He had no reason whatsoever to trust her. And every reason to remain silent.
And yet when he looked at her, he lost himself to the darkness of those eyes. The softness of her lips. Before he could think better of it, he nodded.
Because he was the first, and because Noir was his father, he held more powers than any of his siblings. And it was because of his father and his mother’s wrath that he’d been deemed and worshiped as the very first war god of the world.
“But how can it be?”
He shrugged at the simple, complicated truth of what he was. “When Chaos and Order spun together for the first time and joined to make life out of nothing, the egg came from the friction of their union. From that initial explosion, the north wind carried that first egg and set it down upon the earth to keep it from shattering. Out of the darkness sprang light that cracked it in two, and Shyamala emerged into existence first, followed by her other six siblings—though they often lie and mislead about who was born first and in what order. Never understood why, but apparently it’s an issue between them. The order, however and regardless of what they claim, is simple. Braith. Cam. Rezar. Verlyn. Lilith. Kadar. Three born of order. Three of chaos. Three of light. Three of dark. When Lilith was born, they say she slipped or was possibly pushed, and was damaged in the fall, thus causing her powers to mix back together. She was neutral in the beginning. Willful. Insatiably curious, and in an effort to repair herself, she took the pieces of the egg and fused them back together with their conjoined DNA. But she never told the others what she’d done. It was her secret.”
“Then how did you get it?”
“I was born from it, too, after Shyamala, or Azura as she’s now known, forbid me to be born from my mother’s womb. She made it so that my mother would never be capable of a live birth—that we’d be born dead. Contrary as always and determined that Azura wouldn’t get the best of her, my mother cut me from her womb and decided that I and my siblings would be egg-born creatures who could be hidden from Azura’s wrath. That way, even if Azura or one of the other gods killed the lilit mothers my mother had created from her own blood for the bitch to get in on her good graces, the cursed egg-born babies would survive without their mothers.”
Medea frowned as she tried to understand Lilith’s reasoning. “Why did your mother create the others, knowing the gods would try to kill them too?”
Raking his hand through his hair, he sighed. “The lilit were her decoys to distract Azura and the others from me and my sister. But my mother lost her sanity in the process and with it became the very demon they’d dubbed her. We were quickly forgotten as her children and became tools to be used in her war against them all.”
“And your father?”
“Is a worthless bastard who makes yours appear loving in comparison. All he ever wanted me for was vengeance against the other gods. I never meant anything to him, other than to be used as a tool. If there’s anything or anyone Noir values, I don’t know it. I doubt if he even cares for Azura. I don’t think he’s capable of caring about anything.”
“Well, from what I hear, world domination.”
Falcyn snorted. “Yeah. That would be it. The gods know, it was never his children or sister-wife.”
That made sense. Medea was silent for a while as they made their way through the forest. Her head reeled with this new information about Falcyn and his family. There was so much she’d have never guessed at, and it made her wonder something else.
“Why did you change your name from Veles to Falcyn?”
He shrugged. “I grew bored with pantheon politics. Was never much of a team player anyway.”
“Yeah, I remember hearing those stories about Veles.”
A playful light sparked in his eyes. “Probably all true. Especially the gory parts.”
“And you’re avoiding my question again. Why the name change?”
The light went out in his eyes and pain replaced the spark. “After the destruction of my last temple, I went to live in seclusion. It was my sister who renamed me Falcyn for the reaping-hook-shaped claws I have and because it was always my weapon of choice in battle whenever I fought as a human. Once she was gone, I kept the name to remind me of her as if it was all I had left of Xyn.”
No wonder he’d avoided answering it. Now she felt terrible for having pressed the issue. “I like it, and it suits you better than Veles, I think.”
A twisted half smile curved his handsome lips. “I’m going to take that as a compliment.”
“Good, ’cause I meant it as one.… And tell me, Lord Falcyn, what does the dragon who has lived so long value?”
She realized too late that was the wrong question, as his eyes flared to a deep, dark red and he slowed his walk. More than that, he clenched his fists and lowered his head.
“Why would a Daimon leader want to know?”
“I was only making conversation. But I see now the depths of your mistrust. Not that I blame you. You’ve lived long enough to know better than to open yourself to a stranger. So I won’t fault you for that suspicion. You are a wise dragon, indeed.”
He pulled her to a stop. “Tell me what you value.”
“Nothing, really. Just my mother and Davyn. Some days my father and brother.”
“Only some days?”
She let out a bitter laugh. “Sad, right? I still barely know them. I want to love my father, but it’s hard to forgive him for what my mother went through. For all the centuries I watched her cry for him.”
“And what of Urian?”
“I love my brother because he’s my brother. But by the time I came to know him, he served Acheron—our worst enemy, who hunts us and who trains Artemis’s army to kill us. How can I trust someone who’s in service to my enemy? I understand his hatred of Stryker. I won’t fault him for despising someone who cut his throat and murdered his wife. But at the same time, I’m not dumb enough to trust Urian with anything more than a sister’s love. I carry no expectations of him beyond that.”
“Yet you sought him out in this matter?”
“Only because I trust in his love of Davyn. While I might not be able to put Urian at my back, his history with Davyn is such that I doubt he’d betray his one, true brother. They’ve bled far too often for one another in the past and have too much history with each other. I trust Davyn and Davyn trusts Urian.”
Falcyn scoffed as they came to a jagged edge. He turned to help her up the small embankment. “That is some screwed-up logic, my lady. Sad that I understand it and can relate. As you said, we are similar creatures.”
Medea didn’t speak as he lifted her effortlessly to stand by his side. He was a massive beast. Stronger than any man she’d been with in a long time. And she’d always been a sucker for great strength.
Worse was how much she liked the scent of his skin. He was intoxicating.