The adult Aidan watched the scene as he finally remembered every buried emotion of that Christmas Day. He'd forgotten it all. Now every bit of it was clear to him. And he remembered other times when Donnie had acted that way. All the times he'd tried to placate him because Donnie didn't want him to have anything.
The entire world was supposed to be Donnie's.
Then the scene shifted and he saw his agent Mori at home with his latest wife. Tall, dark-haired, young, and beautiful, Shirley sat on the couch while Mori sat across from her in a brown leather chair.
"Why are you so unhappy?" she asked quietly.
Mori offered her an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry. I was just thinking about Aidan again."
She rolled her eyes. "I can't believe he'd walk away from that kind of money."
Mori's gaze turned introspective as he cupped his glass of brandy. His expression said that he found it more than plausible. "Money doesn't buy happiness."
She scoffed. "Anyone who says that isn't shopping in the right stores."
Mori didn't comment on that. "I hate what's become of him. He is without a doubt one of the finest actors of his generation. I just wish there was something I could do for him."
"You sent him a ham."
Mori cut her a bored look. "Not for a present. When I first met him, he was so full of life and laughter. When other actors got jaded by their fame, he didn't. He always enjoyed it. Even the parts of it that made lesser actors crumble and fall. Now... now he's a soured recluse. If I had one single wish for Christmas, it would be to see him happy again."
Aidan wasamazed by the fact that Mori wasn't as cold-blooded as he pretended. Wow. His agent had been keeping quite a secret from him. There really was a heart buried under all that swagger.
But that didn't change anything. He looked up at the darkness. "Is this supposed to mean something to me?"
His answer came as the scene blanked out again and reemerged, not in his future as he expected, but rather in a place he'd never seen before.
It appeared to be a dark cavern with walls that were bleeding...
Faint screams and moans echoed as he walked toward a large opening, and when he reached it, he froze. There was Leta in a long, flowing white gown, standing before two angry men who glared at her while a third man in white stood to her left.
"You would ask me for mercy for her?" the tall blond man sneered at the man in white. "Do you understand what she has done?"
"Yes, Zeus. I do. But what she did, she did to protect an innocent human."
Zeus sneered at the answer. "None of them are innocent. What's the death of one more human in this world?"
Leta started to answer, but the man beside her stopped her by putting his hand on her arm.
When he spoke, his voice was devoid of all emotion. "She was assigned the human by me and she carried out her assignment to the end. It was Dolor who-"
"Don't you dare defend her," Zeus snarled. "Because of his death, we have a rupture in the universe. Have you any idea what could have happened? The world could have ended."
"But it didn't."
Zeus blasted him.
"M'Adoc!" Leta said, rushing to where he lay on the ground.
Zeus cocked his head at that. "Are those emotions I hear from you?"
Aidan saw the panic in Leta's eyes but since her back was to Zeus, he was sure the god hadn't noticed it.
Instead a strange look passed between M'Adoc and the dark-haired god standing beside Zeus.
"They have no emotions, brother," the dark-haired man said. "She spent time with the humans and these are the residual effects."
Zeus's gaze narrowed dangerously as M'Adoc pushed himself back to his feet. "Are you defending them, Hades?"
Hades shrugged. "Not really. If you want me to punish her I will. It's what I live for."
Aidan frowned at the underlying sarcastic tone of the god's voice.
Zeus nodded. "Very well. Kill her."
"No!" Aidan lunged forward only to run into an invisible wall.
The gods turned as if they could hear him.
Aidan slammed his hand against the wall. "Don't you dare touch her!"
He realized that they could in fact hear him as Zeus came forward to stare at him as if he were an insect in a jar. "Have you any idea who I am?"
"I don't care. Leta did nothing wrong and I won't see her hurt for me."
"Nothing wrong?" Zeus asked, his nostrils flaring. "You stupid human. She could have destroyed the entire universe with her actions. The only thing that saved us was the fact that Dolor was in stasis and his powers restricted. Had he not been... We'll take a moment and be damn grateful for small favors."
Even though a small voice in Aidan's head told him not to argue with an ancient god, he couldn't stop himself. "She's not the one who killed Dolor. I did it."
Leta gasped at his words. "Aidan-"
"It's true," he said, cutting her off before she contradicted him. "I killed him. So if you're going to punish anyone, it should be me."
Zeus considered it.
"Ignore him, my lord," Leta said quickly. "He's noble but foolish. I was the one who ignored your mandate to leave Dolor alone. I killed him here while he slept in stasis-against your will. Because of that I'm the one who should be punished."
Zeus stiffened as if something offended him. "Are those emotions I hear in your voice? Have you feelings for this human?"
Leta shook her head. "No, my lord. It's only cold, hard logic."
Her words tore through Aidan, who couldn't bear the thought of her being false with him. "Leta?"
Her gaze was empty as she met his. "How could I ever have feelings for a human when I'm incapable of them?"
Zeus turned speculative. "So if I killed the human, you wouldn't care?"
Aidan wouldn't have thought her face could get colder, but he was wrong.
Even so, she didn't answer.
"She wouldn't care," M'Adoc answered for her. "She's not capable of it."
"Very well. Since the human was supposed to die anyway..." Zeus shot a lightning bolt out of his hand, straight at Aidan's heart.