“No,” Jaden growled, “I know who and what I am. What side of this conflict I clearly fall on. You dance with a darkness that will one day swallow you whole.”
“For your sake … for the sake of the human world you love so much, you better pray that never happens.”
Jaden winced as he was summoned home by Azura and Noir.
His gaze dark and filled with foreboding, Jaden paused before he left with one parting shot. “I had this very conversation with your father, once, Thorn. Long before you were born. Let us pray, that when history repeats itself, your conqueror is kinder to you.”
Thorn set his drink down as those words echoed in his ears. Centuries ago, the Chthonian, Savitar, had warned him of the same thing.
And Savitar had condemned the union that had brought Thorn into being.
They both walked a tenuous line between opposing forces that constantly sought their very souls. Like him, Savitar had chosen to abandon the mortal realm for solitude. It was much easier to avoid temptation when it wasn’t near.
We are all the architects of our own downfall. Acheron’s words haunted him now.
Yet, on the other side, everyone was also the architect of their own salvation and redemption.
Sadly, there was only one creature who could tell the final outcome of it all. And thankfully that one still remained dormant.
Sleeping.
For the sake of them all, no one needed to disturb that beast.
Sighing, Thorn moved to sit before his fire and stare into flames that spoke to him in the quiet solitude of his lonely home. He used his powers to pull his drink to him so that he could toast the noise. “Here’s to the future. May it never bring to me what I deserve.”
A few weeks later
* * *
Thorn froze the moment he sat inside the back of his Bentley and closed the car door. Something was wrong. Deadly wrong. He could feel it in the air around him. It sizzled as if the particles in the air were electrified by unspent magic and energy. “Josiah?”
His driver didn’t turn around. He was completely frozen in place, with blood trailing from his left ear.
Shit.
As Thorn reached for the door handle, it melted and the doors locked. He was blocked from teleporting. Furious, he knew of only one demon who would dare such with him.
“What do you want?” he demanded through clenched teeth.
A dark shadow appeared in the seat beside him. “You don’t call. You don’t e-mail. I’m beginning to feel like you don’t like me. And that really hurts me in my inner tender place.”
Thorn glared at Paimon who was currently possessed. “Didn’t you get the Father’s Day gift I sent you?”
Red eyes manifested to glare at him. “Yes, the hands of my best demon in a pink, bloody box, middle fingers extended. How very thoughtful of you.”
“Knew you would like it. Soon as I saw him on my ass, I knew it would make the perfect gift for you.”
His father, through Paimon’s body, blasted him against the door. “Where is he?”
The he being referred to was Cadegan. His eldest son was finally free of the hell realm Thorn had unknowingly banished him to and he was being sought by those who wanted to use him for the birthright his mother had given him.
In spite of the pain, Thorn gave him a droll stare. “He’s where you can’t reach him.”
“I know you have that little bastard shielded from me. It’s just a matter of time before I find him again and take what I want.”
Thorn scoffed at his nebulous progenitor. “He would die before he allowed you to have it.”
“I will kill him for it. See, we can all get what we want and be happy. Why prolong the inevitable?”
