The last time this had happened to me - during that dirty deed with Kalona that I was never, ever going to talk about or think about again - it hadn't taken long to get from, well, the earth to Nyx's kingdom. I didn't know if it took the same amount of time to get to Nyx's kingdom as it did to get from Nyx's kingdom, but if it did, I was in trouble.

The darkness lasted for a terribly long time. I started to think that maybe I was back in the earth, wrapped in Kalona's arms.

Wait. Why did I think about that? a voice in the back of my mind whispered. I'm not in love with him. It was A-ya. That's…weird.

But the thought was in and out of my head within seconds. I was mostly thinking about why I was still in the darkness. I thought I could be dead. At least, that sounded like what Nyx might have been talking about when she made me leave so abruptly. What had she said?

Zoey, you must get back to your body quickly. You soon won't be able to anymore.

The words of the thought rippled around me like they had the first time I had talked with Nyx. With a start, I realized that the last time this had happened I was dying, and the only thing that had saved me was my grandma taking me to the House of Night. Did that mean that I was, indeed, dying?

I was worried. I had a feeling that if I didn't get back to my body soon, something bad would happen. I looked all around in the darkness, trying to see if I there was anything out in it. I don't know how long I did this, just that I tried for a very long time to see something. I then thought to try and call the elements to me to maybe help me find my body. Nyx had once told me that the elements can restore as well as destroy.

I didn't know what direction was what, so I just closed my eyes and said, "Air, come to me." I expected to feel the familiar breeze that came with wind, but it never came. Desperate, I yelled, "It gives us our first breath and takes away our last. In the name of my goddess, Nyx, I summon air to this circle!" When I still felt no rush of air come my way, I started to freak on the inside.

I called each of my friends' names, hoping that they would get a rush of their element and know that I needed their help. I sat for a long time before realizing that they had never gotten my call. I started to sob.

Nyx told me that she would take care of everything for me. I thought. She said that she would leave my body in a place that my friends would find, and that she would send out a call to them right before she left my body. They should be there!

A thought crossed my mind. What if I needed to call Stark? After all, he had been the one to bring me back from the Otherworld when my soul had shattered. Maybe I needed the help of my warrior to get back to my body.

It seemed like I called his name for hours with no response. In reality, I'd called his name maybe ten, eleven times. I resolved to thinking really hard about him, like A-ya had done to call Kalona. I thought about everything we had been through. I started with our first kiss, then him dying, then him swearing his warrior's oath to me, etc.

"Z-z-o-o-e-e-y-y…" I heard my name, but I couldn't tell where it was coming from. It sounded like it was coming from everywhere, echoing as it bounced around.

"Stark!" I yelled, hoping he had heard me.

"Zz-oo-ee-yy!" The echoing was going away a little bit, and this time I knew that it was Stark that had called my name.

"Oh, Stark! Help me!" I looked all around, trying to figure out where he was.

Suddenly, I saw a little dot of light in the distance. Whatever it was, it had to be better than pure darkness, so I ran towards it. I got about two steps toward it when I was snapped back into my body. I couldn't move, but I could hear what was going on around me.

"Zoey, come back to me!" Stark was yelling.

"Z! Please, we need you." That was a girl, but I couldn't really tell who it was.

I could hear some sobbing. I was trying desperately to make myself do something but it felt like my entire body was made of lead.

"Zoey…" This time Stark's voice was much closer and softer. "I need you here, baby. Not just because I need my High Priestess. Not just because I'm gonna feel like so much shit if you die and I couldn't protect you. Because I can't live without you. I. Love. You. Don't give up."

I couldn't just sit here and let them be in so much misery. I tried to move as hard as I could.

"Did you see that?" That had to have been Damien.

"No-" Shaunee said.

"What?" Erin completed. Even though I knew there were important things at hand - like, oh, I don't know, getting my body to work! - I was glad to hear Shaunee and Erin completing each other's sentences again.

"Her finger." Stark pointed out. His voice wasn't as soft as it was when he was talking to me. In fact, his voice sounded very business-like. "It twitched."

Okay, well, that was a start. I tried harder. I thought I felt something, but I wasn't sure.

"She's breathing!" Stevie Rae exclaimed. I could tell from her voice that she was crying.

I could feel myself breathing! I tried to open my eyes. I could feel them flicker while my friends were pointing out things about me. Finally, they opened and stayed open.

"Oh, Zoey!" Stark yelled. He picked up my head, very gently, and put it in his lap. He turned to Stevie Rae. "Go get her some blood."

I could just barely see Stevie Rae in my line of vision. The edges of my vision were still a little blurry, so I had to rely on voices. "Uh, fresh blood would do her much better than refrigerated blood."

"No!" I tried to scream, but no sound came out.

"I don't think she wants that." Shaunee said.

"Uh, yeah. Don't think Z needs anymore imprinting issues." Erin agreed.

I could feel Stark running his fingers through my hair. "Stevie Rae, like I said, go get her some blood. Damien, go get Darius. He'll know what to do."

I heard footsteps pretty much running away.

"St-ark." I tried to say his name, but it came out broken up.

"Shh, sweetheart. You need to rest. Don't try to talk." he advised. I did as he said, closing my eyes again and drifting. I was partly afraid that I would go back to that endless darkness, but at the moment I didn't care. I just wanted to go to sleep.

It seemed like I'd had my eyes closed for seconds when I felt something pushed against my lips. I opened my eyes to find Stark holding a cup up to me. "Drink. You'll feel better after."

I opened my mouth and let the sweet, delicious blood run down my throat. I didn't think blood had ever tasted that good before. Okay, so, I know it's gross that I liked the blood that much, but it tasted different to me after I had been marked. When I was a human, it tasted like metal. Now, it tasted like honey and chocolate mixed together, along with everything good in the world.

When it was gone, I wanted more of it. Stark ordered Stevie Rae to hand him another blood bag. After I'd downed that one, I was able to sit up on my own.

"Oh, that was not fun." I croaked, holding my hand to my throbbing head. Stark tried to get me to lay back down, but I put a hand up to tell him I was good. "Before we do anything else, I need to know what happened."

"Well, we all felt our elements calling us to you." Erin said.

"Yeah, so we knew something was up." Shaunee continued.

I looked to Damien. "I felt it, too. At first, I thought it meant to send air to help you, but when I just kept getting hit by breezes I knew something was up. I followed the wind, and it led me right here to you. Stevie Rae showed up next and I sent her to go get Stark. Then Shaunee and Erin came. We've been waiting here since. We were afraid to pick you up."

"How long ago was that?" I asked.

Stevie Rae piped, "About twenty minutes ago."

I sighed. Damn, I had been gone for a while. Sadly, it felt like I had been gone longer. "I need to get to my room."

"Priestess, it would be best to let me check to see if you are hurt before you go to bed." Darius said. I hadn't noticed that he and Aphrodite had walked up behind Damien and the Twins.

I gave him a small smile. "I'm really sure I'm not hurt. Just super tired."

"Are you sure, Zoey? I mean, you were dead! What could have done that to you?" Shaunee was looking at me as if she expected me to burst into flames.

Damien, Erin, and Stevie Rae all piped in agreements. Darius simply nodded his head once, and Aphrodite was looking at me with narrowed eyes. Ah, hell.

I looked at Stark, and he was talking before I could even tell him to explain. "I didn't get a chance to tell anyone. I didn't know how long it would take, and by the time I figured it had been enough time, I couldn't find anyone. Well, anyone except Aphrodite, who already knew something was up."

"Uh, hello! Prophetess here." Aphrodite pointed at herself.

I rolled my eyes. "Okay, look. This is going to sound…super bad."

Aphrodite interrupted me with, "Zoey had sex with Kalona!"

I groaned before anyone could get their gasps out. Stark's grip on the top of my arm squeezed for just a second, letting me know that he was there for me. "Okay, yes. I did. But it wasn't what you think."

"Obviously not since Stark here is…chill." Shaunee stated.

"What happened, Z?" Stevie Rae asked. I noticed she was paying special attention to me. What could she possibly be thinking right now? I thought about what I would think if I found out she had had sex with Kalona, and realized that she was probably really scared and confused.

I took a deep breath. "Nyx came up with a plan to get rid of Kalona. I had to help with this plan in a very weird way that I never, ever want to talk about. All you need to know is that he's gone." I didn't just say this to save myself from going into specifics about that…dirty deed. No, I wanted to spare Stark the details, too. I mean, I would've been pissed and hurt if Stark had had to sleep with Neferet. It would be even worse if I heard every single thing they did.

"But Z!"

"You can't just tell us something like that and…"

"How did this happen?"

They all were shrieking things at the same time. After listening to their ramblings for a minute or two, Stark shushed them. I decided that I would give them details about what happened, but not about the sex.

"Look, basically, Nyx told me that she needed me to be connected to Kalona so that she could take over my body and speak to Kalona. He turned his back on her and wouldn't listen to anything she would say to him. She saw how he acted with Rephaim and she wanted to give him a chance to ask her forgiveness. I did what she asked, he asked her forgiveness, and now Kalona is back in Nyx's kingdom and I woke up here. 'Kay?" I explained as fast as I could.

No one said anything for a long time. I saw different emotions playing on everyone's faces. It was difficult when I saw hurt on them. I knew that I had - once again - lied to them, and that it must hurt them to know I was keeping something so important from them.

Finally, Stevie Rae said, "So Rephaim's daddy is on Nyx's good terms now?"

I nodded at her, not trusting myself to keep from begging them to forgive me for lying to them.

She nodded. "Well, guys, it's almost dawn. We need to get to bed, and let Zoey rest. She can explain the rest to us tomorrow."

Everyone nodded their agreements and said goodnight to me. I could hear in their voices that they were still confused, but they didn't want to push it tonight. Stark lifted me into his arms carefully. We headed for our room with Darius and Aphrodite walking closely beside us.

"Zoey, no matter what, I have to know what happened tonight." Aphrodite finally said into the awkward silence.

I looked at her, trying to guess where she was coming from. "Aphrodite, this isn't some juicy gossip you can go around telling everyone."

She actually stopped walking for a moment. Darius stopped a step after her, waiting, but Stark just kept going. I felt bad about what I'd just said. It obviously hurt her. After another moment or two, she jogged to get in front of Stark and stop him in his tracks. "Look, I'm not stupid. I know that this isn't something we can just go around telling everyone. I'm just trying to save your ass."

With that, she took Darius by the arm and marched him the other direction, toward their room.

"Huh. I wonder what's up her butt." Stark said.

Although I felt like crap, that did make me smile a little. "Just get me back to our room, warrior, before I pass out in your arms."

"I wouldn't mind."

I ignored his comment. We finally got into the room and laid down. I had barely muttered to Stark that I loved him and goodnight before I was asleep.

My dream was in slow motion. Well, at least that's how it started. I don't remember much of it, just that I was at a carnival. I was the only spectator there; everyone else around me worked for the carnival. I was walking through it - in slow motion - looking at all the games and rides they had up. I was just thinking of getting some cotton candy when I heard it.

It sounded like the flapping of birds wings, only it was really close. I looked up and saw nothing around me. Suddenly, everything went from being in slow motion to normal. I was surprised to look behind me and see Kalona standing there, his great white wings half-unfolded.

"What are you doing here?" I asked as his wings fully folded behind him.

He looked at me for a very long time before saying, "I do not know. I…shouldn't be here."

I didn't say anything to that. I mean, what could I say? I knew that he shouldn't have been there, he knew that he shouldn't have been there, so he should've left. Instead, he stayed right where he was, his eyes never leaving mine.

"Kalona, I don't think this is very appropriate." I noticed that when I said his name, he shivered like he had been hit with a chill.

He looked to the ground and then at his shaking fingers. "Zoeybird-"

"Don't call me that." The words slipped out before I could stop them. I knew that I wore a look of surprise on my face. His head slightly tilted. "I, uh, don't know why I said that."

He gave me a sweet smile before saying, "Like I was saying, I think there is something…very wrong going on."

I couldn't help what went through my head just then. It seemed like the longer I was with Kalona, the more I couldn't help myself. I saw him, clear as day, naked again. I felt the heat rise in my cheeks, and tried furiously to get the blush to go back down. I did, but not before he saw it.

"Yes, there is something very wrong here. It seems that I cannot stop thinking of you. I didn't even mean to come into your dream." he explained.

"And yet, here you are." I was giving him what I called my flirty smile, and acting like a total ho! "Ohmygoddess, why did I just do that?"

Kalona nodded and started pacing back and forth in front of me. "See? It's happening to you, too. Zoey, I'm being drawn to you, and not of my own free will. I can feel that something is pushing me toward you."

"I…can feel it, too. What's going on, Kalona?" I asked, scared of what was happening. It occurred to me that it was a little weird to be working with Kalona instead of against him. He wasn't the enemy anymore, but you know what they say - old habits die hard.

He stopped pacing and got into my personal space. "I don't know, but I feel that it is just the beginning. I will talk with Nyx about this."

I started to nod my head, but was disrupted by Kalona grabbing my chin. He pulled my face up and kissed me hard. I knew in the back of my mind that it was wrong, but I kissed him right back. It felt like everything went in fast-forward after that. We were still kissing, but we were trying to take each other's clothes off at the same time.

We had to break away from each other so that I could take my shirt off, and that was when we both realized what we were doing. Kalona spread his wings and flapped them so that he was just above me. He was breathing hard and looking at me, but not really seeing me.

I quickly pulled my shirt back on.

"I must talk with Nyx. Zoeybird, be safe, and trust your intuition. I'm afraid-"

"Say no more." I interrupted him. "If you're afraid, then I'm afraid. Just go, and go quickly."

He gave me a slight nod and then, looking as if it physically pained him to leave me, flew off into the sky. As he got farther, my dream slowed down more and more.

I started walking down the pathway through the carnival again. When I finally made it to the cotton candy stand, I woke up.