“Anything more concrete? Such as how to locate them so that we can slide a blade in their ribs or hearts?”
“We’ve pinpointed the time. You know the location.”
The year before he was born. Yeah, he knew where his father would be. “Well, that’s just great, isn’t it?”
At that time, his father had spent most of his time with Aunt Artie. On Mount Olympus. Bad thing about gods—they didn’t like people intruding in their divine palaces. If he went to drag his father and crew out of Greece, Artemis would blast them to oblivion.
And while he was strong, they had to tread carefully around gods. Especially Artemis, who retained some of the powers she’d siphoned from Acheron.
Such as being a god killer.
Or more to the point, Malachai killer.
Given that she’d been feeding from his father for years, she also shared Malachai powers … and unlike his father, her powers wouldn’t diminish in his presence. Artemis would retain all those superior powers she’d collected.
And be able to use them against him.
Yeah, she wasn’t one they wanted to confront, especially the year before his birth. The year Artemis would be at her strongest.
Not to mention, he knew he had never attacked his father at that time …
Keeper of memories. He knew his father’s life.
At least most of it.
“Again, I ask you if you have a plan, Mother?”
“Of course I do. And this time, we will finish them and leave the door open for you to destroy mankind and to reign for eternity as the last Malachai.”
2
Nick pulled the Eye of Ananke from his pocket. When his friends had taken his memory from him, he’d forgotten that he had this.
More importantly, he’d forgotten where he’d hidden it.
Like a fool, the moment his memory returned, he’d sought it out. There was just something about it that lured him.
A siren’s curse.
“Oh my God!” Kody gasped as she entered the room and saw it in his hand. “I thoughtthatwas gone! For good!”
That was what he’d told her, that it was gone forever, but … “I know it made me crazy. Still, I can’t stop thinking about what Ambrose said.”
“What did I say?”
He snorted as the older version of himself joined them in the sitting room. “To use it to reset all the things you changed. You regretted coming to the past and messing up so much of our life.”
“So your answer was to come to the future and screw that up?”
Yeah, maybe this wasn’t the best idea. “Didn’t know what else to do. I figured the future me had to be smarter than the teenage me.” At least, that was what he hoped.
Otherwise, they really were screwed.
Besides, the bleak future the stone had shown him was nothing as bad as Ambrose’s current reality.
“I wanted to understand what I was fighting for.”
“You know what you’re fighting for.” Ambrose gestured at the wall on Nick’s left. A screen flickered on to show him a newscast.
