Brooks’ eyes flicked up, his heart picking up speed as hers did.
“Erebos,” Nyx confirmed. “How did you know?”
“Because,” Xia swallowed as she clasped trembling fingers. “That’s where the Onerioi are from. Whereheis from.”
“Who, Xia?” Brooks asked, though he had a feeling he knew. Chaos seethed under his skin.
“The Lord of Nightmares.”
“Oh, he will for sure be there,” Nyx added. “What better way to add onto the fun than to have a master weaver of nightmares?”
I do not trust her.
“And what about Zeus?” Brooks asked as he turned his icy stare to Nyx. Will he be there?”
Nyx’s brows dropped as she threw her hands up. “Of course he will be there, you idiot! That’s why I’m telling you you can’t just waltz in there and start killing gods. Do you listen to anything I say?”
His thoughts drifted to the constellation in the night sky where he’d laid his best friend to rest. His heart ached in the empty space Lytta once filled. She was owed retribution and Brooks would be the one to see it done. He let Chaos curl into that missing hole and fill it with an anger so intense it froze rather than burned. His path to finding his power was going to have to take a detour for vengeance.
We will see.
“Don’t you dare. You know how important she was to me. To us.”
You forget yourself, Brooks. I do not meddle in the affairs of immortals playing gods. This is bigger than your feelings.
“And if you’d deigned to have any, you wouldn’t be in this situation.”
Brooks turned to Xia to see her pretty face painted with deep lines of fear and concern. “I made you a promise,” he spoke low and sure.
Xia’s brows dipped as her mouth opened to speak.
“I promised you,” he interrupted. “That I would find who hurt you and make him pay tenfold for his crimes.”
“You don’t have to be a white knight riding in my honor, Brooks. If I wanted him dead I would do it myself.”
“I told you once not to mistake my kindness for goodness, Siren, and I meant it. I am not a white knight Xia.” Brooks pushed his darkness to the surface as he stepped one foot into Chaos’ shoes. “I am yours.Brooksis yours. But Chaos is yours,too, and we will not stand for the crimes committed against you.”
When Chaos brushed against the barrier between monster and man, Brooks welcomed the darkness with open arms. Ice coated the table where his palms met and wood split under the pressure of the cold. His eyes glowed an electric blue as his chaos bled like ink through his veins. His heart raced alongside hers, and when Xia leaned back with fear stricken eyes, he knew what she was seeing.
The eight-pointed star that bore him bloomed across his forehead, the bottom gleam settling in between his eyes as the other seven points stretched across his skin and spread like disease.
When he spoke, his voice was low and guttural, the weight of eternity lacing every emphasized word. “We will not stop until his blood paints the sky and his body lays dead at your feet. His soul ismine.”
Xia’s emotions warred as Brooks’ words settled into her mind, her Siren slithering to the surface. She vaguely heard Brooks and Nyx arguing, but the buzz in her head drowned them out.
The kill is not his to take,she hissed.
“The kill is not for any of us. If we stoop to his level then we are no better.”
We will finish what we started on that beach. He only got a taste of what was to come.
“You’re going to get us all killed, and for what? A girl? Petty revenge?” Nyx spat.
“It is not petty and don’t lecture me on affairs you will never understand.” Brooks threw back.
“You don’t think I understand wanting revenge? I would have killed you the first time I got the chance! I was almost killed as a plea for your mercy!”
The Lord’s soul belongs to us, and we will swallow it whole.
