He blinked at Takeshi’s question. “Can you show me my friends on that timeline? Did Alan and Tyree die like this originally?”
“What do you mean?”
“My friends who shot me. Did they die in the first go round, before the timeline was tampered with?” He moved back to the lights and tried to read his roadmap. “I have to know what happened to them before Ambrose came back and started changing things.”
Takeshi took him over to the first weird split. “Well, you weren’t shot in the first sequence. You were stabbed.”
“Why would that change?”
Nashira moved forward. “Because one of the possibilities in the new timeline is that you could go to prison for murder in retaliation for being shot and then mugged by them.”
Takeshi nodded. “She’s right.” He pointed out the lines that intersected. “See how things build on each other. That’s cause and effect. As you change something, it goes into a different direction and splinters off. This is now a new possibility that wasn’t here before.”
Nick was slowly beginning to understand. “Like in the Eye of Ananke.”
Takeshi stared at him. “What do you know of that?”
“I had it. Caleb took it from me like an irate parent, slapped my hand, and told me not to touch it again or he’d slap my face next time.”
“Good! You don’t need to play with that. It’ll only mess you up.”
And boy had it. His head hadn’t been right since. Though to hear most tell it, his head had never been right.
Some days, he agreed.
More green began to flash. “What’s going on now?”
Takeshi laughed nervously. “Honestly? I’m not sure you want me to answer.”
That didn’t help his would-be ulcer any. “Ambrose told me to use the Eye to reset what I’d done. To go back to the beginning and not mess up anything else.”
“Yeah, but you’re not listening, Nick. It’s not what you did. Someone else is tampering with your timeline. This isn’t about what you’re doing. It’s what they’re undoing.”
“Dude, you’re seriously freaking me out.”
“You need to be freaked out. This is bad. Everything is unraveling and you’re walking a tightrope.”
“Not helping!” Nick’s only saving grace was that Kody wasn’t here to hear the unmasculine whine in his voice. That was the last thing he wanted.
Or worse, for Caleb to hear it.
“You’re misreading this.”
They both turned to stare at Nashira.
“Pardon?”
She stepped forward. “Look at it, Neo. Carefully.” With a delicate grace, she moved her hands over the lines as if playing some kind of instrument. As she did so, the lights shimmered and danced, then cleared.
Takeshi gaped. “She’s right.”
“I’m lost again.”
He shook his head. “No, Nick. You’re found. Just close your eyes. Count to three. And open them.”
“Yeah, right. I wasn’t born yesterday! Last time I did that, I got sucker-punched.” His past had given him severe trust issues. He didn’t blindly close his eyes for anyone. Not even to make a wish on his birthday cake.
Simi tsked at him. “You can trust them, silly boy-demon! Just doos what he says!”
Not sure about that, Nick growled and forced himself to do it. But it made every hair on the back of his neck stand up in protest.
Trust was not in him. With or without the Malachai blood.
Sheez!
Yet the moment he began to relax, he started to understand what they’d been trying to tell him.
Gasping, he opened his eyes and shook his head.
“You are the Malachai.”
For the first time, Nick got it. Completely. He saw the universe as it was and his real and true place in it.
More than that, he had a quickening of the breadth and depth of his true powers. They flowed and united. Not just his, but all of the Malachai who’d come before him.
He was Monakribos. Jeros. Evander and Veres …
Yarin. Eli. Xul. Elyon. Xarex. Utu …
Adarian.
Ambrose.
On and on. All united. From first to last, throughout time. He felt that connection.
More than that, he saw how it all began and felt the rage of the first betrayal that had led to their creation. The hunger for blood.
Throughout time, his species had been on a quest for vengeance.
Nothing soothed it.
Not until the day Nick had found his Kody.
“I don’t understand,” he whispered.
Yet no sooner had those words come out of his mouth than he saw himself long ago …
CHAPTER 3
“So you’re the son of Braith.”
Standing in the middle of an opulent marble hallway, Nick blinked at the rich, melodic voice so similar to Kody’s, and yet the accent was very different. Even so, this woman shared the same bright green eyes that seared him with intelligent curiosity, and a smile that made every part of his body sizzle.
She was just as breathtakingly bold as she walked straight up to him and arched her brow in challenge. “Have you nothing to say to me?”
Not really. He was too amused by the woman who barely came up to his chin. Her white wings twitched.
Her spunk and sass warmed him on every level. “And you would be?”
“Rubati. I’ve come to join the goddess’s guard, but they told me that there were no openings. Apparently, there are so many Malachai here in the city that we’re being sent back home without even being tested for skill. Pity.” Sighing, she turned to leave.
Before he could stop himself, he reached for her hand.
“And why’s that?”
There was no missing the confident gleam in her eyes. “I’m one of the best fighters ever born.”
He laughed.
Faster than he could react, she flipped him onto his back and had a knife at his throat.
Impressed, he stared up at her, knowing that, had she wanted to, she could have killed him. “You made your point.”
“I know.” She stepped away and sheathed her knife. Then she held her hand out for him so that she could help him to his feet.
Thinking to fool her, he tried to flip her in turn.
Even then she got the better of him and once again, he ended on the flat of his backside, staring up at the amused twinkle in her eyes.
Until he swept his feet out from under her.
With a shriek, she crashed down on top of him. Laughing once more, he rolled and pinned her beneath him. “Draw, is it?”
With an indignant hiss, she reluctantly ceded his victory. “That was an unfair attack!”
“Really? You dare accuse me, given what you just did?”
“A little. Aye.”
More amused than he should be, he rolled off her and helped her up. “I’m still impressed. And perhaps we can find a place for you in the guard, after all. Regardless of what they told you. Would you like for me to speak to the commander on your behalf?”
Her hopeful expression did the strangest things to his gut. Honestly, he’d never seen anyone more beautiful, nor had she been boasting about her skills. She was an accomplished fighter. “Could you?”
“Sure. On one condition.”
“What?”
“Have dinner with me?”
Nick let out a deep breath as he realized he was seeing how Monakribos and Rubati first met, and how they started their doomed relationship.
Monakribos was the original Malachai who’d founded his lineage before recorded history had begun. It had been Rubati’s vicious murder at the hands of her drugged and deranged husband as decreed by treacherous gods that had led to Nick’s curse and prophecy.
His forefather had sworn his vengeance against them all for what they’d taken from him. He’d vowed to see the entire world burn over it.
The heart and soul of her husband, Rubati had been the anchor who had kept the first Malachai sane and manageable. She alone had made him “human”. Once she was gone, he’d lost all shred of humanity and caring.
It was her DNA that she shared with Kody’s mother that allowed Kody to be Nick’s anchor in the future. And it was why he was their one hope of thwarting the Malachai curse. Because Kody’s mother had been created from Rubati’s blood, she, alone, calmed him. All because her mother had been born out of the injustice of Rubati’s murder.