Until he struck solid ground.
Out of the darkness came a lilting voice.
“Do you know me?”
Nick froze at someone who seemed familiar and at the same time foreign. He glanced around the dense forest he didn’t recognize. “Where are you?”
His breath caught as the shimmering Sephiroth woman stepped out of the shadows to his right. Dressed in gilded armor and with black braided hair, she was remarkably beautiful with gold, gossamer wings. Even in height to him, he knew her from the sketches Xev had drawn in his bedroom.
Myone. The mother of Jared—Nick’s archnemesis and grandfather. The one warrior who’d betrayed his entire army to the side of evil in an effort to save what he’d believed was his father’s life. However, Jaden wasn’t Jared’s father. Jaden was Xevikan’s father— Jared’s grandfather.
A lie told to keep Jared and Xev alive and safe from those who would have killed Myone had they learned that she, the pinnacle of all good and the beloved leader of the Kalosum army, had been seduced by the son of ultimate evil—Xev. It wouldn’t have mattered that Xev had married her first. Or how much they loved each other. Or that they were completely devoted to one another—indeed, that devotion would have made it all the worse for them, because no one would have ever trusted Myone again as she would have been seen as totally corrupt. For they would have only believed that Xev brought her down to his level. Not that she raised him up to hers.
Which was the truth. While she was beyond corruption, for her alone, Xev would do anything. She had given him his soul and she was the one and only thing in the universe he would never betray or cause harm to.
But instead of believing that Xev could be saved, all that would have mattered to the others was that neither she nor her child could ever be trusted, because Xev’s blood was demonic. In their minds, that bit of evil would override any amount of good.
Always.
Nick knew better. He understood exactly how much sway such kindness had. How much pull his mother and Kody had over him. It wasn’t something that could be explained.
Only experienced.
How sad an indictment against so many that they couldn’t have faith in others to know just how solid such honesty was. That their hearts were so corrupt that they refused to believe creatures like Xev and him were above their pettiness. Yet they were.
And so they were forced into hiding. Forced into lies they didn’t want to live or tell.
Not because they were wrong ortheycouldn’t be trusted. Because others refused to see the good inside them. Because others refused tobelievethe goodness inside them.
Since they lacked it themselves, they refused to see it in anyone else. But denying it didn’t kill it. It just made it all the more special and rare.
And for that reason, Jared had made a deal with the Source of all evil to spare his grandfather’s life. And Jaden had enslaved himself in an effort to save Jared so that he wouldn’t be killed, along with his army.
Both betrayed by the gods they’d trusted to deal fairly with them.
And Myone had paid dearest of all. She’d lost everything in the end. Her son, her husband and her life.
For that, Nick could weep for them all.
Now, the Sephiroth warrior stood before him, her scarlet cape draped around a lithe, armored body. It was held back in places from her shoulders by a quiver of arrows and a gilded sword belt.
“I know you,” Nick breathed.
Indeed, she was a hard one to miss with her gold-kissed skin and shining gold wings. Her braided black hair reflected blue in the dim light. Every exquisite feature was perfection. No wonder Xev had been willing to die for her. That he’d suffered a fate worse than death to protect her and their son, when he’d stepped aside and allowed her to marry his father and pretend that his child belonged to his father so that no one would ever suspect the truth.
That was the purest form of altruism and love.
Not once had Xev ever breathed a word of it for fear of causing either his ex-wife or child harm. Nick couldn’t imagine the pain and agony Xev had known every day of his life, and he was grateful for that.
Without a word, Myone watched him curiously. Her shining gold vambraces held an ornate design that designated her as the leader of her Sepherii brethren—their kyra. As did the epaulettes of her uniform. She carried herself like a fierce warrior, even though she was all feminine grace.
The only piece of jewelry on her body was an out-of-place masculine necklace. One Nick knew belonged to Xev. And only because it was a match for the one Xev wore that symbolized her dainty feathered Sephiroth wing, unlike her roughened batshaped demon piece. How odd that no one had ever realized what those two necklaces meant and why the two of them wore them.
Her lips trembled as she approached Nick. “You are the only one who has been kind to my Dary. For that I can’t thank you enough.”
It took him a second to remember that Xev’s real name was Daraxerxes, especially since Xev never used it. “Um, yeah, I guess.”
A tear fell down her cheek. “You are not as the others of your kind.”
