Page 39 of Legacy of Temptation

“Two days ago?” Reseph’s voice was eerily calm. Like how everything went still before a swarm of ghastbats tore apart an entire town. He looked between his brothers and sister. “You’veallknown for two days, and you kept it from me? Did you think I couldn’t handle the news?”

“No.” Limos said at the same time as Ares said, “Yes.”

Thanatos shot his siblings a look of frustration before turning back to Reseph. “You’re here now, and that’s all that matters. The short of it is that she’s back, and she wants revenge. You and Jillian need to watch your backs. She’s dangerous and powerful, maybe even more so than before.”

Reseph’s jaw tightened, and his fists clenched. He looked like a bomb about to go off. Abruptly, he turned on his heel and walked away. His mate, Jillian, matched that incendiary look, her eyes burning like lit fuses as she glared at each of them.

“Shame on all of you!” she snapped. “What were you thinking, keeping this from him? He’s spent over thirty years proving himself, and you still don’t trust him? How much longer are you going to punish him for what Pestilence did? Do you not think he punishes himself enough for all of you every single day? What is wrong with you?”

Logan glanced at Reseph’s back as he neared the corner of the manor. His uncle might be ready to blow, but his aunt already had. Logan was going to take his chances with shrapnel from Reseph. Maybe he could even defuse the guy. Jillian looked like she was ready to start knocking heads.

“Uncle Reseph?” Logan called out. “Can I talk to you?”

Both Ares and Thanatos gave him grateful nods before withering under Jillian’s glare. Limos just looked down at the sand and gnawed on her orange-painted nails.

For as long as Logan could remember, his family had walked on eggshells around Reseph. Even when he wasn’t around, certain topics could spark tension. Sometimes, if the mood was wrong, and the alcohol was strong, the tension turned into arguments. How could it not? When Reseph’s Seal broke and he became the demon known to the world as Pestilence, First Horseman of the Apocalypse, he’d caused a lot of damage, emotional and physical.

Logan had as much, if not more, reason than any of them to hold a grudge, given that Pestilence had attempted to murder him as a baby after The Aegis failed, but he didn’t remember any of that. The only Reseph Logan knew was the one who had carried him on his shoulders when he was a toddler and given him the best Christmas gifts. The one who took him skiing and mountain climbing. Limos was the chill aunt, Ares was the wise uncle, and Reseph was the fun one.

And yet, Logan had caught Reseph’s gaze drifting somewhere Logan couldn’t go at times. Somewhere dark and troubled—and very, very sad.

He stood, his injured leg groaning. Blade’s healing had gotten it to ninety percent, and being immortal would get him back to one hundred in a couple of hours, but he still felt like he’d been hit by a truck. He tried not to make his limp too obvious as he hurried toward his uncle. Reseph had always had a soft spot for his nieces and Logan, but secretly, he thought Reseph favored him.

Of course, the I-tried-to-kill-my-nephew guilt might be responsible for that.

Reseph stopped on the path and waited for Logan. When he finally caught up, Reseph started walking again, hanging a right toward the beach.

“You’re injured,” Reseph said in a taut, tightly controlled voice, his gaze focused somewhere out across the crystal sea.

“Not badly,” Logan said.

“Was it Lilith?”

“Sort of.”

The sea breeze ruffled Logan’s hair, but Reseph’s short platinum spikes barely moved, as if the air itself didn’t want to mess with this male. Logan had seen pictures of Reseph from before Logan was born, back when his hair had been longer than Limos’s. But Logan had never known Reseph to have anything but short hair. He’d overheard Jillian telling his mother that he’d cut it as if trying to cut out anything that reminded him of his days as Pestilence.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault. There’s nothing you could have done.”

“No, there’s not,” he growled, his hands forming fists at his sides. “Because no one told me she was alive.” He cursed. “She was depravedbeforeI became Pestilence, but Pestilence took her depravity to a new level. I should have demanded that Azagoth destroy her soul. I should have let Thanatos kill her and keep her soul forever in his armor. But I couldn’t wait. I was rash, and now she’s back.”

Logan shook his head as they stepped onto the warm sand. “You can’t blame yourself for this.”

“That’s what everyone always tells me when Pestilence comes back to haunt us. But they’re wrong.”

Logan grabbed Reseph’s arm and forced him to stop. “Uncle, I know…I know how you feel.”

Surprise cooled the heat in Reseph’s blue eyes a little. One pale eyebrow even arched in amusement. “Do you?”

“No, I mean, not exactly,” he said hastily. “No one can understand what it’s like to be you.” Reaching up, he rubbed the back of his neck and let his eyes take in the island’s white shoreline and the birds wading in the shallow waves. “But…I think maybe we can help each other.” Man, he didn’t want to talk about this. He wanted to forget it. But if there was ever someone hecouldtalk to, it was Reseph, and he’d already gone too far to back down now. “Something haunts me too.”

Every drop of tension inside Reseph seemed to melt away. Even his voice lowered, barely carrying over the calls of the seabirds. “It’s Chaos, isn’t it?”

All these years later, it still stung to hear that name. “Yeah. I hate talking about it, but everyone says I should. Like it’ll help me get past it. Rade offered to help, but I don’t know if I want him messing with my head.” He shrugged. “Plus, it feels like it would be cheating. Dad told me he cheated to keep from facing the things he’d done, and I don’t want to do that too.”

“You didn’t do anything,” Reseph said, and yeah, that was the problem. He’d failed to save Chaos. Everyone had failed that day.

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