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CHAPTERTEN

NIX

Pa was full of shite if he thought I wasn’t coming to the meeting with Lux. Hana and Venark felt no different.

Véa agreed with Pa. None of us were in the headspace to see him. We were running on close to no sleep. We were furious. We weren’t in any mind to have a conversation about what he’d done.

“I know what you want to do to him, Nix,” she’d said. “But you can’t. While he’s got all those souls inside of him, you’re not strong enough, and even if you were, we need to handle this with sound minds.”

Pa reiterated the same thing.

As such, I agreed to rein in my temper. This would be a conversation, possibly an argument, but not an execution. Killing Lux wasn’t possible, nor wise, until we’d talked through this. I wasn’t afraid of my little brother either. Yes, he was a killer. So was I. But he wouldn’t kill me. He’d had the opportunity and motive more times than I could count, and he’d never done it.

He loved me too much to kill me.

I hated that I loved him just the same.

Regardless, I kissed my wife, and I left with Pa, Hana, and Venark.

Like we had formed the Land of Light for the Fae, Lux had a place of his own that wasn’t much different. He’d named it Matriax, because it was inspired heavily by Matriaza.

That was where he spent most of his time. It was where most of the Angels who’d come to this world lived along with him.

Like getting to the Land of Light required an egress, so did getting to Matriax. Pa created it, borrowing a bit of mine and Hana’s energy to do so.

The landing was rough, icy wind burning my cheeks like fire as I soared into the atmosphere. I lapsed from there, hitting the frozen ground with a thundering thump.

Vision leveling, the house of ice stood tall before me, sparkling in the light of the sun. Rage swelled within me the longer that I stared at it.

Matriaza’s castle was gone, and this one was as strong as ever. It may’ve been smaller than the one we’d grown up in, only three stories and not much bigger than my current home, but closer to a castle than the lake on Matriaza.

“Just let me do the talking,” Pa said, walking past me.

That wasn’t happening.

I wasn’t going to kill him, but he was going to hear everything I had to say.

There’s no way I’m keeping my mouth shut,Venark said into my mind.

We have that in common, esiasch, I thought back.

From the corner of my eye, I saw him give a half smile, supporting Hana’s forearm as we trudged up the stairs of ice.

Pa grabbed the knocker on the door and banged it off the wooden pane a time or two.

“Aren’t you polite,” I said under my breath.

He sighed deeply, not dignifying me with a response.

Only silence for a few heartbeats. Pa knocked again. Before he’d finished the last tap, it swung inward.

Not to my surprise, Rafael stood in the opening. He was my brother’s third son, and one of the best he’d fathered. His greatest flaw was standing beside Lux.

That much was evident in his blue eyes when they met mine. He couldn’t hold them for long, settling on Pa instead.

He bowed slightly. “Knew you’d be coming soon.”

“And here we are,” I said. “Where is he, esiasch?”