One that would destroy the entire world.
37
December 9, 2333
“We failed … again.”
Noir did his best to ignore his sister while he stared out the window, into the darkness that made up the realm he despised passionately. “Perhaps we’re not supposed to succeed.”
Azura curled her lip. “Since when are you fatalistic?”
“The word is maudlin, Azura. And I’m tired of all the scheming that comes to naught. Face it. We’re stuck here.” They were always going to be stuck here.
It’d been centuries and everything they had tried had amounted to nothing but disappointment.
He was tired of it all.
Azura curled her lip. “We’re not stuck here. The prophecy promises us a way out.”
“Ambrose will never free us. You know that. Even if he did, Apollymi is going to make sure we never stop suffering.” Noir growled low in his throat. “We should have never sided against her and demanded the life of Kissare or her son.” He couldn’t blame Apollymi for her hatred.
They’d earned it.
Out of sheer ignorance, he’d allowed Azura to talk him into something profoundly stupid. Apollymi had been their greatest ally.
Now, she was their greatest enemy.
And he couldn’t blame her. But then he’d never understood what it meant to love in those days. It had been an inconceivable emotion.
He’d assumed that she would put the death of her Sephiroth and child behind her and move on.
I’m such an idiot.
One stupid momentary decision made out of spite, and he’d screwed up his life. No, his eternity.
Azura continued to glare at him. “We can’t change what we did. We just have to find a way out.”
He rolled his eyes. “How do we do that, my love? Flag down a motorist? Send Apollymi flowers?”
That didn’t please his sister at all. “Cam created her Malachai and raised him … what if we do the same?”
Noir arched a brow at a novel concept. “Pardon?”
“You heard me. What if we send one of our agents out to seduce the Ambrose Malachai?”
It was a nice plan, but there was one serious flaw to it. “Seduction won’t create a Malachai.” They were conceived in violence to do violence and die violently. That had been the curse they’d laid on the entire Malachai line.
And it was why Apollymi hated them so much.
Still, Azura wasn’t to be daunted by something as trivial as reason or common sense.
“We’ll send him a nightmare then … something he’ll attack without knowing it’s real.”
Noir rose from his throne as he considered what she was saying. It was one heck of a plan.
Don’t even get excited. When have any of her plans worked out?
Even so, he wanted out of this hell hole with every fiber of his being. Oh, to be back in the world again …
