Illusion: Chronicles of Nick by Sherrilyn Kenyon Read Free Book Online

here in New Orleans and attends St. Richard’s.”
    Her jaw dropped. “2002? Is he the same age as our Nick or older?”
    Caleb used his powers to put Nick back into bed, then he buried Nick under the comforter. “He’s sixteen in his year, but apparently his reality is very different from our Nick’s. Unlike our favorite pain in the neck, this one is completely normal. As are his parents.”
    Which made sense. While there were multiple dimensions and alternate realities, they were all bound by the laws of the Source. And those laws stipulated that only one Malachai could exist at one time, period, which was what had made her job so hard. Tracking down the one through time wasn’t easily done. Especially when he’d been hidden as carefully as Nick had.
    Caleb sighed in disgust. “I don’t know about the two of you, but time travel isn’t one of my powers.” He looked at Zavid, who sank back to the floor.
    The Hel Hound leaned his head back against the wall. “Same here. That is a very special and extremely guarded power. Only a tiny handful of species are allowed it. And Aamons aren’t one of them.”
    Because the repercussions were dire. One misstep in time and the entire fabric of the universe could unravel. Even the gods tended to avoid time travel, and woe to any who willfully tampered with the time sequence. It was the most forbidden of all actions.
    And the most heavily punished.
    As with all things, any action taken caused an equal and opposite reaction. It was why she hadn’t killed Nick yet, even though she had every right to and had been ordered to see him dead. Why she was so careful about tampering with the lives around her. Hers was a sacred calling and it wasn’t one she took lightly.
    Caleb narrowed his gaze on her. “What about you?”
    “What about me, what?”
    “Can you time travel?”
    She intentionally didn’t answer his question. Instead, she turned her attention to Zavid. “What about your sister? She was working with Grim to bring Nick to him. Could she be behind this?”
    By the shocked expression on Zavid’s face, she could tell he’d had no idea his sister had taken part in setting Nick up. The pain and grief in his bright lavender eyes seared her and made her ache that she’d caused him such bitter agony. It was a pain she was all too acquainted with.
    His breathing ragged, Zavid shook his head. When he spoke, his voice was thick with raw, unshed tears. “My sister’s dead. She died a long time ago.”
    Caleb’s eyes shone with his own sympathy for the Hel Hound. Like them, he’d lost everything that mattered to him, and it was hard to make it through the day, knowing you’d never see your loved ones again. “Grim must have resurrected her for some reason.”
    His jaw slack, Zavid snapped his attention to Caleb. “You saw her?” There was so much agonized hope in those words that it brought tears to Kody’s eyes.
    “I did. She was trying to free you from Hel.”
    A single tear slid down his handsome cheek before he angrily wiped it away. “My sister was everything to me.”
    Kody had to look away as unwanted memories flooded her with pain. She knew that tone of voice. Had heard it from her own overprotective brothers on more than one occasion. “She was younger?”
    He nodded then wrapped his arms around himself as if he had a sudden chill. “I swore to my parents when they were killed that I’d never allow any harm to come to her.” He swallowed hard. “I failed them all.”
    Caleb stepped closer to him with a pose that said he wanted blood from the ones who’d harmed a woman. A throwback to the day he’d lost the only woman he’d ever loved to the hands of his enemies. “What happened?”
    A furious tic started in Zavid’s sculpted jaw. “She fell in love with an idiot, and when he ran afoul of Hel, she sold herself to the goddess to save him from his stupidity. Needless to say, it didn’t work out for either of them.”
    Kody winced as she realized