“What are you doing, Cam?” Jaden appeared right behind his sister as she struggled to paint symbols on the walls of her shack that had been built on the outskirts of some backwater hole in the human realm that the humans had dubbed New Orleans.
With a huff, she paused to look down at him from the ladder she stood upon. “Don’t just pop in on me without warning, Verlyn! You scared the shite from me!”
“You’re not supposed to be here.”
“I don’t have a choice, do I?”
“We all have choices. Isn’t that what you constantly tell me?”
Ignoring his barb, she went back to work. “Return to your masters.”
“You can’t contain Adarian forever.”
“I have to try. He’s way too powerful and we can’t afford for him to run loose in the human world.”
Jaden cursed as he realized what she was painting. “You’re going to try it, aren’t you?”
“It’s prophecy.”
“Idiocy, you mean.”
“No. Our only hope.”
“To create another Malachai whose powers will make a mockery of Adarian’s? Are you out of your mind? Haven’t you learned yet not to interfere?”
“As it began, it shall end. Monakribos was born of absolutes. An equal division.”
“So, what? You plan to sleep with Adarian?”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
He wasn’t. That was how it’d all begun. A Sephiroth warrior—those who fought for absolute good—had slept with the goddess of absolute destruction and fathered a child. “Then how? In case it’s missed your notice, the only Sephiroth left is male. Last time I checked, two men can’t physically have a baby. There’s only so much bending the laws of nature even you can do, Cam.”
“Menyara,” she corrected. “And I know. But …” She paused to look down at him. “There is a way. A girl born to the Sephiroth.”
Jaden’s heart sank at the thought. She was talking about the creation of his great-granddaughter. “Do not interfere, Cam. Enough harm has been done to my child.”
Children, actually.
And all because of him.
Most of all, he didn’t want his great-granddaughter near a Malachai because of one basic reason. All Malachai were born through an act of violence, and the thought of anyone harming his bloodline …
“I mean it, Cam. Don’t you dare put my children in harm’s way.”
“Why do you care now? You’ve never been this protective in the past.”
“I like to think I can learn from my mistakes.”
“And I want to save this world.”
Some days he did, too. Today, not so much. And definitely not at the expense of his sons.
“Don’t, Cam. I mean it.”
“Fine, then. Go back to Azmodea and fear nothing. Besides, Jared is locked away. Not like I can get to him.”
He winced at the mention of his grandson and the curse that had been laid upon him.
