Page 55 of The Chosen Son

If it weren’t forLoki, I could’ve let myself love Cameron.

I let that thought take control of my body as I stormed toward city hall, forcing myself to forget that I was walking away from the one person who’d made me feel… whole. Maybe even more whole than Gorgias ever did…

It should’ve taken longer to erase those memories from Cameron’s mind, but in truth it was mere seconds. Seconds to take something so huge. He’d stood there afterward, dazed, as if I’d broken some integral part of him needed to function.

“Shh, you’re okay,” I’d said, my voice hitching. I reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet, filling it with cash. “You’re going to get in a cab and go back to Phobos. Do you understand me?”

My beautiful boy had blinked up at me, those brown eyes unfocused, but when I’d pushed for an answer, he’d nodded all the same.

It would have to do, because I had somewhere I needed to be.

The entire walk to city hall, I carried the grief inside me, using it to ignite the anger I’d been searching for all day. While the heartache I’d felt at losing Gorgias was fading, what I felt over Cameron was fresh and violent. Would I always be destined to fear losing the ones I loved? This was Loki’s fault too, wasn’t it? If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t be a broken, hollow man. I could’ve moved on, could’ve found the happiness, the family, that I craved so desperately.

I knew Loki was working late because I’d bribed one of the security guards to feed me intel. He had some after-hours meeting scheduled with Azazel and Anubis. I wasn’t sure I could handle all three of them, but I’d heard Loki liked to indulge in a little after-work quiet time. At this very moment, my archnemesis was probably upstairs in his cushy office, drinking some overpriced scotch with his feet up on his tacky oversized desk, while he laughed maniacally and planned how to ruin someone else’s life, steal someone else’s lover.

If I’d given Cameron a chance, would Loki have stolen him too?

There, that sparked the rage nicely. I was just a block away from city hall, and I let that vault of Cameron’s powers crack open. I hissed as it scalded my insides like boiling acid. I’d clearly taken more than I could handle, but he’d needed me to make him feel better. It wasn’t like the shifters’ power I’d taken, which had been volatile and uncontrollable. This felt almost like it was molding to my body like a second skin, perhaps because it had been freely given, but it still made me feel a bit like an overheated uranium core.

There was a slim chance I might go nuclear… but probably not.

My vision went a little warped, and my entire body itched and tingled, emitting a crackling golden glow. I ignored the pain, though, focusing on my goal. Kill Loki, avenge Gorgias. I had never been so close. With my eye on the prize, I stormed up the steps of city hall, the ground quaking beneath my feet.

I was just debating whether I should merely open the door or really make an entrance and blast a hole through the wall, when my focus was broken by faint music, coming from my pocket. It was my brother’s ringtone, “Asshole” by Denis Leary, and my first thought was that something had happened to Cameron. Just like that, my mission was abandoned.

“What’s wrong?” I asked tightly in way of greeting.

“Wrong? Gee, what could possibly be wrong?” he asked with a weird edge to his voice.

“Look, just tell me Cameron made it to you safely, would you? I’ve got shit to do.” Phobos and I had been dancing around the topic of Cameron since the moment I first laid eyes on him. It was obvious we both wanted him, but only one of us could win. Why couldn’t he just accept what I’d offered him and take care of him for me?

“Well, let’s see… I waited around home for a while, and when he didn’t show up—”

Despite the power burning its way through me, I felt a chill. “What?!” I snapped. “Then where the fuck is he?”

“If you’d give me a second and let me finish,” he drawled, taking his sweet-ass time. “As I was saying, when he didn’t show up, I decided to go looking for him. Do you have any idea how many humans are in this city? It’s ridiculous! Not like the old days, when I could’ve plucked him out from the handful of people living in a village. If I couldn’t fly, it would’ve taken foreeeeeever.”

He was talking so slowly, and it was driving me crazy! Didn’t he know I was barely holding on by a thread here? I paced back and forth in front of the doors to city hall, tiny fissures spiderwebbing the stone with each step. “Get on with it!”

“Soooo, after going block by block, I finally found him in some shifter bar downtown. Kind of a cute place, actually, we should check it out later. Go for a drink together, just like old times.”

I stopped my pacing, suspicion grating at me. He was stalling. “Phobos, what are you…?”

That was all I had time to say before I heard a high-pitched whistling sound. I pulled the phone away from my ear, but I still heard it. I looked up, just as Phobos came dropping out of the sky like a ton of bricks. I tried to jump back in time, but he slammed down hard right where I’d been standing a second before, and the force of the blow sent me tumbling. I landed hard on my back, all the way at the bottom of the steps. I felt the sharp snap as several ribs broke, my breath knocked from my lungs in a whoosh.

Wheezing, I rolled over and pushed myself up, using a bit of the power to heal the breaks; I told myself I had plenty to spare. “I believe you’ve already used that little trick before. Don’t you have any new material?”

Phobos rose from the crater he’d punched into the stone, glaring. “Why don’t you come up here and see?”

“My pleasure,” I said, smiling malevolently. I took the entire flight of stairs in one bound, bringing us face to face.

“Did you really think I wouldn’t realize what you were up to?” he seethed. “We’re twins. I know you better than anyone ever will. And that’s why I know you don’t really want to do this.”

I barked out a harsh laugh, devoid of humor. “Oh, trust me. I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time, and this is finally my chance. No one can stand in my way—not even you, Brother.”

The time for talking was done. I swung my fist toward his face. The problem with facing off against my brother was that we’d sparred countless times. We’d been trained by the same man, our father, andnothing I could do would surprise him. He saw my punch coming and dodged it with ease. Damn, he was fast, maybe even faster than me—when I wasn’t supercharged, at least.

Without giving him a chance to recover, I swung again and again, and though he dodged them all, he was forced to retreat, trying to put some distance between us so he would have a chance to breathe. I kept advancing on him, and with each consecutive punch, his expression began to darken. Good, he was finally taking this seriously.

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