Page 79 of Broken Obsession

“Cool,” Nyoka nodded and then fell silent as the two of them walked out into the foyer.

“He seems nice,” Eden said once they were out of earshot.

Ares absently glanced back, though they were already outside on the porch and hadn’t been followed. “Maybe in some reality he is. But not in this one.”

“What do you mean? He didn’t want to get on your bad side.”

“It’s a front.” Ares led them onto a path that wound away from Castle Black toward the music building. The Black Hartsresided smack dab in the center of campus, as though to make it easier for them to travel to and from. “Nyoka merely doesn’t want to waste time fighting with me when he has his own targets in mind.”

“Targets?”

Ares smiled. “He likes games as well.”

“Aren’t you the pair,” he grumbled, then took a leap and asked, “He have anything to do with my predecessor's disappearance?”

Ares refused to meet his eye. “Perhaps.”

“Interesting. Pretty sure I recall you telling me the professor before me left because he got a new job.”

“You would have asked questions if you knew the truth.”

“Which is?”

“That he’s missing. I don’t know any more than that.”

He hadn’t cared to find out, is what he meant, but Eden let it go. Who was he to judge anyway?

“What about your brother? Zar said some really weird things. Like, possibly even weirder than you type things.”

“Did he talk about branches?”

“Yeah.”

“When he fractured, he gained the ability to see potential branches in reality—parallel universes, so to speak.”

“…You’re saying he can see the future?”

“Possible futures,” Ares corrected. “Nothing is set in stone until it is. Choice is the deciding factor. Zar can guess what a person might choose, what path they may end up on, but he can’t ever know with one hundred percent certainty. Most people are unpredictable, at least to a degree.”

Being able to tell the future wasn’t entirely unheard of. There were species that had that trait, but not Usurns. It all felt a bit too unbelievable, especially when the way Zar acted was taken into consideration.

“You sure he isn’t just a couple of crayons short of a—”

“Don’t,” Ares cut him off sternly. “You don’t get to judge what you can’t comprehend.”

Eden hated how that stung, but it did. He thought about Nyoka’s surprise when he’d been told Ares would choose Eden over him. Apparently, that advantage didn’t extend to Balthazar.

At least he knew where he stood, even if it sucked for reasons unknown to him.

“Don’t be angry.” Ares captured his hand and stopped them on the path. It was early, and not many other students were out yet. The sun poured down, creating a halo of light on top of his angelic head, and the heaps of snow from the storm last night glittered like flecks of silver, making it all seem beautiful and unreal.

Eden didn’t like it. He was an artist, sure, but was distinctly musically inclined. He never thought in terms of poetry and hated how his mind instantly drew a connection between Ares and heaven, especially at a time like this, when he was annoyed and already half frozen from the chill.

“You have a lot of secrets.” Secrets Eden got the feeling Ares wasn’t in a rush to share. “You know my darkest desires, and yet I’m being kept on the outskirts of your reality.” It was targeted, using that word, but at this stage, he wasn’t above playing dirty.

He’d only be returning the favor, wouldn’t he?

“Tell me, Lucifer, did you actually go through all of this trouble because you were bored? You keep claiming you want me, but a relationship—a real one—is an exchange.”