wounded.”
Sympathy darkened Jaden’s freaky eyes. “That’s not your battle, kid. Sorry.”
“But, if you change what happens … if we find out what went wrong, that won’t be her world anyway.”
Nick considered Xev’s words. “All this time we’ve been trying to stop Ambrose.”
Xev nodded. “And it wasn’t Ambrose. You were right the whole time. You’re not the problem.”
“Doesn’t really make me feel better to know it’s my kid.”
Jaden stiffened at those words. Too late, he realized that his own sons had seen his involuntary reaction.
They exchanged a silent, bitter glare of mutual sibling resentment for their father. While Nick was glad to see them getting along for once, he hated that it was hatred for their father that bonded them and gave them common ground.
Kody cleared her throat in an effort to distract them. “Did you learn anything else from the future?”
“Learn’s a bit of a stretch, but we did meet Kyrian’s daughter. And Simi’s two kids.”
Instant tears welled in Kody’s eyes. “Oh my God! Lucy and Amara were there!” she breathed. “They were alive?”
Well, that was as shocking as their initial discovery. “You knew about them?”
Crying even harder, she nodded. “I never mentioned them to you because I assumed they were long dead. So there was no need.” She let out a sharp, hysterical laugh. “I can’t believe they survived the attack! I’m so happy they made it out.”
“And did you know Lucien hooks up with my daughter?”
The shock of that stopped her tears instantly. They ended in one sharp, stunned hiccup. “Seriously?”
He nodded.
Sniffing and laughing, she wiped at her eyes. “Well, since I had no idea that you had a daughter, no, I didn’t know about that.”
“Do you know who their father is?” Caleb asked.
She nodded.
“Care to share?”
Biting her lip, she dabbed daintily at her eyes with her sleeve, then cleared her throat. “Given who they are and the way they get together, I think sharing that with present company would be a profoundly bad idea … that knowledge could alter the future. ’Cause I’m pretty sure, knowing you as I do, that one of you would do something to stop it.”
“Kody—”
“Trust me, Nick. I know what you in particular would do.”
He would argue, but she did know him better than anyone else. “All right. I surrender to your superior common sense.”
But that didn’t alleviate the ache in his chest. He turned toward Xev. “I feel like we need to do something. We left them under fire. Charity was hurt. Can’t we send some kind of help?”
His eyes sad, Jaden shook his head. “Sorry. Doesn’t work that way. Their future is their own.”
“It doesn’t seem right.”
Jaden glanced at each of his sons. “Life isn’t about fair. It’s about survival training. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”
Caleb let out a sigh of disgust. “There are some people who should never procreate.”
“Amen, brother. Sing it to the choir.” Xev did some kind of odd hand gesture with him that must be the demon equivalent of a fist bump.
“So, Captains?” Nick asked in his best Star Trek Bones McCoy impression. “How do we fix the space-time continuum?”
“Ambrose said that the Eye of Ananke was the key.” Kody gestured to where Nick had left it on the floor. “We should start there.”
“Wow!” Jaden cut Nick’s path off. “What exactly did the Malachai tell you?”
“That he’d screwed everything up by trying to stop it. He told me to use the Eye as my guide and do everything the way it was supposed to happen to make sure that nothing else got screwed up.”
Caleb curled his lip. “Oh I know that expression.”
“Yeah.” Xev breathed. “It makes me sick to my stomach.”
Nick arched his brows. “What? Clue us in.”
“He knows something vital, Nick, that he’s not sharing.” Caleb cut a look of absolute contempt at Xev. “Remember that battle we went into where he conveniently forgot to tell us that our powers weren’t going to work?”
“And that our enemies would be twice as strong? Yes, I remember. I still limp from it.”
“That’s the look, Nick. Memorize it for future warnings.”
Jaden gave both of his children a droll, irritated stare. “I’m thinking how best to explain it, since you two jackals neglected to tell the child what the Eye was.”
“It’s a Fate stone.”
He rolled his eyes at Caleb. “It’s more than a Fate stone.” He took a deep, annoyed breath, then went to the Eye and picked it up. “Nick? Do you know who Ananke is?”
“Primordial goddess of fate. Roughly the same as Tiamet.”
That answer appeared