Xev ignored his sarcasm. “You know the story of Pandora’s Box?”

“Yeah?”

“It wasn’t a box or a jar the curious human opened that unleashed those ill spirits into this world. It was a living membrane she ruptured that could never again be closed or healed. That’s why Death, Bane, and War are always in this realm with humanity. Why no one can defeat them or banish them completely. Not even I.”

Sighing wearily, Xev closed the curtains to block the crows from seeing into the condo and spying on them. “Because of one woman’s defiance of a divine order, mankind was forever condemned to suffer them and their cruelty, with no way to fully banish them from this human plane. Think of it as the eleventh hour for Man. Forever walking hand in hand with their own destruction and death. With humanity’s only tenuous hope for salvation being this terrifying thing we call free will. When the first woman so innocently and blindly gave birth to those three, she unknowingly damned this world to disease, war, and death. To the eternal battle for this middle ground and the fate of all humanity. But … thanks to the gods who care about her kind and who took pity on them, the other four Snake šarras or chieftains remain supernally bound and contained. Restrained. Each with their own malevolent group they uniquely control as pawns in this eternal war to the one suzerain who leads them.”

Kody inclined her head to Nick. “The Malachai.” Together with his six main leaders, or generals, they made up the ušumgallu.

Xev nodded. “And Nick, alone, can open the supernal realms and unleash the demons en masse into this world to take possession of it. The Malachai is also the only being who can summon the three of us from our prisons. Me. Livia and Yrre.” The eternal balance. Three of the ušumgallu remained in this world—War, Bane, and Death—while the other three remained in stasis. “No one save the Malachai can ever unlock our gates. But it’s not an easy task.”

Nick frowned. “I’ve wondered about that. Why has no Malachai before me ever let you guys out?”

“For many reasons. One, it’s too draining for the Malachai. There’s always a risk that as soon as he frees us, one of us or another might kill him before he recovers enough strength to protect himself. Remember, he’s usually a child when he inherits his powers and he can’t really control us. If he combines us, it would be easy for us to join together to kill or enslave him. So, the best thing for a Malachai to do is to always put us down … like a rabid dog, as soon as he takes his father’s life. Never give one of us a chance to go for your jugular. We will take it.”

Nick glanced to Kody as a chill went down his spine. He knew how little regard and love Grim and Laguerre had for him, most days. He could only imagine how awful it would be to fall under their “benevolent” control. “Why are you warning me about your friends?”