I wasn't sure why Mabel deigned to bring me to this most sacred of places with her, nor why I was chosen to bear witness to Mathias's awakening to his true history. The fact he had no idea his father was drach still seemed unlikely to me but from his reaction to her and the assembled gathering of the first race who'd come to greet him, the unexpected was the truth.

I was so accustomed to making myself comfortable in the least comfortable of conditions, especially when faced with those who didn't want me around. But this was an experience like no other, as the drach welcomed me and my power as if I belonged there. Much more disconcerting than the opposite of which I was so very familiar. It would have been easier, if I can be honest, if they'd rejected or ignored me. But that wasn't the drach way. In drawing me into their

confidence and this first glimpse of who Mathias really was, they put me so off my game I felt like a child again, struggling to understand why and who I was.

I think the worst part wasn't the acceptance, something I'd longed for most of my life, but the fact I'd looked for but had never truly been entrusted with anything of major import before. Sure, I was one of many guarding Ruler, but never on my own. This felt huge, momentous for some reason, and while I had stood on the fringes of these powerful people a few times in my life, I'd never been made to feel as if I were one of them.

Until now.

I wondered what my grandmother would think if she could see me here. The other Daeva? And crushed that curious need for validation as quickly as it rose. Not so easy to do, despite my violent internal rejection.

Thankfully I had something else to focus on, to break the hold this odd experience had over me. Turned out I wasn't the only one who fought the truth, who rejected what needed to be known. Mathias acted without warning, backing up so rapidly and so suddenly I caught my breath even as I grasped him with my impulsively opened arms and held his quivering body tightly.

He was strong, easily stronger than me, but my power was controlled where his felt mottled, confused, like a small child waking fitfully from a dream and as yet unable to focus. I wondered then what kind of strength he would possess when he came into his full magic even as he fought me without conviction, his head shaking from side to side, newly minted diamond eyes locked on Mabel.

"This isn't real," he said, voice guttural and hurt, sharp around the edges, painful even to me. Maybe more with his magic pushing against mine, matching his discord with its growing panic. I could feel his need to run, to hide and smothered it as gently as I could. He had to face this, had to accept or he'd be running the rest of his life.

Who was I to talk? That little jibe pinged in the back of my mind while I held him tighter and did my best to support him, too, if only to distract from my own inner unease.

"I assure you," Mabel said in her soft, deep tone, the drach music echoing in the back of her throat. I loved the way they sounded when they let their power out. "Dear Mathias, son of our blood. It is very real."

The drach hummed in sorrow as a group, and a choir of dragon voices echoed back from the bowl of stone, carried on the soft breeze and pushed down by the stroke of the giant wings of the one lonely drach in full form. I lived that sound as his wingbeat altered the air pressure and literally drove the music of the drach across my skin.

Mathias shivered in time with me, our bodies shuddering as one before he fell still. Careful and taut, but still.

"I was right," he said, sounding resigned, feeling defeated. "He's finally beaten me into a coma and this is some kind of fading dream while my life trickles away." He actually sounded like he believed it, had convinced himself it was true.

I had no idea what he was talking about, who the "he" was he muttered about, but I knew self-deception when I heard it. Practiced it enough in the past it was as commonplace as my own heartbeat. I couldn't help the derisive snort that escaped my lips and nostrils, grinned at him despite myself when he jerked his head around to stare down at me. "Don't flatter yourself," I said.

Mathias jerked free of me and spun around, anger flaring over his handsome face, in the way he balled his fists against his thighs while the rainbow power of the drach bubbled inside him in visible waves.

"This is madness." He didn't shout, not physically, but his magic did, hitting me with denial like blows.

I clenched my teeth against a rude reply and shrugged at him. "I don't know how this could be more coherent." Mind you, fair enough this might seem like insanity to someone not expecting it or accustomed to it. But he was drach, the idiot, and needed to find it in himself to get over himself already. "Besides, you'd think you'd be excited to find out you're not only not nuts, but part of the most powerful race in Creation."

That didn't seem to help much. If anything, it made things worse. Mathias wiped at his sweating upper lip with one shaking hand, disgust now rolling off him in waves. "I won't turn into my father."

Ah. Now it was making sense. But wait, his father was drach? The kindest and most amazing of all races? There was more to this story, and when Mabel spoke I faltered in my belief her kind were above reproach or judgment.

"Nor will you," Mabel said, much softer this time as the others hummed their regret and compassion. "It is our fault he continues, that his darkness was allowed to go on. And we will rectify that problem. But Mathias, there is no reason you should fear becoming like him. For your heart is pure. Surely you must feel that."

He gaped at her before swallowing hard. "I know nothing of the kind."

Lying to himself? Maybe. Burning anger at his stubborn rejection of the most incredible race in all of the Universe made me want to punch him in the face. Okay, maybe his dad was an anomaly, a bad seed. But he was still drach. Mabel and the others might feel empathy, but I was winding down to my last give a crap.

But before I could chew him into bits and spit out the pieces, the veil parted and my entire world went still with shock. Instead of snapping off something clever to break Mathias's ridiculous reaction, I fumbled with remembering to breathe while darkness closed in on the edges of my vision as I did everything I could to remain upright and not embarrass myself.

Daeva, yes. But I wasn't stupid. Or collected enough to pretend meeting her in person didn't give me a serious case of the fangirls.

She was taller than I expected, though I'd seen her before, the same day Ruler saved Demonicon. Sydlynn Hayle had come to help, but she'd been so far from my position I'd barely had a glimpse of her past all the other demons who'd witnessed the fall and remaking of the Node holding the planes together.

This, this was far different. Stunning and humbling and rather ordinary despite everything while the tall, dark haired woman, her tresses bound in a low ponytail at the base of her neck, nodded to the leader of the drach and grinned in such easy recognition it caught my breath.

Who was I kidding? I wasn't breathing at all.

"Mabel." She sounded more normal than I expected and I shook off the grip of utter glorification that pinned me and made me shake from nerves.

"Syd." Mabel sounded amused for some reason. "You didn't need to come in person."

It was her, I was right. I was standing mere feet from her and I wasn't sure I'd survive the experience. Even though she was just a person, Syd Hayle. A witch, a demon, a Sidhe princess, host of the vampire essence. And drach, descended, it was said, from Mabel herself.

Syd stuck her hands in her back pockets, smiling. "You're kidding, right? I'm about to die of boredom and you offer a nibble at something exciting and you expect me to sit on my butt and watch the world go by?"

Mabel laughed then, the other drach, too. "Indeed," she said.

This couldn't be happening. I wasn't here, and Mathias was right. This was a dream. Yes, while my intellect knew she wasn't anything but flesh and blood and bone like me, the little girl inside me squealed when she turned to look at me, her dark blue eyes curious, full lips smiling. "So trouble or a social call...?"

"A bit of both." Mabel nodded in turn, the lack of anxiety in her voice easing my own stress somewhat, though I didn't think I'd ever find a way to just relax, not with the savior of Creation looking at me that way. No matter her plain t-shirt and jeans, the sneakers on her feet or the casual way she held herself. I knew who she was, felt all the layers of her power wash over me as the personas she carried prodded me gently and with professional curiosity before letting me be. More a magical handshake than an intrusion.

I didn't know if I should be embarrassed I didn't return the favor, flattered they even bothered or just fall to the ground and pretend to disappear. Or smack myself for being such an idiot.

Mathias clearly had no idea who it was had just joined us, because instead of the obvious hero worship I suffered from, he instead crossed his arms over his chest and scowled at her like a damned petulant thundercloud.

"Are you one of them, too?" He jerked his chin in the general direction of the watchful drach.

Syd tilted her head to one side, amber fire flashing in her eyes, her full lips pulling tight as she observed him a moment. "You're half human." She made it sound like he'd done something wrong and I gasped softly to myself. Where did this need to protect him come from, anyway?

This foolish, reactionary protectiveness against she for whom I had only respect and adoration?

Did she have to use that tone?

Mathias didn't think so. His scowl darkened further. "So are you."

"Actually," she said, words lightening with every syllable, "I'm witch, demon, Sidhe, vampire and drach. So yeah, got you beat, kiddo." She glanced sideways at me, winked. "Both of y'all."

Syd winked at me like we were friends or part of a co-conspiracy or as if she cared what I thought. I would not sigh and swoon like a dumb kid. I would not.

"How nice for you." Mathias seemed a bit confused then back to angry. "Whatever any of that means."

This time Syd moved, circling the young drach, looking him up and down while the power she carried washed over him. I caught the pushback of the diamond magic as she prodded him- not intruding, just observing-and was startled to hear voices in my head.

Smart mouth on this one. That was a demon's harsh tone. I knew that amber overflow anywhere. But who was speaking?

And yet, he is soft, too. This from a green power, that of earth and the freshness of spring. Kind. Compassion lives in him, worry for others. Empathy goes a long way to speaking to the soul of one such as he.

Save it, fairy girl, the demon growled. We're all feeling the same things.

I wasn't sure if the subtler nuances would be lost on you, the Sidhe sniffed and I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from squealing this time. The voices. They were her voices. And they were letting me in. Or I'd somehow become privy. Either way... I choked on near hysterical laughter as they went on.

Girls. That voice was quieter, colder, calm. The vampire essence felt like old white fire and smoke. If you two don't mind.

She started it. The demon part of Syd huffed while the Sidhe princess, Shaylee-for it had to be her-tinkled a laugh.

Still fun after all this time.

The vampire sighed while Syd joined the conversation and I clung to the fact this peek within was likely a mistake I'd pay for dearly as soon as they realized I was hitchhiking but unable to stop myself from listening with all my heart.

If you three are done. She sounded long suffering, like this was just another day in the office.

And, I realized with heavy empathy, it was. How strange it must have been for her, how uncomfortable even, to share her life so intimately? And yet, the connection between them all felt seamless, like something meant to be, so who was I to judge?

Syd's blue eyes met mine and her brows tightened ever so slightly in the instant I realized she understood I was there. Instead of shoving me out as I expected her to, she instead linked to my Daeva power more firmly.

I almost crumpled to my knees. I'd never felt such presence before, not even from Ruler and her magic was vast, encompassing all of Demonicon. What Sydlynn Hayle carried was the burden of the entirety of Creation and I shuddered back from her just a bit as she addressed me directly.

We cling too hard sometimes, she sent, though I didn't think she was speaking to me, not until she went on. Daeva, what is your role in this?

I don't know, I sent, grateful I didn't stammer. Only that I found him and have been tasked to bring him to the drach.

She nodded to me. You're half human. She paused. Sorcerer.

That was news to me and I latched onto the scrap of information she'd given me so casually.

Did she have any idea the gift she'd granted? A line of inquiry to follow, to find my father.

Syd turned from me then, gently detaching from me, though the voices took their own turns murmuring their goodbyes. How thoughtful of them while I stood there and gaped like a thunderstruck kid.

"How did he happen?" Syd addressed Mabel, but it was Mathias who answered. "The usual way," he said, voice heavy with sarcasm. "Need lessons?"

He was dead. This was it. I couldn't do a thing for him, not while Creation held Her breath and the young drach/human I'd come to kind of like was about to be squashed into the stone and left as a smear under Sydlynn Hayle's shoe.

Instead, after a moment of utter silence, she burst into laughter, the sound ringing more piercing than the song of the drach, bouncing back at all of us as she doubled over with her hand clutching her stomach. Mabel smiled while I leaned toward Mathias and punched him in the shoulder once, hard. For Syd and for me because the physical reaction released me at last from the frozen state I found myself in at her arrival.

Syd finally straightened, wiping tears from her cheeks, the magical personas within her clearly as amused as she was from the sparkling way they danced over her. "Kid," she said, still chuckling, "you're a smartass. My favorite." She punched him too, like I had, other arm, and he

rubbed at first mine then hers like we'd somehow insulted him. Syd sighed then and shrugged at Mabel. "This a problem you need help with?"

Mabel shook her head. "I merely wanted to alert you we would be attending to this issue on your plane presently. Just in case you sensed disturbance and thought you should investigate personally."

Syd hesitated and I wondered at the suddenly hungry look that crossed her face. "Things are nice and quiet at home," she said. Paused again. "I could give you a hand?"

Mabel's kindness washed over me and I'm sure I only caught the periphery of it as she neared Syd and grasped her shoulders in both big hands, smiling her benevolent warmth over the woman before her.

"You've done enough," Mabel said. "Go home and rest, Sydlynn Hayle."

Syd sighed and grinned. "I guess," she said. "But if you change your mind, let me know." She nodded to Mathias and then to me, face going serious. "There's a town in Pennsylvania," she said, "called Wilding Springs. It's our kind of place, if you know what I mean." Her hands tossed in an odd gesture, as if she were uncertain of the offer she made. "If you ever need anything, well. You'll be welcome."

I opened my mouth to thank her but Mathias was faster. "We'll see," he said.

Syd rolled her eyes at Mabel while I choked on the need to kick his ass for being so rude. "Was I ever that young?" She didn't wait for a reply, the veil opening behind her. She backed through it, into a darkened room beyond, waving before it sealed shut again.

And all I wanted was for her to come back.

***