A sudden, familiar cry of pain.
Terrified, Nick turned from their fight to the smaller soldier several yards away. She was surrounded. About to go down. All-out panic filled him. Whatever it took, he would not lose her. Damn the rest. She would not be the cost of this.
Ever.
He kicked his enemy away and flew to her as fast as he could, scooping her up to carry her from the fray.
She ordered him to return to fight, but he wouldn’t go. “There is nothing I will not do to protect my family,” he said with a determination so raw, he felt it to the core of his rotted soul. “I made you my promise and I will keep it.”
But he felt her blood coating his hands as he held her gently, trying his best not to harm her any worse. Her eyes softened through the slits in her helm as she clung to him.
“You were never good at listening to anyone, were you?”
He smiled down at her. “Contrary from my first breath to my last. But loyal to you with each and every one I draw.”
A raw, furious battle cry sounded.
Nick looked over his shoulder to see his enemy headed for them, dodging through the combatants around him, slaying any who dared to charge his path.
Knowing this was about to get bad, he landed and did the last thing he ever wanted to—he handed his precious burden off to another of his men. “Get her to safety. Do not let her die!”
Her hand lingered on his as if she hated to let him go as much as he regretted what was to come. As if she knew the future as clearly as he did.
But this had to be done.
With a deep breath, he forced himself to let go of the one thing he cherished most and turned back to fight, but it was too late.
His enemy was already on him. Before Nick could even raise his sword, the demon stabbed him straight through his worthless heart and drove him to the ground where he planted him with his sword pressed all the way through his body.
Choking on his own blood, Nick struggled as hard as he could to live—he had so much to live for … but there was nothing he could do except die.
And as his life faded from his body, he heard the scream that broke his heart. Why did she have to see this? Why had he allowed her to fight today?
With the courage that he’d loved since the day they first met, she ran to his side. “No!” she sobbed over and over again as she exposed his face. She lay her hand to his cheek and wept as if her entire world had been shattered.
“The vial,” he breathed. “I can’t reach it.”
Sobbing, she pulled out the necklace Apollymi had sent for him and quickly helped him to drink. “Don’t you dare leave me, Ambrose! Do you hear me? I won’t lose you. I will go back and I will change this. Whatever the cost. I will find you and I will save you!”
He tried to touch her one last time. But the darkness he’d spent his whole life fighting claimed him first.
The moment he was dead, the woman holding him let loose the battle cry of a thousand Furies. She took his Malachai sword and ran at his enemy to finish what he’d started.
Their demon enemy raised his arm and caught her blow, then shot a blast at her that knocked her helmet free.
Dazed but undaunted, she jerked her head back to glare at him.
The sight jarred Nick this time. Before, it’d been Kody’s face Nick had seen in his vision. But this face was different. Still beautiful, it was older and scarred.
He didn’t know this woman, at all. Yet he recognized the hatred in her eyes that she bore for the demon before her. It was brutal and tangible.
And as Nick came out of his vision, he knew that this time, the demon Malachai was his son who’d killed him that day.
The first time he’d seen that vision, he’d thought it was him transposing his face over Kody’s brother’s.
Now …
He blinked and turned to face her. “I’m so confused.”
“Maybe this is what Grim meant when he threatened us.”
“What do you mean?”
“Rule one … what’s the best way to defeat your enemies?”
“Psychologically.” Leave it to Caleb to know that. “You beat them down in their mind and it’s easy to beat them down in their body.”
She nodded at him. “Exactly. Maybe that’s what this is.”
“But Ambrose was the one who told me to get the Eye.”
“The Eye of Ananke?”
He turned around as Menyara rejoined them. “Yes, ma’am.”
She made a sound of supreme noise. “Child, you don’t want any part of that. It’ll make you crazy.”
“Too late for that. It’s already happened. And it won’t stop spamming with crazy junk mail, either. How do I turn it off?”
“That’s the problem. You’re the Malachai. You can’t.”
“Lovely. That warning would have been much nicer before I touched it.”
Menyara cupped his chin. “As if you would have heeded any warning.… One day, child, I hope you will learn to ask and look before you leap. You’ve always been too fast to act first. Look at what you’re falling into, after you’re already on your way down.”