Chapter Twenty-One.

"Where's your assistant?" Cam asked Elaine as fire began to swirl around Jenna. "I don't sense her around."

"She's out of town on an extended leave," Elaine answered, aware that she had to tread cautiously.

She knew he was a mind mage after they met, and a powerful one, but she wasn't aware he could read minds. He'd grown rapidly in the last few months.

"Stress and life-or-death pressure does that," Cam told her. "Yes, lady, I'm in your mind. I already told you that. And you see, I'm the Ambrosius the heavens are warring for, even if it's calmed ever since I unbound my divinity. And my two friends here are demigods as well. So's my dog.

"So answer my question," Cam told her. "And answer all of them. Because you're not leaving here until you do."

Elaine cleared her mind to make it more difficult for Cam to know what she was doing. Instead, she moved purely on instinct, telling her body she was in danger.

The force spell she threw out slammed into an invisible barrier as a vice surrounded her mind, locking her down, forcing the mage to her knees.

"Did you forget that the first spell you experienced me use was a mental attack?" Cam growled. "I want to know where my friend is!"

"You can do force magic?" Elaine gasped as he released his hold on her mind.

"That was my dog!" He laughed. "As I said, stress and life-or-death pressure makes it easier to learn a needed spell. I can't do barriers 'cause I suck at force magic. I've got one spell, and it's mixed with my mind magic. Now answer my questions."

"Your dog?"

"My guard dog," Cam nodded. "He's here to protect me. So of course, when there's an attack aimed at me, he's going to stop it. Callum, I can't interrogate her properly, and I don't want to be in her mind if Jenna and Ty torture her. Why don't you take her upstairs and do it? Eden and I will loot this place. Jenna and Ty will protect me, and if I'm in danger, I know your mind."

Callum snorted, then took on his human form, teleported to Elaine, then teleported with her. Jenna released her blazing aura.

"He's upstairs," Cam cracked his knuckles. "Let's steal all her goods. She won't be needing them."

"You guys start packing it up," Eden snorted. "I'll go make some room in my storage."

Eden disappeared, and the three demigods began working on packing up the goods. As they worked, Jenna noticed Cam's right ear twitch, the tell that he was listening to the voices.

"Oh, right!" He exclaimed, then ran to the door and locked it, flipping the sign over before he started pulling the shades down. "Gotta make sure no one sees us looting her place."

"So why is it that you don't like hurting people," Jenna said. "But stealing is just fine?"

"Because we're not hurting someone when we steal?" Cam asked. "Stealing kept me alive on the streets. It's how I got food, the rare few times I had some that wasn't the rare occasion of someone actually letting dirty me into their restaurant or shop. And Elaine used compulsion on me, then she had my friend kidnapped, and stop that, Callum."

The twins gave him a funny look, but went back to work, moving in and out of the back to pack things into boxes and crates. Eden showed up after an hour and informed them that there was room made in his storage, and that he'd start taking things there, but that they weren't invited.

He needed some secrets.

"Here's some magic-binding cuffs," Eden tossed them to Cam. "They should be enough to keep her under control."

"Thanks," Cam sighed. "Apparently, Callum wants me to interrogate her. I'm going to go try, since he didn't even ask her a question. Hopefully, she'll cooperate."

Cam disappeared, teleporting up to Elaine's living room, where Callum was sitting on her, back in his dog form.

"Eden gave me these," Cam shoved his cousin off of Elaine, then quickly cuffed her as Callum stared at her, daring her to resist. "Now get up and sit in your chair."

Elaine obeyed, watching as Callum disappeared.

"Cameron," she said. "I'm sorry about using that on you, but as I told you, it's simply normal. I had to make sure you weren't DoSS or-"

"Because you're a slave trafficker," Cam said. "Couldn't have one of them around, right? I'm not interested in your apologies. I'm interested in where my friend is. So tell me everything. I really don't want to invade your mind and hurt you, but I will if it means finding Greyson."

"Now that I know you're reading my mind," Elaine told him. "I can resist you, even without mind magic."

"We'll see about that," Cam's expression darkened as he locked gazes with Elaine. "Because I have something you can't ignore."

"What was that?" Jenna jumped as an unholy screech sounded from above their heads.

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"Cam," Callum answered, and the trio of teens looked at him.

"But he doesn't like hurting people?" Eden said. "That sounded like someone was in a lot of pain."

Callum snorted.

"That was him screeching," Callum said. "Much like the twins' father's children possess an innate ability to join their magics and minds together, Ulrima's children possess a certain innate magic as well. Much like a demigod's ability to control their aging, and even reverse it, these are not things that appear on your inner tree as branches, leaves, fruit, roots, or whatever.

"For Ulrima's children," Callum said. "It's called the Song of Sound. Rough translation into this language. When they unleash it, they can still the minds of anyone who hears it. I shrouded the three of you from its effects, so you only heard the shriek, not had your minds stilled."

"How does stilling the minds of those who hear it do anything?" Jenna asked. "We heard him threaten the voices in his head with a shriek a couple of times when we were traveling together."

"I've heard him say that as well," Eden said.

Callum walked around in a circle, his tail flicking from side to side a few times before he sat on his haunches and looked at the trio.

"The Song of Sound is an inhuman noise," he said. "And an inherent power to the child of a High God. The twins' own power is greater than that of something that simply stills minds. It has a larger effect. Cam figured out that it could cause the aether voices to fall silent when he used it shortly after he unlocked his magic. As with all children of High Gods, he knew the innate spell instinctively."

"That still doesn't clear up our confusion," Jenna said as another shriek was unleashed.

"Cam is using it to disrupt her thoughts," Callum told them. "It means that she will have a hard time clearing her head and responding on instinct to prevent him from getting a read on her honesty. Another effect to the spell… is that those who hear it, when their mind is freed from its temporary halt, are unable to hide their true thoughts and emotions, and cannot recreate any mental barriers, for a short time."

"Why do the children of a god of sex have a spell like that innate to them?" Tyler asked.

"Simple," Callum responded. "Ulrima is a god of life. He is also the god of love, lust, sex, beauty, and more. The most crucial aspect of his, however, is none of those.

"No," he shook his head as another shriek pierced the air. "Ulrima's truest aspect is as a god of truth. And to his children, all truths are laid bare. It's why Cam was able to learn how to read if someone was honest quickly."

"But that's not his root spell?" Jenna said. "It's just something in his root school. Why would that have priority?"

"Because he's a demigod," Callum answered. "Much like you and your brother were able to learn destructive spells a lot more easily than defensive and mending spells, Cam will learn spells relating to his father's domain much easier than those not.

"Back to the Song of Sound," Callum tilted his head to the side. "Perhaps 'Song of Truth' would be a better name for it, even though that's not how it translates? We'll call it that anyway. The Song of Truth lays bare the truth to the children of Ulrima. It is not compulsion, so Cam has no issue using it. All he needs to do is wait for the mind blank to fade, then ask a question, and he'll hear the answer in her thoughts."

Another shriek let out.

"I was hoping he'd used compulsion or just root through her mind," Callum sighed, lying down and resting his head on his paws. "But no, he continues to try to be human."

"What does that mean?" Eden asked.

"Have you not noticed his conflicting actions?" Callum asked the teen. "Cam tries hard to fight against such things, yet has no issues allowing others to do it to achieve the necessary results. Why does he approve of that?"

"Because it's him doing it that he has an issue with," Eden answered as another shriek was unleashed. "Jeez, he can shriek."

"Not quite," Callum said. "Cam is a demigod. He inherits some of the inherent nature of the gods. Just like elves are arrogant, fae are vain, dwarfs are arrogant, and humans are… humans, gods, too, have something common among them depending on the type of god.

"To a demigod," Callum turned his gaze to the twins. "Mortal lives are insignificant. They are willing to hurt and harm them. However, beings such as nephilim and demigods, angels and gods, are seen as equals in the way that creatures of a set species would typically see each other. That's why Cam easily befriended the twins and Greyson."

"But I'm not-"

"No, you aren't," Callum nodded and at Eden again. "Your parents are nephilim, but you, yourself are not, so that shouldn't matter. That said, there are exceptions to every case. Cam sees you as a rival, which is why he is your friend and accepts you. If he ever stopped seeing you as a rival… then he would likely view you much in the way he views others."

The ancient demigod sighed.

"He fights this nature of his," Callum said. "He tries to deny it. One day, he will accept it. When he does, he will be just as powerful and dangerous as Jenna and Tyler here. He needs to cast aside this idea that he is human so that he can accept himself. Once he does that, his nightmares will fade."

"But his nightmares are because he was kidnapped!" Eden protested.

"Are they?" Callum rose to his feet and padded over to the teen, looking up into his eyes as another shriek filled the air. "Or did Cam lie about that, as he does many things? You have experienced for yourself how smooth and effective he is at lying. He can come up with a suitable lie on the spot, one that could fool nigh anyone.

"Cam's nightmares aren't because he was kidnapped," Callum said. "Not anymore. He's already gotten past those. No, his nightmares now are because he's scared. Scared that he's going to become a monster. He so easily and effortlessly killed after his escape, and that scares him.

"He dreams of killing them again," Callum continued, returning to where he had laid, then turned and faced them before sitting once more. "Only in more cruel and vicious ways. Of torturing them to death. He dreams that it is he who killed the ones whose minds he was in when the three of you killed."

Callum laid back down and rested his head on his paws once more, allowing them to digest his news.

Cam wasn't human, and he was scared of becoming a monster because of the nature he found himself having. The ancient demigod wondered what his friends would think if they found out that there had never been any human in his ancestry to start with.

The Thorntons were started by a god mating with a dragon, then an angel mating with the offspring, then a god mating with that offspring, entering into a dangerous cycle that lasted for more than one hundred generations.

The dragon bloodline had long since been rendered inert, but it was still there. Still evident, even, in some ways. Cam displayed the greed and desire to hoard items. Most of Ulrima's children displayed high envy and lust, not greed. At least, not the kind of greed Cam displayed.

Callum only found out about Cam's lack of human heritage recently. He'd asked his uncle directly about Cam's odd greed for a child of his, and the High God had informed him it likely stemmed from having a dragon in his ancestral tree.

It meant that trying to pretend to be human was pointless. The sooner that Cam accepted he was a demigod and the inherent nature of his kind, and the sooner he'd actually be able to mask himself as a human.

One can't change their nature when fighting against it, only when working with it.