“What’s up with the trees and plants?”
Xenia cast a grin at him over her shoulder. “They’re my family. They’ll always protect me.”
Good to know. But he was curious. “Why?”
“Dad brought me here when the fighting in the mortal realm got bad. He wanted to make sure that I stayed safe.”
Well that made sense … not at all. Thorn had damned his son to live in a nightmare realm for eternity. Sure. Throw one kid to the demons and protect the other one.
Nick lost a lot of respect for Thorn on that one.
“It was Cadegan’s idea,” Xenia said as if she knew his thoughts. “He was aware that the creatures here had made a pact with our father. So, he talked Dad into giving me ownership of his Azmodaen home to keep the others from harming me.”
Well, that made him feel a lot better about Thorn. “Cadegan got out of his prison? How? When?”
“You heard nothing,” Kody cut in. “Xenia, please stop telling Nick about a future he has yet to live. He’s from Ambrose’s distant past, and we can’t let him know what’s happened or he might screw everything up.”
“Oh. Nice scenery, isn’t it?”
“Mind-blowing.” Nick stepped around her as she held what appeared to be a shrub gate open for them.
After he entered the area, he pulled up short.
Thorn’s dismal hall. Only it didn’t look so forbidding in the light. It was still painted black and stood out against the landscape, but …
The hall actually looked inviting. Warm—dare he say, homey?
How weird.
Once they were through the gate, Xenia sealed them in.
“Are they still coming?” Bubba asked.
“Yes, but don’t worry. They can’t get in here.” She wrinkled her nose. “It drives Grim crazy. He thought he’d have this area, too.”
“Why doesn’t he?” Xev asked.
“The boundary my grandfather set up to protect my dad. Nothing can cross it so long as they mean harm.”
“You sure?”
She smiled at Nick’s question. “While my father and grandfather were forever fighting, I can assure you that my grandpa would never allow anyone to harm him … or me.”
It weirded him out to hear someone defend Noir. “You spend a lot of time with your grandfather?”
“Not really. My mom hated him with a pink-purple passion, so I wasn’t allowed near him.”
Nick was desperate to know what had happened to Thorn, especially when they entered the mansion that had belonged to the prickly demigod. But Kody was right. The more he knew, the more dangerous it was. “You live here alone?”
Sadness darkened her eyes. She headed toward a mirror on the wall.
Only it wasn’t a mirror. When Nick moved closer, he saw a faint image of a man he remembered and a woman he’d never seen before.
“Cadegan and his wife were locked into this by one of Laguerre’s hench-demons. I brought it here, and I suspect he can hear and see, but I have no way of knowing for sure.” She reached up to touch her brother’s face. “All I know is that I miss him.”
“Can’t you get him out?”
She shook her head at Nick. “Acheron or my father could release him, I’m sure, but …”
