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“You don’t understand, brother,” Kildare urged quietly, the red in his eyes ominous. “He’s not coming to untie your love knot. He’s coming to untie your existence from your being. Possibly both of you.”

His words drove a stake of terror though his gut. “What do I do?” he demanded.

“Raviel is coming,” Kross informed softly. “We’ll be dealt a hand to play.”

“And we’ll need to play it quickly,” Krave warned.

“Why?” Kaos hurried.

Kollaborator put his hand on Kaos’s shoulder. “We have a narrow window before Nominous arrives.”

The divine dose of peace he forced into him felt like war.

“How narrow?” Kaos breathed.

“According to my gifts,” Kollaborator said, “three hours and forty-six minutes narrow.”

Laughter and voices drifted through the closed door, bringing a surge of terror. Kaos spun and hurried inside, halting abruptly at finding Raviel sitting calmly on the couch, eyes and smile locked on Jaxi who spoke animatedly about the painting she’d created.

Raviel’s eyes twinkled as he asked, “Do all your paintings tell you things?”

Jaxi nodded a lot with a happy grin. “Always. It starts with these feelings inside—like secret thoughts or ideas trying to push their way out. It makes me need to paint or create. Sometimes those feelings want to live in clay or metal, charcoal or paint. Once I find the right medium, I create until the feeling can speak to me.”

She reached behind her, grabbing a small plate. “Would you like a cookie? I made some earlier.”

Her smile faltered as she noticed Kaos and his brothers standing near the door.

“Oh! There he is. With company.”

Raviel rose smoothly, his dark cloak shifting like liquid shadow. His long hair, streaked with silver, fell loose, framing a face that held calm authority as he moved toward them.

He pulled four cards from the folds of his cloak and handed them to Kross.

Kaos watched them catch the dim light, then shifted his gaze to Raviel, waiting for words, any words, as the weight of what those cards meant pressed down on him.

Raviel’s gaze met Kross’s momentarily then he turned and gave a smile to Jaxi, then walked to the door, opened it—and left . Not a single. Fucking word.

Kaos hurried to Jaxi and pulled her into a tight embrace, his mind racing for the right questions to ask her. Every heartbeat pounded with a silent terror he couldn’t voice while his brothers whispered quietly, reinforcing the threat looming.

Jaxi’s fingers traced slow circles along his back, sending a shiver through him—sharp and fierce—only deepening the doom he felt coming.

She whispered, “I’m so happy you’re real. And here.”

Kaos wrapped his wings protectively around them both, pulling her closer. His lips met hers in a deep kiss, desperate to tether her tighter to him.

He pulled back slightly, his breaths quaking. “You must know that five mortal minutes with you has given me an eternal heaven.”

Her fear sliced him as she peered into his gaze. “Are you saying… we only get five minutes together?”

He captured her face in his clawed fingers then caught the shift in tone behind him—quiet, sharp whispers threading between Kross and the others.

He took her hand and walked her over to his brothers. “She needs to know,” he said, eyes on the cards.

“Let’s sit a moment,” Kade suggested, moving to the couch.

Kaos pulled his wings into his skin and sat with her, holding her close to him.

“So, when you were with Kaos in his true form,” Kade began, “it forged a permanent bond between both of you—human and divine. And that kind of union breaks a law etched into the foundation of existence. It’s forbidden because it overrides the controls built to keep divine power separate from human will.

And that bond sent out a signal—loud enough for the ones who enforce those laws to hear it.

And once they hear it, they come to correct it. ”

Jaxi looked between them, fear and confusion tightening her face. “Who comes?”

“A being called Nominous,” Kollaborator said carefully. “His sole purpose is to undo such unions.”

“Undo?” Her voice dropped, like the word tasted wrong in her mouth. “What does that mean?”

Kaos felt her fearful gaze hit him. He looked at her for many seconds and took her hand in his. “It means we would be removed from existence.”

He felt her heart stall as she swallowed, holding his stare.

She then looked at his brothers, searching.

“Is there a way for me to fix it?” she asked, voice small.

Her eyes drifted to the painting. “I only made it so I wouldn’t forget him.

I didn’t know it would show me his name. I-I didn’t know it would… cause this.”

She stared at the painting, like it might answer.

“Maybe it was the way I started,” she mumbled.

“I didn’t sketch first, I just… let it happen.

Maybe that’s not how you’re supposed to paint something sacred.

” She looked in her lap. “I used the same brush I had dipped in metallics. I didn’t clean it first,” she whispered, voice thin. “Sometimes that changes things.”

She suddenly looked up at Kade. “Do you think it will help… that I love him?”

The air left his lungs instantly as her words gutted him. They struck deeper than the threat, deeper than law. Now, his every breath would forever hold that confession.

Kade held up the cards to her, fanning them out. “These will show us how to fix it,” he assured gently.

“When we figure out how to use them,” Krave muttered.

Kaos held his hand out to Kade, and he placed the cards in them. Cold—thin, smooth. Too quiet. He ran a thread of power through them, subtle and sharp, testing for any reaction. Nothing moved. Nothing opened.

He looked at Jaxi and held them to her. “Try touching them.”

She took them carefully, her fingers brushing along the edges.

“The last time these were delivered,” Kollaborator said, “it took a Nephilim-class courier to get them to Josie—and Krave had to drink her blood just to see what they said.”

Kaos remembered it clearly but there was no emotional attachment to the event. There was only Jaxi, studying the blank surfaces, her brows pulling slightly. “They feel… like they’re waiting.”

Kade pitched, “What if it’s not about opening them directly? What if they respond to action, not contact?”

Krave gave a slow nod. “Like a trigger woven into a behavior or trait. Not touch or will.”

“I think Jaxi’s the key,” Kollaborator said. “Like Josie was.”

Kaos reminded, “She touched them. Nothing happened.”

“Wait,” Kross said suddenly. “One of the cards—look.”

Kaos locked his power on the one with a shimmering surface. Subtle. Brief.

Jaxi leaned forward fast and took the card without warning, looking at the painting on the wall. “It’s the same,” she said, standing.

Kaos stood too, following her gaze to a mirrored pattern, down to the flow of color and line.

“It is her,” Kollaborator said, something ragged threading through his voice. “She’s the key.”

Krave stared hard. “What does it mean?”

Kollaborator stepped closer to the table, eyes fixed on the card that had reacted. “It means the trigger’s been met. Whatever Raviel encoded into these—the lock required a specific impulse. She gave it. Her action initiated the sequence.”

A faint shimmer crawled across the edge of the second card. Light stitched into its surface, thin and sharp. Kross leaned in. “Another one’s reacting.” The glow built slowly, outlining a shape too complex to name.

Kaos spotted movement in the lower corner. Numbers, descending. “There’s a timer,” he said sharply. “Fifty-nine minutes and dropping.”

Kross leaned in. “All of them have it—except hers.”

Kollaborator released a sharp breath, eyes scanning all the surfaces. “There’s no countdown on my end, I just see visual structure—symbols, embedded overlays. Nothing counting down.”

Kaos’s jaw flexed. “Why are we seeing a clock run out?”

Kollaborator’s head shook as he looked up.

“I don’t know.” He moved to the third card, scanning faster now.

“Flame signatures—tight spines, branching out from a central origin. This card is Kade’s.

” His fingers slid to the fourth. “Fractured geometry… mirrored edges… heat bands. Rage and Lust. That’s Kaos. ”

Kaos eyed the timer: 00:58:41.

“Glyph rings,” Kollaborator continued. “Legal recursion. That’s mine.” He regarded the last card. “Deep anchor points… all lines drawn inward. Stabilizer pattern.” He glanced at Kross. “The son of Kaos. The King’s King.”

Kaos felt the race of data while dread thickened in his chest. What exactly happened when the countdown ended?

Krave stepped back from the table with a labored breath. “How exactly do you know what they mean?”

Kollaborator kept his eyes on the surface of the cards. “I don’t know how I know—I just do. It’s like the meaning’s embedded with the structure. I see it, and it clicks.”

Kross gestured toward the first card. “Any idea why hers doesn’t have a countdown?”

Kollaborator reached and picked it up. His eyes tracked the depth of the layers, slower now. “This one’s different. No role, no mirrored pairing. Everything here points somewhere.” He turned it toward Kaos suddenly. “It’s a map.”

Kaos stepped in closer but didn’t get a fucking thing but chaotic lines.

Kollaborator wagged her card between all of them. “Wherever this leads… that’s where we’ll find out what the hell this timer’s counting down to.”

“Is this a dream?” Jaxi barely asked, her gaze sweeping across all of them like the possibility kept returning.

Kaos moved to her and placed his hand on her back, grounding her. “You’re here,” he said. “And it’s real.”

She leaned slightly into his touch, voice barely there. “Am I in trouble?”

Her words hit, like she thought she’d broken something sacred by simply being herself.

“Did I get you in trouble?” she worried even more.

He shook his head once. “No. And we’re going to find out exactly what’s going on. And fix it.”

“Maybe The Queen would have some insight,” Kollaborator thought.