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“Oh, is it?” Octavius teased, leaving the bathroom.
He found Jayden in the lounge area, tucking into a bag of chips while watching TV. The broadcast towers must have been reestablished. But that wasn’t the reason Jayden had fallen silent, or why Octavius’s heart stopped in his chest.
Raiden was on the news, looking unassuming and respectable under studio lighting, with his glasses perched on his nose and a laptop in front of him. The ticker across the bottom of the screen read:The nyktelios threat: Stay indoors. Curfew in affect. Dr. Galanis Raiden.
“Is that the Brotherhood’s Raiden?”
“Yes,” Octavius snarled, then dashed to next door and burst inside.
“Man, of all the horrors we’ve witnessed today, seeing you in just a towel is right up there.” Zaine gestured, indicating the top of the list, and grinned.
“Turn on the TV,” Octavius ordered. “Channel Nine.”
No more jokes came from Zaine when he saw Raiden’s face on the screen. “The real source of the problem is a secular group known as the Brotherhood. Seen here…”
The screen cut to shaky phone footage of their earlier battle in the street, and of course, to anyone not paying attention, the nyks appeared to be distressed human beings, while Octavius, Saint, Storm, and Zaine all resembled monstrous fanged nightmares made real. At least the footage was so frantic that their faces weren’t recognizable.
“That mother-fucking asshole,” Zaine hissed. “Seriously. That guy, they believethatguy…”
“I mean, you all did, so…” Felix added unhelpfully, then trailed off, sensing the mood in the room wasn’t in his favor. “Too soon. Right.” He winced and stared at the screen. “It’s the glasses, maybe? They make him look respectable, harmless. Like someone we should trust.” He stopped and glanced around at the rest of them staring. “I’m just adding a perspective.”
“What’s Raiden doing?” Kazimir asked. “Why draw attention to us?”
Storm gave a heavy sigh, as though he was long ago done with all of this shit. “For the same reason he’s had us all chasing our tails for months. The humans will pour their resources into finding and stoppingus, meaning we’re distracted while he does whatever he’s doing.”
“Do we still not know what his plan is?” Zaine asked.
“He’s bringing Nyx back,” Octavius said, cold in his towel, dripping water all over the floor. “Somewhere in the city, somewhere close. I thought we’d never see him again after the fight at the safehouse, but he’s here, in New York, which means whatever his endgame is, that’s here too. And the nyks being here… It all fits. He’s a Nyxian, and he’s going to bring Nyx back.”
“Can he do that?” Felix asked, bouncing his gaze from member to member. “Can he bring Nyx to life?”
All their gazes landed on Storm, who was the only one who could answer that kind of question.
“We are manifestations of Nyx’s power,” Storm said. “We exist, then so must she.”
“A god,” Felix said. “Just so we’re clear. You’re all talking about summoning an actual god?”
“Not a god,” Storm replied. “A primordial being.”
“Oh, a primordial being. That’s okay then.” Felix gripped the back of the couch behind Kazimir. “Is nobody else worried? None of you look all that concerned. Is it just me?”
“I’m pretty sure we’re all screaming on the inside,” Zaine said, then took his phone from his pocket. “Come on, Eric… Pick up.”
Raiden was turning the population of New York against them at a time when they were trying to protect the people. Damn him.
“We need to find and stop Raiden,” Aiko said, flicking a butterfly knife between his fingers.
“Except we don’t know where he is. Do we?” Kazimir asked.
Everyone stared at Octavius because he’d been the closest to Raiden. But he didn’t know anything. None of them did. “When we fought the nyks, they were close to the river, to the docks. Find me a laptop and I’ll see what’s in the area and why the nyks were concentrated there.”
“Or it was just a trap,” Kazi said.
“Or both. Raiden is efficient, but he’ll also want the attention, he’ll want us to notice what he’s doing. He wants us to figure it out. Where’s the fun in destroying the world if the people you hate the most don’t know how you did it?”
“You think he hates us that much?” Kazimir asked.
“We all hate each other.” Octavius rolled his eyes and turned on his heel. “Find me a laptop.”
