Invision - Sherrilyn Kenyon Page 0,3
He-Who-Wants-Me-Chained-to-his-Bony-Throne. I don’t leave my friends behind to suffer in my stead. Especially not Zavid. Not after he saved my life and not after everything he’s been through. I made him a promise and I intend to keep it.”
With those words spoken, he headed toward home to make plans.
Kody watched as Nick lowered his head and went into that sexy predator’s lope that he always fell into whenever he had a mission to protect someone he loved, or was heading to fight for someone else. He had no idea that he even did it, nor did he know just how incredibly adorable he was when he did so. That stubborn Cajun blood and his ever-faithful heart were why she couldn’t bring herself to complete her mission to assassinate him. Why she loved him even though he would one day kill every member of her family.
Kill her.
It was so hard to reconcile this decent young man with the beast she knew she’d one day face in battle. How could anyone change so much?
She cut her gaze to Caleb. “What did you see in the Eye? What changes him?”
“The ruthless bitch who ultimately betrays us all. Death.”
A single tear slid past her tight control. Caleb was right. Death changed everyone. Each time she’d buried a member of her family, it had left a savage hole in her heart. One that never fully healed.
Nick had so little family to begin with, and as a Malachai, his natural state was that of hatred and cruelty. His mother and her unwavering love were the only things that kept him from becoming the same monster his father had been.
The monster he was destined to become.
“So Cherise is definitely a pith?” she asked Caleb. Pith points were those events that were chiseled solid in everyone’s life. Predestined intersections, such as birth and death, that were unstoppable moments nothing could alter. What happened in between to bring them into being were transitory and subject to free will. Humans and other creatures could move things around the pith points and make a thousand changes—those arbitrary events were never predetermined.
But a pith …
It was set in firmly in the Divine Book of Fate. Nothing and no one could change that.
Caleb shook his head. “No. She’s not a pith. Her death isn’t necessarily what sends him over.”
“So we can save her?”
He nodded. “At the cost of your future. Everything’s a trade-off.”
Aeron flinched. “All magick comes with a price.”
“And the balance must be maintained.” Caleb sighed before he returned to speaking to Kody. “You and his mom were both born of the primal source to balance the Malachai. Cherise in the past and you in the future—both of you his possible anchors. The two of you should have never met.”
But the Arelim had cheated and altered the rules. Now the law of the universe was attempting to right itself and correct their audacity for daring to tamper with fate and natural order.
Of all beings, as the Keepers of Cosmic Order they should have known better. Unfortunately, desperate people moved in desperate ways and did desperate things.
“And what of the prophecy? Can we save him?”
Caleb rubbed nervously at his neck. “Maybe. But it’s not so simple. It requires a supreme sacrifice. One of utter love to reach him at his darkest hour … even then, there aren’t any guarantees.”
Kody despised those last four words.
Every bit as frustrated as she was, Caleb raked his hand through his hair. “We wanted Nick motivated … but not this motivated.” He dropped his hand. “He goes into Azmodea and we’re screwed.”
She couldn’t agree more. However, they had one not so small problem. “We can’t stop him. His powers are too strong now.”
“Believe me, I know. I’m lucky I got him tackled just then. Worse? I can’t go in there with him. Neither can Xev. Our father would chain us down beside your uncle and hand-feed us to Noir’s demons if he saw us protecting the Malachai.” He looked at Aeron.
“Don’t be cutting them eyes at me, Malphas. Not sure if I can or not. Might be able to swing an invite from Thorn. But that’ll only get me so far into that realm. Same for Dagon. You know how it goes when you’re born of other pantheons. They tend not to let us come a’playing in their backyards.”
Caleb let out a fierce groan. “Have I said today how much I hate your boyfriend, Kody?”
“Only a few dozen times since lunch.”
“Good. Don’t want you to forget it.” Growling,