“Why do they want my stone?” Falcyn asked.
“It’s the only thing that can stop them. The gallu need a dragonstone to repair your brother’s tablet. Apparently, Hadyn’s treasure is a key of some sort they need to free their dimme sisters.”
The expression on Falcyn’s face said there was much more to it than that, but he didn’t comment. “Yeah, well, they can rot.” He shook his head. “I’m not about to help any of them.”
Brandor gave him an arch stare. “Not even to save your own sister?”
That cold steel hatred returned to Falcyn’s eyes, and it made Medea’s blood run cold. “Don’t go there.”
Brandor glanced to Brogan. “I would never taunt anyone with such a cruelty. Family should never be used as a bartering tool. But it’s what they will hold over you and use against you if you don’t do what they want. It’s why I told Ro to bring you here. I know where Sarraxyn is, and I will take you to her before they hurt her to get to you.”
“For what price?”
He took his sister’s hand. “You’ve already paid it. You freed my sister from her realm and brought her to me so that I can protect her from her master. I’ll help you free yours from hers. It’s the least I can do.”
Blaise shook his head. “Bullshit. I don’t believe you.”
Brogan’s cheeks brightened with color. “You can trust him, Blaise. He’s a good man.”
“I don’t trust anyone who beds down with Morgen.”
“Says the mandrake who served the Kerrigan?” Urian cocked a sarcastic brow.
Finally quelled, Blaise cleared his throat. “Okay … valid point taken.”
Urian sighed as he cast his gaze around each of them. “Yeah, I don’t think anyone in this group can judge another for their past deeds.”
Medea didn’t comment on that. Mostly because he was right. All of them had served evil at some point.
Of course, she and Brogan were the only two who continued to do so.
But still …
“This is all well and good, but let’s not lose sight of the fact that Urian and I aren’t here on a vacation. I need your dragonstone, Falcyn. There’s still the matter of the plague that’s spreading through my people. I can’t watch my parents and best friend die. I’ve had enough of death and I don’t want any more of it.”
Brandor scowled at her. “You’re the daughter of Stryker?”
His question brought her suspicion straight to the forefront and put her instantly on guard. “How do you know that?”
“Morgen and Apollo. As I said, I’ve been privy to Morgen’s most intimate councils. The word brevalaer is fey for nothing. Which is exactly what she considers me. Therefore she never worried what I heard or saw, as she didn’t think I could use it against her.”
Falcyn narrowed his eyes on Brandor. “How much have you heard?”
“Everything.”
Blaise nodded. “She kept him literally chained to her throne or bed most of the time. I can attest to that.”
“Well, if you know so much, any idea why we can’t turn into dragons right now?”
“No, but I can tell you this. If Narishka made a bargain and you turned her down, they’ll put a hit out on you.”
“What kind of hit?”
“Ever heard of a strykyn?”
Medea had no idea what that was, but the anger flaring up in those steely blues said that Falcyn had dealt with more than his fair share of them.
“I’ve killed a few.” Oh yeah, his voice was scarcely more than a fierce growl.
“That’s what they’ll be sending … along with anything else they can bribe.”
Medea waited for an explanation, but they didn’t seem eager to elaborate. So she prompted them. “What’s a strykyn?”
Falcyn gave her a cold stare. “Children of Stryx.”
“The water witch?”
He nodded. “Yeah, and they’re what your father was named after. Fierce birds of prey who once served Ares in his larger battles. They are the black war owls with red wings and gold beaks who live on the edge of Hades where they feast on the souls of the damned and eat the carcasses of cowards.”
The ones that traveled in swarms and could bring down entire armies …
She gaped at the old legend her mother had used to frighten her into behaving when she’d been a girl. But instead of using their real name, her mother, being an Atlantean Apollite, had referred to them as Greek War Birds. “His prized birds he suckled on the blood of misbehaving infants and children?”
“Yeah. For battle or to fight, they shift into large, mountainous warriors with serious attitude problems. Bastards so irritable, they make me look friendly.”
That she’d like to see.
Urian cursed. “Apollo must have seized them when he defeated Ares and the others on Olympus and took it over.”
“Would be my guess and our luck.” Falcyn cursed under his breath. “Damn it. We really got to kick their asses out of that place soon.”
Great. Medea’s head was starting to throb again. “How do we fight and defeat them?”
Brogan crossed her arms over her chest. “The fruit of the strawberry tree can paralyze them.”
“Good to know.” Medea glanced around the bleak landscape that sadly lacked strawberry trees. Too bad they weren’t allergic to drab gray ick.…
“Any other tricks?”
Brandor considered it a moment. “They can be diverted with other meats. Even if it’s raw. But if they catch you, there’s no way to escape them.”
“Beautiful.”
Falcyn snorted derisively. “Cut their hearts out. Their heads off. Incinerate them. Best of all, they taste like duck and are quite filling, if not a little gamey.”
Medea arched a brow at Falcyn’s dry tone. “Pardon?”
“You asked how to kill them. It’s what always worked for me. I am a dragon, you know.”
With a sarcastic laugh, she sighed at him. “You really are violent to your core, aren’t you?”
There was a light in his eyes that she didn’t quite understand. “From the moment I made the mistake of crawling out of my egg, everyone around me has tried their damnedest to kill me, for one reason or another. Starting with my own mother. That kind of survival doesn’t exactly lend itself to benevolence or trust. Just a whole lot of pissed off.”
Those words choked her as they gave her an insight into him that was brutally honest.
As hard as things had been for her, no matter the hell life had unleashed, she’d always had the shelter of her own mother’s love. She couldn’t imagine being alone the way he had. Of being left to fend for herself.
And while the death of her family haunted her, there for a time, she’d been deliriously happy with them. It was a happiness Falcyn couldn’t even begin to fathom.
That thought brought an unbelievable ache to her chest. How could he keep going when they’d taken everything from him?
In that moment, she saw him for what he really was.
A survivor in the purest sense of the word.