Nick felt his powers waning again as dread washed over him. This had disaster written all over it and catastrophe as a master seal. “Bring him back how?”
Jaden sighed heavily. “A new Malachai—Jeros—sprang out of Monakribos’s blood, in much the same way that Bathymaas had done with Rubati’s. I foolishly thought he’d be the same exact way that she’d been. Innocent and ignorant. Harmless.”
“Boy, were they all surprised,” Caleb said sarcastically.
Xev let out a bitter laugh. “True to Kri’s curse, he came back all kinds of pissed off and wanting vengeance. His first course was to hunt down Grim and Laguerre’s daughter and exact an ugly revenge on her.”
Nick could see where this was headed. “So they killed him again.”
“I’m sure they wanted to,” Xev said. “But no. They weren’t allowed. So they cursed him to die by the hand of his own son. Which is the part you know, as it falls to you now.”
Caleb saluted him. “And so when Jeros’s son, Evander, was born and killed Jeros, then realized that one day his son would do the same, Evander decided the best way to exact revenge for that juicy little curse was to capture the two creatures who’d put it on his bloodline and to make them subservient to him and his progeny for all eternity. Better still, he decided to use their powers to feed his own and make them his generals, to serve him and his army.”
“Well, that explains Grim’s nasty attitude toward me.” No longer a god of death, he was now completely dependent on the will of the Malachai for his duties. Yeah, Nick would have a bit of a wedgie over it, too. “He told me when we first met that he was an angel of death.”
Caleb snorted. “In a manner of speaking, he is. Even as a god, he wasn’t a major deity, but rather an escort of sorts. Over the centuries, after the degradation of what Evander had done to him died down, he realized he had a better gig under the Malachai’s banner. Still, the role reduction was always a bit of a rub.”
Nick was finally in control enough to return to his human body. “And I pissed him off even more when I slighted him.”
“Yeah, you did,” Caleb said belligerently. “But pissing people off is what you do best, Gautier.”
“Thanks.”
“S’okay. It’s what I do best, too. Why we get along.”
Nick snorted, knowing Caleb was right. And still his head was reeling from information overload as he tried to sort through it all. “Is there any way to go back and help Charity and the others? I don’t like leaving her wounded.”
Sympathy darkened Jaden’s freaky eyes. “That’s not your battle, kid. Sorry.”
“But, if you change what happens … if we find out what went wrong, that won’t be her world anyway.”
Nick considered Xev’s words. “All this time we’ve been trying to stop Ambrose.”
Xev nodded. “And it wasn’t Ambrose. You were right the whole time. You’re not the problem.”
“Doesn’t really make me feel better to know it’s my kid.”
Jaden stiffened at those words. Too late, he realized that his own sons had seen his involuntary reaction.
They exchanged a silent, bitter glare of mutual sibling resentment for their father. While Nick was glad to see them getting along for once, he hated that it was hatred for their father that bonded them and gave them common ground.
Kody cleared her throat in an effort to distract them. “Did you learn anything else from the future?”
“Learn’s a bit of a stretch, but we did meet Kyrian’s daughter. And Simi’s two kids.”
Instant tears welled in Kody’s eyes. “Oh my God! Lucy and Amara were there!” she breathed. “They were alive?”
Well, that was as shocking as their initial discovery. “You knew about them?”
Crying even harder, she nodded. “I never mentioned them to you because I assumed they were long dead. So there was no need.” She let out a sharp, hysterical laugh. “I can’t believe they survived the attack! I’m so happy they made it out.”
“And did you know Lucien hooks up with my daughter?”
The shock of that stopped her tears instantly. They ended in one sharp, stunned hiccup. “Seriously?”
He nodded.
Sniffing and laughing, she wiped at her eyes. “Well, since I had no idea that you had a daughter, no, I didn’t know about that.”
“Do you know who their father is?” Caleb asked.
She nodded.
“Care to share?”
Biting her lip, she dabbed daintily at her eyes with her sleeve, then cleared her throat. “Given who they are and the way they get together, I think sharing that with present company would be a profoundly bad idea … that knowledge could alter the future. ’Cause I’m pretty sure, knowing you as I do, that one of you would do something to stop it.”
“Kody—”
“Trust me, Nick. I know what you in particular would do.”
He would argue, but she did know him better than anyone else. “All right. I surrender to your superior common sense.”