I stared up at her with my heart in my throat, unable to speak or move, and yet not afraid, not exactly. It wasn't fear that held me still or took my breath away but the feeling I knew her, that those diamond eyes and that pale gray skin faintly tinted with scales, the dulcet tones of her voice overlaid with the sound of music were as familiar as my own mother's face.

But she was alien to me, surely I'd never seen her like before...? And yet, I had, hadn't I? In the dark and brooding anger of my father. Clearly, though, she was nothing like him in spirit, not even a little bit. Here stood my father's echo but who I could only describe as the polar opposite to the man who gave me life. Hard not to be wary of her even as I longed to find out more about who she was.

How odd, this feeling of craving, of need. I would have eventually broken out of my stupor and reached out to touch her without permission, I'm sure of it. Instead, Reena snapped my focus on the towering gray woman with the stunning aura as she spoke.

"Mistress Mabel." Was that reverence in her normally irreverent voice? Surely I wasn't making that up, as quaveringly overstimulated as I was by the woman's presence. No, even the smart mouthed devil who brought me here muted her sharp sense of humor and arrogant attitude enough to bow her head and speak in a respectful tone. "I didn't know you were here. I came to ask help of Lord Theridialis on this matter." She gestured to the tiny devil girl who bowed in response. "Thanks, Sequoia."

"My pleasure," the girl said before exiting, closing the door behind her.

"While my role in the hierarchy of the drach has shifted," the gray woman said, that delicious music I recognized now as the same tune the rainbow light within hummed through me triggering it all over again until I vibrated with it, "I still delight in visiting Demonicon from time to time. Ruler's family holds a special place in my heart." How kind she sounded, but it had to be a lie, hadn't it? She was like Father. Was she hiding her true self behind some fa鏰de of kindness?

Or was the man I fled from an anomaly of the race I now believed-in stunned acceptance, to be sure-he belonged to?

"Of course," Reena said, stuttering slightly. Embarrassed? "Forgive the misunderstanding.

I'm happy to find you here."

Mabel waved off any further apology with a small but genuine smile. "It is always good to see you, young Daeva," she said. Before tilting her head to one side, a faint frown forming between her scaled brows. "Your circumstances have changed somewhat since we last spoke?"

Reena hesitated next to me, and I could feel her quiver ever so slightly before she visibly straightened, lips tight. I was close enough to her I caught the minute jumping of the muscles of her jawline as she forced a smile and nodded.

"They have," she said. "For the better."

Mabel didn't comment on that, humming softly to herself before bowing slightly to the devil beside me. "Should you ever find yourself in need, dear Reena, do not hesitate to come to the drach for assistance."

The devil girl next to me seemed startled and put off by the offer, but Mabel had already turned her attention to me and I found I no longer cared what Reena was thinking or doing, not when the diamond eyes of the looming woman locked on mine again. The rainbow light inside me stirred once more, longing swirling like a growing storm in my gut while I clenched my hands at my sides to anchor me, to keep from running the short distance between us and hugging her as if she were my long lost relative.

Mabel approached me instead of the other way around, surprising me so much I continued to hold still, staring up at her in open awe I couldn't control. One finger brushed my cheek, the cool touch sparking the rainbow power and making me shiver.

"It has long been forbidden for drach to mate with humans," she said, though without anger or judgment. She simply stated fact, and to herself, not directed at me at all. "And yet, here you stand."

I gulped down the knot of nervousness holding my throat hostage. "Who are you?" I almost said "what" but stopped myself at the last second.

Those eyes swirled, facets blinding at times. "You know nothing of your heritage?"

I shook my head, wishing I could form more words than a few simple ones strung together to make a basic sentence, but she seemed to understand I needed her to go on without prompting because she sighed and stepped back, just far enough I could breathe again.

"How tragic," she said, voice low and full of hurt. It pained me I'd brought her such anguish.

"Mabel." I glanced past her, only then realizing she hadn't come alone and that, in the short time we'd talked-that she'd talked and I'd mumbled and shook-we'd gathered another soul for our audience. The tiny devil woman in the cat suit had been replaced. Taller, much taller, almost as tall as Mabel with the same red skin as the rest of her kind, her amber eyes glowing, sheathed in black leather with her long, curling hair falling around her in a cascade like a dusky waterfall. Her hair reminded me of my mother's and made me instantly wince.

What was happening to her and to my sibs now that I'd escaped? Pinpricks of renewed panic jerked through me and made me gasp softly as the tall devil woman joined us.

"What have we here?" I instantly rejected her attitude, the way she arched one of those perfect brows at me. Judging me.

"I could ask the same question," I snapped back.

Reena instantly jabbed me in the ribs, drawing out a curse and spinning me toward her. I snarled but she growled back, eyes flashing in a way that woke the rainbow light.

"Ruler Senne asked a question," she said in a heavy, warning tone. "Answer it with respect or keep your mouth shut."

Ruler. So she was the queen of the devils, then? The one my father feared the most? I turned back with what I hoped was a sneer of derision to find her watching me with a faint smile.

Condescending, to say the least. I guess I'd become accustomed enough to these strange happenings her attitude shone through despite her appearance and the fact I should have been deathly afraid.

Instead of furious.

But before I could speak up-slightly shocked at my own strength, to be honest-the one Reena named Ruler turned to Mabel.

"Mind telling me what's going on before our young friend here blows a gasket?" She side eyed me then. And winked. Draining all of the anger out of me and leaving me sheepish.

No, devils weren't kind and funny and understanding. Not according to Father. But since when did I believe a thing he said? Since I was old enough to think for myself.

And therein lay the problem.

"I have my suspicions, Meira," Mabel said then, still staring at me. "And I have to admit I'm most troubled by the implications. I had thought this particular issue handled many years ago.

Certainly, I was told it had been."

"Max?" Ruler or Senne or Meira or whoever she was used that name like a question. But who was that? Ruler was frowning now, though there was sadness in her, a sorrow that made my own rainbow light ping with grief I had no connection to.

Mabel nodded and sighed. "If you'll excuse me, Meira," she said, nodding to Ruler Senne, "I should investigate this matter further in case I'm correct."

Ruler backed off, nodding to the large drach woman. Before turning and arching an eyebrow at Reena. "Daeva? You're involved how?"

The devil girl beside me seemed startled by the fact Ruler even spoke to her. "I rescued him," she said.

That didn't sit right. It rankled to be honest, but I let it go.

"I have had dealings with Reena of the Daeva in the past," Mabel said then, mild but with assurance. "She is honorable and one of great talent."

"Good to know." Ruler grinned. "Nice job. The boys need looking after from time to time."

Reena didn't comment and Ruler turned back to Mabel. I wasn't sure if I should be insulted or not by the implication. If it wasn't true, maybe I wouldn't have been. But the way things were going, I honestly needed rescuing.

Didn't soften the truth any.

"Keep me posted, if it's something I need to know about." Ruler paused. "Is his other half human?"

Mabel nodded.

Ruler hesitated then, before blurting out her next words. "You're going to call Syd?"

Another name, another blank space with no face attached. The tall drach woman didn't comment, simply holding out her hand to me. I was grasping it in mine before I knew I'd moved, as if lured closer by the music of her own rainbow light.

"Be well, Meira," Mabel said. As the air beside us parted and the rubber membrane I remembered opened the way for her while I choked on a scream.

Not from passing through that membrane, not this time. I'd done it twice already and was familiar enough with the experience not to let it throw me. No, it wasn't the mode of travel but the destination that drove the air from my lungs and paralyzed me all over again.

Heights. Why did it have to be heights? The top of a mountain, a new one, a rounded bowl with three sides of rough stone all that stood between me and the forever fall to the alien landscape far below.

But that wasn't all of it, was it? Not the end of my shock or the overwhelm that darkened the edges of my vision as my mind struggled to absorb what I was seeing as I slowly turned at the soft guidance of Mabel to see them, lined in rows, watching me. A gigantic creature of nightmare and fairy tale perched on the stone above, reptile head sparking with diamond eyes while the drach-they had to be drach-stared at me in silence. I could have lied to myself, told my quivering mind the massive creature who hovered wasn't the exact same race as those human shaped, gray skinned and sparkling eyed others. But I didn't have the capacity, not with (Him?

Her? It?) staring me down.

"Your family welcomes you, Mathias," Mabel said.

If it hadn't been for the sudden drop, I would have run away screaming. I almost did.

Couldn't move, couldn't scream. Could only stare and panic and understand at last my father wasn't the posing cult leader I'd thought all along. Oh no. He was exactly what he claimed to be.

If these people were any proof, my father was really a dragon.

***