Colby would be the last to admit how tired she was, but everyone around us knew. The words were hardly out of my mouth before she was asleep.

Omar stood. “Come, we have a place to sleep ready for you.”

The surprise must’ve showed on my face.

He smiled at me. It reminded me of my father’s. “We have waited a long time, but we never lost hope.”

I was glad they hadn’t. I’d lost hope a long time ago.

“Show me the way.” I gathered her up and followed Omar to a bedroom of sorts near the front of the tent. Royal blue, magenta, and gold fabric decorated the ceiling of the room and flowed down to the floor, which held a bed more comfortable looking than the one I had in my childhood home. The soft glow of candles filled the space and the lullaby scent of lavender wafted from incense on the small table, the only furniture in the room.

“Leave her to rest. We have much to talk about. My daughter has many questions.”

As we left, a woman, about the same age as Malynn took station outside Colby’s room. She reminded me of a Secret Service agent, except prettier and less—stiff. After following Omar back and talking to his daughter, I found that he was correct and Malynn wasn’t shy about anything she wanted to know. She asked questions, pointed ones, but some of them were vague. While I trusted them on the surface, I was still apprehensive. After all, I’d made many mistakes before about who could and could not be trusted. I tested her first, of course, though my instincts said that these people were legit.

“I saw the demon. It woke me from a sleep like the mummies.” Her English wasn’t all that good.

I tried not to laugh. “Like the dead. It woke you from a sleep like the dead. What demon?” I knew exactly which demon she referred to, but, again, I wasn’t giving too much away too soon.

She drew her hands up over her head and bent her fingers into deadly claws. “Like this and his foul breath made you…” She showed me shivering. It was like playing the Lucent version of charades.

“It made me shudder, yes. Someone brought him to where he belongs.”

She flexed her fingers, almost reaching into space for more information. “The brother—the brother brought him to hell. He was rewarded.” Her voice grew coarse like some of the desert sand had gotten trapped in her throat.

It struck my core the way she still called him my brother. In my heart, he was no family of mine. Everyone still called him my brother—even Colby. Collin and Ari were closer to being my family than that bastard would ever be again. But I played along. “Who was rewarded?”

“Sanctum.” She whispered the word, but it was for naught. The rest of our company gasped at the calling of such evil. One woman covered her daughter’s ears as if Malynn had uttered a curse word. “He was given the right to have a child—a privilege once taken from him in return for his gifts. That was his reward.”

I reached up in frustration and fisted the roots of my hair. Just when I thought I’d figured something out, it all came unwound.

Who would ever give my brother the gift of having offspring?

A little Damion Lucent running around was all the world needed.

Malynn turned and had a heated conversation. They were speaking so fast that even if I spoke the language, I probably would’ve been lost. Strained tones and harsh syllables met each other in a small battle.

“What is it?” I asked, wanting in on whatever was wrong.

Malynn wrung her hands. “Did I say something wrong? He is your brother, correct? I don’t understand.” She turned around and more strong, pointy words and aggressive voices were thrown around.

I held up my palm as if for them to stop arguing. “It’s not you. You didn’t say anything wrong. I know none of this. Everything you’re saying is news to me. I mean, I know he is—was—my brother, but other than that, I am in the dark.”

Malynn took a long sip of her tea while the rest of the group went back to their previous conversation as if nothing had happened. “I didn’t know. We assumed you knew such things. It’s fine. Should we start at the beginning then?”

And start at the beginning, we did—at the beginning of time. I had only thought Colby knew her history. This woman spoke as if she were there from the beginning, like Eve was her bestie.

“Your brother wasn’t born into his role. Don’t let him joke you into believing that.” The word was trick, but I didn’t have the energy to start correcting her. “At some point, he summoned the evil one, the devil, Satan, the adversary, the name doesn’t matter. Your brother asked for his place. He asked to be the one to destroy the Eidolon. I don’t know if this was before or after he knew it was you. You’ll have to ask him that yourself. In exchange for his place, he gave up his soul. It is on lean? Is that how you say it? Lean?”

“Lease? My brother’s soul is on lease?” He’d treated his soul like a car trade-in.

She snapped and smiled. “Yes, so what he’s doing is paying rent of sort. He earns more time with his soul and in life by doing wrong.”

I let some of that settle along with my food, which was already threatening to upheave after less than three bites. Every time my brother did something wrong, he gained more time in this life—more time to do more horrible things.

“What about—you said something about a child.”

Malynn reached behind her neck, pulling her hair around and resting the length across her lap. It flowed around her like a thick, black snake. “You had the power to kill that demon in the Fray, but instead, you brought Sanctum there and he transported the demon to hell. It was like returning a soldier to the enemy’s army. He was rewarded with something he was missing—he chose to regain the power to have a child. That was taken from him when he took the job as your villain. I believe he took many demons back to their maker. A child was his reward for the first one, but that is the only reward he will ever get, no matter how many he brings back.”

She meant nemesis, but I nodded anyway.

“What else? What else did he give to be so evil? Why would he choose it?”

She poured herself another cup of tea and sprinkled in some kind of star-shaped spice that smelled like licorice when heated.

“If he knew who or what you were—then it was personal. If not, I don’t know what his motives were. And he gave everything to have the powers he does. His life, his soul, but mostly, he gave up love. He is unable to love or receive love. At least, that’s the way we understand it.”

So either my brother hated me all the way back to when I still thought he carved the craters in the moon, or else, he was already evil and sought to enhance it.

No matter which way I looked at it, none of it made sense.

Torrent was raised the same as me. There was no favoritism or golden child in our family. We had the same opportunities and parents. I couldn’t even begin to imagine a reason why he would choose the path he did.

I breathed out an emotion-filled sigh. Giving me this information was like adding another layer of books to a pile that I would never have time to read. “At least we know he doesn’t have a child. Maybe we can stop him before he procreates.”

The only sound I heard in response was the wind and the gentle flapping of the tent’s edges. Malynn looked down into her teacup.

“What? He’s been with me the whole time. Well, not the whole time.” He would have had to cultivate a relationship with someone to have a child with them. At least, that was the way it should’ve been. If someone was going to have the child of the nastiest being I knew, then at least they could be friends first.

Omar chuckled from the back, showing me a small measure with his forefinger and thumb. “It only takes a little bit of time.” The men huddled around him laughed at the dig.

“There’s a child?” I whispered the question into the night.

Malynn looked behind me, over my shoulder. “Colby, please join us. We have no secrets here.”

I turned around as Colby came out of the shadows. If possible, she looked worse for the wear. Her hair had been brushed and wrapped into a braid. “You know what’s strange?” my mate mumbled. “Without all the noise—this place is so quiet. Is it weird that I couldn’t sleep without all the noise around us?”

“It’s the same when we go to the city for small periods of time. I can’t stand the noise,” Malynn answered, motioning for Colby to sit down. She made Colby a similar cup of tea to hers and pushed it in her direction. “This will make you feel better.”

If anything, it looked like the sight of the brewing liquid was making her worse by the second. “Thank you.”

I waited a moment for the answer to my question. It wasn’t that hard. If my brother—Sanctum—was going to be a father, then ending him, the plan in my mind, was no longer an option. And I hated to admit it, but Colby’s earlier mention of fixing him, well, we might have to explore that.

Even though I hated him, I wouldn’t take a father away from their child—no matter how vile.

I hated being such a softie.

In my mind, I wanted to kill them all, the Synod, my brother, all of them who stood against us. But it just wasn’t in me to carry out a massacre when I wasn’t even armed for such a fight.

Colby took a few sips and her eyebrow popped up, a sure sign that she liked it. “So, you were saying something about Sanctum and a child? Who would—I mean, who would agree to have his child? Ewww.”

Her eww was met with laughter. “I can’t see her face for some reason. She is clouded. I believe he has some kind of protection around her for this very purpose. He must know about us—or is concerned that someone would seek to end her if they knew. The babe grows in her stomach, only weeks old, maybe a few months. But there’s another issue.”

Of course there was. There was always another issue with these people—with our people—all of it.

“What’s the issue?” My voice was laced with frustration and rightfully so.

“He thinks the child is his, which is why he protects the mother.” She looked saddened, and a tear welled in one of her eyes. I couldn’t imagine what would make Malynn have any kind of sympathy for my brother. He was the enemy. “When one makes the contract to become Sanctum—nothing belongs to them anymore. He was allowed to have a child, but it belongs to Sanctum’s master. When you work for the devil, even your thoughts belong to him.”