Jericho gave him a disgusted look before he started making his way over to the people who were hanging by chains along the wall. Asmodeus was right. He couldn't tell who they were and that honestly sickened him.
Enemies or not, these were people. And they had been tortured to the brink of death. Having suffered enough abuse to last out eternity, he hated to see them in the same shape he'd been reduced to on countless occasions.
As he reached the fifth one, he saw the blond streaks through the dark hair. Deimos hung as if he were dead. His swollen eyes were closed, his head resting against his bruised arm. Black stylized tattoos zigzagged from his forehead down his face to his chin. His clothes were torn and bloody. In between the tears in the fabric, Jericho could see the deep gashes and wounds.
Noir must have had an excellent time with the Dolophonos who currently bore little resemblance to his twin, Phobos.
The moment Jericho stopped in front of him, Deimos opened his eyes and lunged at him, ready to fight in spite of his pathetic state.
Jericho stepped back and almost hit him out of reflex.
Their gazes met and locked. Deimos's snarl faded as he recognized him. "Cratus?" He inclined his head.
"What are you doing here?" His gaze went down Jericho's undamaged body before he cursed. "Traitor!"
His condemnation set Jericho's fury to boiling. How dare this bastard look at him like that. "Betrayed."
"Fuck you!"
Jericho curled his lip. "Now you know how I felt, brother. Remember the day you turned with them against me?"
"How could you?"
That was laughable. "That's the same question that has haunted me since I looked at you while Zeus held me on the ground and you looked at the floor at your feet." Jericho grabbed Deimos's head and made him meet his gaze. "You held me down while my mother burned her words into my flesh. I can still feel the pain of your arm wrapped around my throat."
"You earned your punishment."
Jericho struggled not to strike out at him and add to his pain. How could Deimos not apologize even now for what he'd done? They had been friends before that. It was why he had no pity for any of them. They had none for him.
Screw them all.
"And you've earned yours," he said pitilessly. "Son of the Furies. How many people have you tortured throughout the centuries for your mother and Zeus? It sucks to be you now, huh?"
Deimos tried to head-butt him, but Jericho moved away. "Noir is going to kill us."
"I'll make sure you have a nice requiem."
Deimos shook his head. "So that's it, then? You have no remorse?"
Jericho held his arms out and shrugged nonchalantly. "We are the products of our past. But if it makes you feel any better, I do feel sorry for you."
Deimos sneered. "You'll feel even sorrier when you're hanging on this wall, too. Don't think for one minute Noir won't do this to you. He's the god who invented betrayal, and I'm sure he already has a space here with your name engraved on it."
Jericho laughed at his warning. "Oh, brother, you all have taught me well. I will never put myself in that position again. Believe me. I learned my lesson at the hands of the Dolophoni you command. I have no intention of giving Noir any reason to turn on me. I am his to command. Forever."
"Jericho?"
Shocked that someone in this hole knew his adopted name, Jericho looked to his right at the next prisoner hanging on the wall. Like Deimos, he'd been badly beaten. His dark hair hung around a face distorted by swollen lips and a black eye so severe the entire whites of that eye were red from busted blood vessels.
It took him a full minute to recognize him. It was those eyes that gave him away. One dark brown and one a bright green...
Jaden.
Jaden was the one the demons summoned whenever they wanted to barter with Noir or Azura for favors. Jericho had known Jaden lived here with them, but he would have thought the broker would have a lush place to call his own, not be caged with the rest of their victims.
Stunned, Jericho released Deimos and stepped back. "What are you doing here?"
Jaden laughed bitterly. "Do my accommodations offend you? I've grown quite used to them. Though a view of something other than mangled bodies might be nice for a change."
Jericho scowled. "You serve the Source. You're one of them."
Jaden shook his head. "I serve Noir and Azura. Word to the wise, don't ever displease them. For some reason, I can't seem to stop myself. I guess old habits die hard." He looked down at his torn and bleeding body that was barely covered by shredded clothes. "As do I. But don't worry. I'm sure they'll be kinder to you than they've been to me. I held their enmity long be fore I came here, which is part of the reason they love to gut me every chance they get."
He looked past Jericho to see Asmodeus hiding in the shadows. The light from his hand was muffled and faint. Jaden called out to him. "Mo, long time no see."
"Yeah, you looked better last time, too. I told you not to piss off Noir. One clay you're going to listen to me."
"Why start now?" Jaden asked.
Asmodeus nodded. "Ah, you're right. Bled so much now, it doesn't really matter, does it?"
Deimos curled his lip. "You all sicken me." He jerked at his chains as if trying to break them.
Jaden ignored him as he pinned those mismatched eyes on Jericho. "By the way,, your infant lived."
Jericho had no idea what the man was talking about. He didn't have a baby. "What?"
"The child you saved all those centuries ago. I just wanted you to know that you never suffered in vain. The baby lived and grew up healthy."
Bully for the brat. "Do you think I care?"
Jaden shrugged. "You gave up your godhood for her. I thought you might."
Jericho's frown deepened. "Her?" Unbelievably enough, he hadn't bothered to check the infant's gender before he handed it over. It hadn't mattered to him back then. All he'd seen was the baby's smile and its warm eyes.
Jaden nodded. "The Oneroi Delphine is the baby you saved."
Jericho was floored by the news. The air left his body as those words seared him. He shook his head in disbelief.
It couldn't be.
"You know it's true," Jaden said, his voice deep and sure. "The moment you saw her, you recognized how much she looked like her mother."
Still, he refused to believe it. What were the odds? "You're lying to me."
"Why would I?"
"Everyone lies."
"I don't."
Jericho winced as he felt even more betrayed by this. And yet as he considered it, he knew Jaden wasn't lying. Somehow he'd known it instinctively.
He'd saved Delphine....
The woman waiting in his room was the same person he'd given all but his life for.
Fury tore through him. Oh, this was rich irony.
And she owed him a debt he more than intended to collect on. Before this day was over, he was going to get satisfaction from her hide.