Ashamed, but grateful for Julian’s uncharacteristic compassion and unexpected understanding, Kyrian had looked away. “Does it ever get easier?”
Julian had further stunned him by offering him a drink from his own wineskin. “Yes. But the day you can walk into battle and coldly take the life of another without feeling anything for that man and the future you’ve just robbed him of is the day you should dread most, not one to be anticipated. What we do, while necessary, is an evil, young prince. And it is a course that should never be taken lightly or served with glee. Rather, one always walked with reverence and full knowledge of the cost to every soul it touches. For the one truth of all fights, no matter how small, is that everyone walks away forever mired by it, and with bloody hands.”
Those words echoed in Nick’s head as he saw the sickening devastation around him.
It was a lesson Kyrian forever harped on with him.
Now, he understood why. But he didn’t understand why he was seeing it right now when he needed to be attentive elsewhere. Any more than he comprehended what was causing the visions to come to him in the first place.
There was something important about them. That much he knew. His brain wouldn’t be coughing them up otherwise. It was some part of his residual Malachai powers trying to warn him of something.
Yet they were more frustrating than Nashira’s old riddles. And they made even less sense. Something he would have never thought possible.
Shaking his head, he focused his sight on Simi’s daughter and Xev. She was still staring at Xev as if debating whether or not she should battle him. Which would be a huge mistake. As powerful as she was and even though Xev had a lot of his powers restricted and bound, it didn’t alter the fact that he remained one of the best fighters Nick had ever seen.
He’d put Xev up against anyone.
Even a fully charged Malachai.
She lifted her chin and sniffed at the air. “You’re of the Source? Why would you protect him?” She jerked her chin toward Nick and used a tone that implied he hadn’t bathed …
Ever. And that he’d recently fought and lost a match with a herd of polecats.
Though actually, that might be better applied to Xev since he was the one she could supposedly smell.
But Xev ignored the obvious insult. “Because he’s not the one you’re after and we’re here to get answers.”
Suddenly, another demonic screech sounded.
She glanced up at the dark sky, then disengaged Xev and ran toward the smoldering remains of the cathedral.
Oh, that can’t be good.
If whatever made that sound sent her into flight on foot …
It had to be a winged Godzilla heading for them. Or something even worse. And if it was worse, Nick definitely didn’t want to meet it out in the open.
Not without some kind of supercharged weapon.
As more screeching sounded, Xev took his arm and pulled him after her.
His heart lodged painfully in his throat, Nick followed the path Simi’s daughter had taken. He saw her just up ahead.
“What happened here?” he called out to her as they ran down the alley and jumped over large broken pieces of pavement.
She cast a menacing glare at him over her shoulder as she dodged someone’s charred body, and kept moving. “You should know. Your army did this.”
“Not. My. Army.” Frustrated, Nick groaned out loud as he saw even more flaming wreckage and bodies that turned his stomach and made bile rise in his throat.
New Orleans had been turned into an all-out war zone.
Ambrose hadn’t been kidding. This was unlike anything Nick had ever imagined. No wonder he’d been so freaked out that he’d sought to go back in time to stop it from happening.
His head spinning, he glanced at Xev who was pulling up their rear. “What makes me do this?”
It didn’t make sense. At this point in time, his mother would have been dead for centuries. Malachai temper or not, he should have moved past it. “What’s my catalyst for going hog wild on the world?”
Something profoundly bad had to have happened to make Ambrose strike out like this. Why would he continue to think it was his mother’s death that caused his anger and wrath to break?
It just couldn’t be that simple.
Could it?
As they headed down Pere Antoine Alley toward Royal, a huge demon rose up from the smoke with blazing eyes. Letting loose a fierce war cry and burst of blue hellfire, it flew at them, snapping and sizzling in the air that was rife with static electricity. The stench of sulfur and smoke hung thick in Nick’s throat, making it hard to breathe.
More demons exploded from the air around the first, ready to attack and eat anything they saw.