Page 117 of The World Undone

She shook her head and I swallowed the anxiety threatening to boil in my chest.

One thing at a time.

If I let myself focus on all the potential lines of fear threading through my bones right now, I’d never stand a chance at surviving the rest of the day.

They’d be okay. And they’d use the bond to reach out if they weren’t.

Claude furrowed his brows. “I have no idea.” Something told me he rarely didn’t know what was going on, and judging by the stiffness in his posture, he wasn’t a particularly big fan of the feeling. “One moment I was at the bar, then I,” he gestured around, lip curling in disgust, “then I was in the middle of a lake, where my brother was thrashing about like an enraged toddler.”

I took a step closer to Darius, a wave of protectiveness washing over me.

“Do you know what was wrong with him?” My voice was quiet, small. “Why he?—”

Claude reached his hand to my chin, his touch more gentle than I’d have anticipated as he tilted my head to the side. “He attacked you.”

“And then himself.” Defensiveness wrapped around me like a snake and I brushed his hand away. “I’m fine. He was fighting himself, I just don’t understand why. One moment he was himself, the next he was—” I gestured to the water, not quite sure how to put into words what had come over Darius, “you know. It—it was like a switch had flipped.”

Claude crouched next to his brother, his designer pants somehow still looking suave and tailored perfectly to him, despite the fact that they were soaked. “Do you have any idea what could have triggered such a sudden switch? What happened immediately before?”

Ro grunted.

“I,” I glanced at him, guilt curling under my ribs at the hardness in his eyes, the set of his jaw. Now that we knew Charlie was okay and Darius wasn’t an immediate threat, it was clear that Ro’s anger was beginning to simmer again. I’d have to talk to him soon—to all of them—about what Darius and Ro learned today. “I have an idea.”

Claude looked up at me, brow arching, but he didn’t press the matter further. “And what about before this,” he cleared his throat, “trigger. Was he normal—” he stood up, “normal for Darius, I mean?”

My mouth went dry, because the truth was that Darius hadn’t quite been himself for a while now.

I’d given him space, knowing he didn’t want to talk about it. I’d figured it had something to do with his history with Charlie and the others here, with all the shit we were dealing with.

But maybe I was wrong. Maybe I should have pushed.

“He’s been a little distant,” I said, “sort of tucked inside of himself, lost in his thoughts. If that makes sense? I’ve seen him like that a few times before. Once—” I licked my lips, “once at your house. After the two of you fought. The way he sank into himself after?”

Claude and Nash shared a dark look, and the sight of it sent my heart raging inside of its cage.

“He’ll be okay though, right?” I hated how weak I sounded, but I needed to know. I couldn’t do this without him. Couldn’t— “When he wakes up, he’ll come back to himself?”

Any of the frostiness that Claude usually reserved when speaking about Darius dissolved, until I saw my own fear written in the lines of his face.

“I don’t—” he shook his head. “I don’t know, Max. My brother has been fighting his demons for many years. When he abandoned his post, he upset the balance. Portal guardians are always consumed by the shadow magic they intersect with, eventually. And he’s—” he took a deep breath, his familiar eyes more tender than I’d ever seen them as they met mine, “I did try to warn you.”

“He brought us here,” Nash said, his voice distant, like it was filtering through a tunnel as I processed Claude’s words. “We are two sets of the same. I don’t know how he did it, but his power brought us here—an attempt to recalibrate, perhaps.”

“It shouldn’t be possible,” Claude said, though I could see from the set of his face that he didn’t disagree with Nash’s assessment.

“Your sister,” Izzy started after a few moments of silence, her gaze darting between me and the two men, “Nika. Is she okay?”

Claude jolted, like he’d forgotten about her entirely.

“She’s unwell, but she’ll be fine.” Nash’s grip tightened around his sister and he took a few steps back, towards the water. “She’s been unwell for years. Since Darius abandoned his post.”

“Unwell in the way that he’s unwell?” I asked.

Nash nodded. His jaw strained, and I could tell that he was priming himself to tear off at a run the second one of us so much as twitched in a way that threatened her. “She could not keep the dark hold of shadow magic at bay for as long as Darius could. Once he upset the balance, and with things as difficult as they were in hell—it took her over.”

“Do you mean to tell me that Nika has been living like—” Claude stumbled over the words as he motioned to his brother, but we all knew what he meant. Had she been as lost to herself as Darius had been just now—for years?

Nash was silent.

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