Burned

thread of gold.”
    “Yep, gold’s what it reminded me of, too.”
    “And you followed this to find me?”
    “Yep.”
    “Okay, well, then. Let’s see if it’ll work twice,” I said.
    “Just tell me what to do. I’m yours to command.” Eyes flashing with humor, Stark bowed to me.
    “Stop messing around. This is serious.”
    “Oh, Z, don’t you see? It isn’t that I don’t think this is serious. It’s just that I totally trust you. I know you’ll get me back with you. I believe in you,
mo bann ri
.”
    “You have picked up some weird words while I’ve been gone.”
    He grinned at me. “Just you wait. You haven’t heard nothin’ yet.”
    “You know what, boy? I’m tired of waiting.” I wrapped one end of the golden thread around his wrist. I kept the other end tightly fisted in my hand. “Close your eyes,” I said. Without questioning me, he did as I said. I tiptoed and kissed him. “See you soon, Guardian.”
    Then I turned away from the hanging tree and the grove and all the magic and mysteries of Nyx’s realm. I faced the yawning blackness that seemed to stretch into forever. Spreading my arms wide, I said, “Spirit, come to me.” The last of the five elements, and the one I’d always felt closest to, filled me, making my healed soul thrum with joy and compassion, strength and—finally—hope. “Now, please take me home!” As I spoke, I ran forward and, completely unafraid, leaped into the darkness.
    I thought it would be like diving off a cliff, but I was wrong. It wasgentler, softer. More like riding an elevator down from the top of a skyscraper. I felt myself settle, and I
knew
I was back.
    I didn’t open my eyes right away. First I wanted to concentrate—to savor each returning sensation. I felt that I was lying on something hard and cool. I drew in a deep breath and was surprised to smell the cedar tree that used to be on the corner down from my mom’s house in Broken Arrow. I only heard the soft murmuring of whispered voices at first, but after just a few breaths that changed with Aphrodite’s shout of “Oh, for shit’s sake, open your eyes! I know you’re in there!”
    I did open my eyes then. “Jeesh, are you from a trailer? Do you have to be so loud?”
    “Trailer? Look, you’re not supposed to be cussing, and that’s definitely a nasty word to me,” Aphrodite said. Then she smiled and laughed and pulled me into a super hard hug that I was sure she’d deny ever doing later. “You’re really back? And you’re not, like, brain-damaged or anything?”
    “I am!” I laughed. “And I’m no more brain-damaged than I was when I left.”
    Over her shoulder Darius appeared. His eyes were suspiciously shiny as he fisted a hand over his heart and bowed to me. “Welcome back, High Priestess.”
    “Thanks, Darius.” I grinned at him and held out my hand so he could help me stand. I had weird jelly legs, so I kept hold of him as the room rolled and pitched around me.
    “She needs food and drink,” said a super in-charge-like voice.
    “Right away, Majesty,” came the immediate response.
    I finally blinked the dizziness clear, so that I could see. “Wow, a throne! Seriously?”
    The beautiful woman sitting on the carved marble throne smiled at me. “Welcome back, young queen,” she said.
    “Young queen,” I repeated, half-laughing. But as my eyes traveled around the room, my laughter dissolved, and the throne, the cool room, and questions of queendom utterly evaporated.
    Stark was there. He was lying on a huge stone. There was a vampyre Warrior standing at his head, and the guy was holding a razor-sharpdagger above Stark’s chest, which was already bloody and covered with knife slashes.
    “No! Stop it!” I cried. I pulled away from Darius and started to lunge toward the vamp.
    More quickly than she should have been able to move, the queen was suddenly standing between the Warrior and me. She put a hand on my shoulder and spoke one question softly to me. “What did Stark tell you?”
    I shook myself mentally, trying to think beyond the bloody sight of my Warrior, my Guardian.
    My Guardian . . .
    I looked at the queen. “That’s how Stark got to the Otherworld. That Warrior. He’s really helping him.”
    “My Guardian,” the queen corrected me. “Yes, he is helping Stark. But now his quest is complete. It is your responsibility as his queen to bring him back.”
    I opened my mouth to ask her how, but closed it before I spoke. I didn’t have to ask