07 The Return_ Midnight - L. J. Smith

“That’s what you tell us!” Stefan cried, trying to get in front of Elena. “But why are we
so particularly damned, of all creatures? How do you know it’s impossible? Have you ever even
tried?”
Red-haired Idola was making a disgusted gesture, when Bonnie interrupted, her voice
shaking. “It’s ridiculous! You can rebuild a town, you can kill the person who’s really behind all
Shinichi and Misao did, but you can’t bring one little vampire back? You brought Elena back!”
“Elena’s death as a vampire allowed her to become the Guardian she was originally
meant to be. As for the person who gave orders to Shinichi and Misao: It was Inari Saitou—Obaasan
Saitou, as you knew her—and she is already dead, thanks to your friends in Fell’s Church, who
weakened her—and to you, who destroyed her star ball.”
“Inari? You mean Isobel’s grandma? You’re saying it was her star ball in the Great
Tree’s trunk? That’s impossible!” Bonnie cried.
“No, it’s not. It’s the truth,” blond Ryannen said simply.
“And she’s dead now?”
“After a long battle which nearly killed your friends. Yes—but what actually killed her
was having her star ball destroyed.”
“So,” dark Susurre said quietly, “if you follow the curve…in a way your Damon did die
to save Fell’s Church from another massacre like the one on that Japanese island. He kept saying that
was what he’d come to the Nether World to do. Do you not think he would be…satisfied? At peace?”
“At peace?” Stefan spat bitterly, and Sage growled.
“Woman,” he said, “you obviously have never met Damon Salvatore before.” The tone in
his voice—more resonant, more threatening somehow—made Elena finally break off her staredown
with the red-haired Idola. She turned and looked—
—and saw the enormous room filled with Sage’s out-spread wings.
They weren’t like any of her ephemeral Wings Powers. They were clearly part of Sage.
They were velvety and reptilian, and, unfurled like this, they stretched from distant wall to wall, and
touched the grand, golden ceiling. They also demonstrated why Sage didn’t usually wear shirts.
He was beautiful this way, bronze skin and hair against those giant, leathery soft-looking
arches. But Elena, after one look at him, knew that the time had come to play the ace up her sleeve.
She turned around to meet Idola’s green gaze squarely.
“All this time we’ve been bargaining for a Gatehouse full of treasures,” she said, “and—
one Master Key.”
“A Master Key, stolen by the kitsune ages upon ages ago,” Susurre explained quietly,
lifting her dark eyes.
“And you’ve said that it’s not enough for you to bring Damon back.” Elena forced her
voice not to waver.
“Not even if it were your only request.” Ryannen tossed a golden lock of hair over her
shoulder.
“So you say. But…what if I throw into the pot…another Master Key?”
There was a pause, and Elena’s heart began to pound in sick terror. Because it was the
wrong kind of pause. There were no shocked gasps. No astonished glances from one Guardian ruler
to another. No looks of disbelief.
After another moment Idola said smugly, “If you mean the other stolen key that your
friends had on Earth—it was confiscated as soon as they hid it. It was stolen property. It belonged to
us.”