“If not for them, Illarion, you’d have never met your Edilyn.”
Illarion winced and looked away. You’re not helping your cause, brother. You’re only reminding me why I hate them all and what they’ve viciously taken from me.… Now, what’s this infernal madness you’re about?
Max glared at him. “You’re the only being alive who can talk to me like that and not be gutted on the floor.”
“Um, yeah,” Blaise said in an irritated tone. “Why does he get that favoritism? You’d lay me out cold for it.”
Illarion cut another malicious glare at Seraphina before he answered Blaise’s question. Before you were born, Blaise, I was the one who found Max after her tribe all but gelded and skinned him alive. They had him muzzled with a metriazo collar that restricted his ability to use his magick in any way. He couldn’t even transform to heal himself. Had I not found him when I did, he would have died. I doubt he’d have made it through another three hours in the condition he was in.
Blaise sucked his breath in sharply at what that meant as Seraphina closed her eyes in sympathetic pain and horror. What Illarion didn’t know was that she hated her own self for the part she’d played in that, far more than he ever could. It was a moment that had haunted her day and night. And in particular, every time she’d looked into the faces of her children and had to explain to them why their father wasn’t with them.
Why it was all her fault and why they were to never blame him for it. They knew she didn’t blame him. How could she?
His lip curled, Illarion circled her. Had an enemy found him, he’d have been gutted and tortured even more. I don’t say worse, because no one could have done him worse harm than you and your tribe did.
“Enough,” she breathed, unable to stand it.
But he took no mercy on her. They’d even clipped his wings to ground him.
“Stop!” Max snarled.
Now even Blaise glared at her. What could she say? They weren’t supposed to do that? That she’d fought her sisters to stop them from torturing her mate, and had only ceased fighting against them for fear of miscarrying her children? She’d been as horrified by their actions against Maxis as his brothers were.
But she’d been powerless to stop it. Truthfully? She’d never gotten over her own sense of hopelessness that day. That feeling of just how little control she had. It’d been the hardest lesson of her life.
Maxis broke between his brothers to approach her. To her shock, he gently lifted her chin until she met his haunted gaze. “My wings grew back together.”
After two hundred years. Leaving you at the mercy of enemies you couldn’t escape until you could fly again.
He glanced over his shoulder toward Illarion. “It taught me to be a stronger fighter. Now leave it. This isn’t about me or the past. It’s about my dragonets and their survival today.”
Illarion moved to stand at Maxis’s back. He placed his hand on his brother’s shoulder. You are the only parent I’ve ever known. And you’re my best friend. I will not let you fight alone.
Blaise nodded. “Three dragons are better than one.”
Scoffing, Max dropped his hand from Seraphina’s face. “Two dragons and a mandrake.”
“What exactly is a mandrake?” she asked, not quite sure of the exact difference between them.
“They’re the children of dragons seduced by Adoni who wanted to tame them. Born from the womb of an Adoni mother, they were hybrids of the two races at first … until they became a separate species by themselves.”
Blaise nodded. “My father was the leader of the mandrakes under King Uther Pendragon. When I was born looking like this—” He held his hands out to show off his face. “—my demonic mother decided she had no use for her special mandrake son. She handed me over to my father, who then took me out to the woods and left me to die.”
“I’m sorry.”
He shrugged. “Don’t be. Got over it. And given my mother’s wonderful personality, and my father’s oh-so-kind temperament, prefer it to having been kept by either of them. Normally, I just tell folks I know nothing of my parents and leave it at that. It’s easier than dealing with their pity for something that really doesn’t affect me.”
Like Maxis. It’d never bothered him, either, that his mother had abandoned her nest and left him to either die, or survive on his own. Something Seraphina hadn’t known about him until he’d seen one of the women in her tribe nursing her infant.
He’d stopped in his tracks to stare at them with a curious scowl. “What is she doing to that poor child?”
Seraphina had laughed at his shocked question. “Nursing it.”
Perplexed, he’d deepened his frown even more as he looked back at Seraphina. “Why? Is it ill?”
Seraphina had paused to stare up at him as she realized he was in earnest. “It’s what a mother does with her young to feed them. Were you not so nursed?”
“No. Never. I was only fed by demons whenever I was ill and I only met my mother once, when I returned to my nest to bury my skin, and she was laying more eggs there. At first, I thought her an interloper. As I went to drive her away, she clipped my wings as punishment, and told me who she was.”
It’d been her turn to be completely stunned by the disclosure. She couldn’t fathom what he described. “Why did she abandon you?”
He’d been as baffled by her as she was by him. “Why would she stay?”
Aghast, she’d laughed nervously at his inability to comprehend basic human decency and the role a parent played in their children’s development. “To feed you. Clothe you. Protect you.”
“I was fully drakomas then. I required no clothing. As for food, I found my own, and was more than able to scurry and hide from or fight whatever pursued me.” There’d been no animus or condemnation for his parents in his tone. Simple acceptance. To him that was what a mother did.
She birthed her children and left them behind to fend for themselves. Whether they lived or died was solely up to them.
Seraphina had struggled to comprehend it. But as an animal, he couldn’t understand why she was so baffled.
As they’d headed for her tent, he’d glanced back at the nursing mother one last time. “Should we have children, would you nurse my dragonet in such a manner?”
What an odd question. “Of course.”
A slow smile had spread across his handsome face.
She cocked her head at the curiousness of it. “What?”
“I’m glad to have an Arcadian mother for my dragonets. Perhaps the gods have finally forgiven me.”
“For what?”
“For surviving what should have killed me.”
She’d never really understood what he meant and he’d refused to explain it further.
Now, Seraphina stared at the three dragon brothers who’d never known a mother’s tender loving touch. Never known what a real family was. Not that she had that much experience herself. Her own family had been brutally slaughtered by a dragon raid when she’d turned fourteen. Her mother’s last act had been to wrap her dragon cloak around Seraphina and shove her into a small knoll where the dragons couldn’t reach her. Made from the scales of the dragons her mother had slain, it had protected her young body from their dragonfire as they razed her village.
But that act had left her mother exposed to their fury and attack.
And she’d died in agony, trying her best to save her daughters and tribe.
It was why Seraphina hated the Katagaria so much and had vowed to see them in their graves.
When she’d learned that she was mated to one …
“Kill me.” Maxis had handed her his own dragon-headed dagger and lain back in bed, arms spread, his throat offered in sacrifice. “If you can’t bear this union, then free us both from it. I’d rather be dead than damned to no comfort whatsoever.”
Growling in fury, she’d straddled him, fully intending to take his offer. But as she looked into those calm, receptive, human eyes that waited for her killing blo
w, she’d been unable to deliver it. While she, like her mother before her, had slain countless dragons in battle, she’d never murdered a man.
Not in cold blood.
As if reading her thoughts, he’d fearlessly covered her hand with his and pressed the blade against his throat. So close, he’d drawn his own blood.
“Finish it, dragonslayer. Free yourself from the Fates’ curse.”
Her gaze had gone from his eyes to the scars on his body from his own battles against her people. Every thought in her mind had screamed at her to take his life, to end him right then and there.
He’s an animal. An enemy …
His muscles had tensed as he pressed the blade even deeper into his neck.
With her battle cry, she’d pulled the dagger away from his throat and thrown it aside. Then she’d buried her hands in his hair and kissed him, rolling in bed until he was on top of her.
His body wedged between her legs, he’d held himself completely still as he stared down at her, waiting for her to change her mind.
She’d wanted to curse him. Hate him. But she’d lost her heart to those tormented, pain-filled eyes. To the sweetness of his lips and hair the color of honey and laced with small braids and feathers. He didn’t touch her like an animal. He touched her like a tender man who saw only her and no one else.
Knowing she was consigning them both to an uncertain future, she’d drawn a ragged breath. “Finish the mating, dragon. May the gods have mercy on us both.”
But they never had.
Rather, they’d taken perverse pleasure in driving a wedge between them every day until Maxis had finally had enough of her and her people, and walked away with his heart as shattered by betrayal as hers.
It’d tied her mother’s death for the worst moment of her life.
Until she’d discovered his escape from her tribe, she’d foolishly thought that his death or absence would be a relief. That it would restore her life to what it’d been before she found him, and make everything right again.
It hadn’t. Instead, it’d almost destroyed her.
Too late, she’d realized what she’d held in her hands and not seen. What her dragon lord had actually meant to her. Everything wonderful he’d brought to her life.
A dragon hunting party had taken her family and childhood innocence in the span of one brutal night. But a single, fierce dragon lord had given her a soul and a heart. He’d taught her to smile and love again.
To trust.
Most of all, he’d taught her to laugh and to live in ways she hadn’t known existed.
Then, in one single act to save himself, he’d banished her back to darkness, leaving her there bereft and heartbroken.
And she couldn’t even blame him for it. He’d endured more than any creature should have to.
Tears gathered in her eyes as she stared up at him again and those memories haunted her anew. He was as beautiful now as he’d been then. “Gods, I thought this would be easier to do.”
“What?”
“Consign you to death. Again.” Seraphina bit her lip as she glanced between them. “I don’t know what to do, Maxis. Even though they can’t use our children for the spell they have, Nala will gut them if I fail to deliver the Dragonbane’s heart to her.”
Why him? Illarion asked.
She shrugged. “The spell they have requires the heart of the father of our race. The firstborn Apollite-dragon who drew first blood.”
The Dragonbane.
Max met Illarion’s gaze and knew the secret the two of them had shared for five thousand years. They weren’t just bound by their mother’s blood. They’d been bound by one prince’s and pantheon’s savage cruelty.
Blaise cleared his throat. “You know … having been raised around the queen bitch of the fey folk and watching the nasty shit she’s pulled on everyone. The backstabbing. The lies. Half-truths, et cetera, I just have to ask one simple question.… Has anyone bothered to find out what this spell will actually do once it’s cast?”
Max laughed bitterly. “I have a really good idea since they have Hadyn’s Emerald Tablet.”
Blaise’s eyes bugged at the mention of that. “Combine that with what you guard—”
And your heart, Illarion finished.
“Bishhhh!” Blaise made the sound of an explosion as he flung his hands out.
Seraphina scowled. “I don’t quite understand what you’re saying.”
Max locked gazes with her. “They’re not just planning on destroying this Stryker. They’re planning on releasing the Destroyer, reuniting the gods of Chaos, and reestablishing the old order.”
Blaise nodded. “If they succeed in this, honey, it ain’t just your kids they’ll kill. It’s every creature who has an ounce of light energy in them.”
Illarion let out a silent sigh. Which means all of us and everyone we love, and a few we’re not that fond of, either.
5
“You fed the children to your demons while we were gone? Have you lost your mind?” Completely slack-jawed, Nala stood in the center of the dimly lit room, staring at Kessar. While the red-eyed demon towered over her, she refused to be intimidated by him. Especially right now when she was so furious.
He had fed the children to his demons. She just kept repeating that over and over in her mind, because she couldn’t believe he’d do something so dumb the five minutes she’d left him alone.
This matter was far more serious than he could guess. One didn’t just lightly go for Seraphina’s throat.
One only did so with a huge army.
And he was shy a few thousand demons.
He scoffed at her anger. “You would do well to choose another tone, lest I add you to our menu. Remember, but for my good will, you’d still be collecting bird shit out in an open field where your gods left you to rot.”
“And you’ll find yourself in the middle of a massive shit storm when Seraphina learns of this! She’ll never lead you to her mate now. You can forget ever finding him.”
“She won’t have to. Once we control her spawn, they’ll be able to sniff out their sperm donor for us. It’s a much easier and quicker solution than yours.” A slow, evil smirk twisted his lips. “Besides, she hasn’t returned. I’m thinking she’s already betrayed us.”
Nala struggled not to roll her eyes at the bastard, but given what he’d done to the last member of her tribe who’d made that mistake, she didn’t want to test the demon’s patience. While she might be basilinna and a fierce warrior in her own right, she was no match for the ancient demon and his terrifying skills. And that only pissed her off more.
She and her tribe had once made the gods themselves flee in terror. But the gallu were another entity entirely. And they’d been birthed for no other purpose than to end pantheons and shatter the gods.
Which made them extremely lethal, even to the Scythian Amazons. The only member of her tribe who could stand against them was Seraphina. No one was quite sure why. While Seraphina had always been extremely skilled, something had happened after she’d mated to her dragon that had kicked her abilities up to an entirely new level.
Since then …
It was why Zeus had frozen them in stone. That had been the only way to stop them from defeating the Greek gods they’d fought against.
“My lord?”
They both turned to see Kessar’s second-in-command, Namtar, approaching with a nervousness that didn’t bode well.
Especially not for Namtar. Grateful to get Kessar’s ire off her, Nala let out a relieved breath at the demon’s timing.
Bowing to Kessar, he gulped audibly as a bead of sweat rolled down his dark caramel skin. It was obvious he’d rather be anywhere else in the world than right here, right now.
He cleared his throat and finally spoke to Kessar. “We have a slight problem, my lord.”
The expression on Kessar’s face was one of barely restrained murder. “How so?”
“The children…”
“Turned gallu.”
Namtar shook his head slowly. “No, my lord. They appear to be immune to gallu bites.”
Nala wasn’t sure which of them was the most stunned by that disclosure. “Pardon?” she gasped before she could think better of it.
Namtar cut his handsome gaze in her direction. “They are not completely Greek. Nor can they be completely vrykolakas-kynigos. They appear to be something else. We’re not sure what.”
Now there was a word she hadn’t heard in a long time. It was the original term for her species that the Greeks had used.
Ignoring her question, Kessar stepped forward. The red in his eyes intensified as he raked a sneer over her. “What information have you withheld from us about your champion?”
She swallowed hard. “None … I swear!”
Kessar refused to believe her denial. It was too convenient. How could she not know? These were members of her tribe, born into it. Had lived with her for years after their father ran off. Their mother was her primary champion.
Surely Nala knew who and what she’d harbored amongst her people?
Pissed, and cursing under his breath about how he should have left her and her Amazon tribe to rot, Kessar headed from his small throne room to the cell where he’d tossed Seraphina’s children. Since the gallu were being hunted by the Daimons who were preying on them and using their blood and souls so that the Daimons could walk in daylight, they’d been driven underground and into virtual extinction.
For the last few years, Kessar and his handful of loyal demons had played a deadly game of hide-and-seek with their former allies. And all because of a “small” falling-out he and Stryker had had over who to kill when and how. And the fact that Stryker had taken issue over Kessar going after his wife, daughter … and, well, him.
Though why it would bother the Daimon, Kessar couldn’t fathom. That was what happened in war. Goals changed. Borders shifted. Battles were won and lost, and new ground gained, while some was lost.
It happened and should be expected. As a commander, Stryker should know that as well as anyone.
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