“How do I stop this?”
Lilit stared, unblinking, her beautiful face frozen and stony. Like his heart.
“Ugh. Here again, moping?”
He ground his teeth at the sound of his mother’s disgust. “Don’t you have someone else to torment?”
Arms crossed, she pranced forward. “I do. Which is why I resent having to seek you out. Especially since you’re in the throes of another moody fit. Useless. From the moment you drew your first breath, until your last.”
Fury whipped through him. “How dare you!”
She actually laughed in his face. “Really? That’s your best threat? Don’t think for one moment that I fearyou.”
Her disdain caused the Malachai to possess him. Change him into his winged demonic form. “I have crushed greater gods than you!”
“And I’ve plucked the eyes off many a Malachai and used them to feed my pets.”
He would deny that, but she actually was that sick. There were times when having the memories of others was extremely inconvenient.
This was definitely one of them.
So as much as he hated it, he backed down. “What brings you here, Mother? Other than the sick delight you take from mocking me?”
“My spy has told me that there’s been a timeline spike.”
His father.
“Where?”
“A year before you were born.”
That didn’t make any sense. He’d assumed Caleb and the others would rally around his father. Just not in that time period. “I don’t understand.”
“Neither do I. Unless they’re trying to stop you from being conceived, it makes no sense.”
And they could never stop his conception. The only ones who knew the truth about it were his mother … and him. All others had been killed to ensure utter secrecy.
That was their way. Trust no one. Kill anyone who might betray. Better to strike first than risk exposure.
It was theonlyway.
“How do we get to them?”
His mother snorted. “You don’t just get in a car and drive there. You know how hard it was to reach them the last time.”
Yeah. Time travel sucked. It’d left him sick and weak for days. So much so that he’d feared never recovering.
The same was true about life. It wasn’t for the meek or cowardly. Some days it took all courage just to take another breath. Another step.
“So what’s the plan?”
She always had one. Being the original goddess of War, battle strategies were second nature to her. While he was good, she was the absolute best.
So even though it galled him to ask for her help, it was the smart thing to do.
One corner of her lips curled. “Kill them.”
Of course. Her answer for everything. His, too, for that matter.
