I had no idea who that woman was, or why she'd come, but I was impressed despite myself. Why, I wasn't sure. She didn't seem like much in her ponytail and jeans, her t-shirt and sneakers no different, really, than my own. But the way she carried herself, the casual power in her told me more than I needed to know. I pictured her standing against my father and, for an instant,

wished it would happen. I wished that Mabel had taken the woman she called Syd up on her offer of help. I had a feeling the leader of the First Race cult wouldn't last two seconds if she decided he needed to go.

A fierce joy filled me as the rainbow power surged in response to that idea. But not passing off the task, oh no. It wanted me to take care of things myself and I quickly scrabbled back from that precipice of insanity while Reena hit me again, her knuckles hard against my skin.

"You're an idiot," she snapped, amber fire in her already yellow eyes making her look even more demonic. And yet, I wasn't afraid of her. I felt an odd kinship with her when the truth of her parentage sank in. We were the same, she and I. Maybe not identical, but we both knew what it was to be different. Not that friendship was an option for me, but it helped calm me. "Do you have any idea who that was?"

I frowned again, shrugged. "Not a clue." Honesty served me typically. But when Reena opened her mouth and huffed, preparing a scathing reply, Mabel's hand on my shoulder seemed to cut her off. The small devil girl glared at me as the tall dragon at my side spoke.

"I will tell you the tale of Sydlynn Thaddea Hayle if you care to hear it," she said in that same kind way that stirred both my need for her and my utter rejection of such emotion in a life that knew so little of the same. "But first we have a task at hand." She seemed reluctant but nodded once as if making up her mind while the other creatures she'd called drach hummed in anticipation. At least, that's what it felt like. "Your father, the drach we know as," she sang then, a song both poignant and horrendous, as if the soul that bore it was too far gone into darkness to be helped, "was never meant to continue. And certainly not to have power or progeny." She sagged ever so slightly, her long, black hair sweeping over the ground at her feet. She towered over me though she'd never felt so small, reduced by her sorrow and disappointment to someone I could finally relate to. "Our previous leader must have had his reasons for allowing," again that eerie sounding song, "to survive."

"I wish he hadn't." That came out bitter, snarling.

Mabel's hand tightened slightly. "But then," she said with tears in her voice, "we wouldn't have the gift of you, Mathias."

Gift? She was obviously kidding, somehow missing the fact I was the half breed hellspawn of one of her kind who wasn't even supposed to be alive anymore.

What she said next made much more sense. "We must confront your father and ensure he can no longer threaten you or anyone else on the plane you were born." She'd told the one called Syd she'd be visiting her plane. Did that mean Earth, home? I had so much to learn, but did I want to know? Or would I be happier thinking this was all a dream when it was over?

I shivered in anticipation of returning to the compound with this giant woman at my side. With backup for the first time in my life. And found I was more than a little excited to face my father. I really had lost my mind.

"Please know, Mathias," Mabel said as the drach drew nearer, images of massive creatures forming around them. Images that looked exactly like the one in dragon form above snaking his big head down to hover over us so his shadow blocked the light of the rising suns. It was impossible to explain that overlaid view of their true appearance away, as much as I would have liked to. But I was finished lying to myself, making excuses, ignoring the truth. They were dragons wearing the bodies of massive people. And I was one of them, if in part. My heart knew it, my soul and the rainbow power so recently returned to life inside me. All of which refused to let me look away or make some fantasy or story about it otherwise. There was power in such acceptance, something I clung to as Mabel went on. "You are precious to us. The drach reproduce so slowly and with great difficulty. You are a child of our race and we welcome you home when this task is done."

Home. The compounds we'd cycled through were the only homes I'd ever really known and they weren't, not really. To be offered home and all the things I knew should go with that... why was it so hard to accept it was possible for me without assuming the rug would be pulled out any second now?

I didn't respond, mostly because the conflicted battle inside me wouldn't permit words.

Mabel must have sensed my struggle because she turned to Reena then, letting me fight my fight on my own. For now.

"Reena of the Daeva," Mabel said. "You will accompany us."

Not a request. Even I heard that through my internal battle. But Reena didn't seem put off by the command, and Mabel didn't come across as bossy. And I wasn't going to argue, despite knowing I should. Having Reena around was starting to feel comfortable and though I could have rejected her, too, I could use all the help I could get.

There was no preamble, despite what my mind's churning expected. No warning or setup, not a hint of anything resembling a pep talk. One minute we were standing on the terrifying mountaintop with the drach looming around us and the next the heat of the Texas summer washed over my face through a rent in the air itself. I stepped through with Mabel's hand on my shoulder, feeling the rubbery membrane slide over my rainbow power, Reena at my side. I felt her look around, caught the movement of her head in the periphery of my vision and did a double take at the shift in her appearance. No longer the glowing amber eyes or the faint red tint to her skin. Instead, her eyes were dark brown, near black, and her skin tone matched mine almost perfectly. All dreadlocks and rebellion, she could have been an ordinary teenager if I didn't know better.

I kind of missed her horns, though.

Mabel did nothing to hide her appearance, to my surprise and burst of excited delight. I had to clench my jaw against the anticipation of what was to come as she strode in long, steady footfalls to the chapel. Of course, it was morning, they were in service. And Father was in for the sermon of his life.

She had to stoop to enter, her broad shoulders turned partly sideways to allow her to pass, her bulk making the old, parched wood flooring groan from the strain. Father's voice, muffled behind the walls, grew sharper and louder, coherence coming through in his usual rhetoric. I kept pace with Mabel, forcing my feet to move faster without looking like I was running after her, knowing from the ache in my cheeks I was smiling. Not a good smile, not if the vicious grin on Reena's lips was any indication.

So she was enjoying this, too, was she? Devil girl, for certain. But how could I judge her when a demon of my own-beautiful and glowing in multicolored light that burned so bright I couldn't believe it had been kept from me for so long-lived within me?

"-the coming of the devils of lust and flesh," Father thundered, "rising to steal our very souls-"

So heartwarming, the widening of his eyes, the stumbling of his words, the way his hands tightened on the sides of his pulpit as he fumbled into sudden stillness. Satisfying and delightful and so very divine, how the power within burbled its joy at his shocked quiet.

The family turned at our entry, stared, gaped. Fell into stunned and utter silence while Father did nothing, lips opening and closing, attempting speech where none was possible for him,

apparently. Dust motes hovered, the world itself holding its breath while only we seemed to move, Mabel making her gigantic, firm yet unhurried way down the center aisle with purpose no one could question. She stopped halfway, tilting her big head, diamond eyes whirling while a softly sympathetic smile lifted her lips.

"Brother," she said in the gentlest voice I'd ever heard from anyone, layers of song making my heart break with its beauty to the point I had to blink back tears of reaction. "I fear your time is ended."

She didn't stir the same reaction in Father as she did in me. He roared instead, rejecting her as rainbow light burst from his chest, his body flickering with scales. And then I saw it for the first time, the echo of his drach form, surrounding him, crowding the far end of the chapel with his bulk. But his power felt hollow to me, as though drained and contained, the form that was his dragon body twisted and reduced, shriveled into a shrunken, hobbled creature nothing like the massive drach I'd met. Broken, crippled long ago by cruelty and spite. I actually pitied him his loss, the reduction of who he'd been. Until the answering magic within me boomed loudly in answer to his attempt to threaten us. Whatever happened to Father, he was no longer the drach of his past. Just a wretched echo of himself, it seemed.

How horrible that must have been. And shame on me for taking pleasure in the knowing. "Leave this hallowed place." Had he come to believe his own ravings? Father strode toward

Mabel, an imposing figure but no match for her size or power. I could feel that clearly, the buffering sadness as she held him off with the barest touch. He struggled to reach her, foaming at the mouth, his muscular body convulsing while he tore at the air between them with clawed fingers. Veins stood out on his corded arms and the top of his bald head. When his power surged the feeling made me gag, his massive chest rippling.

But it was a show, bluster and empty fury. And, at last, I saw my father for the pale shadow he really was. Not just the crippled dragon shape crouched in fear and bitterness in the dark of the chapel's podium, but the soul of him, the core of his heart.

And stepped forward, one hand raised, palm out.

"Mathias." Mabel wasn't chastising me, merely checking in, if her power was an indication. I was getting better at this, I thought.

"This task is mine." I didn't turn back and she relented instantly, retreating. I could still feel Reena close by and fumbled to reach her. Please.

The amber fire of her felt startled but acknowledged me as she physically exited the aisle, joining Mabel. How odd this sensation as the rainbow light flooded me, pushed outward until I could see the entire room as if I floated above myself. Saw the humanness of all who gathered, the family now huddled in terror, meeping their fear and horror and some, like my brother, watching with anticipation and excitement matching my own. Even as the looming form of the dragon I really was hovered around me and waited in the kind of patience I'd learned to cultivate.

And my father, a blot too long left to fester. My responsibility.

I caught the edge of Viviana, the hint of Henry, before she blocked me out, but I had no doubt this was her doing. The place on my wrist where she'd touched me burned one last time as I let her go, with thanks. She'd freed me, somehow. And I'd repay her someday.

Without warning, my father hurtled himself at me. The drach within me roared in answer and everything burst into multicolored light.

***