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That news shocked her silent While she’d known Caleb was old, she’d had no idea he was that oldWow… "Are you serious?"

He didn’t react to her questions physically Instead, his dark eyes alone taunted her "Before you judge ainst me, let me explain my political ties in that war I personally carried the banner for Verlyn, and I was the one who led the whole of his arainst the Obsidian Triad"

That neas even"You’re not evil, then" It was a statement of fact

He sneered at her comment "You’re as bad as the humans C’mon, Kody, you should know that we don’t all serve the dark powers"

"Yeah, but you do now…"

Pain flashed in his eyes so fast that she wasn’t sure she hadn’t iined it "We all make mistakes, Kody Sometimes I think the only point of our miserable lives is simply to learn how to live with the consequences of the bad decisions we’ve made"

By his tone, she could tell his were severe "I’m sorry, Caleb"

"For what?"

"Whatever it is that brings that light of hurt into your eyes The worst wounds, the deadliest of them, aren’t the ones people see on the outside They’re the ones that make us bleed internally"

Caleb didn’t respond in any way But as he pulled his watch out of his pocket to check the tih her She saw him then, on an ancient battlefield in full dee, but it was gone al that was undeniable, and it explained a lot about his idiosyncrasies

"You’re not just a deod"

Caleb went perfectly still, then he relaxed "I don’t knohat you’re talking about"

"Yeah, you do," she said, her voice rising at the end with bitter amusement "That’s what Acheron meant when he said you were si like him He’s cut froht her back to their original topic "What you said about Adarian doesn’t ht he wanted Nick protected"

"That’s what he told inally"

"Then why do you doubt hied "There’s no reason to And yet … He’s co for him Soon I can’t tell you the exact minute Or even the day it’ll happen, but I can feel it building like a si ready to boil over"

While she didn’t welcome that news, it didn’t really disturb her "We’ll stop him when he does" They had to

"No, Kody," he said drily "We won’t You and I don’t have the ability to defeat him And I know this for a fact The one and only time in my entire military career that I was knocked flat on my rump and viciously defeated was by the first of the Malachais One who didn’t possess a third of the power of the current elder Malachai When Adarian co you and I can do to stop him"

She didn’t believe that for a minute "Nick can’t die We cannot allow that to happen under any circumstance I know you see what I do The next Malachai--"

"Will free Noir frohter down on all of us But there is so even worse than that outcome"

In that instant, she could swear she had an ulcer--even though it was an impossibility for her species I don’t want to hear this But she had no choice If so was out there worse than their next enemy, she had to know about it

Forewarned was forearmed

"What?"

"Adarian doesn’t have to kill Nick He can absorb hiht Whenever a creature like them absorbed the powers of another, they took all of their powers and strengths, and combined them with the ones they already had

Should that happen …

The Malachai wouldn’t kill them Oh no That would be too kind They would all become the outlet for his voracious cruelty

And the only one who could fight Adarian successfully and possibly defeat hiht as well get a tattoo on my forehead Abandon hope all ye who see this ‘cause we’re about to get royally screwed

CHAPTER 8

Nick couldn’t see anything He felt like he’d been shole by darkness It was so thick and stifling that ithe re in the a else was a total blur

Am I dead?

Where would a dead Catholic Malachai spend eternity, anyway? That was a scary and sobering thought And a question he didn’t ever want to have an answer for

All right, if I’ to get it shoved someplace real uncomfortable on his body In fact, Nick would turn his attacker into a human or de sorimaced and held the back of his hand to his nose to try and block it Gah, as that? Ss, and he’dother than the one and only ti into theout of it

Oh yeah, that was definitely worse than this He didn’t knoerewolves ate on a regular basis, but whatever it was, it rotted them from the inside out No wonder Stone had perpetual PMS

"Hello, there!"

He ju that ithin touching distance "Excuse me?"