Ambrose sighed heavily. “Demons at the gate. They hit my shields constantly and explode.”
“And you let them?”
“Can’t stop them. Barely tolerate them. The fact they want to commit suicide by dive-bombing my shields … none of my business. It just goes to show how stupid they are and makes my cleaning bill ridiculous. Besides, it’s a public service. They will now do no harm.”
Ambrose meant that. There was no emotion whatsoever. In all honesty, Nick didn’t like this version of himself.
How can I be so cold?His future self scared him. Because right now, the thought of someone, even a demon, dying like that saddened him and made him want to talk it over so that they could find a peaceful solution other than as baked-on demon.
What happened to turn me into Ambrose?
Ambrose gave him a cold stare.Talk to me after a demon murders our mother. What can I say? It left a scar.
Yeah, that’d do it. Before he had Kody to anchor him to humanity, he’d had his mother. She alone kept his evil at bay and made him want to be someone she wouldn’t be ashamed of. Without her or Kody around to inspire him, he had no reason not to end the world.
Honestly, he couldn’t imagine a life without them, and Ambrose had lived centuries with no anchor. Only anger and bitterness. Memories he didn’t want. Given what his mother meant to him, Nick could only imagine how insane her death would make him.
Nick slid a glance to Ambrose.That answered that.
And it was another reason he was here. “Can we save her?”
Ambrose shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve gone round and round with that until I’ve made myself insane. If we save her, I won’t become a Dark-Hunter or the Malachai.”
“Would that be so bad? Then we wouldn’t have Cyprian to deal with. If we really want to stop this brutal cycle, wouldn’t saving my mother be a good idea?”
Ambrose sighed. “You change one thing, Nick, and there’s no telling what could happen. The curse could bring Adarian back for all we know, and we don’t know what he’d have done had he continued living … He could have formed a pack with gallu demons. Kept the Daimons from being able to walk in daylight. Or killus—remember our history. Either the son kills the father or the father kills the son. Adarian wanted Cherise. He kept us alive because he knew our death would be more than she could bear, and he didn’t want to cause her pain. But the day might have come where no longer cared about that, and sent Caleb or another out to murder you.”
That would have destroyed his mother.
“Exactly. And there’s not telling what Mom would have done. Killed herself, or gone after him. The one thing we know about our mother … She lived for us. If we’d die …”
He was right. She would have self-destructed worse than they had.
Anything happens to you, Boo, they’ll have to dig two graves. I will not live in this world if you’re not here with me.She’d spoken those words to him so often and with such passion that they were indelibly imprinted on his soul.
“You might never meet me,” Kody reminded him. “Our daughter would never be born.”
“We wouldn’t have saved Acheron’s wife, either.”
Because he wouldn’t have been working with Acheron’s enemies.
Nick winced at the future events he’d seen. “I did so many inexcusable things … like help put Tory in danger.”
Ambrose snorted. “But you made it right. And all the bad things we did, we did after our powers ignited.”
Back when they couldn’t control their anger. Because that was the very nature of a Malachai.
Destroy everything.
Ambrose stepped forward with a stern frown. “What all have you seen in that Eye?”
“A lot of things.” Horrible things Nick wanted to avoid. “Why?”
“Did you see us on Savitar’s island?”
Nick wanted to deny it, but yeah. He’d seen that. After his mother was killed, he’d gone to war against Acheron. Unable to train him because of Nick’s insanity, Acheron had sent him to Savitar for protection and training.
Nick could never get the sight of his future out of his mind. “Yeah, I saw it.”
