Once he realized they were all stumbling in the woods, slamming into trees, including Caleb and Xev who sent extremely rude gestures back at him, he made a sound of supreme exasperation, then extrapolated for them. “Sraosha’s original role as Arel was to set things in motion for that history that he kept, to ensure that it moved forward correctly and on time. He was also the judge of the dead, and one of the primary warriors who’d chase away the demons of violence and anger who preyed on mankind.”
“Hence his overwhelming love and adoration of me,” Caleb muttered.
Jaden ignored them as he used his powers to lift the stones around the Eye so that they hovered. “We’ve been assuming that Ambrose failed. But what if he didn’t? What if he succeeded?”
He set the stones down in different positions, then looked at them.
“Sraosha would still go crazy.” Kody breathed. “Because the order would be upset.”
Jaden nodded. “Especially if there was a second Malachai and Ambrose had found a way to break that curse.”
“You’re speculating.”
Jaden glanced at Xev and shrugged. “So I am. You have a better conjecture?”
“We don’t have enough evidence for any kind of conclusion right now.”
“True.”
“But I like where his head is.” Nick bit his lip as his mind whirled with the possibilities of it. For the first time, it gave him hope. “In his version, I’m not the jerkweed who destroys the world.”
“No, your son is.”
He rolled his eyes at Caleb. “Go stand in the corner until you learn to be more positive in your thinking. You need an attitude adjustment, Mr. Daeve!”
“My attitude is fine. What I need is an environmental change where I’m not locked in a hovel with an ass”—he cut a gimlet glare to Jaden, then Nick—“and a pimple.”
Nick scowled at Xev. “Why are you smiling?”
“I’m reveling in the fact he left me off his hate list.”
“So…” Kody spoke in the most diplomatic of tones to get their attention off the matter. “Can we use the Eye to reset the future like Ambrose wanted?”
“See … that’s what baffles me most. The Eye doesn’t really work that way and Ambrose had to know that. I’m sure Nick’s already been experiencing some of its side effects.”
“Are you talking about my spirit channeling?”
He nodded. “So you have been communing with it?”
“Oh yeah. And I don’t like it at all. It’s like dreaming with my eyes open.”
“Yes, but they’re not dreams. They’re important insights that relate directly to the matters you’re trying to understand. The reason why it’s called the Eye of Ananke is that it shows the why of a matter or a person.”
Nick felt so stupid as he finally got it. “It doesn’t show the future.”
“It can, but it shows the past. The present or whatever it deems necessary to give you understanding.”
Kody crossed her arms over her chest as she studied the Eye from a distance. “You’re right. It doesn’t make sense that Ambrose would send us after it, given that that’s what it does.”
“And it shows all futures,” Nick muttered. “Which I truly despise. It’s like having my mom on steroids.… Don’t do that, Nick … I had a friend in high school who did that once. And I’m telling you, you could fall, skin your knee. Get a compound fracture. Break the bone and get blood poisoning. Funky cancer, or rabies, and die!” He finished in a mocking, deep voice. “She always has to go to the most morbid and horrendous conclusion imaginable.” He jerked his chin. “So really I didn’t need that. Already had one from birth that walks around behind me all the time doing it.”
Caleb laughed. “Cherise would kill you if she heard you say that about her.”
“Probably, but it’s the truth.”
“You know the one thing it can’t do, though, is lie.”
Nick turned back to Jaden. “Come again?”
“I’m thinking … Unlike a person, or a memory that can become distorted by time and emotions. It doesn’t fabricate or lie. It never gets misled or misinterprets events. It always gives the cold, unvarnished truth. What you see is what happened or will come into being. Your little tirade on your mother is what made me think about that. Our memories are always faulty. They’re tainted by our emotions and perceptions. We filter everything we take in by our experiences. I mean, you said yourself a few minutes ago. Did I say what you thought I did or did you hear what you wanted me to say? It doesn’t make me a liar or you a fool. It’s just human nature. People see what they want to see and they hear what they need or want to hear. The Eye doesn’t do that.”
“Ambrose wanted you to know the truth, whatever it is.” Kody met Nick’s gaze. “I think someone other than Ambrose is tampering with the timeline.”
Caleb cursed. “That’s what brought out our ugly friends. They were looking for whoever did it. And they thought it was Nick because of Ambrose.”
Kody nodded. “But while he did tamper with the time sequence, it wasn’t egregious enough to warrant punishment.”
“They were after the real culprit, whoever it is.”