"I didn't do that as payment. I did that because I couldn't stand to see you hurtin'," said Stevie Rae.

Slowly, as if it were difficult for him, Kalona lifted his hand and rested it on his son's shoulder. "You know she can never love you as a woman loves a man? You will forever desire something she cannot, will not, give you."

"Father, what she gives me is more than I have ever known before."

Stevie Rae saw pain twist Kalona's face, if only for an instant. "I have given you love as my son, my favorite son," he said so softly she had to strain to hear him.

Rephaim hesitated and when he answered his father, Stevie Rae could hear the raw honesty in his voice, and the heartache the admission cost him. "Perhaps in another world, another life, that might have been true. In this one you gave me power and discipline and anger, but you did not give me love. Never love."

Kalona's eyes flashed, but Stevie Rae thought she saw more pain than anger within their amber depths. "Then in this world, in this life, I shall give you one more thing: choice. Choose, Rephaim. Choose between the father you have served and followed faithfully for eons and the power that service has afforded you, and the love of this vampyre High Priestess, who will never be completely yours because she will always, always be horrified by the monster within you."

Rephaim's eyes found hers. She saw the question in them and answered it before he could ask it aloud.

"I don't see a monster when I look at you--not outside, not inside. So I'm not horrified by you. I love you, Rephaim."

Rephaim closed his eyes for a moment, and she felt a quiver of unease. He was good--Stevie Rae believed that, but to choose her over his father would change the course of his life forever. He was part immortal, and forever could be a literal thing for him. Maybe he couldn't--maybe he wouldn't-- maybe he--

"Father--" Stevie Rae opened her eyes the second she heard Rephaim's voice. He was speaking to Kalona, but he was still looking at her. "I choose Stevie Rae, and the path of the Goddess."

Her gaze darted to Kalona in time to see the grimace of pain pass over his face. "Then so be it. From this day forth you are no longer my son." He paused and Rephaim turned his gaze from her to the winged immortal. "I would offer you Nyx's blessing, but she no longer hears me. So instead I offer you a piece of advice: if you love her with everything within you, when you realize she does not love you in the same way--and she will not, cannot--it will kill everything within you." Kalona unfurled his great wings, lifted both arms, and proclaimed, "Rephaim is free of me! So I have spoken. So let it be!"

Afterward, Stevie Rae would think about that moment and the way the air quivered around Rephaim with his immortal father's release. Then all she could do was to stare wide-eyed at Rephaim as the red tint that had been present in his eyes for as long as she had been looking into them faded, leaving only the wide, dark eyes of a human boy staring at her from the head of an enormous raven.

Wings still extended, body still magnified by power and, Stevie Rae liked to believe, by the grief he had to feel somewhere inside him at the loss of his son, Kalona moved his amber gaze to Neferet.

He didn't say one word. He only laughed and then launched himself into the night sky, leaving a trail of mocking laughter behind him and one other thing. From the air a single white feather dropped to the ground at Stevie Rae's feet. It shocked her so much that the barrier she'd erected around Rephaim dissipated, but she was staring at the feather so intently that Stevie Rae didn't even realize her concentration had utterly shattered. She was bending to pick up the feather when Neferet commanded Dragon.

"Now that the immortal has fled, kill his son. I am not fooled by this charade."

Stevie Rae felt the terribly familiar sting of Darkness breaking her connection to the earth, weakening her. She was unable to even cry out as she watched Dragon descend on Rephaim.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Rephaim

Rephaim hadn't even had time to take in what had happened when Neferet ordered his death. He was watching Stevie Rae in wonder as she stared down at something white in the grass. Then chaos ensued.

The green glow that had been surrounding him faded. Stevie Rae turned ghostly pale and swayed dizzily. The Raven Mocker was so focused on Stevie Rae that he didn't even know Dragon was attacking, and then her friend Zoey was suddenly there before him, placing herself between him and the avenging Sons of Erebus. "No. We don't attack people who choose the path of the Goddess." She spoke in an amplified voice, and the Warriors halted uncertainly in front of her. Rephaim noted that Stark had moved to stand on one side of her, and Darius on the other. Both Warriors had their swords raised, but their expressions spoke volumes; it was obvious neither of them wanted to strike their brothers.