And would have kneed his groin had he not twisted and moved with lightning speed.
“Hey, hey, love! You only touch the no-zone if you intend to make it happy.”
Grimacing, Medea gave him a look that said he was some unwelcome goo that had attached itself to the bottom of her bare foot on her way out of the bathroom. “There’s not enough beer in the universe for me to touch your no-zone, dragonfly. Don’t flatter yourself.”
“Says the Daimon crawling all over it.”
“Jumping off it, you mean, before I catch something I’m sure antibiotics won’t cure.”
He scoffed at her insult. “Not what it feels like from where I’m laying, and you’re still on top of—umph!” He growled as she elbowed the air out of his lungs.
With a fierce scowl, he rubbed the abused area and pushed himself to his feet so that he could look around at something other than her shapely ass. He’d expected to find himself either in the bar or Peltier House—the residence the bears owned that was attached to their bar.
This was neither.
Irritated, he faced the cause of this particular disaster. “Blaise, what did you do?”
They were out in a meadow. A dark, dismal, creepy-ass meadow, the likes of which human kids used to scare each other. Or B-movie directors favored for the backdrops of their cheesy sets.
Yeah, he could definitely see some axe-wielding lunatic coming at them from the brush. ’Course, the mood he was in,thatlunatic might be him before much longer.
Blaise turned around slowly in a way that said he was using his dragon-sight to feel the aether. “Well, this wasn’t what I had planned.”
“What?” Urian’s voice dripped with sarcasm. “You weren’t wanting a trip to Halloween Town? I’m so disappointed, Blaise. Was hoping to get my Jack Skellington underwear signed.”
Falcyn snorted at the sudden image he had of Urian in his head, posturing in Jack Skellington briefs like some Calvin Klein model. Actually, he could see the freak in that. Which was the most disturbing part about all of this. ’Cause really, he’d much rather be wasting that brain capacity on picturing Medea naked than imagining Urian in his twisted Disney underwear fetish.
Pushing the images out of his mind before he went as blind as Blaise, Falcyn scratched at his whiskered cheek. “So how’d we get here?”
“Not sure. I was aiming for the parlor of Peltier House.” Blaise screwed his face up. “Epic fail. Not even sure where we are.”
Urian let out a long, tired breath as he surveyed the twisted landscape. “I think I know. But you’re not going to like it. I sure as hell don’t.”
Medea pursed her lips. “Try us.”
“Myrkheim.”
Falcyn grimaced at how right Urian was, as an ulcer started in his stomach.
Blaise made an expression of exaggerated happiness. “Oh goodie! The borderlands where heathens go to rot! Just where I wanted to build my vacation home! Where’s a lease? Sign my scaly ass up!”
Medea rolled her eyes. “What’s Myrkheim?”
Falcyn laughed bitterly at her innocent question. Which made sense, all things considered. “Guess the Daimons don’t spend a lot of time here, as it’s not really part ofyourmythology. It’s a nether realm. A holding ground, if you will, between the land of light and dark where the fey can practice their magick.”
“Who’s feyfolk?”
Legitimate question, he supposed, as there was a lot of fey in the world to go around, and he hadn’t specified the pantheon. Falcyn sighed. “At one time, everyone’s. But nowadays, it’s mostly reserved for Morgen’s rejects. And some other IBS-suffering bastards.”
“Yeah, okay… So what’s the—” Before she could finish her sentence, a bolt of light shot between them, narrowly missing her.
In fact, it only missed her because Falcyn deflected it. “Stray magick. You have to keep your head up for it. If it hits you, there’s no telling what it might do. Could vaporize you. Turn you into a toad. Or just ruin your chances for children.”
Medea’s eyes widened as she watched it explode and morph a tree not far from them into a chicken that screeched, then dove under the ground to burrow like a frightened rabbit. “That happen a lot?”
Falcyn nodded. “’Round here? Good bit.”
“Great. Anything else I should watch out for?”
