“Ambrose is opening a gate for you. He and Acheron are going to face Cyprian’s forces.”
Her gaze softened as she swept his loyal body with her mercurial gaze. “Where’s your family?”
“By their sides.”
Tears filled her eyes. “I cannot believe we were so deceived. I will go so that they can battle without worrying for me. But before I do…” She pulled at the chain around her neck until it dislodged a vial from between her breasts.
Removing her necklace, she pressed it into Styxx’s hand. “Give this to Ambrose. Should they fail today, should he fall in battle, it will be imperative that he drink it before he dies. Tell him this. If he doesn’t drink of it, we will all be lost.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I know. This is a matter of trust. Not understanding. All will be revealed in time. As with all things, it is never the enemy we see who destroys us. It is the one within we fail to notice, the one we trust, who deals us the fatal blow.”
She pulled Styxx into her arms and held him. The agony in her eyes wrenched Nick’s heart as she buried her fist in Styxx’s curls. “My precious boys. How I wish I were there for this battle, to fight by your sides. I would drive them back to the corners of the universe and bathe in their entrails until I was blackened by their blood.”
Styxx laughed nervously. “Now you’re frightening me, Matera.”
With a devilish grin, she kissed his cheek and stepped back. “We’ve been through much, you and I. In all your lifetimes. Go, my mighty phoenix, and be the warrior I know you to be.”
“Nick?”
Blinking, Nick was forced away from the future image of Apollymi and Styxx.
Was that real? Or was he hallucinating again?
It felt real.
He pressed his hands to his temples as he struggled to breathe. It was impossible. Nothing felt real. Nothing felt right.
His mind was snapping in two. Everything was wrong.
He reached for Kody to anchor him, but not even that worked as his breaths came in short, sharp gasps. His heart pounded in his ears. “I’m going crazy, Kody. I don’t know what’s true anymore. Are these possible futures? The real future? What really happened? How do I know the difference in what I see?”
Xev caught him against his chest. “Breathe, Nick,” he whispered in his ear. “Slow … in and out.”
He listened to Xev’s soothing voice and followed his lead until he was calm again. Only then did Xev slacken his hold.
Still shaky and wrecked, Nick drew a ragged breath. “Well, look who got all maternal, suddenly.”
Xev rolled his eyes. “It came with the new hairstyle.”
But that wasn’t true. There had always been a deep vulnerability to Xev underneath that hate-filled kill-them–all-let-God-sort-them-out mentality he projected to others. It was what had caused Nick to reach out and help him when they’d first met. Why he’d risked much to bring Xev back with him.
He ruffled Nick’s hair. “Get over there with your girlfriend before I spank you.”
“Ooo promises, promises! You really shouldn’t tease me like that, Grandpa. It’s just so cruel.” Nick batted his eyelashes at him while he rubbed at his posterior.
Caleb held his hands up in surrender. “You wound it up. It’s on you now. I’m not tending that.”
Xev gently pushed Nick toward Kody. “Tag, you’re it.”
Laughing, she shook her head. “You’re all such big babies.”
Nick sobered as he heard the whispering in the aether again. Louder this time.
Only now, it sounded like Mennie calling to him. Pressing his fingers to his temple, he tried to concentrate. To pull the voice in closer so that he could focus on the words themselves.
As he did so, he began to see even more images. He felt a compulsion to …
Kody stepped back as Nick walked past her as if he were in a trance of some sort. “Should we be worried about that?”
Caleb and Xev watched him closely.
Xev stepped closer as Nick went to Menyara’s altar cabinet. Without a word, he opened it and began some kind of peculiar preparations. Using a steel pestle, he slowly mixed salt and paints in one of Menyara’s mortar bowls. “Not quite sure.”
Caleb moved to stand beside Xev. “What’s he doing?”
“Not quite sure,” he repeated.
“Can he hear us?”
Xev glanced down at Kody. “There’s only so many times I can say, not quite sure.”
Nick ignored them as if they didn’t exist.
He went around Menyara’s house gathering items as if he lived here, which kind of made sense. She had practically raised him and he’d spent a lot of his childhood in this home.
For that matter, he’d been born on her couch.
They gave him room to work—which ultimately resulted in a large summoning circle on the floor.
Only then did Xev begin to appear concerned. “He’s not going to do something stupid like summon a friend we hate, right?”
“It’s Nick. Of course he’s going to do something stupid. When has he not? The only way this could go worse would be if we had Mark here, helping.”