Clenching my hands on top of my knees, I shook my head at her and redirected my attention to Llyr. I didn’t have the time or focus to deflect my grandmother’s cryptic threats. For once, I’d have liked the woman to say what she fucking meant.
“So what the fuck does Deva have to do with anything?”
“She disappeared from the Haven shortly after the ritual was complete. We haven’t been able to locate her, and I believed she would seek you out eventually. She is rather . . . attached to you, for some reason.”
His maelstrom gaze stilled as he stared at me and a jolt like ice water shot down my spine. My turul talents revealed a subtext of accusation that was painfully apparent in his words. My stomach turned.
“I moved to Los Angeles three weeks ago, but I haven’t seen her. Nanyo, I take it she hasn’t come here looking for me since I left?”
My grandmother shook her head and eyed us both. “I promise you, if Fate finds that soulless girl first, there will be hell to pay. The ones born without souls are wildcards where Fate’s concerned. It doesn’t like uncertainties. She was safe from its eye while in the higher realms, but if she interferes with Fate’s plan on Earth, she will attract notice—if she hasn’t already. Lacking a soul will only let her evade its attention for so long.”
Llyr came around the chair and sank into it with a heavy sigh. He sat forward and scrubbed his face with his hands.
“If she didn’t come to you, I have a feeling she’ll be even more difficult to find. Something happened at the end of the ritual that she was trying to bring to our attention, but everyone was too distracted. We didn’t heed her warnings. I should have heard her, but I was too fucking . . . preoccupied to believe her.”
“This happened three weeks ago? She’s been gone all that time? Why the fuck am I just hearing about this now?” It was all I could do not to haul him up by his collar and shake him, even if he was a head taller than me.
“No offense, but you were a last resort,” Llyr said. “We weren’t worried, at first . . . we thought she needed some space. And when Neph finally enlisted me to find her, I thought I could track her down myself. We have a bond. We’re half blood-melded, thanks to her origins.”
The words “bond” and “blood-meld” crashed together, and before I knew it, I was on him with my hands around his throat.
“What the fuck did you do to her, you son-of-a-bitch?! Did you mate her? By the Winds, if you mated her, I will end you.”
His throat rippled beneath my hands and my fingers passed through as though his flesh had become liquid. Then powerful arms threw me back and he stood, looming over me.
Fucking satyrs were big. Not as stocky as ursa, but taller than dragons with lithe, lean bodies, at least in their human forms. When they were fully primal shifted, they were half-human monsters double the size of a normal man and at least half again as big as a turul like me. Their female counterparts, the nymphs, weren’t any less intimidating.
Llyr’s leathers creaked under the strain of his half-shifted body as he glowered at me. “She wanted to mate me, but I told her no. If I had said yes, we wouldn’t be in this goddamn predicament now, but I was too afraid of her father to follow through. Tell me, Oz, is that what happened to you? Or did you follow through?”
I glared at him, bristling at the soft expletive from my grandmother. I wouldn’t put it past her to know my secret—she had her ways—but what the fuck did this guy know?
“What makes you say that?”
He regarded me with a serious expression, then sat back down, shrinking back to his prior human size. My grandmother stood and shot a dark glare at each of us.
“I believe you had better start at the beginning, Llyr. Perhaps my grandson will share his story when you’re finished.”
“I don’t have a fucking story,” I said. “But please, do tell us yours.”
Llyr gave me a wary look, then nodded. “The ritual itself is no secret. Those who chose to participate joined us in the Haven on the Equinox. We needed to generate enough power to reach the entire bloodline with the message, so the six members of the Dragon Council and their mates were at the core of it, since they are capable of drawing the most magic and channeling it to a common well . . . They call this central hub a Catalyst, which they used to use during each Ascension’s Animus ritual to distribute magic from the Dragon Court and their mates to the Dragon Queen, then out to the entire brood, awakening them all together.”
“I know how the fucking dragons work,” I snapped. “Tell me about this ritual you were part of.”
I had a sinking feeling I knew where he was going and clenched my fists so hard my knuckles popped. I hoped like hell he was about to tell me that the dragons’ own Catalyst, a Prismatic dragon named Kris, had volunteered for the role in this ritual.
“We needed more than a Prismatic dragon to reach the bloodline. The bloodline aren’t dragons—they are human with traces of our blood mixed in. Though I understand that any dragon who has a bloodline-linked human in their ancestry would also be part of the bloodline. Anyone Meri corrupted with her blood and any of their descendants qualify, so there are millions of them out there.”
I nodded, realizing too late that I should have at least offered some sympathy. The woman he referred to had been the higher races’ mortal enemy for eons and had kept him and his fellow satyrs—the last five males of his kind—imprisoned for the last two thousand years. She had a particular proclivity for harvesting blood from the higher races and using it for her deranged experiments. Deva had been the result of one of those experiments.
It had been just over a year since we’d vanquished Meri, who had at one time in her life been a nymph and someone I imagined Llyr had known personally. But over the centuries, she’d claimed more sinister monikers, the most popular of which was the Lamia to symbolize her penchant for stealing babies from the higher races and draining their blood.
I hadn’t been involved in the final battle that culminated in Meri’s demise, but I was well-aware that Dionysus had subsumed her bloodline in the end. Anyone previously linked to her was now tied irrevocably to the god.
But it wasn’t only Meri’s blood these people carried; her experiments had introduced blood from all the higher races into generation upon generation of humans. It would have remained dormant in perpetuity, except that the divine blood introduced last year triggered it, possibly granting the humans power—and more alarmingly, allowing them to recognize any of the higher races on sight.
Dion had lost his power during the war, so we’d had time to prepare, but on the Spring Equinox three weeks ago, his power had returned.
The ritual had been necessary, but I’d avoided it like the plague. Dragon and nymphaea rituals were debauched spectacles. Once upon a time, I’d have participated whole-heartedly, shoving my dick into any and every orifice available and lending whatever power I had to offer to the mix.
The only way for a Catalyst to absorb the required power was through sex, and the only way to release it required a climax, or Nirvana, as the dragons referred to it. Lately I had no interest in that kind of party, so I’d stayed away, happily hanging out in the Sanctuary with all the offspring too young to participate in such hedonism.
Deva should have been there, safe in the Sanctuary with me. Not in the Haven, not with this satyr, not as the—
Boreas fucking save me.
I clenched my eyes shut as Llyr confirmed my worst fears.
“Deva was the only creature who possessed a balance of all the aspects of our five races. She is equal parts dragon, nymphaea, ursa, and turul. Most importantly, she is human at her core. She is the most potent member of the bloodline because Meri originally intended Deva’s soulless shell to be her vessel. Thanks to us, she had a chance to live her own life, be her own woman. Thanks to you, she’s alive.”
Despite the gratitude that tinged his words, I couldn’t miss the lingering accusation. He had to know turul could hear the secrets beneath the words. Perhaps he didn
’t care.
“But thanks to all of you fuckers, she was forced to be the core of a fertility ritual,” I said, filling in the blanks “She was innocent.”
“Do you have any idea how many people tried to make that fucking decision for her? And by ‘make that decision,’ I mean stop her from being involved. Nikhil was the most vocal objector. Your cousins backed him up.”
I snorted. “They would. Lukas and Iszak are wrapped around his little finger. And they’ve always been overprotective asses when it comes to the women in their lives. What about the others?”
“Opinions varied, but trust me, she had ample opportunities and support to avoid it if she wanted to. Nobody forced that woman to do anything she didn’t want. In the end, she demanded they allow her to do it and they crumbled instantly.”
I shook my head in denial over his assessment of her. The picture Llyr painted was a far cry from the shy young woman I’d kept under my wing during the war.
I’d been her escort, her chaperone, into the realm of the gods and stayed with her until the war had ended. It was the only place where our enemy couldn’t reach her, and keeping Deva away from Meri was the only way to ensure we could kill the bitch once and for all.
But as much as I cherished that period, it was dangerous for me to dwell on it, else I’d risk falling into a pit of regret.
I lifted my gaze to his and was astonished to see pain and regret reflected there, as though Llyr had become a mirror to my own emotions. I couldn’t mistake the hint of blame that remained and dropped my eyes. Even though he couldn’t know what had happened, that blame wasn’t unwarranted.
“Go on,” I croaked, tired of waiting to have the bandage ripped off.
“She was perfect,” he whispered. “By the end of the ritual, she’d absorbed enough power to reach the entire bloodline. She was so fucking magnificent. In retrospect, I don’t think she knew her own power . . . at least not when she sang to me.”
My gaze snapped back to his. “What are you getting at?”
He snorted. “I’m a fucking three-thousand-year-old satyr. One of Nereus’ first recruits to the Thiasoi. I can resist a siren’s call, deflect dragon fire, and ignore most elemental magic thrown at me. But one sweet verse from her throat, and I was done for.
“Her magic isn’t mature. She can’t even fucking drift properly despite being part nymphaea, and that’s something we learn before we can walk. Yet her mating song had me entranced the moment it hit my ears. I was hers in the span of a breath.”
I sneered at him. “You sure that isn’t just your dick talking?”
He gave me a rueful laugh. “Trust me, my orders from Neph were to guard and teach, not touch. I had every intention of obeying him, not just because he’s my Dionarch, but he’s Deva’s fucking father, and the only one of her fathers who terrifies me more than Neph is Nikhil.
“I assisted her through the ritual as chastely as possible—she was only tasked with being a conduit, not a participant, after all—but she was never oblivious to the requirements. She knew her own power could mean the difference between success and failure.”
Vertigo hit me and I sat back, rubbing my temples. Yet again, the sensation had nothing to do with Llyr’s gaze, though I wished I could have blamed him for it.
“I know you’re close to her,” he said in a low voice. “She asked about you. I was sure there had to be something more between you two.”
“She’s barely more than a child,” I said. “I can’t be responsible for her misplaced affection, but she hasn’t contacted me.”
Llyr lifted an eyebrow at me. “A child? Are we talking about the same woman here? I will spare you the details of my time with her, but while she is naïve, she is far from childish.”
“Yes, a child!” I said. “She might not look it, but I was there when she was born. That fucking ritual happened on Deva’s first birthday.”
The bastard didn’t appear fazed by that revelation. With a patient look that made me want to punch his pretty face, he took a breath and began to lecture me.
“You might not understand the power of a blood meld the way I do. I’ve been linked to her since she was barely conceived. Trust me when I say that Deva was never a child. Despite her somewhat unconventional origins and path to maturity, she is very much a woman with blood as ancient as the oldest of us.”
I exhaled a long breath through my nostrils, careful to keep my mind empty to avoid giving away more secrets to my nosy grandmother. The images of Deva’s first day of existence wouldn’t stop flashing through my mind. Within the span of that single day, I’d seen her emerge from her surrogate mother’s womb, take her first breath, and test her infant lungs in a powerful cry.
Every hour she’d grown, too fast for her small body to endure, thanks to an unfortunate mistake of magic. By mid-day, she was already a stunning young woman with a talent for singing, and whose preferred mode of comfort during the agony of her growth had been my voice raised in song. She’d needed protecting, and I was the likeliest volunteer to protect her.
I was the last person who should fulfill that role now. Llyr was far more worthy of the honor.
“You—” I coughed, then tried again. “You should find her. Take care of her. You seem to hold some affection for her, and as much as I hate saying this because your fucking face makes me want to smash it, I can tell your intentions are honorable.”
Llyr’s lips twisted in a sardonic smile. “Your platitudes are appreciated, but that doesn’t solve the issue at hand. The fact that she didn’t come to you leaves only one other possibility: She is seeking out whatever mysterious danger she believes is after the bloodline. When she disappeared, she was charged with power from the Source itself, plus whatever residual magic was left from the ritual.”
I grunted. “She could be anywhere. Your blood-bond or whatever doesn’t give you GPS on her?”
“It isn’t that precise. All I know is that she’s nowhere close to this location.”
“You said she sang to you. Any chance you remember the song enough to play it? If we split up and both use the music, it may draw her to us. If she’s out there, she’ll respond eventually. A mating song’s as good as getting marked by a hound of Fate.”
Llyr shook his head. “Do those things still exist? I figured they’d be obsolete by now.”
“Fate’s nothing if not set in its ways,” I remarked. “Her ways? I never know what to call the fucker.”
“You don’t call Fate, if you know what’s good for you,” my grandmother interjected. “And don’t joke about its hounds. If it sics one on you for crossing it, you will wish you were dead.”
I chuckled and shook my head. “Don’t worry, Nanyo. I’m sure no pesky dogs are going to come after us.”
Standing, I nodded at Llyr. “You should remain here in the city for now. Borrow whatever instrument you need from my grandmother and head up to the roof and play that song Deva sang to you. I’ll head back to LA. If you’re right, she may turn up there yet.”
I hoped like hell Llyr would find her first. If she came to me and Fate got wind of what I’d done to protect her, it’d very likely sic all its hounds on us.
11
Deva
Weariness took over as I stroked Rohan’s head. When his voice faded and his body relaxed into sleep I leaned back against the pillows and gazed out at the brilliant blue sky.
At some point I must have dozed off too, because when I opened them again, the sun was low on the horizon, casting the room in a glow that gilded my dragon as though it recognized his true nature.
My dragon. Uncertainty fluttered in my chest. I couldn’t think that. Despite my longing for a soul-deep connection with another, my songs were only ineffectual wishes. If there had been any power behind them, I’d have kept the first two men I sang to.
Resting my hand atop Rohan’s head, I sighed. This man may not have been mine in the way I wished, but he was my responsibility. There had to be a way to fix him, to repair the damage do
ne to his soul, and I had to find out what it was. Did I need to hunt down and kill the hounds? Was that even possible?
I replayed the day’s events. The creature had run as though in pain after Rohan had burned it. He’d handily disintegrated my conjured clothing at the same time. Perhaps dragon fire could destroy them. Sandor’s lightning had similarly affected the hound who had attacked Willem.
Guilt at the thought of going to that extreme gnawed at me. When the hound had returned a little later, I’d had the strongest sense that it believed I would be pleased by its actions. They were just beasts. But beasts had to have a master, didn’t they? Or were these beasts wild, feral creatures like Rohan might have become if we hadn’t restored his energy?
Could they be tamed?
Rohan stirred and my focus shifted to him. He tightened his embrace around my hips and nuzzled against the sheet covering my lap, inhaling, then releasing a deep rumble.
His eyes opened as another rumble echoed through the room and he gave me a sheepish stare. I laughed. “Don’t tell me that’s your stomach.”
“I missed breakfast, thanks to this mysterious woman walking into the music shop this morning. Somehow serenading her sounded like a better idea than eating.”
“I guess that’ll teach you to sing to strange women,” I said.
Rohan’s stomach grumbled again and he rolled over and sat up, his legs hanging over the side of the bed. He clutched his head and grew still, his aura shivering with faint gray light.
“What is it?” I said, crawling over and placing a hand on his shoulder.
He shook his head weakly and I urged him to lie back down. “You stay. I’ll go find you food.”
With barely a mumble of thanks from him, I left the bed and started to exhale a breath to conjure myself some clothes, but stopped. I might need every ounce of magic to help him, so I shouldn’t waste it on something as frivolous as an outfit when there were perfectly serviceable garments scattered around his room.
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