The gods had wrongfully taken Rubati’s life and so to balance it out, Bethany had been resurrected without a heart to provide justice to the universe.
That was the legacy of Kody’s bloodline. Her family were all gods of justice and balance. Chthonians or demigods.
Protectors of man.
Meanwhile Nick’s were the destroyers. They were hatred and all the darkness of the universe.
By reuniting their two bloodlines, Nick and Kody stood a chance at laying the hatred aside and allowing Nick to live out his lifetime not as a destroyer, but as a protector too.
Haven’t you figured it out yet?
Nick gasped as he heard his father’s voice in the aether around him.
“Adarian?”
Something slammed into his chest, knocking him down. It felt as if he’d been hit by a truck. With a gasp, he forced himself to his feet, and braced himself to take another hit as he realized this wasn’t who and what he thought.
This was the other Malachai.
“Where are you?” he roared. “Face me, you coward!”
Light blinded him.
And out of the searing brightness came the red and black winged beast who haunted his nightmares. The one with red, glowing eyes that hated him most.
Not his father.
Ambrose Malachai. The monster he feared becoming.
Beautiful and ugly in that he would one day incinerate the world. Or at least allow it to fall.
Nick winced as he faced himself in the vast nothingness that hovered between dimensions. “Why are you here?”
Ambrose tsked at him. “C’mon, kid. You’re not this stupid. I mean, you are. But think about it for a minute.” He lifted his clawed hands up. The black talons shot fire toward the sky as his black wings spread out. Those eyes telegraphed their hatred and malice.
“What are the inherent powers of our kind?”
Nick scowled at Ambrose’s question. “Necromancy.” Which had been one of his hardest things to master and he was still working on it. The ability to talk to the dead wasn’t something he could do with any kind of ease.
Not to mention, it was rather creepy. And the dead tended to be crabby whenever he tried it. They had nasty attitudes about being disturbed. Kind of like his whenever his mom asked him to take out the trash.
Ambrose nodded in approval. “What else?”
The first one he’d mastered and the only one he’d been born with that Menyara hadn’t been able to bind or restrict. “Perspicacity.” That ability to see the heart and truth of those around him. Whether it was the fact that Acheron was really a god or to tell whenever someone was lying to him, a Malachai could always see the truth of all things. Who and what everything really was.
Nothing and no one ever got the better of a Malachai.
Ambrose inclined his head. “Go on.”
“Teleportation.” They could move through connected space in short bursts, but not through time. Handy, but irritating to master in that Nick had screwed it up a lot in the beginning and had embarrassed himself royally as he ended up in a few places he hadn’t meant to.
Yeah, not some of his finer memories. Puberty was bad enough. Puberty combined with sporadic bursts of popping in and out of rooms and clothes …
Nightmare levels that drove even the bravest into therapy.
“Next?” Ambrose prompted.
“Silkspeech.” Another of the easier powers to master. The ability to sway the minds of the weak and influence thought. To make them do or think what you wanted. One of Nick’s favorite powers, especially with his teachers, and very handy for saving him from detention at school. And getting him out of parking tickets.
Sadly, it didn’t work with his stubborn mother, or girlfriend. And if he tried it on Caleb, that resulted in massive bruising both to his body and ego.
“You’re halfway there, kid.”
Nick went for another aggravating one that misfired more than it worked correctly. “Clairvoyance.” Because the future wasn’t set, that one could be seriously tricky. The ability to see an ever-changing future was like trying to jump onboard a moving train. You had to time it correctly and make sure you didn’t misjudge your steps. Or miss seeing the blurry telephone pole that was about to take your head off if you failed to see it in time. It also required opening his senses to the aether he was in now. To be able to see, hear and experience a heightened realm and to leave his body behind so that he could see the entire universe.
It was frightening here. A part of him was always scared he wouldn’t make it back to his body. That he’d get lost and be adrift forever. But once tapped, he could find anything. Hear anyone. See the past. Present or future. It was like time traveling in a way. You just had to be able to make sense of it and understand it.
And not get drowned or overwhelmed by it all—a very tricky thing to do.
“And?”
“Dude! Don’t rush me,” he bristled at Ambrose. If anyone knew how much he hated to be pushed, it was himself.
Ambrose gave him a peeved, droll stare.
Yeah, well, he deserved it.
Nick cleared his throat before he continued. “Telekinesis.” Another one that had been relatively easy to master. At least when it involved his Malachai tools. They usually came whenever he called them. Other objects could be a little harder as they had a tendency to hit him in the head and other body parts he didn’t want to think about. Mostly because that tended to make him walk funny for a few.
“You’re almost there.”
His pocket heated up to remind him of his favorite one. It was where he kept his pendulum at all times as he was prone to lose things. “Divination and conjuring.” Again, they could be tricky, but so long as he stayed focused, they weren’t so bad. And though most people thought divination was the same as clairvoyance, it wasn’t. Divination and conjuring relied on using objects or tools in order to read signs or learn about the higher senses. Those were an entirely different set of skills.
Ambrose nodded. “Almost there.”
“Summoning.” And he definitely wasn’t fond of it as the ability to bring or summon any demon into his realm came without any effort whatsoever. All he needed was their correct name.
Sometimes not even that. It was one power Nick could do without as it’d gotten him into all kinds of trouble over the years. Not to mention, his current “pet” Zavid. Although the hellhound would be the first to protest that label, it was still apropos. Nick hadn’t meant to bind Zavid to him as a servant, but again, as the Malachai, it was just a little too easy to do it.
Sadly, it was much harder to break.
“You forgot one. The most important one, too.”
Nick froze as he ran back through them. “No, I didn’t.”
“Yeah, you did. Think about it for a minute.” Then Ambrose ran over the list again. “There are ten powers. You named nine. Necromancy. Perspicacity. Teleportation. Silkspeech. Clairvoyance. Telekinesis. Divination and conjuring. And summoning … That’s nine.”
He was right. ’Course there was a reason why he’d forgotten the last one. It was one Nick didn’t play around with because it was the one he screwed up with the most. And it was the one you really didn’t want to screw up as it had some of the worst consequences, hence Vawn’s predicament of being a guy trapped in the body of a girl. And it’d been the one that had caused his friend Madaug to be turned into a goat for a while. “Transformation.”
“Yeah,” Ambrose breathed. “Transformation.”
Nick froze as he finally understood what his older incarnation was trying to tell him. “Cyprian isn’t in his real body.”
“No. It’s why you can’t recognize him or feel another Malachai around you.”
Just like he didn’t see the Dark-Hunter bow and arrow mark on Ambrose’s face whenever he appeared to him or the Malachai marks. Because they hid those. A Malachai could appear as anyone or anything he chose to.
Like Simi, or any of the Charonte demons. They could have any body or appearance they wanted.
Young. Old.
Crap …
And with a Malachai here, Nick’s powers would be weaker and weaker. His son would drain him until he was too weak to fight. “Why is he here? Do you know? I mean, if he kills me, he won’t be born. Right?”