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His father clapped his hand over Nick’s lips to keep hi it Then he bent and whispered in a low tone in Nick’s ear “Not Ambrose It’s your Confirmation name”

A creepy chill went down Nick’s spine at the coincidence He’d chosen Aloysius because it’d sounded cool and was semi-close to his middle name, Ambrosius Not to mention, St Aloysius was the patron saint of youth and students As a kid who’d been trying to get into St Richard’s at the tiht it an intelligent idea to get on the good side of a saint who s

At least that had been the thought back then Now …

Nick lowered his father’s hand away fro me that I picked my onfall?”

His father snorted “Trust me, boy We always do Every step we take is one inch closer to our salvation and one foot closer to our dooely made sense to him And hoeird that he’d instinctively never told anyone his Confirmation name, other than his mother, who never used it More than that, a mistake had been made on his Sacraistered Because his iven how common his first name was, the secretary who’d done the paperwork had assumed Ambrosius was the name he’d picked, and that was all the church had officially on file for him When he’d told his mom about the error, she’d started to correct it then stopped herself

The Lord moves in mysterious ways, Nicky If He didn’t want it recorded, I think we should leave it and trust Hiave you, just fine You already got two great saint names Why would you need a third one?

Yeah, that was seriously disturbing in retrospect

Which begged another question … “How do you knohat hed evilly “It’s the naave you the first time I saw you”

Nick scowled Aloysius? Really? “Why?”

“It’s a name that means fame and war What better name for my heir to hold?” His father cupped the back of Nick’s head in his ainst his shoulder so that he could whisper in his ear and not be overheard “You are Conquest, boy That is your destiny You are the one who leads the others, and without you, they cannot win You are the head of the ušu and the creature still walks and fights But you … you are the one piece theythat Death and War and Bane and the other three generals cannot defeat Without you, there can be no victory in their endeavors Ever That is why the only one who can kill a Malachai is the very son he sires”

Nick’s scowl deepened as he tried to understand “But what of the last Sephiroth?” In the first war of the gods, the Malachai arhtered each other until only one Malachai and one Sephiroth had been left Kody had told hi Sephiroth could kill hihtened his ar “Trust me, boy, Jared is no match for you and he knows it Our blood boils with fury If he were to attack you, it would be for you to kill him and put him out of his misery”

And if Nick were to do that, it would end his life, too He and the last Sephiroth were tied together The ulti

His father patted him hard on his cheek “That is the only way Jared could possibly kill you As you said, you pick your own destruction”

“Malachai!”

That feral shout startled Nick

His fatherfor you? They are desperate to capture you and use you against your oill”

Crouched and ready to battle, Nick turned around slowly, trying to locate whatever was hunting him “Where is he?”

“Have no fear He can’t reach you here”

Nick straightened up “Why? Where are we?”

“Nowhere”

Nick scoffed “Ah, gee, Dad Thanks so much for that Like I didn’t know that already”

Adarian shook his head “YouThat ht before the dark becoo when they can’t find their way home And this is where you’ll be stranded if you don’t return to your real body before the ušu, and so for him “Why ride if they can’t ithout me?”

He snorted “War doesn’t care if she wins or not It’s about the slaughter The same is true for Death Grim wins even when he loses And while it is nice for the side, it’s not necessary They don’t have the same drive to be victorious that you do, because they don’t have the saoals Since we are Conquest, it is not in us to lie down and lose Not for anything So long as we breathe, ill fight to win”

Anything worth doing orth overdoing One of Bubba’s ive up Never give in Never surrender Toe-to-toe to the bitterest end

That was the true strength of the Malachai It was never about the size of the dog in a fight, but rather it was all about the size of the fight in the dog

And Nick was done running and hiding He wanted his body back and he was ht now

“Hey!” he shouted at the voice in his head “You want aped “What are you doing?”

He flashed a taunting grin at the older spirit “I a I’ht want to take a few steps back, Dad, ’cause I’ in the splash zone, and soht spray out on you when he clobbers me”