This was so irritating. He couldn’t stand not being able to help them.
Caleb fought against two of the armored Arelim while Zavid held three more off the other Nick, who was even more worthless in this battle than he was. At least he wasn’t crying and whimpering on the floor.
Xevikan was bleeding badly while he fought a small group with Simi at his back. But not even the Charonte could make much of an impact on the Arelim. They were incredible warriors. Unlike anything Nick had seen before. It was as if they’d been born for nothing but battle.
Without a word, Livia ran to help Zavid protect Nick’s body from Ameretat. He was a beast as he tried his best to kill Nick Two.
“Hand over the Malachai and we’ll leave.”
Nick Two whimpered for mercy and cowered in the corner, behind Zavid.
Caleb scoffed as he kicked back the Arel in front of him and turned to fight another. “Not going to happen, Ameretat. We will defend him to our bitterest ends.”
Ameretat raked him with a sneer. “Why?” he asked incredulously. “I know the future, Malphas. He will kill you one day. Brutally.”
“There are worse things than dying.”
Ameretat arched a brow. “Such as?”
“Living with the knowledge that I betrayed someone who trusted me. I’m not that kind of demon, Arel.”
“Then the End Times begin.”
Nick rushed past them to his body. He tapped Nick Two on his shoulder. Unlike the Arelim, his double had no problem seeing him.
“Give me back my body.”
“If I knew how, I would. Believe me. I don’t want to be here. I just want to go home.”
Boy, did he know that feeling. Inclining his head to him, Nick summoned everything he could and then tried to walk into his body. For a few heartbeats, he felt an electrical current rush through him as if something was happening.
But as quickly as he felt it, it was gone, and he was still separated. Dang it all!
“Could you at least put up some kind of fight?” he said to himself. “Help out my friends, who are about to be slaughtered while they protect you.”
“I don’t know how.”
Nick was flabbergasted. “Big Bubba Burdette’s your father and you don’t know how to throw a punch? Seriously?”
“I was never allowed to fight. My mother wouldn’t let me.”
Rolling his eyes, Nick heard a strange gurgle coming out of Livia. He turned to see her falling to a sword stroke as a group of Arelim brutally attacked her.
They were losing this battle. And there was nothing he could do. He didn’t have his grimoire. His dagger.
Kody.
His body.
Nothing.
“Simi!” Caleb snapped. “Behind you!”
She turned and barely ducked a blow that would have beheaded her. Breathing out a stream of fire, she tried to barbecue the Arel, but they were too fast and too well trained. Not even the Charonte could make an impact.
Where’s a sawed-off when I need one? As tight as they were fighting, one blast would take out at least three of the Arelim.
For that matter, a stick of dynamite. Heck, he’d settle for a jug of Clorox.
A can of hair spray and a lighter …
It just wasn’t in his genetic code to go down without a fight. Nick manifested a fireball, but unlike before in the other realm, these wouldn’t leave his hand here.
Xevikan disengaged his opponent to help Zavid cover Nick’s body. He cast an angry glare at the disembodied Nick that accused him of being as useless as he felt.
Ameretat tsked at Xevikan. “You never could choose a winning side.”
Backhanding the Arel in front of him, Xevikan snorted. “Win, lose, or draw, if it’s opposite of you, I consider it a definite win.”
Ameretat raked him with his distaste. “You think it was painful when they ripped out your wings? You haven’t met misery yet.”
Xevikan scoffed as he turned to fight his verbal tormentor. “I already kissed that bitch this morning. Trust me, anything your pathetic kind does in comparison is a mother’s tender loving touch.”
Ameretat head-butted Xevikan and stabbed him through the side. He knocked Zavid away before he grabbed Nick Two and held a dagger to his throat.
Nick and the others froze instantly.
“Stand down,” Ameretat ordered them all. He turned his glare to Simi. “And drop your barbecue sauce, demon.”
The look in her eyes said that she wanted to send out a blast of fire for him. Just as Nick was sure she would, she knelt down and placed her barbecue sauce bottle on the floor.
Simi tucked her wings down. “You an evil bad thing. The Simi’s going to enjoy the day she gets to eats that big old head of yours.”
“Please don’t hurt me,” Nick Two sobbed as he tried to pull Ameretat’s hand away from his throat. “I just want to go home to my parents. I don’t understand why I’m here. I can’t hurt anyone. I’ve never hurt anyone.”
“Shh!” Ameretat snarled in his ear. “You don’t speak!”
Caleb took a slow step forward. “Let him go, Ameretat. That’s not the Malachai you’re holding.”
“You think I don’t know that? But it is his body. His blood. His heart.”
“Yeah, and his shoes and shirt. What’s your point? None of that holds his power. That stays with his soul.”
Ameretat stepped back, dragging Nick Two with him. “But we both know his power without his blood is weak at best. And without his heart … he’s nothing more than a blind pup who can’t even find his mother’s teat to suckle.”
Nick screwed his face up in distaste. So not the image he wanted in his head. C’mon, Caleb. Pull out one of your miracles. Blast him through the wall.
Instead, the daeve kept talking. “You know you can’t kill him. It’d destroy the balance.”
Ameretat shrugged. “Everything will eventually end by his hand, anyway. What difference does it make if it’s now or a thousand years in the future? Either way, we all die.”
“Please!” Nick Two cried. “Just let me go. I’m not going to hurt anyone.”
“Oh shut up!” Ameretat plunged the dagger straight into Nick’s body.
Nick gasped as pain exploded through his chest while he watched the other Nick sink to the floor. It burned and ached so badly that he could barely breathe.
It’s over. I’m dying.
And there was nothing he could do.
Ameretat stepped back from his body and smiled at the others. “We’ve done it. We’ve ended the reign of the Malachai! Forever!”
“No!” Livia shrieked, crawling toward Nick’s body.
Xevikan and Zavid stood motionless as the Arelim withdrew. Simi made her way to Livia and they tried to heal Nick Two.
But there was nothing they could do.
Simi pulled the knife from his heart and tossed it aside. She gathered him into her arms so that she could rock him while he bled out. “Shh, don’t cry, little human. You go home soon and everything be okay.”
Coughing and wheezing, Nick Two clung to her while he wept.
Nick met Caleb’s gaze. At first, it was stone cold. Then, as Nick began to fade away, a slow, insidious smile curved Caleb’s lips. Nick couldn’t believe it. Caleb was actually happy that he was dying. And here he’d mistakenly thought they were friends. Family even.
Yet in the end, Caleb was thrilled to see him go.
Tears filled Nick’s eyes as he realized all the things he’d miss. All the things he’d planned to do that he would never be able to do now. All the things he should have said to the people who mattered in his life that he’d let go unsaid. But the worst was the pain he knew his mother would feel once she found out he was gone. She’d be alone in the world, with no one to watch over her.