A chill went down his spine. “What’s going on? What do you want with me?”

She laughed eerily before she pushed herself away from him and went to stand next to Chronus. “Think of it as a pop quiz. And you were doing unbelievably well.”

“Were?” Nick felt his stomach starting to burn again.

Tiamat nodded. “We can’t have the war starting quite yet. Not until this matter is settled.”

Oh, he so didn’t like the sound of any part of this. His ulcer was now the size of Texas and was currently having kittens and ducks. Probably a few lizards, too.

Pressing his hand against the gastric pain, Nick grimaced and wished he had a few gallons of Tums. “And what matter is that?”

“The head of the ušumgallu.”

That took him by total surprise. What was she talking about? What head? He was the head, right?

“Excuse me?”

She stepped forward to pat his cheek in the most condescending way imaginable. The matrons at church would be so proud of how she did that. He was only surprised she didn’t pinch his dimples while she was at it.

“A vote was called. It seems the majority of your generals feel you’re unfit to lead them. And since there is another creature born of Adarian’s blood, they are asking for us to judge which of you should be named his heir.”

Nick forced himself not to gape or react in any way at something that had to be incredibly bad news for him. “I didn’t think it worked that way.”

She nodded. “The Malachai powers can be taken or assumed by another, especially a blood son, if one exists. It would be nothing for your older half brother to claim the birthright from you, should we deem him so worthy.”

Oh goody! How about a good eye-gouging, too? Or groin-clamping? That sounded like even more fun!

But that brought him back to one stunning point that he still couldn’t quite wrap his mind around.

“Wait … What? What older brother are we talking about? I didn’t think the Malachai could have more than one son at a time who could live past the age of ten. Isn’t that an impossibility?”

Chronos laughed. “Adarian was a crafty beast. Seems he found a way to bypass his curse, and hide his firstborn son from the gods. Something he confided to one of your šarras before he died. Like you, that son is being tested for his abilities, to see who is better suited for the Malachai role.”

Tiamat patted his cheek. “This is where you should hope he fails and you pass.”

Great. Talk about test anxiety. And in this case, Nick had a bad feeling failure wasn’t an F.