She looked away and picked at her torn skin again. “No.”
Anger rushed to the surface as ice coated the ground beneath them.Brooks lashed out, grabbing her cheeks with one hand as he jerked her face around. “Do. Not. Lie.” The glow of his blue eyes was reflected in her terrified stare.
Good. Let her be afraid,Chaos seethed.
“Nyx,” she breathed. “My name is Nyx.”
She didn’t break eye contact as he assessed her words. Good enough. For now. Brooks released his grip and turned back to the water. His protectiveness of Xia put him on edge and he struggled to rein the chaos back into his chest.
“I know you’re lying because I can taste your soul, Nyx. Your entire race contains a piece of my chaos in your core and you cannot hide it from me. You cover it in layers of life, deception, emotions, and power. But once I call to it, it unravels every single one of those layers and shows me your true self.”
“Soul Eater,” she breathed. Her breath hitched and the pounding of her heart grew louder than the flow of running water..
He stared into her violet eyes to drive his point home as he said, “Remember that when you lie to me.”
Brooks gave Nyx time to sit with her thoughts and emotions. She needed to understand the weight of their situation. Nyx offered her plate to him after he finished his food, her meat and cheese untouched. He didn’t argue. If this body needed food to stay strong, he would give it everything he could.
“So, Nyx. Tell me about this world.”
“Where should I start?” she scoffed.
He pondered that. “When I was…” Words failed. Where had he been? “When I was away, Atropos came to me often. She spoke of a darkness spreading in the world. I swore to never involve myself in what I’ve created, but it seems I will lose it if I don’t.”
“A darkness, huh? Did she elaborate? Because this whole world is a shithole.”
“What do you mean?”
“Of course you wouldn’t see it.” Her mocking tone should have pissed him off, but it only made him more curious. What did these daemon know of him other than his part in their creation?
“Well,” she started. “While you were off gallivanting through the stars, the rest of us were down here being starved and slaughtered.”
Nyx looked away into the distance, but he caught the sheen of tears coating her eyes. She was silent for a long time beforeher shoulder squared. When she looked back to him, a fiery determination had slipped over her features.
“They believed in you.” Her voice was strong, but he could still hear the small shake within it.
“Who did?”
“Everyone left to rot in this village. In all of the fucking villages just like this. The Olympians wipe us off their feet like dog shit and you could have been helping this whole time. With one blink you could have knocked them from their ridiculous fucking mountain.”
He nodded but didn’t object. One young girl would not understand the consequences of those actions.
“If I intervened in everything, Nyx, it would be a lot more scary than those you call Olympians.”
“Oh yeah? Because you’re so fucking tough? Some big, scary asshole who uses intimidation to frighten those with nothing?”
“Yes,” he said simply as he met her gaze. Her deep, violet irises changed to shining amethyst and he was almost endeared by her strength.
Almost.
“If I were to decide to rule here, Nyx, no one could stop me. You could raise every army of the gifted against me and you would never even breach my doorstep.” Brooks held her stare. He wanted her to see the truth in his words. He was not one of her cruel leaders inducing fear.
He was Chaos.
“It would be a gamble to ask me to,” he said. “How do you know I wouldn’t be worse?”
He let her ponder his words as he watched the current of the river. He’d spoken true. At his full power, he could wipe this galaxy from existence and start fresh on a virgin canvas. Nyx didn’t need to know that he wouldn’t, though.
Couldn’t, really.
