10
Exhausted from the journey, Ivy urged Jacob to rest. Lyric, though she wanted to stay, also took her leave to recover.
That left the rest of us huddled in the kitchen. Alex stood behind me, curious but too afraid to leave my side, while Ren, unsure of where to place a dead body, rested Jordan on the tile floor.
Our arrival drew attention, and before we could react, footsteps pounded from upstairs. Ren, Stella, Ivy, and I tensed.
“Who else is here?” I whispered. But none of them had a chance to respond before two stunned faces appeared in the doorway.
Markus and Thomas stormed into the kitchen, faces pale with alarm. Markus froze mid-step, his gaze locking on Jordan and the gaping hole in his chest. His eyes widened, and a strangled gasp escaped him.
“Jordan?” His voice cracked, disbelief and grief mixing as he stumbled forward, clutching Jordan’s shoulders as if he could somehow shake him back to life. “No! Jordan!”
“Wait, you know this guy?” I stepped to the side to give Markus room.
“He … he’s my cousin! The one the Syndicate told me had died from a vicious demon attack.
” I had seen Markus on and off for the past two months, but the former Syndicate follower had changed since the last time we had met.
His unruly dark brown hair had been neatly trimmed, and he now wore a pair of black-rimmed glasses that framed his round face.
He once served his Syndicate master faithfully, too afraid to speak up and following every order without question.
But now, there was a quiet confidence within him.
When he’d seen what Leon had done to me, to Caspian, and ultimately to Ren before he’d disappeared into the Nether, he easily made the conclusion that he was on the wrong side. “What happened to him?”
“I know what this looks like, but I promise you, he’s not dead.” I placated Markus, his eyes filled with a mixture of disbelief and sorrow. “The Syndicate found out about his power, and they kept him hostage this whole time.”
“Power? What power?” Markus’ voice squeaked. “He didn’t have magic the last time I saw him.”
I shrugged. “I don’t know how it works, but Jordan told me he always comes back to life when he dies.”
The weight of that statement hung over the room, heavy with sorrow and quiet disbelief. I didn’t know the details of Jordan’s past, but it was obvious the Syndicate had used him for experimentation, subjecting him to excruciating pain and killing him repeatedly.
“And who might this darling little creature be?” Thomas cut through the awkward silence with his usual theatrical flair, sweeping over to crouch beside Alex.
His sleek black hair was carefully styled around the gentle curve of his demon horns, and his deep red eyes, so similar to Ren’s, carried a cautious sort of warmth beneath their curiosity.
Thomas had always been impossible to ignore in a room.
Alex’s attention immediately snagged on the soft pink cashmere sweater draped over him, the intricate pattern woven into it somehow making him look both inviting and completely out of reach at the same time.
“Knock it off, Thomas. You’re scaring the poor kid.” Ren crossed his arms but made no effort to actually stop his brother.
“A-Alex,” she responded to Thomas in that harsh, raspy voice. Thomas reached out, brushing the long, tangled strands of dark hair away from her face to reveal her stunning bright blue eyes.
“Well, Alex,” Thomas repeated smoothly, sensing the girl’s trepidation tinged with curiosity.
“I’m Thomas. The grumpy one’s my brother.
I can’t imagine how overwhelming this must be for you.
What would you say to an at-home spa day, hmm?
Relax a little. Why don’t you come upstairs with me?
We’ll get you washed up and into some of Theo’s nice clothes.
I can even cut your hair if you want. Theo likes to use this fancy coconut-scented shampoo. I’m sure you’ll love it.”
Alex looked up at me, and I nodded in return.
Slowly, she left my side and took Thomas’ hand as he led her up the stairs.
There were a lot of questions left unanswered, but having barely survived a Syndicate attack in the underworld, none of us was in any mood to discuss them.
We took turns using the second bathroom to clean up, while Ivy put together some snacks and popped a frozen pizza into the oven.
It was the first proper food I had eaten in months.
Thomas and Alex had been upstairs for a while. I was getting nervous, thinking I should check in on them, but when Alex’s giggle drifted down the stairs, I knew I didn’t have to.
“I’m going to take Jordan home with me.” Markus had never left his cousin’s side.
“Are you sure?” I questioned him. “You can’t just … carry around a dead body with you. It’ll look suspicious. You can stay here with him in one of the bedrooms tonight. It’s not a big deal.”
Markus shook his head. “No. It’s fine. I don’t know how long this revival thing takes, and I don’t want to be a burden to you. At home I can take my time placing some healing runes to monitor his recovery. Plus, when he wakes up, I want to make sure I’m the first one he sees.”
I reapplied the “lighten” spell on Jordan’s body, allowing Markus to easily carry his body to his car before driving home. With the two of them gone, I sat back down in the kitchen with Ivy, Stella, and Ren. We all stared at Ren, waiting for an explanation.
“I don’t know what you want me to say,” he started.
“Leon and I tumbled into the underworld. I killed him, thinking he’d just turn around and come right back here if I didn’t.
I stole his magic thinking I could use it to return, but when I tried to use it, I realized, while I could jump to places within the Nether, I couldn’t direct it anywhere outside.
That’s probably why he used that blue blade to open the portal to begin with, but I didn’t think to take it from him.
For an entire month I wandered around, my life protected by Theo’s soul thrumming inside me.
Eventually, I found Leon again and secretly followed him into that hidden realm, not realizing I’d be trapped there. ”
“So you didn’t think to learn anything about the Syndicate’s operation the entire time you were there?
” Stella leaned back in her chair, popping a potato chip into her mouth with practiced nonchalance.
The soft clang of plates in the sink punctuated the quiet as Ivy went about cleaning up the kitchen, moving with careful efficiency.
“Sorry, next time I decide to sacrifice myself, I’ll make sure I’m more prepared to infiltrate the secret organization experimenting on people and their magic.
I learned just as much as you, but getting too close was a risk I wasn’t willing to take.
” Changing the subject, Ren shifted his focus to me, pinning me with an unimpressed glare.
“What I’m curious about is Alex. Those powers are …
dangerous, and we damn well know the Syndicate was exploiting them.
We need to understand what their end goal was to control it and what capabilities she has.
And now that they saw your powers working together …
you two destroyed the fucking veil between life and death. That kind of power won’t be ignored.”
I didn’t have a response to that, but the voice behind me did.
“We didn’t mean to break the veil. We were just trying to weaken it enough to slip through. The magic that flows within him … it’s … living. Like mine. When Theo saw Jordan sacrifice himself, the magic spiraled out of control with his emotions. It reacted to my magic and amplified it.”
My breath caught as I turned around. Standing in the doorway in front of Thomas was Alex in one of my t-shirts and a pair of sweatpants.
Even with the fabric hanging loose on his frame, there was something obviously different.
Dark black hair had been cut in a style strikingly similar to my own—short at the back, longer on top—no longer hiding those bright blue eyes.
My mind raced, struggling to reconcile the image before me with the one I had assumed all along. “Wait, you … you’re a guy? Why didn’t you say anything!”
Embarrassment crept up my neck and heated my cheeks.
I might have treated his wounds, woven his magic with mine, but I was focused on my magic, not his body.
I just assumed, given his soft voice and the shy way he carried himself, that he was a girl.
The transformation was startling. The grime and matted hair that had hidden his features were gone, revealing a face that was undeniably male, yet still carried an almost feminine charm.
His frame lacked any pronounced masculine muscle, but his shoulders gave him a subtle strength, hinting at resilience beneath his delicate appearance.
Alex shrugged. “No one ever asked.”
As if that was an acceptable response, he padded over toward the kitchen table, eyeing the last piece of pizza.
He picked it up, examined it briefly, looked at me for approval, then and ripped off a generous bite, chewing thoughtfully as if savoring a minor victory.
He sat down beside me, pulling the chair much closer to me than it needed to be.
Thomas took the empty seat at the head of the table.
“Okay, now I’m curious.” Stella leaned forward and pointed her finger at Alex. “What the hell is going on here with Theo’s magic? And how is it connected to his?”
Ivy, having finished her cleaning, sat down beside Stella with a glass of iced tea to join in the conversation.