Nick despised the fact that he knew exactly what Xev meant by that. It was the same suspiciousness he had whenever someone complimented him. He was so used to being insulted that if, by some miracle, he actually got a compliment from someone, he analyzed it over and over to see if it was somehow a veiled insult instead.

How sad was that?

But he couldn’t help it. The world had predisposed him to expect meanness from strangers. It shouldn’t be that way. But it was. It was why Nick went out of his way to try and make people feel appreciated and important. Especially those others tended to overlook—streetcar drivers, doormen, vendors, janitors, bathroom attendants, maids. Hobos.

Everyone mattered.

Kody swallowed hard. “Can I ask a personal question?”

Xev shrugged. “Sure.”

“Given that amount of power you were born with … how did they ever capture you?”

Agony swam in the hazel depths of Xev’s rust-colored eyes. His features turned to stone as a single tear slid down his cheek. “There’s the bitterest irony of all. They unknowingly sent the only warrior after me I would never harm.”

“Who?” Nick asked.

“The one life I wouldn’t take.”

“And that was?”

“A life that mattered more to me than my own.”

Nick sighed as he passed an irritated grimace to Kody and gave up on the never-ending hamster wheel loop of madness. It was obvious that even now, Xev had no inclination of sharing that identity with anyone. Whoever it was, he intended to let no one use them to hurt him again.

He could respect that, too.

Given that, Nick changed the subject. “So which of the gates do you control in this smorgasbord of fun-filled nightmarish holocaust?”

“The prison realms of the cursed gods. Both good and bad. I can bring them all back into play and return them to war against each other.”

Kody gestured toward the window. “And the Memitim? Who holds their key?”

“The souls of the dead are controlled by Yrre. She’s the one who would have unleashed them against Caleb.”

Kody went pale. “Nick saw her earlier.”

“What?”

Nick nodded. “In the hallway at school. Right before Caleb got sick.”

“And neither of you mentioned it before now?” His tone betrayed his outrage.

“I thought I was hallucinating.”

Xev arched one arctic blue brow. “You do that a lot?”

“Here lately? More than I want to cop to. Let us not forget that I just got back from an alternate universe. While I like to think I’m adjusting pretty well to that, I do still have some lingering issues.”

Xev cursed under his breath.

“But the gates were sealed shut after his father died,” Kody insisted. “Caleb wouldn’t have made that mistake. He knows the severity of those consequences.”

Xev ignored her outburst. “Are there any other hallucinations I need to be aware of?”