We walked in silence all the way to the pedestrian path along the Potomac River. A few joggers and couples strolled along the path that hugged the riverbank, but no one paid us any attention.
Nick's tension gradually eased as we put distance between ourselves and the party. I could feel his emotions settling through our bond—not disappearing, but becoming more manageable.
“Sorry for pulling you away,” he said finally. “It was just....”
“A lot,” I finished for him. “You don't need to apologize.”
We found an empty bench overlooking the water and sat down. Nick reached over, slid his fingers between mine, and leaned back. We stayed quiet while he worked through his thoughts.
“Does it ever get easier?” he asked. “One minute we’re talking about normal stuff, cars, houses, haggling over the price of bananas, and the next it's all 'the war has begun' and training schedules.”
I understood his whiplash, but none of us had fought the Drevlin—other than Ares. Nick, however, had more new things to learn. “I can’t answer that because this war is a first for me. The only difference is I grew up an angel, so I’ve had more time to figure out how to live in both worlds.”
“Yeah, but it’s not just angel versus human,” Nick said, turning to face me. “My whole life has changed. Last week money was tight, but now I’m easily richer than any human. I thought my family disowned me, but turns out I’m not really related to them. My real mom, however, died giving birth to me. And I find out that during said birth, I sucked the life outta the real Nicholas Fenton, and then assumed his identity. I need time to deal with those upheavals before they throw training and superpowers and protect the world at me.”
Nick spent the last six years clearing one hurdle at a time. He was resilient, but these changes taxed even his spirit. “You don’t need to figure it out all at once, and you don’t need to do it alone. I know you like to be independent, but we are an ‘us,’ not a ‘you and me.’ It’s okay to ask me to help, even if it’s just to talk things out.”
“Add, ‘figure out how to be in a relationship’ to my list.” He pulled my hand to his lips. “I know you’re different, but before you I kept in a lot hoping I didn’t come off as needy. For what it’s worth, you make it easy for me to talk about stuff. You knewI was struggling, so you had us take a walk. It might take some getting used to, but I like I can talk to you about anything.”
He wasn’t nearly as bad at relationships as he thought. “Just so we’re clear, I’ve never had a serious relationship before, either. We’re going to need to figure this out as we go. But I promise I’ll always talk to you.”
“Me too.” He breathed in deeply. “I want to help my mom.”
I needed a moment to shift topics. “You mean Mrs. Fenton?”
“Yeah.” He sounded sure, but looked apprehensive. “I know she’s not my bio mom, but she tried to protect me when she could. Watching Ruth and Ares with their family, I realized just how fucked up the Fentons are. And….” He swallowed hard. “In one of Mom's—Ariel's—videos, she talks about how being a mother means protecting your child, even if it costs you everything. Laura did that for me, as much as she could.”
When Nick had tried to help the woman in the coffee shop from her abusive husband, I knew we’d get here one day. “You’re allowed to care about her. She raised you.”
“For years I’ve been saving, so one day I could get her away from them,” Nick said. “Then when I learned the truth, I questioned my decision. She only raised me because I killed her real son. Would she still let me call her mom if she knew the truth?”
Before I could tell him he wasn’t to blame, he waved me down. “What happened wasn’t my fault, but would she still want me to call her mom if she knew she raised Abraham instead of Nicholas? If I don’t tell her the truth—and I can’t—it’s going to gnaw at me. But I can’t tell her the truth, so do I just leave her there to suffer?”
Maybe our talk actually worked. This had obviously been bothering him for a while, but he only told me now. I squeezed his hand and waited for him to look up. “Thank you for telling me. I agree with most of what you said, except, I think we canfind a way to tell her about Nicholas and Abraham, without telling her you’re an angel.”
“Really?” Some of the weight lifted from his shoulders. “How?”
I had the framework of a plan, but we needed help to fill in the blanks. “I don’t have all the details, but I think we should speak to Uriel. He’s good at this sort of thing.”
Nick laughed because while it was one hundred percent true, neither of us was going to tell Uriel to his face he was a sneaky bastard.
“Good idea,” Nick said. “Knowing him, he’s thought up a plan for this already.”
I wasn’t ready to believe in his omnipotence, but he anticipated a lot of things before they happened. “We should do it soon. Once your training starts, I don’t think they’ll let you take a side trip to help her.”
“You make it sound so easy.” Nick's brow furrowed as he considered. “It won’t be easy. She's tried to leave before, but she's afraid of him.”
Abuse was a hard cycle to break, but if anyone could save it, it would be the three of us. “We'll figure it out. If all else fails, we’ll have Ruth speak to her. No one tells her no.”
“True.” He finally smiled. “Ruth’s a force of nature.”
Watching the light return to his eyes, I wanted to live in a world where that never faded. Despite growing up with the Fentons, Nick never let it change who he was at his core. He didn’t know it, but in time, he’d change the world for the better.
“Ready to go back?” I asked. “I think Trevor might need saving.”
“Yeah, right,” he said with a smile. “I think if he needs anything, Perseus will be more than willing to help.”
Now that he pointed it out, the two of them had spent a lot of time together. “You might be right, but that just means we need to save both of them from the rest of the family.”
