“An act of Miguel. I’ve learned to play dirty. One call to the son and the mothership caves.”
Ash sucked his breath in sharply. “That’s harsh, Gautier.”
“Yeah, I fight to win.”
“I’ll remember that in the future.” Ash started to withdraw.
“Hey, Ash?” Nick hesitated as Ash paused to look back at him. “Can I ask you something?”
“Sure, kid.”
“How do you live when you know the future?”
Ash snorted. “Wow, you just dove right in there with no preamble.”
“Yeah, I tend to do that sort of thing. You taught me to drive. You know how I am. Full throttle. All the time. Trash cans and pedestrians be danged.”
“And I’m still in therapy over it, too. Eleven thousand years without any serious trauma, and five months of driving with you and I have more PTSD than five tours as a war vet.”
“Ha-ha.”
“You laugh,” Ash scoffed. “I’m serious.”
“So am I.” Nick sobered as he touched the Eye he still held in his pocket. “How do you cope with knowing what’s going to happen to everyone around you? Doesn’t it ever freak you out?”
Ash let out an elongated breath before he answered. “I try not to look.”
Nick rolled his eyes. “I’m serious,” he repeated.
“Me, too. It’s all you can do. Because when you look in and see what’s coming for those around you, that’s when you really screw things up.”
“How do you mean?”
“Simple. You try to avoid this and cause that, and the minute you do … you get blindsided by an unexpected twist caused by the actions you took. Case in point, the worst events in my life were a direct result of someone trying to help me. I’d have been better off had the ones who loved me just let fate play out, instead of trying to circumvent it. It’s why I try really hard not to involve myself in the free will of others.”
“Does it work?”
Ash shrugged. “Yes and no. It’s painful at times. Like watching a child you love on the playground when you know they’re about to tumble. You have that split second where you think, do I catch them or let them skin their knee and learn about gravity? It’s an innate craving to want to keep them from harm, but if you don’t let them learn now, the later repercussions can be a lot more catastrophic. Unfortunately, you don’t know how bad until it’s too late.”
“Like marrying my wife.”
Nick turned at the sound of Kyrian’s unexpected Greek accent behind them. There was no missing the pain in his tone. He rarely spoke of Theone. Not that he blamed him. His ex had done a number on him when she’d handed Kyrian over to his bitterest enemies to be tortured and then crucified as a traitor of the Roman Empire.
It was one thing to read about history in school. Another thing to interact with the people who’d actually lived it and been affected by it.
Glancing at Acheron, Kyrian moved to stand next to Nick. “You remind me so much of myself at your age, boy. Hotheaded and stubborn. No one could ever tell me anything. I had to learn it for myself. My father did everything he could to talk sense into me and I wouldn’t hear it for anything. I thought he was prejudiced and old-fashioned. Set in his ways. How stupid he was to judge a woman he didn’t even know, based on her occupation that I thought she’d been forced into.”
Perhaps, but it didn’t change one basic thing that Nick would always come back to. “She shouldn’t have betrayed you.”
“I shouldn’t have been blind.”
Ash clapped Kyrian on his shoulder. “We make our own realities, brother. See what we want to in others and ourselves. Always.”
Kyrian nodded. “And I saw a heart where there was only greed. Truth where none was spoken. It’s easy to get suckered when you’re young.” He laughed bitterly. “My father used to always say, ‘Kyrian, my son, you’re not a pot of gold to anyone but me and your mother. And we will always love and worship the ground you tread upon. Sadly, the rest of the world won’t cherish you for your worth. All they see is a smart-mouthed brat. For everyone loves a self-made man and despises his spoiled, entitled issue.’”
Nick grimaced. “Man, that’s harsh.”
“But true. And I never turned my ear. Rather, I chased the shiny apple only to find the swallowed fruit bitter on my tongue.” He reached up to touch the marbled hand of his youngest sister as if he could still feel the flesh of her skin. “You would have thought with my sisters forever nagging me and pointing out my endless list of flaws that they’d have broken my spirit when I was young, and I’d have known not everyone would seek or enjoy my company.”