Xev, surrounded by guards.
On his knees with his hands and wings tied, Xev was cut and bleeding where they’d outnumbered him twenty to one. Two of the guards held swords at his throat.
“What is this?” she demanded.
“We captured a Mavromino spy.” Jaden gestured at his guards. “Take him and lock him up.”
She paled at Jaden’s cold words as they brutally hauled Xev away, making sure to cause him as much harm as they could while they did so.
Trembling, she approached Jaden slowly. “What are you planning to do with him?”
“He’ll be interrogated for information about their army and intentions.”
“You mean tortured?”
Jaden didn’t respond. “We’re at war, Myone. Don’t underestimate our enemies.”
“He’s your son.”
“Who came here of his own free will to gather information for his mother to use against me. You think that deserves my mercy?”
“And if he didn’t? What if he came to give us information, instead?”
Jaden laughed. “Do you know how he was conceived? Through lies and deceit. He was meant to be a tool to be used against us from the very beginning. And that’s what he is. Don’t ever be fooled by him. He was born of a lying beast and suckled on the breast milk of demons. Trust me. I made the mistake of trusting him once, when he was just a boy, and it almost cost me my life. It’s a mistake I won’t ever repeat. Keep your heart hardened where he’s concerned, or else you’ll pay dearly for your mercy.”
Nick flinched as the memory faded and he watched Jaden pull Xev by his hair toward Caleb.
“Are you the one who did this to him?” Jaden snarled in Xev’s ear.
Xev refused to speak. He merely blinked slowly and said nothing.
Pale and shaking, Caleb glared at his father. “Told you to let me die. Next time I tell you not to call someone, brother, maybe you’ll listen.”
Those bitter words took the fire out of Jaden’s eyes. “You side with our enemy?”
“Against you?” Caleb let out a scoffing laugh. “I’d side with Lucifer.”
Jaden took those words like a slap. Apparently, they stunned him enough that he loosened whatever hold he had on them.
Kody stumbled forward while Nick hung back, unsure of this new being who didn’t appear to be the most stable of creatures.
The one thing his psychotic father had taught him was to lie low out of a striking range until they either calmed down or went away.
And to be prepared for any attack.
“Caleb was poisoned,” Kody said.
The moment Jaden saw her, he cocked his head and frowned. “Bet?”
“I’m her daughter.”
“You can’t heal him?” Jaden asked her.
“I don’t have her powers. My father was a Chthonian.”
He nodded. “I need lapis lazuli ground with red jasper.”
Kody went to gather them and crush the stones for him.
“You’re not asking payment for this?” Xev wiped at the blood on his lips.
At first, Nick thought Jaden wouldn’t answer. Or that he didn’t hear.
But after a few seconds, he spoke. “You are my sons, regardless of how you were conceived.” He glanced up at Nick. “Lesson to you, boy … beware of any woman who comes near you with a tongue laden with flattery. And twice as wary of anything she hands you to drink.” He scowled. “Where are your pants?”
“Uh … over there.” He pointed toward them.
“Why?”
Xev almost grinned. “Our latest Malachai isn’t quite as competent as his predecessors.”
Jaden went completely still. “He’s the Malachai?”
Nick nodded. “I had much the same reaction, only with a bit more screaming.” He paused as he remembered the day Ambrose had told him his destiny. “And a lot more cursing and denial.”
Aghast, Jaden glanced from Caleb to Xev. “That idiot killed Adarian?”
Caleb laughed, then choked and groaned in agony of his wounds. “Yeah, he did. Don’t underestimate him. He kicked Grim’s butt, too.”
“And Noir’s,” Xev added.
“Him?”
Nick pouted at the insulting tone. “Wow. My ego is taking one serious butt-whipping today. Anyone else want to pile on, and I don’t mean the hell-monkeys outside?”
Kody returned with the stones Jaden had requested already crushed inside a granite mortar. “And before you say anything more against our Malachai … you should know, Jared’s his grandfather.”
Jaden would have dropped the mortar had Kody not caught it from his slackened grip.
Time hung still. It honestly felt as if something had sucked the air from the room as Jaden stared at him with those eerie bicolored eyes.
“How is that possible?”
Xev sighed. “Cam orchestrated it. He’s the Malachai of prophecy. Born of light and darkness. The most powerful one ever.”
“Standing