gain," Seoras said.

"And because of that Neferet will not understand that you return to Tulsa because it was your choice to follow the path of Light and Nyx. She will underestimate you because of that," Sgiach said.

"Thank you. I'll remember that." I met Sgiach's clear, strong gaze. "You and Seoras and any of the rest of the Guardians who want to could come with me, you know. With you guys beside me there's no way Neferet could win." Sgiach's response was instantaneous. "If I left my isle the consequences of that would ripple through the High Council. We have coexisted with them peacefully for centuries because I chose to absent myself from the politics and restrictions of vampyre society. Were I to join the modern world they would not be able to continue to pretend I do not exist."

"What if that's a good thing? I mean, it seems to me it's time the High Council was shaken up, and vamp society with it. They believe Neferet and let her get away with killing people--innocent people." My voice was strong and sharp and for a moment I thought I sounded almost like a real queen.

" 'Tis not our battle, lassie," Seoras said.

"Why not? Why isn't fighting against evil your battle, too?" I rounded on Sgiach's Guardian.

"What makes you think we're not fighting evil here?" It was Sgiach who answered me. "You've been touched by the old magick since you've been here. Tell me honestly, before then had you ever felt anything like it out there in your world?"

"No, I hadn't." I shook my head slowly.

"It's fighting to keep the old ways alive we've been doing," Seoras said. "And that cannae been done in Tulsa."

"How can you be so sure?" I asked.

"Because there is no old magick left there!"

Sgiach said, almost shouting in frustration. She turned her back and paced over to the huge picture window that looked out on the sun setting into the gray-blue water that surrounded Skye. Her back was stiff with tension, her voice thick with sadness. "Out there in that world of yours, the mystical, wonderful magick of old, where the black bull was revered along with the Goddess, where the balance of male and female was respected, and where even the rocks and trees had souls, had names, has been destroyed by civilization and intolerance and forgetfulness. People today, vampyres and humans alike, believe the earth is just a dead thing that they live on--that it is somehow wrong or evil or barbaric to listen to the voices of the souls of the world, and so the heart and the nobility of an entire way of life dried up and withered away..."

"And found sanctuary here," Seoras continued when Sgiach's voice faded. He'd moved to her side. Her back was turned to me, but he faced me. Lightly, Seoras touched her shoulder and then let his fingers trail down her arm to take his queen's hand. I could see her body react to his touch. It was like through him she'd found her center. Before she turned to me, I saw her squeeze and then release his hand, and when our eyes met again she was, once more, noble and strong and calm.

"We are the last bastion of the old ways. It has been my charge for centuries to protect the ancient magicks. The land here is still sacred. By revering the black bull, and respecting his counterpart, the white bull, the old balance is maintained and there is one small place left in this world that remembers."

"Remembers?"

"Aye, remembers a time when honor meant more than self, and loyalty wasnae an option or an afterthought," Seoras said solemnly.

"But I see some of that in Tulsa. There's honor and loyalty there, too, and many of my grandma's people, the Cherokee, still respect the land."

"To some extent that might be true, but think of the grove--how you felt within it. Think of how this land speaks to you," Sgiach said. "I know you hear it. I see it in you. Have you felt anything truly like that outside my isle?"

"Yes," I said before actually thinking. "The grove in the Otherworld feels a lot like the grove across the street from the castle." Then I realized what I was saying, and Sgiach all of a sudden made sense.

"That's it, isn't it? You literally have a piece of Nyx's magick here."