berth.
“In our world, he’s someone you haven’t met yet. He was imprisoned until your father died. Here in this realm, the š akkan who leads their dark forces is Thorn.”
Nick frowned at the name of someone he thought was friendly … ish . “The scary dude who helped me out when I was imprisoned in the Nether Realm?”
She nodded.
“Dang, I really liked him, too.” He shook his head. “I don’t understand why he’d be our ally at home and against us here.”
“Free will.”
Nick cocked his head at Savitar’s words. “Say what?”
Savitar ran his hand over a vicious scar on his forearm. “For better or worse, every decision we make, good or bad, small and large, puts us on a course to nightmares we don’t see coming until they’re in our face.” Savitar turned his gaze to the road. “In every universe, we play out different decisions we’ve made for whatever reason. What breaks one person at one time can make them strong at another. And one small variable can have devastating consequences. Timing is everything, kid.”
Kody nodded. “In our world, your mother was attacked by the Malachai and you were born. In this one, there is no Malachai so she was able to live out her life under more normal circumstances.”
“But she still had me.”
“And Bubba’s still your father.”
Nick fell silent as he considered that. In many ways, Kody was right. Bubba was the closest thing to a dad Nick had ever known. And though they weren’t blood related in his world, they were still family. “But what about Kyrian?” He was as much of a mentor and father for Nick as Bubba. “I found out this morning that he’s dead in this world.”
“Nick Burdette didn’t need to meet a Dark-Hunter to put him on the right path, away from the darkness that was trying to claim him. He has Bubba here to keep him straight. He doesn’t need Acheron to watch over him. Or Caleb to guard him from forces he’s not strong enough to fight yet.”
He was struggling to make sense of it all. Everything she said was valid, but … “What about Amanda and Tabitha and Karma? Why are they good in our world and not in this one?”
Kody sighed. “In both worlds, they, like you, were born to walk the line of shadows. One foot in the light and one in the dark. A few are scared enough of both that they stay in the middle and never pick a side. Others are strong enough to choose the light and stay firmly planted there, even while the darkness tries to claim them. And others are too weak or blind to fight the lure of darkness. It overwhelms them with false promises and before they know what’s happened, it owns them. Sometimes, like the Thorn you know in our world, they can battle their way back to the light and put the darkness behind them even though it continues to try and reclaim them. But those people are very rare. I don’t know what kept our Tabby and Amanda on the right side in our world nor do I know what corrupted them here. As Savitar said, it’s a matter of free will. Decisions made at the wrong or right time, for the wrong or right reasons.”
Nick picked her hand up from the seat and studied the scars on her knuckles. Even though she was a veteran warrior, her hands were soft and tiny. Delicate. And yet they held a strength that was unfathomable to him. “How old are you, Kody? Really?”
“I had just turned nineteen when you killed me.”
He sucked his breath in sharply as her words slapped him hard. He wasn’t that far away from turning nineteen himself. Just a little over two years. “And you were fighting the Malachai at that age? Why?”
She snorted. “By the time my father was nineteen, he was an experienced war veteran and a feared general.”
“And he was okay with you following in his footsteps at that age?”
“Not really, but he had no say in it. I became a soldier after you killed him.”
He winced and wondered how she could stand to be in the same car with him right now. Why she didn’t
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