What makes you a special snowflake?
He had to drive this shit out of his head before he went mad from it. And from the depth of that madness, there was only one place he could think to go.
“Medea?”
She glanced up at him. “I hate this feeling, dragonfly. How do you fight it? I want something external that I can kill!”
So did he. This was so insidious. Like a madness eating away at his will and desires. He was so tired from it. As if a weight pressed down on not only his will, but his entire body.
He needed Blaise or Brandor to explain to him what the mortal enemy of these bastards would be so that they could use it against them and end this. “Everything has a weakness. We can find theirs.”
“How? We can’t even see them. It’s hopeless. Impossible. We’ll never win.”
In that moment, he hated his brother Max more than he ever had before. Why? Because the next words out of his mouth came straight from his brother and he knew it. He could practically hear Max’s voice over his own as he spoke the dreadful happy words that sickened him. “Nothing’s ever hopeless.”
Yeah, he wished he was back at Sanctuary so that he could beat the utter shit out of that ever-optimistic bastard.
How he hated Mr. Merry Sunshine.
As bad as Max had been before these past few weeks, he was twice as awful and sanctimonious now that he had his dragonswan and children with him. There were times when Falcyn was sure he’d puke from the saccharin overload of being around the lot of them. Only thing worse than Max was his kids and wife.
Especially that optimistic son Seraphina had dared to name after their brother Hadyn.
Dear gods, it was like someone had cloned Max.
He shuddered. And Hadyn would shit a brick to meet his happy Opie Taylor–acting namesake.
With a sneer, Falcyn tried to wipe the ick off physically with his hands, but it was no use. No matter how much he scratched at his skin or rubbed it, the sensation remained. “What drives away doubt?”
“Confidence,” Medea said. “A leap of faith. Sledgehammer to the face of whoever made you doubt yourself. Personally, I like the latter.”
He laughed at her surly tone and words that rang home to him, as he’d like nothing better.
Then he sobered. “That’s it!”
“What? I get to sledgehammer someone? I’m game if you are. Just point the bastard out.”
He quirked a grin at her sudden happiness and what had caused it. “As long as you’re naked, you can sledgehammer me all you want.”
She rolled her eyes at him and snorted. “Is that really your solution?”
“No, but now I have an image of you naked on top of me again and I completely forgot my original train of thought.”
“Seriously?”
“Sadly, yes. You’re terribly distracting to me. What was I saying?”
“Oh my God, Falcyn! Really?”
Screwing his face up, he groaned. “Yeah. Where was I going a minute ago? I seem to have lost my way in the deep valley of your shirt plunging between your breasts.”
She popped him lightly on his stomach. “We were talking about driving away doubt. Remember? I said confidence and leaps of faith.”
“Oh yeah … yeah! Had a thought about that. Leaps of Faith. You know?”
Medea scowled at him. He said that as if she should understand some arcane meaning behind that phrase. But it meant nothing to her. “Yeah? Okay…”
He deflated before her eyes, and shook his head. “I keep forgetting you’re an Apollite. With no real experience among the fey.”
“Sorry. We’re not on their party lists.”
“Trust me, you’re better off. Last time they came out to play with your people, they made the Were-Hunter race.”
She scoffed at his oversimplification of that major historical event. “Dagon wasn’t a fey creature. And I do believe, as a Sumerian god, he’d be highly offended at your categorizing him as such.”
“True. But as his brother, I’m morally obligated to bust his chops every chance I get. Which he’d appreciate if he were here and would return said insult with gusto. And probably a punch or god-bolt.”
Her jaw dropped at something she’d been completely unaware of. “You’re not really his brother, are you?”
“I am, indeed. Half, anyway. His mother’s Hekate. But we share the same piece-of-shit sperm donor.”
“Is that why he joined the Sumerian pantheon?”
“That was mostly a bad bout of teenage rebellion … or, more to the point, a bout of midlife crisis for a god.” Falcyn paused to consider it. “Or maybe, given his current extreme old age, it would best be considered a prepubescent tantrum?”
She laughed at the way he summarized things. The dragon had a unique phrasing and perspective. “You have an interesting family tree.”
“Says the woman related to Apollo and the king of the Daimons.”
“And you’re off point again.… I’ve noticed that you tend to do that. A lot.” She gestured at the trees around them. “Leaps of faith? Where were you going with that?”
“Oh yeah. Sorry. Faith is a modern word for fey. And ‘leaps of fey’ was once a slang term for fresh, running water gathered in a stream, as opposed to a well.”
“Okay…” She still had no idea where he was going with that.
“I’m thinking if we gather some, we can use it to get rid of them.”
Ah! That made sense. Running water was often used to chase away malevolent spirits. Hence the propensity of throwing holy water for exorcisms. And why some paranormal species couldn’t cross streams or rivers. “It’s worth a shot.”
“It’s what I’m thinking.”
“But what if we don’t find any?” She sighed heavily. “What if it doesn’t work? What if it’s hopeless and we’re stuck like this forever?”
He growled deep in his throat. “You’re doubting me?”
Medea gave him a no-duh stare. “I’m possessed by the spirits of doubt. You think? Of course I’m doubting you. And thanks for this wonderful experience, by the way! So much better than a trip to Disneyland. I can’t believe I left home for this.”
He let out a “heh” at her continued sarcasm. “Just help me find some fey water.”
“That doesn’t explode when we touch it.”
“Exactly.”
Sighing, she followed him as they looked for a stream or brook. “I guess I should be grateful, all things considered.”
“How so?” Falcyn asked.
She pointed up at the dim, gray sky. “At least I’m not bursting into flames in the daylight.”
He drew up short at her words. “Do that a lot, do you?”
“Well, I was banned from it as a girl. After Apollo made his curse.”
“But not anymore?”
“That demon blood you smelled in me?”
He nodded.
“It allows me to tap into their powers and shields me from his curse. With it, I can walk in daylight. Not for long. Just enough that it leaves me with a nasty sunburn and no exploding flesh. And I’m completely immune from his curse in other realms, like this one.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “The demon blood at least gives me time to do some damage in the human realm to go after enemies where and when they’re most vulnerable.”