“I refuse to betray him.”
“Then you can mourn him instead.”
Valynda gasped as Adarian vanished, then appeared behind Nibo in his full Malachai form. With black-and-red-swirling skin, he had black leathery wings and horns. His red eyes glowed with fury and hatred.
Truly there was nothing more terrifying. He reached for Nibo and grabbed him.
Nibo tried to blast the demon, yet it had no effect on the ancient being, who turned around and slashed him with his claws, then hit him with his own surge of energy.
“Don’t use your staff!” Acheron called as he saw Nibo reaching for it. “You’ll only make him stronger.”
“How?”
“It’s from the Tree of Life. It will feed his powers.”
Nibo’s eyes widened. “Now you tell me?”
“Never saw you fight a Malachai before.”
There was that. Nibo ducked as Adarian went for his throat and twisted away. As he stepped back, someone tripped him.
He went sprawling to land at the feet of Qeenan.
“Damn you, brother!”
Qeenan curled his lip at Nibo. “You were supposed to be on my side!”
“And you on mine.” Nibo flipped himself to his feet.
Valynda froze as she watched the two of them fighting and she remembered their past. Remembered the way Qeenan had once stared after her whenever he saw her with Nibo. It’d been so uncomfortable. And she’d felt so unsafe around him.
He was a treacherous bastard.
There was no worse feeling than to be in the home of your husband or fiancé and have that skittering sensation of danger. To be terrified of what might happen should he turn his back or you drift too far afield without him.
No one should live in fear. Especially not in their own home or in that of their in-laws. Yet she’d never felt comfortable or safe.
Because of Qeenan. And Nibo’s parents.
They’d fostered that competition, thinking it was good for their sons. That it would make them more manly and strive to be better.
In the end, because they’d refused to let their sons be and had forced them into positions unsuited to them, it’d destroyed their family entirely.
Just as it was about to tear them apart again.
“Enough!” She rushed between them and forced Qeenan back. She held her sword at his throat. “No more!”
Qeenan laughed at her. “What are you going to do?” He used his powers to drip blood and appear fierce and frightening.
But it would take more than his parlor tricks to work on her. “Don’t push me, Qeenan. You didn’t scare me as a girl and you don’t scare me now.” A bit of a lie, but she wasn’t about to give in to that monstrous ego of his.
“What?”
“You heard me.”
Scoffing, he pulled something from his pocket and blew it at her.
Valynda choked while he laughed cruelly. Then she staggered back into Nibo’s arms.
