Page 28 of Judge of Saints and Sinners

I was a son of Hell. The heir of the Underworld. What good did power and bloodlines do if not used to fix things? To undo wrongs

A new flare of power pulled my attention. I had company.

“Hello, Kharon.”

I’d always been able to sense my brothers. Even as our power had waned, we were wired to find each other.

My younger brother, the middle son and resident peacekeeper, rose from the rushing water of the Styx. His torso was uncovered, showcasing the blue skin tone that had made him so unique among our brothers. Arafel and Elon had once teased him about it, and I had sent them howling into the fighting pits. If they knew what I looked like under my human skin, they wouldn’t be able to look me in the face.

Kharon simply chose to ignore the human glamor our mother had given us. And since he rarely had reason to go to the living world, he had no reason to mask who he was. The souls that he met were already shocked enough. Seeing a six-and-a-half-foot male with gills rarely upset them. Even so, I envied him. Under my glamor, I was a monster. Under his, he was a uniquely designed master of his realm.

“Brother.” His dark-blue eyes were suspicious, narrowed as his long bare feet carried him farther up the beach. No doubt word was already spreading, and I wondered if that powerful mind of his was reading mine yet. My shields had always been stronger than the others. But today, I didn’t care what he saw.

He could see it all. It wouldn’t stop me.

“I need your help,” I said, approaching.

“No, brother,” Kharon said immediately, his hands raised between us. “I can’t do that.”

My lips curled in a dangerous smile, and my magic pulsed under my skin. The monster inside of me crowed in desperate need to be freed. To fix what had been broken. For the first time in hundreds of years, I was tempted to free him entirely. It would be so easy, even without the half of my soul that Anna had carried. “You can, and you will.”

“You don’t understand, Nephesh. She’s gone.” Kharon stepped towards me, his bare feet silent against the smattering of river stones that lined this part of the river. “She’s at peace. I’m so sorry.”

I snarled at his sympathy, holding my still blood-stained hands up for him to see. I felt my eyes shift, the edges of my vision blurring as the predator at my core grew stronger. “You are lying. She knew no peace.”

Kharon's head tilted, the delicate point of his ears twitching as he observed me. I threw some of my remaining power into my mental walls, keeping his invasive power out of my thoughts. Her last moments may have been horrific, but they still belonged to me. “She worked her entire life to be kind. Her scales, Kharon, they were perfect. She was loving, she had her boys, she had a future.” I ran out of voice. “You know what I’m asking. Do it, brother. For me.”

Kharon’s head lowered, his eyes never leaving mine. “I cannot.”

“Didn’t you hear me?” I roared at him. “She died because of me. Because I let him go.”

“The fates are a bitch, Neph, but we cannot undo a life. We cannot undo everything that we stand for.” Kharon stepped towards me. “Not even for her.”

“You’re a fucking waste of power,” I snapped at him, leaping forward with a thrust of my wings and gripping his neck in my hand. “You think you’re so much better than me, Ferryman. You are nothing but a speck in this world. Even Father will admit that assigning one of his sons to the river was a waste of his seed.”

Kharon’s face never changed, and the words kept coming, spilling out of me like lava, burning my flesh and my chest as they did.

“Did you hear me? Elon punishes, Arafel guides, Kadmiel guards, I judge…and you…” I leaned in until our noses were almost touching. “You fucking swim. Congratulations.”

Kharon’s lips parted, and for the first time in years, I saw the razor-sharp teeth that lined the gums of his mouth. “Say it again.”

“You're a waste.”

Kharon thrust me away, immediately following with his blade-like claws. They landed, slicing into the flesh of my side, and I snarled at him. He danced around me, his leaner form just out of reach of the long black claws that tipped my fingers.

“I may not judge souls or punish the evil in this world, but do you know why I’m not a waste?”

I growled at him, feeling the slick drops of my blood dripping down my sides, mixing with Anna’s.

“Because at the end of the day, Judge, I know who I am. And I pity you.”

Pain laced through me, but this time not done by claws. The truth in his words sliced further into my flesh and soul than anything else ever had.

My head fell back and my entire body tensed as something unfathomable pulled at my chest once more. Not pain, not grief… It was the ghost of a familiar urge.

The bond.

I reared back from my brother, shoving him from my person as he panted into the air. “She’s here.”