Page 110 of Broken Obsession
“…He and his brother are close though.”
“Ares' dad was a prick. I mean, even I find it distasteful that the guy was experimenting on his own flesh and blood like that. From what I’ve heard, things were getting bad, too. The experiments had been running for nearly a decade, and the project had hit a snag. When Zar killed Dr. Major, he was saving them from a terrible existence.”
“What about his mom?”
“Whose? Zar’s? She was in on it, of course. She brought Zar into it when they needed another high-level test subject. I believe he did her first. Bullet through the brain. Clean.”
That sounded a lot like Ares and Balthazar didn’t share the same mother. They did both have different last names, so that wasn’t too much of a surprise. “Stepbrothers?”
Nyoka paused, a flash of something calculating flickering across his face before the friendly façade settled back over him. “Poor thing. Is that what you’ve thought this whole time?”
“What?”
“They’re not really brothers,” he said. “Not legally or through blood. Their parents were simply business partners. They grew up together, sure, and have a brotherly bond, if you want to call it that, but—”
“What would you call it?”
“Codependence?” Nyoka grunted. “Half the time, Zar still thinks they’re living in an alternate timeline where he’s the God of Reality and Ares is the God of Creation. He’s got the man he thinks is the Jackal chained up in his room because he can’t separate this life from a past one.”
This was all upsetting, and Eden felt all sorts of ways, but he tried to focus on what was being said instead of his emotional reaction, wanting to milk all that he could out of Nyoka while he had the chance.
“You believe it?” It all seemed beyond the realm of possibility to Eden, but he’d admittedly never taken an interest in science or the multiverse theory. He’d heard rumors there’d been a few breakthroughs in the field over the past decade, but that was the extent of it. He hadn’t paid more attention to those conversations.
“I’ve read some of their work,” Nyoka replied. “Fascinating stuff. The brutality committed against their own children…Well, to say it didn’t give results would be a lie. There’s a reason Dr. Major and Dr. Corbett stuck with Ares and Zar as their main test subjects. Whether or not their ability to slip in and out of life and death is due to their past incarnations as gods or not is as yet to be decided, but they survived dying over a hundred times. The average for every other subject was twice.”
The fact that those scientists could bring someone back even twice was shocking, but a hundred?!
“Is that what it really is?” he wondered aloud. “Lack of oxygen to the brain? Brain damage?”
“Neither,” Nyoka denied without hesitation. “Their energy frequencies are constantly being pulled through the cracks of reality.”
“How can you be so sure?” How could anyone?
“You’ve known Ares, what, two months now? I’ve known him since before, during, and after the experiments. Whatever was done to them, it’s still affecting them today. It’ll probably affect them for the rest of their lives. But,” Nyoka straightened, “these past few weeks we’ve all noticed the difference. You’re good for him.”
“I’m going to go beat him up now for lying about Zar being his brother,” Eden stated plainly, but the other Black Hart simply chuckled and spun on his heels.
He waved over his shoulder, and Eden waited until Nyoka exited the lecture room before sighing and glancing back at his computer. Since he wasn’t going to be able to find anything else here, he shut it down and collected his things, annoyance brewing.
It was irrational, but a part of him couldn’t understand why Ares had allowed him to go this whole time thinking he and Zar were literal brothers. It would have been a simple thing to correct, and while he wasn’t jealous in the sense that he didn’t for a second believe there was anything even remotely sexual or romantic between the two…Eden was still pissed off.
The plan was to make a quick stop at his office, then head straight to Castle Black, where Ares should already be. The Black Hart didn’t have classes today and had informed Eden at breakfast that he planned on staying home and drawing.
But there was someone in his office waiting when he arrived.
“Zar?” Eden stepped into the room and froze when he spotted the Black Hart sitting in the leather chair across from his desk.
Balthazar glanced at him over his shoulder. “Professor Starling.”
He frowned and slowly shut the door behind himself. “What are you doing here?”
“Waiting for you.”
“And…how did you know I was coming?”
“I saw it,” he said casually, turning back around to pick at his cuticles. “We made eye contact in class earlier.”
Eden went to his desk and placed his briefcase down, hesitating before taking his seat. “That’s all it takes? You just look at a person, and you can see their future?”