“I understand.” She was used to being on her own.
In both lifetimes.
Suriyel inclined his head to her. “Keep Nick alive.”
“I’ll do my best, but we have only two days to finish this before the ušumgallu unites and they march on the world. With or without their general.”
“Yeah, we know. Thorn is already gathering his forces here.”
Kody shivered. “Is Cadegan with him?”
“Who?” Suriyel asked.
“Cadegan. He was once Thorn’s right hand. At least in my world.”
One by one, they all shook their heads. “We don’t know that name.”
Strange, but she would go with it. Though it didn’t happen often, there were a number of supernatural beings she knew that they didn’t. Mostly ones who didn’t interact with the human world any more than they had to.
And that definitely described the two of them. Thorn and Cadegan together had been an invincible team. Honestly, she was more than happy to not face their united strength in a fight here. She and Nick had enough against them already.
“Good luck with Simi,” she breathed to them, then teleported back to Acheron’s house.
Kody had barely appeared in his office before she saw Acheron staring at an old photo with a longing in his eyes that was heart-wrenching. She knew that aching loss firsthand and it reeked.
The woman in the photo was his daughter, Katra, who was holding two children Kody assumed to be the Simi and Ash Nick had spoken about. But the man in that photo was definitely not the same as the Sumerian god Katra had married in Kody’s world. The love Acheron bore for his daughter and grandchildren, though, was every bit as potent.
“Acheron?”
Clearing his throat, he turned slightly toward her and put the photo out of sight. “Did you learn anything helpful?”
“Yes and no. It’s as I suspected. My boss wants Nick dead.”
Acheron snorted. “Having spent time with him, I can well understand his motivation.”
Kody tsked at him, but didn’t comment on that. “They told me about a Magus Stone. Have you ever heard of it?”
He put his hands in his jacket pocket. “Vaguely. It’s a legend about the first war of the gods and one of them threw down a bit of the sun at another one. Or something like that. Honestly, I never paid those stories much attention.”
“Does the stone exist in this realm?”
He shrugged. “If it did, it went missing a long time ago.”
Of course it did. Because nothing could ever go easy for her. It never had. As her father so often said, there were those who were born to be great and those who were determined to be great. And those who were determined were the ones life challenged the hardest.
Rise to the occasion, my daughter. Never let anyone tell you that you lack courage or conviction to see your tasks done. The only opinion that really matters is your own, and you are a creature of absolute beauty and strength, through and through.
Never, ever forget that.
So in the midst of the storm, stand proud against it, lift up your middle finger, and defy the fates with everything you have. If they want to fight, bring it. You have more than enough intelligence and skill to battle them until they beg you for mercy.
Gods, how she missed her father. The fire and spirit in his eyes that nothing could daunt. It was infectious.
Just like Ari’s …
Knowing better than to let her thoughts linger on her family, especially when she stood this close to her father’s identical twin, Kody cleared her throat. “Shall we rejoin the others?”
Before she could answer, something hard slammed against the walls. It reminded her of a battering ram. She covered her ears to shield them from the noise. “What is that?”
Acheron’s face paled. “In short … our deaths.”
CHAPTER 14
While all calamity broke loose on New Orleans, Nick strapped on a Kevlar vest. Across the room from him, Mark and Bubba armed themselves with crossbows and throwing knives. And other things Nick was sure he didn’t want to know about. In the event he was arrested for being with them, he wanted plausible deniability.
His mom watched him in awe. “You look like you’ve done this a few times.”
Nick smiled as he finished up. “Just a few. At home, Caleb’s always terrified I’ll get eaten and he’ll have to face my mother’s wrath over it.”
She wrinkled her nose at him. “Am I that different there?”
Nick hesitated as he thought it over. “Not really. You just dress in more expensive clothes here than the mom I’m used to. And I’m way too close to your height here.”
“Hey, Mike? You there?”
Scowling, Nick turned toward Mark and Bubba, who both groaned at the thick Tennessee drawl over their radio. “Who’s that?” he asked his mom.
She growled low in the back of her throat. “Someone I hope gets eaten by the demons.” She winked playfully at Nick.
With a painful sound of resignation, Bubba picked up the radio and answered the call. “Yeah, Toph, what can I do you for?”
“You and Mark anywhere near a TV?”
Mark went to turn it on.
“What channel?” Bubba asked into the radio.
“Don’t think it’s going to matter much. Sure it’s on all stations by now.” No sooner had the unknown Toph spoken than the TV screen showed a horrific scene in the city.
Nick’s jaw dropped as he stepped closer to the screen. It looked just like something out of his recent nightmares or from the Great New Orleans Fire of 1788 that had destroyed almost every structure in town. Buildings were ablaze all over the Quarter while winged demons and Daimons openly preyed on the hapless humans who’d made the mistake of not taking shelter. National Guard soldiers and police had been mobilized, but it made little difference.
The innocent humans in uniform only became more targets for the nonhuman predators.
Savitar entered the room and cursed as he saw it, too. He cut his eyes toward Nick. “Looks like Thorn is seething that you got away, kid.”
Nick was even more aghast. “Are you saying all that’s because of me?”
Savitar nodded.
Sick to his stomach, Nick turned away from the TV. “I can’t let this happen.”
“What are you going to do?” Savitar asked sarcastically. “Spill your guts on their shoes? Hate to break it to you, kid, but that really is all you can do without your powers to fight them.”
Mark agreed. “You go out there and there won’t be anything left of you but a stain in the cracks of the pavement.”
Nick wanted to growl a denial at them both, but he knew it was the truth. In this incarnation, he was as useful as tears to a warthog.
I’ve never been more worthless. And that was saying something.
His gaze went to the photos that his mom had placed all over the bookshelves in front of him. They showed a boy Nick didn’t know and it wasn’t just because the two of them didn’t favor physically. The boy in those photos had never been forced to swallow air in an attempt to make his stomach feel full because he had nothing to eat. That boy had never walked his mom home from work at three in the morning on a school night, trying to keep her safe from predators—human and otherwise. He’d never been forced to use Bubba’s duct tape to hold his shoes together because he couldn’t afford another pair.
And he’d never had to fight for his life against those who wanted to end it.
A part of Nick envied that boy that normality. That innocence and happiness. He couldn’t imagine growing up in a world with a pantry stocked full of food and snacks. Having parents to check his homework, go to games he played in, or make sure he’d had a good dinner at a reasonable hour.