Page 108 of Lost

“He’s a general—one of the main commanders. Apparently Neferet counts on him quite a bit. Do you know him in your world, Zoeybird?” She took her gaze off the road briefly to meet mine.

I sighed. “Intimately. He’s my Oathbound Warrior and much more. We’re in love.”

“And in our world, he’s not a blue vampyre. He’s red. Like me,” said Stevie Rae.

“His heart is good. Very good,” said Rephaim.

“In your world that might be true, but in this world he is a force for Darkness,” said Grandma, gripping the wheel until her knuckles turned white.

“It’s not a ‘might be,’ Grandma. We’re bonded. I know his heart as well as I know my own, and I don’t believe that Stark knows he’s being used as a force for Darkness,” I said firmly. “I’m no expert on alternate dimensions, but the three people I’ve met from this world—Kevin, Jack, and you, Grandma—are all more similar than different from who they are or were in my world. That’s another reason I had to come. I think Neferet is manipulating him. I believe I can reach Stark.”

Grandma studied the road silently before she relaxed a little and said, “I hope you’re right. If Stark turned against Neferet, it would be a major coup for the Resistance.”

“Well, my Stark is as devoted to Nyx as he is to me. Maybe he just needs to know that Neferet has turned from the Goddess. I knowmyStark stood up to Neferet and Kalona when it would’ve been much easier for him to do what those two told him to do.”

“I believe in him too, Z. There’s no way Stark would knowingly take a side that’s against Nyx,” said Stevie Rae.

“I would trust him with my life,” said Rephaim. “In any world.”

About then Grandma turned onto a lane barred by a massive iron privacy gate. She reached out her window and pressed the intercom, and a woman’s voice answered, punctuated by what sounded like a mob of barking dogs.

“It’s too damn early to be selling anything and I’m not buying. Go away!”

“It’s Sylvia Redbird, Tina,” G-ma said, speaking to a small camera. “I called you about the puppies. I hope you don’t mind that my friends and I want to take a look.”

“You said you’d be in a hurry, so I left the keys in the Polaris. It’s parked beside the car castle,” Tina replied. “I’ve also packed it with a few supplies. Since they built that cave the Resistance has quadrupled in size.”

“Thank you, my friend. I am sorry to bother you at this hour. Go back to your rest. I shall take it from here.”

“I don’t need to send Babos out again, do I?” Tina asked.

I watched Grandma smile into the video intercom. “Not if you trust me.”

The gate buzzed open. “That I do. Good day, Sylvia.”

“Wado, Tina,” replied Grandma.

“What doeswadomean?” asked Rephaim as Grandma drove through the gate and down a long, tree-lined lane.

“It meansthank you,” said Grandma. “Child, I hope you are here long enough for me to teach you some of your language, but if not, would you do me a personal favor?”

“Anything, Grandma Redbird.”

“Get my double in your world to teach you, and tell her she’s been errant in her tribal instruction.”

“I will do that!” Rephaim said.

“Ooooh! Can I learn too?” Stevie Rae asked.

“Is she family?” Grandma asked me.

“Absolutely,” I said.

“Then yes, you may,” Grandma said, pulling in next to the Polaris, which was parked right where Tina said it would be.

“ ‘Car castle’ sure fits it,” Stevie Rae said as we looked up at the stone garage with a pergola on the top of it as well as balustrades.

“Well, Tina is nothing if not interesting,” Grandma said. “Hurry, now. Dawn isn’t far away. Oh, can any of the three of you drive one of those things? I can in a pinch, but we’ll be going fast over unpaved, bumpy paths, and my skills aren’t up to that.”