All worlds.
And it was now under his control alone. I could rule everything and everyone.
“What you doing, dragon-man?”
He jumped at the singsongy accent of the Charonte demon he thought he’d left behind with his father. How the hell had she gotten into his room?
“Who let you in here?”
Shrugging, she approached him as if he were nothing to be concerned about. A foolish thing, since …
Well, he couldn’t really kill her. He wasn’t sure what, if anything, could kill her species. Those damned things were terribly hearty.
“Don’t nobody be telling the Simi no excepting for her akri, and you not Akri. You cute like Akri, but only Akri is Akri. No other exceptions are accepted by the Simi. Excepting for Akri-Styxx and then only sometimes … and maybe Akri-Bas. And sometimes Akra-Kat and Akri-Lexie.”
“You shouldn’t be here.”
“Then gimme what you took and the Simi will leave.” She held her arm out with her palm open and tilted toward him in a very childlike gesture.
She was so honest and trusting. He couldn’t imagine ever being like that. His life had never leant itself to such.
Part of him was angered by it. Another, curious.
But he wasn’t dumb enough to act out against her. His survival instincts kept his temper in check and he decided the best course of action was to feign ignorance with her. “Don’t know what you’re talking about.”
She wagged her finger. “Yes, you do. ’Course you do. Now be a good boy dragon.” She pointed at the stone. “Akri-Falcyn is all upset ’cause you tookted his toy. He say he needs it and so I’m here to get it. ’Cause the Simi don’t want him sad. Didn’t anyone ever tell you not to steal? You don’t take what don’t belong to you! Now gibs it over.”
“What about my childhood he stole?”
Simi tsked. “Don’t be blaming others for you bad acts. Or trying to justify thievingness when it wrong, no matter how you slice and dice it. No need to even try for julienne fries. Or waffle cones neither. You know you didn’t make the stone ’cause you not a woman demon and you know you tooked it from your daddy’s pocket. Now gives it!”
“Or what?”
Pursing her lips, she cocked her hip and rested her hands on her narrow waist. “You really want to go there? ’Cause the Simi could use some barbecue. And dragon meat is most yummy. Just saying.”
Maddor started to tell her where to shove the stone and to continue denying that he had it. But the moment he opened his mouth to speak, the full pain of it all hit him like a physical blow.
All the years of his brutal childhood and his humiliating subservience to Morgen. All the times he’d wanted a kind hand to touch him. Someone to tell him he wasn’t what they said.
Now …
Overwhelmed, he choked on a sob.
Simi let out an anguished noise. “Oh no, Mr. Dragon Human. Did the Simi break you?”
Yes, but it was only his heart that was shattered as memory after memory tore through him. Even though he lived the majority of his life as a man, he’d never been treated as a human. Only an animal Morgen was afraid would piss her rug and chew on her favorite shoes.
Even now, he could see himself in the cage where they kept him. Hear the mocking laughter that was never far from the surface of his pain.
King of the mandrakes you might be, but never forget who holds your leash, boy! The hand that feeds you can quickly become the hand that ends you.
Maddor winced at the images that took turns assaulting him without mercy. He hated life. He always had. Every fucking heartbeat was nothing more than another chance for someone else to tell him how worthless he was. How much they hated him.
And his father thought a simple apology could rectify that. Yeah, right …
With a stricken expression, Simi sidled up to him. “Don’t be so sad, dragon-man. It okay. You see! Just ’cause you’re mad at your daddy don’t make him a mean, nasty dragon. Even the Simi can tell that he lubs you. You should talk to him.”
“You don’t understand.”
“No, I don’t. I get the mad. I get the sad. But when you have a choice of someone willing to love you and being all by your lonesome, seems to the Simi that being loved is always better than being alone. My akri even forgibbed Akri-Styxx and Akri-Styxx forgibbed my akri. Akri-Styxx forgibbed me for killing him. If they could learn to be friends and to forgive, I know you can, too. After all, your daddy didn’t kill you.”
That was true, he supposed. “You make it sound easy.”
“It is.” She reached up to cup his chin and squeeze his cheeks. “I’m sorry. It okay. Didn’t mean to be a douchy. See? Easy, peasy with extra cheesy.”
He scowled at her deepened tone where she faked his voice. Damn, the Goth demon was charming.
Her frown melted to a sweet smile. “See! That’s all you have to do.”
But it wasn’t as simple as she made it out. “If I give it to Morgen, she’ll free me. And I can leave here.”
Simi made a peculiar sound, almost like a horn. “Will she? You sure about that?”
He cringed as Simi voiced his own doubt. Morgen wasn’t exactly known for keeping her word or for her integrity.
Screwing people over …
Lying when she could tell the truth …
That was definitely her forte. Hell, the bitch was known for going out of her way to screw others.
Literally and figuratively.
He clutched at the stone.
“Do the right thing, dragon-man. Gibs it back and apologize to your daddy. Makes it right so that he can love you and not feel all bad and gooey that he lubs you.”
The only problem with that? He didn’t know what the right thing to do was. Protect his father.
Or protect his own ass, since no one else ever had.
*
Medea felt horrible for Falcyn. All these centuries, she’d thought the worst thing in the world had been to lose her son. Watching Falcyn now, she realized that wasn’t the worst.
A living child who hated you was far more cruel.
Blaise and the others had gone back without them. Torn between her family and Falcyn, she’d decided to stay here in Camelot with him.
He needed her more.
Falcyn was alone and the misery in his eyes kept her by his side even though she knew she was needed in Kalosis. Besides, there was nothing she could do for her people without his dragonstone.
Her heart breaking for him, she pulled him against her and held him tight. The fact that he didn’t protest told her exactly how wounded he was by it all. He was weak, and she knew from Urian that it was a state this dragon wasn’t used to.
The least she could do was comfort him.
Closing her eyes, she breathed in the scent of him as she ran her hands through his hair.
Falcyn choked on his unshed tears and the swell of unfamiliar tenderness Medea awoke inside his dead heart. The dragon in him wanted to carry her away to his den and keep her there, protests be damned. Hence the legends of old about his kind. It’d been their loneliness and abject misery that had caused his species to kidnap mates and force them to their isolated lairs.
Yet he’d never done such. Never had he wanted to.