Nick exchanged a concerned look with Kody before he closed the distance between him and Xev. “Xevikan!” Still, he didn’t respond as he kept looking around as if seeking an unseen attacker.

Or several thousand of them.

Pulling Xev’s hand from his mother’s leg, Nick forced him to take a step back. “Daraxerxes!” Gah, he hoped he pronounced that name right.

Only then did Xev focus on Nick’s face. But he still wasn’t completely recovered.

“They’re coming.” His voice was firm and intense. “We have to secure the children and women. They’ll hit where we’re weakest. You stay here with the others. I have to get to Lil and warn her. She’ll be their first target. If they reach her first, they can neutralize Caleb’s forces and crash the gates.”

Nick winced at the anguish in his voice. Lil would have been Caleb’s wife. Lilliana. The one Caleb blamed Xev for allowing to die. But from those words and the way Xev was acting, it didn’t sound like Xev had betrayed him and led the enemies inside the gate to take them out. More like he’d done his best to keep her safe.

“Xevikan!” he tried again.

Flinching, Xev turned as one of the symbols on the wall lit up. Recognition widened his eyes before they darkened with the bitterest hatred. He hissed like a cat and backed away from it.

Kody approached him slowly. “Xev?” Gingerly, she touched his chest. “Are you with us?”

His breathing still labored, he covered her hand with his and held it as if she were as precious to him as she was to Nick. A tic started in his jaw before he gave a slow nod. “You feel that?”

“Feel what?” Kody asked.

He looked to Simi. “Charonte?”

“Cursed god?” she shot back in irritation.

Xev rolled his eyes before he went to the door to take a defensive position behind the hinges. He manifested fireballs around his hands as someone knocked on it.

Nick scowled. “You know, X, from my experience, the bad guys don’t usually knock.”

A snide smile curved his lips. “They do when their brand of evil has to be invited in in order to enter.”

And now his gut was back to producing diamonds. Xev had a very valid point with that. There were Daimons and certain other entities who definitely required specific invitations into domiciles to wreak havoc and harm. Nick really wished he lived a life where he didn’t have to know that.

Great. Just great. More nightmares to worry about.