Jaden looked away from her, but not before she saw the shame and grief in his eyes. His breathing intensified as if he was fighting physical pain. "Seth hates me because I'm the stupid bastard who showed Noir how to drain his powers from him and keep him submissive."
Her jaw went slack as anger knifed her through the heart. How could he have done something like that? To a boy, no less? And here she'd thought he was decent.
In the end, he was even worse than Noir.
No wonder Seth hated people the way he did. He truly had had no one. Not once in his entire life.
She raked a repulsed sneer over Jaden's body. "Why would you have done that?"
He let out a laugh that was laced with bitterness and self-loathing. "Why does anyone screw someone else? I was trying to save my own ass. At the time, I didn't know Seth. I hadn't even seen him yet. Not that that's any kind of an excuse. Believe me, no one is more disgusted by my behavior than I am."
She wouldn't bet on that. It was a wonder Seth hadn't gutted him for it.
Jaden sighed. "My only defense is that I was in the detag area where I can't see out into the world. And Noir is one of only two people who can lie to me and I can't detect it. He told me that he'd found a bastard god who needed his powers drained. If I showed him how to capture the god and use his own powers to keep him weak, he'd allow me out of my hellhole, and I could kill the god for him." The shame in his bicolored gaze ran all the way to his soul.
"I'll never forget that moment when Noir threw him on the ground in front of me, and I looked down into the innocent face of a terrified, defenseless child who had no idea what had been done to him or why. Noir laughed like it was the funniest thing he'd ever seen. And I knew..." He ground his teeth and the agony on his face told her that he was being honest about his regret. "I knew I'd been lied to and that I'd just damned that poor child to more misery than any creature should suffer." He raked his hand through his dark hair. "I should have killed him that day. I should have. But I couldn't bring myself to slaughter a defenseless child."
"How could you have killed him?"
Jaden gave her an evil smirk. "There's nothing I can't kill. No matter how immortal."
"Then why don't you do us all a favor and kill Noir now?"
He glanced away from her and curled his lip in contempt. It wasn't until he spoke that she realized that contempt was directed at himself. "That's a long, complicated story, and it's one I will never tell to you or anyone else. Suffice it to say, not killing him when I could have was my biggest mistake and is my greatest regret. It never fails to mystify me how badly we fuck up our lives by trying to protect ourselves, and the ones we love, from hurt and from harm. Unfortunately, life is unpredictable and turns on you at the worst possible times. Too bad we can't club it in the head until it heels, or better yet dies."
Boy, did she ever know that. Whenever she thought things were going well, something always went tragically wrong.
"Why are you telling me all of this?"
"To save your ass. I've destroyed enough lives in my time. For once, I'd like to save one. Granted it doesn't even the scales, not by a longshot, but it's better than doing nothing." He jerked his chin toward the door. "In spite of what his parents and adoptive family did to him, Seth was decent when he first came here. Angry, understandably, but decent. Unfortunately, that didn't last. The unending misery and torture would have taken its toll on even the strongest of souls, and I give that boy credit, he lasted longer than anyone I've ever seen and that includes me. But after..." he trailed off as a dark cloud settled over his features.
Lydia frowned. "After what? You can't leave me hanging after everything else you've told me. How much worse could it be?"
"Ironically it's not," Jaden said with a heavy sigh. "It was just the straw that snapped the camel in two and left it bleeding on the ground. Seth made a pact with Noir's Malachai, Adarian. If he helped the Malachai go free, Adarian was supposed to come back and release him in turn."
She stated the obvious. "He didn't."
Jaden shook his head. "Better Adarian had ripped his head off and killed him than leave him here to face Noir's wrath."
She could only imagine how true that was. "I take it Noir wasn't happy."
"Lady, you have no idea. Noir draws the bulk of his power from the Malachai. When he found out why he'd been weakened and who was to blame, he did things to Seth that no one should suffer. Not just for a few weeks or even a year or a century. We're talking over a thousand years of torture so bad and grueling, I have no idea how that man is still sane. I honestly don't know why he hasn't gutted me for it. I wouldn't blame him in the least." He touched her again and this time she saw Seth as Jaden had seen him after his release.
He was perilously thin and weak. Gaunt. His eyes were sunk so deep into his skull that they made him look like a skeleton. But the worst was the huge bolt that had been pierced through his jaw. It went from under his chin, through his mouth and tongue where the upper end was so large he couldn't swallow for it. Nor could he speak. If he tried, blood flowed from his mouth and choked him.
Now she understood the significance of the scar under his chin that he touched so often.
Jaden released her. "I was the one who removed the bolt and took him to his room to heal. Gah, I still can't believe what Noir had reduced him to. And what kills me most is that mankind owes Seth a debt they don't even know about."
"How do you mean?"
Jaden held his hand out for her.
Lydia started to hesitate, but she wanted to see the truth. So taking his hand, she braced herself for the images she was sure would haunt her.
Seth stood proudly in Noir's throne room as he told Azura and his master what he'd done.
Noir narrowed his gaze in warning. "What do you mean, maggot, that you let the Malachai go?"
Seth shrugged. "You can set Jaden free. He's not the one to blame."
Noir stood up with hell's fury burning deep in his dark eyes. "Surely not even you, as pathetic as you are, were stupid enough to defy me. Not in this."
Seth didn't back down or cower. He lifted his chin defiantly and braced himself for his master's wrath. He'd known when he agreed to help Adarian that there was a good chance the bastard wouldn't uphold his side of the bargain.
But he'd hoped. Slight though that hope was, he'd been desperate enough to want to believe that the Malachai had held a shred of decency somewhere inside him.
Now, Adarian had done what Seth had feared. He'd abandoned him to Noir's fury.
You could have saved yourself. You didn't have to speak up.
True. Noir had blamed Jaden for Seth's actions. And while Seth hated that son of a bitch with everything he had, Jaden hadn't turned him in for it. He could have easily spared himself by telling Noir the truth.
But he hadn't.
And while Seth's moral code wasn't what it used to be, he wouldn't stand by and see Jaden torn apart for something he'd told Seth not to do.
It wasn't right.
"What can I say, Master?" He sneered the title with an audacity that was as impressive and fearless as it was idiotic. "I am that stupid. Besides, it was a winning proposition for me. If Adarian had freed me, I would never have to be in your sickening presence again. If he didn't, then I would get to see your face when you realized that you are too weak to take over the human realm without him."
Seth actually smiled at Noir. It was cold, gloating, and cruel, but it was a smile. "After all these centuries of plotting and scheming, right when you were on the brink of seeing all those dreams fulfilled, you now have to watch as all of it slips away. Everything you'd hoped for is now gone. You can't do shit. And that, my lord ... watching you fail to achieve the one thing you wanted most, is worth it."
Noir let loose a scream of bloodcurdling rage that echoed through the room. Then he blasted Seth through the wall behind him. His eyes glowing bright red, Noir stalked toward him with a deadly intent.
Seth lay on the floor with his skull split open and blood pouring out of his eyes, nose, and mouth. Still, he looked up at Noir and laughed through his pain, showing off a mouth full of bloody teeth. "I don't care what you do to me anymore. So go ahead and do your worst."
Now it was Noir's turn to laugh. "Trust me, little worm. I fully intend to."
Jaden released her.
It took Lydia a couple of minutes to get over the shock of seeing Seth like that. She'd assumed he was always submissive to Noir. That Noir had beat him like a tamed puppy.
The truth was far different. Even while knowing what Noir was capable of, he stood his ground. He was either the bravest man in history.
Or the dumbest.
"Does he always egg Noir on?"
"Unfortunately. He's never been able to help himself. No matter how many times they beat him down, he always finds the courage to get back up for another round."
She still couldn't believe he'd rubbed Noir's nose in it. And inside, she was so proud of him for what he'd done. "Why didn't you tell Noir the truth about who freed the Malachai?"
"How could I? Seth would never have been here, but for me. I figured it was the least I could do for him. I never dreamed the stupid little bastard would tell Noir the truth. Like I said, he has never learned when to keep his head down."
Obviously.
"And Noir delivered well on his promise. He rained down utter hell on that boy for centuries. He made it open season for any demon in the realm to do whatever they wanted to Seth."
"Thank you for not showing that to me."
Jaden inclined his head to her.
"So what made Noir release him after all that time?"
"He needed him. While playing," Jaden said that with complete sarcasm, "with the Dream-Hunters he'd turned against the Oneroi, Noir found out about something called the key to Olympus."
"Which is?"
"Something that can kill any and all of the Greek gods, including Zeus, and allow their powers to be channeled into one being. He who has the key doesn't need the Malachai to take over the world. He would be the most powerful creature in it."
And if that creature was Noir ...
Yeah. It'd suck to be human or anything in his path.
"Before Noir could learn more, his Dream-Hunters escaped his hold and returned home. All but one, and he tortured that one for over a year, trying to get the location of the key."
"He wouldn't break?"
"No, he broke ... into many pieces. But before he died, he told Noir that there was only one Dream-Hunter in existence who knew the key's location."
"Solin."
He nodded. "And since none of us can capture a Dream-Hunter, he went to Seth for it."
She scowled as she tried to figure that one out. "Why would Seth be able to capture one?"
"Son of chaos, war, aggression, and destruction, Seth has some epically impressive powers. Whenever Noir allows him enough of them, he has the ability to send the swallow on his neck out to do his bidding. It was the swallow that captured Solin in a dream and brought him here."
Shocked and stunned, Lydia tried to grasp that concept. While it wasn't uncommon for gods to have living marks on them, this was completely unexpected. "Where did he get it?"
"Now there's the kicker. His sorrow and pain conjured it out of the ether."
That didn't make a bit of sense. "How so?"
"In ancient Egypt, the swallow was seen in two basic roles. It was a form the dead would often choose to revisit the earth and see their loved ones. Or one the gods would use, such as when Isis became one so that she could search the land for her husband's remains. While it was venerated and at times welcomed because it was a form the gods would take, the swallow was also seen as an omen of grief and sorrow."
Jaden paused for a minute as if he needed to collect his emotions before he continued. "When Noir brought Seth here, he..."
She knew it had to be bad. Jaden's breathing was ragged again. "He what?"
"He wanted Seth to understand his place in this realm. So he set the worst demons he had loose on the boy. For two days straight, they assaulted him and when Noir finally went to get him, the tattooed swallow was there on his neck. No one, not even I, knows how he conjured it. But he did. He'd used it so that he could mentally escape the horrors of what was being done to him. Noir tried to remove it so that Seth would never have that refuge again. But he couldn't. In the end, he discovered that if he kept Seth weak enough, he wouldn't be able to manifest it and escape. Now that swallow serves as a perpetual reminder to Seth that he can never get away from Noir. That Noir owns him, body and soul."
No wonder he'd clawed at it when she'd asked him why he had it. "Do the colors on it mean anything?"
He nodded and when he spoke, she wanted to cry for Seth. "Rebirth, victory, purity, death, the sun, and the sky ... All the things that Seth longs for."
All the things that had been denied him.
And that made her so angry on his behalf that she wanted to go and stomp Noir into the ground.
If only she could.
"Why didn't the Malachai return for him?" she asked.
"Who knows. They are innately evil. I've never known one who could care for anyone other than himself. Why should he come back and keep his word?"
"Because you should always keep your promises."
Jaden scoffed. "Yeah, right. Trust me, babe, that seldom happens."
Perhaps, but the world shouldn't work that way. Ever. Then again the world was never perfect.
And that broke her heart even more.
Lydia squeezed her eyes shut as she again saw Seth as Jaden had found him-with that awful bolt in his mouth. She shuddered in revulsion. "I wish you hadn't shown me any of his past." Even though he'd warned her ... She'd never be able to get it out of her head.
"And neither will Seth," Jaden said, reminding her that he could read her thoughts. "You asked him why he doesn't sleep. It's because he relives it all over again in his dreams. I remember when he was little, he'd wake up crying every night, only to be punished for it. Back then, he had no protection from the others. I did what I could to help him, but I'm limited, too. And like Seth, I spend more time in Noir's dungeons than I do being free to roam."
She felt for both men. Trapped here. Forever. She couldn't imagine anything worse. "Is there any way to break the two of you out of here?"