Illarion turned at the bright flash, expecting to find Maxis there. Instead, it was two dragonets.
Shrieking in relief, Seraphina ran to them and grabbed them into a tight embrace. The boy immediately let out a verbal protest that she was hurting him.
“It’s all right, Mama,” he breathed as he rested his chin against the top of her head. Like Max, he towered over her. “We’re fine. It’s all good.”
Illarion wasn’t sure about that. The boy was covered in blood and bruises. His homespun clothes torn and filthy.
Her breathing ragged, Seraphina pulled back to examine the girl. Like her brother’s, her tunic and breeches were torn and covered with filth and blood.
“Hadyn kept them from me,” the girl assured her quickly, as if she could read her mother’s thoughts.
“Barely.” He staggered back and collapsed to sit cross-legged on the floor. Hard. Raking a hand through his short auburn hair, he let out an exhausted breath, then winced as he grazed his knuckles against his bruised cheek. He glanced up at her with an adorable frown that was identical to one Max had used. “Where are we?”
Seraphina didn’t answer his raspy question as she stepped over his legs and glanced around, looking for Maxis to join them. He should have been here by now. “Where’s your father?”
“I knew that was him!” The girl smacked at her brother, who grimaced and shoved lightly at her so that she wouldn’t hit his shoulder again. “Told you!”
“No you didn’t.”
Ignoring his ire, she met Seraphina’s gaze with sadness in her eyes. “They attacked him and he sent us here while he fought them. I don’t think he was able to follow.”
Blaise cursed and so did Illarion.
I’m going to kill him!
It was only then that her children realized there were others in the room with them. The girl pulled back as Hadyn rose to his feet to put himself between them and his uncles.
Though to be honest, there wasn’t much the poor boy could do right now in his wounded condition, except fall down and trip them on their way to attack her, had that been their intent.
Sera let go of Edena to gently take Hadyn by the waist and scoot his teen body aside. Rubbing his back, she smiled proudly at him to let him know how much she appreciated his thoughtfulness. “Edena, Hadyn … meet your uncles. Blaise and Illarion.”
“Hi.” Blaise gestured toward the wall.
Bemused by that, Hadyn scowled at her and Edena.
Illarion ignored them all. Screw the pleasantries. We need to get to Max. Where is he?
Hadyn’s frown melted to a mask of shock. “Anyone else think it odd that one uncle can’t see and the other can’t speak? Is there a reason for that?”
Blaise shot a jolt at him that left him yelping. “Careful, whelp. I don’t need my sight in this form to spank your ass. As for the voice, Illarion had his vocal cords cut by moronic humans trying to stop him from breathing fire when he was a kid. Be glad they didn’t get their hands on you.”
He immediately hung his head. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to offend either of you. I’m an insensitive idiot who doesn’t always check with my brain before I engage my mouth, especially when I’m hurting. If it makes you feel any better, in the last twenty-four hours, I had three demons try to eat me for dinner, a dozen Arcadians kick the crap out of me, and my sister scream my eardrums to bleeding. Pretty sure I lost some testosterone along the way. Definitely a shit-ton of pride and dignity.”
“Hadyn! Watch your mouth!”
“Sorry, Ma.”
Shaking her head, Seraphina went and grabbed Maxis’s battle sword from the hanger that secured it to his wall near the door.
As she started to leave, Illarion caught her. What are you doing?
“You and Blaise watch the kids. I’m headed after Maxis.”
“That would be a profoundly bad idea.”
Seraphina glanced over her shoulder to see Fang standing in the now open doorway. “Excuse me?”
He stepped aside to show her the tall, dark-haired Arcadian Sentinel behind him. One Illarion hadn’t seen in an exceptionally long time.
Dressed in medieval chainmail and a yellow surcoat, and with his hair pulled back in a ponytail, he had an aura of regal refinement and fierce, arrogant warrior that made Illarion want to punch him. While most Sentinels chose to hide their facial markings with their magick, his were more than apparent.
Fang gestured between them. “Seraphina Drago, meet Sebastian Kattalakis, Prince of Arcadia.”
Illarion snorted disdainfully. So fucking what, Fang? You’re a Kattalakis, too. For that matter, Illarion qualified as an official Kattalakis. More so, in fact, than either of them.
Sebastian arched an arrogant brow at his rude dismissal. “Yes, but my grandfather was the king’s son. The original Apollite heir born from his queen, Mysene.”
Well la-di-da, Mr. Fancy Pants. Aren’t you special? You want a hero cookie to go with that title?
Blaise feigned a coughing fit. “Excuse me. I’m having a weird Kerrigan flashback. Should I leave now before lethal things start flying?”
No, I’m the one leaving. My brother needs me and the air in here is suddenly stale.
“Wait!” Sebastian ordered in a tone that left Illarion with a soured expression on his handsome face. One that said Sebastian was about to be in serious pain. Or in a burn ward. “I came here to warn Fang about what was happening. A few minutes ago, I received a summons from my cousin to attend a harrowing for the Dragonbane he’s captured.”
Seraphina gasped at his words.
Why did you come here?
Sebastian shrugged at Illarion’s belligerent question. “I thought you might want to get word to Savitar to stop it. As a limani, Fang has the ability to contact him. I don’t. And having been harrowed, myself, I don’t condone this against another. Ever. I find the whole practice of it distasteful and beneath both our species.”
Illarion glared at each of them in turn. What did you people do? Take out ads? For thousands of years, Max stayed hidden and safe. He pinned that hostile glare on her. You come back into his life for five minutes and it starts falling apart again. Everyone now knows who he is and they’re all attacking him. Why do you have to ruin his life every time you come near it?
“That’s not fair!”
No, it isn’t! He never did anything to you, except try to protect you. I wish you’d do him a favor and get out of his life before you kill him.
Blaise gasped. “Illarion…”
Don’t, brother. It’s the truth I speak. We’re all thinking it. I just said it. I’m sick to death of watching my brother bleed for her.
Seraphina took a step toward him, intending to make him eat those words, but before she could, a loud thump sounded on the other side of the curtains.
All of them froze.
In unison, they turned toward the unexpected rustling. An exasperated sigh was punctuated by the curtains parting only enough to launch a round object from between them. It shot across the room and landed with another wet, squishy thump on the floor before it rolled a few feet.
Edena shrieked and danced toward her brother as the object came to rest near her and turned out to be a disembodied human head.
An instant later, a huge, spiny dragon poked his head out from between the curtains to offer a lopsided grin. “Sorry, love. Didn’t realize anyone was here.” He arched one dragon brow at Sebastian. “Hope that’s not a friend of yours. And if it is, tough shit. He was an asshole. Anyone got some extra-large dental floss on them? I’ve got a chunk of Arcadian dragonslayer stuck in my teeth. Nasty-tasting stuff, that. And Illarion, you’re wrong. It does not taste like chicken. More like three-day-old rotten ass.”
Blaise and Fang burst out laughing. Sebastian looked offended. Hadyn and Edena gaped.
“If I said that, I’d be on restriction forever,” Hadyn mumbled to his sister.
“Yes, you would. And don’t forget it.” Shaking her head, Seraphina closed the distance between them so she could check on Max and make sure he was all right.
She was so upset she couldn’t speak. Instead, she rose up on her knees and wrapped her body around his, and held him in a tight embrace with her cheek pressed against his heart. She had one arm draped around his neck and the other beneath his arm, and clutched her hands behind his back so tight, he wasn’t sure she’d ever let go.
Completely baffled, he met Illarion’s gaze over her shoulder. Help?
For the first time, Illarion looked at her with something other than unreasoning hatred.
Just hold her, Max. She needs to know that you’re really alive and whole. It’s how women are sometimes.
Max nodded. “Fang, it won’t take the Arcadians long to track me here and demand you turn me over to them.” Since he was the Dragonbane, the laws of Sanctuary didn’t apply to him. He was the one creature they could legally deny shelter to. It was entirely up to the owners if they wanted the heat of it.
“If you’ll protect my family for me—they’re innocent in all this—I’ll make sure I lead the others away from your door. I just need a minute to catch my breath, and collect a couple of things. I promise I won’t draw Sanctuary into the cross fire of my mess.”
Snorting, Fang tucked his hands into his back pockets. “Boy, don’t you dare insult me with that shit. They can kiss my furry wolf ass, which is exactly what Aimee would skin alive if I dared let them have you. I don’t give up family.” He paused. “Well, they could have Fury. I’m not that attached to him. But they’d only keep him till he opened his mouth, then launch his ass back to me with a catapult. He’s like a bad boomerang that way.”
Illarion laughed at his surly tone, knowing it for the bluster it was. Fang would kill for his brother.
“You really don’t want this kind of heat. Trust me.”
Fang glanced around at the other dragons in the room. “You were one of the first residents the Peltiers took in when they moved here. When Eli and his pack used their witch to set fire to the first bar, you’re the one who saved Aimee, Dev, and Cherif from burning alive in it. And you’re the only reason that fire didn’t spread to Peltier House and trap the others who were sleeping there, including a Dark-Hunter who would have been trapped inside by the daylight. I know the stories, too. Brother, there ain’t a shifter in this place who wouldn’t fight for you. Now I don’t know what happened to cause you to get marked and I don’t really care.… The one thing I do know is you. And if you killed him, he had it coming. So you’re free to stay. If they’re dumb enough to attack, I know a bar full of hungry Charonte over in the Warehouse District who would love to chomp dragon meat.” He glanced over to the head on the floor. “And unlike you, they don’t care if it tastes like chicken or not.” Then he scratched his chin. “You are picking that up, right? ’Cause I don’t want to have to explain it.”
Rubbing his forehead, Sebastian let out a slow breath. “I hope you know what you’re doing, wolf.”
Fang arched a brow. “Have you met me? Of course I have no idea what I’m doing.”
Ignoring Fang’s surly comment, Max rose to confront Sebastian. “Go to your Regis and tell him that I’m calling hazard on the ones who took and held my dragonets. They want the Dragonbane? I want their throats. Fair combat. In the circle.”
“No!” Seraphina gasped.
“No?” Max arched a brow at her.
“I want to kill them.”
He smiled at her. That was his dragonswan. Ferocious to the end. “Too late. I called challenge first.”
“I birthed them. I should have the honor of avenging them.”
“And in the event this goes badly, I’d rather they lose the parent they don’t know than the one they’re attached to.”
“I’d rather not lose either,” Edena said. “No offense.”
Hadyn nodded his agreement.
“I’m concurring with the kids.” Blaise smiled.
Ignoring the comment, Sebastian met Fang’s gaze. “If you want me to issue the challenge, I will do so. But watch your back. I have a bad feeling about all this.”
Fang sighed. “We will. Give Channon my best.”
Sebastian inclined his head to them before he vanished.
Max sighed. “The gallu aren’t going to stop and neither will the two packs coming for me. This is a blood feud that is centuries old. I need my children where they can’t reach them.”
Blaise nodded as he understood what Max wasn’t saying. “You want me to take them to Avalon?”
“Please. It’s the one place I know is beyond their reach.”
Hadyn and Edena immediately protested.
“Your father’s right. It’s just for a few days. I promise. Go with your uncle and we’ll get you soon.”
As Blaise started to leave, Max stopped him. “Tell Merlin not to worry. I have not forgotten my oath or my duties. Should I fall, guardianship will go to Illarion and then to you.”
He arched a brow. “Not to Hadyn?”
Max shook his head. “I would never do that to him. The curse of it’s too strong.”
“So you give it to us. Thanks, brother.”
Max laughed. “Getting you both back for all the years of hell you’ve given me.”
Blaise sobered. “I’ll tell her. You be careful.”
“And you.” He kissed Edena’s cheek and hugged Hadyn one more time.
It took Seraphina longer to say good-bye. “I will come for you very soon. I love you both. Guard your sister.”
“I will.” And then they were gone.
Alone with Maxis and Illarion, Seraphina felt so strangely empty. She’d been a mother for so long that she’d forgotten what it was like to be by herself. To not have to look over her shoulder to make sure her children were keeping up with her and not falling behind.
Now …
“We have to prepare for war.”
Maxis nodded.
Illarion went to the grisly head. I’ll take care of this. He wrapped it up in a T-shirt. His eyes sad, he locked gazes with Maxis. I’m so sorry I dragged you into this. Then he looked at Seraphina. And I’m sorry I’ve been so rude to you the entire time you’ve been here. You’re not really the one who fucked my brother’s life over and ruined it, my lady. I am. And I swear to you both that I won’t take my hatred for myself out on you anymore. Please forgive me.
Max grabbed Illarion’s arm as he started to leave. “You have nothing to apologize for where I’m concerned.” He cracked a chiding grin. “That being said, you could have been a little kinder to my dragonswan.”
The tormented agony in Illarion’s gaze was searing. How can you not hate me? At the very least, blame me or curse me for what I’ve done to you?
Max buried his hand in Illarion’s long hair and locked gazes with him so that his brother could see the sincerity in his heart. “Would my life without you have really been better? Really? Let’s say that none of this had happened. That I remained a fully blooded drakomas. Where would I be now? In a cave somewhere alone like you were, enduring in Glastonbury? You’re right, Illy. You’re a rank, effing bastard to spare me that god-awful fate. I should take you outside right now and beat the shit out of you for doing this to me.”
Illarion snorted. I hate you.
Smiling, he tightened his grip in his brother’s hair before he released him. “I hate you, too.”
Then Illarion pulled Max into a tight hug and held him there.
When he finally stepped back, he refused to look him in the eye. I’ll check on the others. I’m sure the two of you could use a moment to yourselves to catch your breath, and decide what to do about her tribe and the demons out to claim you.
“Thanks.”
Illarion inclined his head to him, then left.
* * *
A few hours later, Illarion stood with Dev, Fang, Vane, and the wolves and bears in the bar, ready to war against every member of Seraphina’s tribe. Thankfully, the bar was still closed to humans or this would have been an even worse situation.
“I demand you hand over the Dragonbane! He attacked our patria, killed our members, and—”
“Cry to your mama, bitch, I don’t care.” Fang flipped the Arcadian wolf off.
“Fang!” Vane put himself between his brother and the other wolf. “Not helping!”
Dev laughed. “Maybe not, but he’s highly entertaining and helping lift my mood immensely.”
Samia smacked her husband in the stomach. “Stay out of this. If we wanted to blow the bar up, again, we’d have brought Rémi out here.”
Sera brushed past Max to address the group. “This isn’t about the Dragonbane. It’s about Nala’s pact with a demon.”
“Hold your tongue.” Nala glared at her.
“No. Not in this. I won’t watch you destroy my mate again.”
“Seraphina…”
But Sera wasn’t having any part of this. “I will renounce my allegiance to the tribe before I allow you to take him.” She pulled her sword from its sheath. “You want Maxis … you have to come through me.”
Shocked, but determined to protect his sister-in-law for his brother, Illarion moved to stand at her side.
Fang took up the position on the left-hand side of Sera’s body. “As you can see, we like our Dragonbane. He goes really well with the furniture.”
Sarcastic applause sounded, breaking the tension. “Nice.” From the rear of the Arcadians, a demon stepped forward. He wasn’t Kessar, but there was something remotely familiar about him. Illarion tried to remember where he’d seen him before.
Definitely gallu. The stench was unmistakable.
The demon stopped in front of Fang and raked him with a sneer. “However, you’re all forgetting something. While you are bound by the laws of your Omegrion, we are not. Do you really want me to unleash my warriors here? How long do you think you and your animals will stand?”
Fang didn’t miss a beat. “Long enough to mount your head to my wall.”
The demon opened his mouth to speak, then began a strange gurgling noise.
Illarion stepped back. As did Nala. Max closed the distance between them to protect his family.
Quicker than he could blink, Dev grabbed a mop bucket and had it in front of the demon in time to catch him as he unloaded the contents of his stomach. Grimacing and cursing, he glanced over to Sam. “Yeah, you raise as many nieces and nephews as I have and run a bar, you learn that attractive I-ate-too-much sound, so-grab-a-bucket-uncle-I-gotta-hurl.” Making an even worse face, he turned back toward the demon. “You through? ’Cause dude, this is some nasty stuff you got going on. And I really hope this shit ain’t contagious.”
Instead, the demon fell to his knees in agony. He was in so much pain, he couldn’t talk.
Dev set the bucket aside as they all stared at the demon in stunned silence. “Anyone know a demon doctor?”
“What’s wrong with him?” Nala asked.
Fury shrugged. “I’m thinking his last victim didn’t go down right. Who’d you eat?”
Dev snorted sarcastically. “Judging by the contents of the bucket, I’d say a Muppet. Looks like Kermit.”
Sam let out a sound of extreme pain. “Y’all are all so gross.”
With an exaggerated gesture, Fury’s mate Lia nodded her complete agreement.
And still the demon convulsed and gagged. Wheezed and sputtered.
Then burst apart.
In unison, everyone stepped back from the spot where he’d been as if afraid that, too, was contagious.
“Holy shit,” Dev breathed.
Fury took Lia’s hand. “My freakin’ giddy aunt.”
Fang and Vane toed the smoking remains of the demon before they swept their gaze around the room.
“Savitar?” Vane called.
Fang scowled. “Thorn?”
No one answered. His features pale, Fang met Max’s gaze. “Have you ever seen or heard of anything like this?”
Before he could answer, Nala gasped in alarm. Then she cried out in pain.
Sera stepped toward her. “Basilinna?”
She held her hand up to show that it was slowly turning gray. “I think I’m returning to stone … you?”
Horrified, Seraphina examined her own body. “I don’t think so.”
Her breathing ragged, Nala shook her head. “What is this?” Shrieking, she vanished, and took her Amazons with her.
Fang and Vane turned to the Arcadians, but without their demon and Amazon warriors, their bluster faded.
“This isn’t over,” the wolf leader promised. “I, too, am a Kattalakis Lykos and I demand the satisfaction of seeing the one who cursed our race pay for his crimes. I’ll be back!”
And with that, they were gone.
Max noticed that Sera was paler than she’d been. “Seramia?”
“I don’t feel right, either.” She pressed her hand to her forehead. “It’s so strange.” Her legs buckled.
Max swept her up in his arms and teleported her from the bar, back to Peltier House and into the infirmary. “Carson!”
The Gerakian appeared instantly. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know. She’s sick or something.”
Max stepped back so that Carson could examine her.
“This is weird. It’s like the spell that Kessar unlocked is reversing itself.” Kessar was the gallu demon who’d rescued Sera and her amazon tribe from being stone. He’d undone the curse and made them live again.
Max’s breath caught in his throat as fear went through him. “What?”
“She’s slowly turning back into stone.”
In that moment, he felt as if all the wind had been violently knocked out of his body. “Bullshit! Don’t fuck with me, Carson.”
Illarion felt sick for his brother. He knew that pain and he hated for Max to feel it.
He pulled the stethoscope from his neck. “I’m not.” Patting Sera gently on the shoulder, he offered her a sad, sympathetic smile. “I’m sorry. I have no idea how to fix or treat this.”
Her eyes glistened as she met Max’s gaze, but she managed to blink her tears back. “I should have known the gods wouldn’t allow us to go free. We were meant to be punished for riding against them. Let’s face it, they’re not exactly known for their mercy.”
She was right and Illarion knew it. It was why Edilyn had been taken from him.
Max sank down on his knees in front of her. “I can’t lose you again.”
She brushed her hand through his hair. “I’m sorry. I should never have followed Nala in her war against the gods. She was so sure the Sumerians would take over Greece.” Laughing bitterly, she winced. “Stupid bitch never backed a winning side in any conflict.”
Unable to witness this, Illarion left them. Max’s pain was too close to home. Too bitter for him to relive.
And in that moment, he hated his silence more than he ever had, because inside, he was screaming.
Yet only he could hear it.
* * *
Max hesitated as he did something he knew was all kinds of stupid. The kind of stupid that if one of his brothers had done it, he’d have beaten them senseless. Thrown water on them to revive them.
Then beaten them more.
But he couldn’t think of any other way to spare his dragonswan from her fate. And if he didn’t move fast, it would be too late.
With a deep breath, he closed his eyes and ignored the pain of his wounds. He summoned every ounce of dragon’s breath inside him and teleported from Sanctuary to the Gates of Samothraki. While the humans in this time and place saw nothing but the jagged remains of a bygone era, he knew where the opening to a most sacred place lay. Much like the gateways to Avalon and Kalosis, it shimmered only in the faintest heartbeats right at dusk and dawn. So quickly that it was easily missed or dismissed as a trick of the eye.
But this was one of the last places where his brethren slept in the modern world.
And this was one of his last remaining siblings.
“Falcyn?”
Nothing but the evening sea breeze answered him. Max picked his way through the ruins of the ancient temple complex where mankind had once paid tribute to the gods of old. Where they’d once made offerings to his kind, hoping to win their cooperation and affection.
Things today were so different.
“Damn it, Falcyn! If you can hear me, answer!”
“I don’t answer to humans. If you want to speak to me, pick the right language.”
Max laughed bitterly as he switched over to Drakyn. “I don’t have time for you to be an asshole. I need you, brother.”
Something struck him hard across his chest and knocked him flying. By the pain of it, and the distance he flew before he slammed into the ground, he’d say it must have been Falcyn’s barbed tail.
With a pain-filled groan, he pushed himself up. “Feel better?”
“Not really. When I slit you from asshole to appetite, then I should rally emotionally.”
This time when he attacked, Max caught the blow. Using his force field, he blocked and sent it back at his older brother. “Please, Falcyn … please.”
The pressure against him lessened.
Then it vanished. Max relaxed, only to realize too late that it was a trick. Falcyn materialized at his back and caught him in a vicious headlock. He choked him hard as he held Max against his body.
“Behold what is left of my island because of you, brother. You brought those Greek bastards here and I hate you for it!”
Yeah, okay, this might have been a massive mistake. He’d hoped a few thousand years would have mellowed his brother’s wrath.
Apparently, Falcyn needed a few thousand more.
“I’m sorry. I had nowhere else to go.”
“And I have nothing more to say to you.”
With no choice, Max turned on him and flipped him. “Listen to me! I don’t want to fight you.”
But a fight it was. Falcyn came after him like a starving dog in a buffet line that was after the last pork chop. Damn, he’d forgotten how hard his brother could hit. With no choice, he transformed to a dragon. It was the only way to survive and he didn’t really want to kill his brother.
Well …
Theoretically. However, if Falcyn didn’t come to his senses soon, Max might change his mind. He didn’t need his brother alive to claim what he needed. Only his conscience required a breathing Falcyn.
Oh dear gods, really? Suddenly, Illarion was between them in his dragon body, pushing them apart. Stop it! Both of you!
Falcyn spun around, trying to sting Max one more time with his tail.
Max caught it with his talons and bit it so hard, Falcyn yelped.
Illarion glared at him. Was that necessary?
Max released his tail. “Little bit.”
With an irritable growl, Falcyn shot fire at him.
Illarion froze it with his powers. He glared at Falcyn. We are down to the last four of our house. Can you please not cull our lineage any more?
“Then you’d best get him out of my sight.”
Falcyn …
“I mean it, Illy. I’m not in the mood.” He lumbered off toward his gate.
“I need a dragonstone, Falcyn. My children and swan will die without it.”
Falcyn froze. “You dare to ask me for that?”
“You’re the only one left who has one.”
Illarion cringed as he remembered why he no longer had his. Max should be throwing that in his face, since he was the one who’d lost Max’s.
Yet his brother didn’t say a word to pin that blame where it fully belonged. He didn’t even mention it.
Falcyn was not so kind. The centuries had left him very bitter and even harsher than before. He turned to pin each of them with a fierce, stern glower. “And I really don’t give a fuck. Go home. Both of you. I never want to see you again.”
With those cold words spoken, he vanished between the gates.
Stunned, Max stared after him. “Are you serious?”
I’m sorry, Max.
Unable to believe this, he laughed bitterly. “I knew you were selfish and cold, Fal, but this … Mom would be proud to know how much you take after her. I wish I’d killed you when I had the chance, you bastard!”
Stop, Max. You know why he feels this way.
Yeah, sure. Like everyone else, he blamed Max for things Max hadn’t wanted. For things he couldn’t help. That he’d done everything to avoid.
Now Sera and his children would pay for it.
His heart broken that he’d failed, he led Illarion back to Sanctuary so that he could spend whatever time he had left with his wife before the gods returned her to a cold, dead statue.
And Illarion was left to grapple with the guilt of what he’d done to his own brother.