She was right and he knew it. He did lose a part of his soul to the darkness every time he accessed those powers he didn’t fully understand.

But … there were no people here. No one he loved that he could lose or accidentally hurt if he went Malachai.

Yeah, but he had no anchor here either. No one to pull him out of it or calm him down. The gods knew Livia wouldn’t do it. She didn’t care enough to.

If you don’t come back from the Malachai state, your mom and Caleb will die. As the full Malachai, you won’t care about getting them their cure.

If I don’t live through this attack, they won’t survive either.

There was that. Nick didn’t know what to do. He was terrified to use those powers and scared not to, especially since his strength was already starting to fail during the fighting. He wouldn’t last much longer in his human body.

Soon, they’d have him.

Maybe this was what Chronus and Tiamat had wanted. A full-blown Malachai. The nightmare beast that didn’t care who or what it destroyed. The one that fed on utter misery and destruction.

“Give in to your pain. Not your hatred.”

Nick froze at the unexpected deep, masculine voice behind him. That rumbling, thick, lilting brogue would be unintelligible if he wasn’t used to taking orders from the Celtic Dark-Hunter Talon. He was the only one who had an accent anywhere near what he’d just heard.

Turning, he saw the shadowed form of a man in the darkness. “Pardon?”

“You want control of your Malachai powers, boyo? Give in to the pain and anger. Never the hatred. Set it aside and let it go. Pain will strengthen you and empower you to do better. To be more than what you are. Your hatred will devour you, and swallow you whole if’n you let it. Give in to your pain. Not your bitter hatred.”

He made it sound so easy, but it wasn’t.

“I’m not sure I know how to do that.”

“Then you’ll become the Malachai you fear. You might as well let it go, and become him now. No need in getting your arse kicked any worse than what it is. Why endure the misery of it for another minute, eh?”

Nick cursed as one of the beasts kicked him hard in the ribs and another slashed him across the back. He cut one and stumbled away from the next before he sliced a new attacker.

Groaning in pain, he glared at his wise leprechaun tormenter. “Hey, Lucky Charms Legolas? In the meantime, could you hop your butt over here and help a brother out?”

“I wish. Sadly, I lack corporeal form. Like this, I can’t even bleed or spit on them.”

Livia hissed at the shadow. “Ignore him, Nick. He’s just a puck.”

“A what?”