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“You said I was dead to you, remember? You grieved and buried Nochehuatl. Only Nickolas is left,” he reminded me. I could swear I could hear the hurt in his words, and it confused me. He left me. Why was he trying to make it sound like I was the one who abandoned him?
“Why are you doing this? For a goddess who refused to love you? What did you do when you left Helios and she still didn’t want you?” I snarled. I remember how ashamed I felt when Bastet came and accused Helios of having her stalked and Helios’ confusion because he had ordered us off Bastet months before. We ended up having to leave Egypt to assure her that we weren’t after her.
“Who said I went back for her? Who said I didn’t already have her willing and waiting for me someplace?” he whispered in my ear.
“We talked to her. She wanted nothing to do with you.” Nickolas didn’t respond to my statement, and I couldn’t see his face, but I noticed something change in Seb’s face, during his silence. Suspicion suddenly clouded his beautiful features.
“What did you do, Nickolas?” Seb asked.
“I took what was owed to me.”
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“What did you do to Bastet?” Seb asked at the same time.
“She’s not Bastet! She’s Xochiquetzal!” Nickolas yelled in response.
“So, you won’t answer to Nochehuatl, but you call her Xochiquetzal even though she went by Bastet for over a century before we met her?” I scoffed at the hypocrisy.
“Is? Not was?” Seb’s question surprised me, and I waited for my brother’s answer, a sinking feeling beginning to form in the pit of my stomach. I twisted my neck a little and saw the sinister smile on Nickolas’ face.
“What have you done?” I whispered.
“I told you; I got what I was owed for my years of service,” Nickolas answered, continuing to rant about how Helios was the only reason Bastet wouldn’t look at him twice. How it was all our fault.
‘We’re a few yards behind you, around the corner. What do you need us to do?’ Kassie’s voice came through, and I turned back to look at Seb so Nickolas couldn’t see I was getting a mind-link.
‘He’s got a crystal shard. I can’t move. Can you compel him before he uses it?’ I suggested.
‘Not if he isn’t looking at me.’
‘Can you call Adrien or Elias?’ I asked.
‘I—’ At her hesitation, I remembered the scream.
‘Did something happen to Elias?’
‘Tori. She didn’t—’ Pain lanced through me at her words, and the way her voice broke off in a choke told me all I needed to know. The rage I felt toward my brother surged up and I made my decision.
‘I love you, Seb. Whatever happens, he doesn’t live through today,’ I sent the mind-link to my mate before I let my body go slack. When I felt Nickolas’ confusion and he lowered the arm on my throat, I reared back and slammed my head into his nose. I felt the sickening crack of his nose and saw stars from the pain, but I hurled my body forward and turned around to attack. My claw plunged into his torso until I hit something solid at the same time that I felt the crystal dagger embed itself in my stomach.
We clasped onto each other in surprise to keep ourselves standing. I searched his eyes briefly, hoping to recognize any part of the brother I thought I knew long ago. When I found none, all I could do was wonder if he ever existed.
“Why?” I whispered.
“Because I wanted to,” he answered back.
I wrapped my hand around his spine when I felt Seb pull me away from him, feeling the bone crack and come apart with me. Seb cradled me to him while Nickolas crumbled to the floor, coughing blood. My hand was still holding a piece of his vertebrate, and a portion of his bowels protruded from his abdomen. I didn’t care what healing powers he had acquired over the years. Unless Nat healed him or he’d become immortal, Nickolas was dead.
“Hang on, baby, Nat is coming,” Seb whispered desperately, his hands around my stomach where the dagger was still plunged. I went to remove it, but Seb gripped my wrist before I could reach it. “Wait. Don’t take it off. She needs to be here. I can’t have you bleeding out.”
“Percy can heal me,” I said.
“No. He might not be quick enough. Nat is the only guarantee. Just hang on for a minute, please,” he pleaded, his hand on my wrist tightening to a painful grip.
“Okay. Okay. I won’t touch it,” I promised him because he looked on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
“What the hell were you thinking, Corazón?” Seb demanded with a growl, the fear visible in his eyes.
