The Crom broke free and stood up.
“Stronger,” she finished with a squeak.
Blaise took her hand and pulled her behind him. “What’s he doing now?”
“Not sure.” Falcyn put his hand out to stop Medea from engaging the beast as she moved in for an attack.
Because the Crom wasn’t the only dragon rising.
All of them were, and he wasn’t sure what that signified. But with their luck, it wasn’t a good thing.
“Maddor?” Falcyn glanced to his son. “You want to return to your real body?”
His whip sizzled as he turned a slow circle to survey the number of original dragons who were now a little more than just plain pissed off. And since they had no other target, they were circling the only enemy they found in the room.
Them.
The whole group. And that included their mandrake leader that they couldn’t identify as a dragon since he was in the Crom’s body and had no head.
“Yeah, I think I do.”
Falcyn couldn’t blame him there. Judging by the mood of the newly animated dragons, anything not one of their scaly clan was about to get eaten.
Summoning his powers, Falcyn felt his hands heating up as he began the process of reversing what he’d done to change out Maddor’s soul.
Lombrey rose up in an effort to block the dragons, but they passed right through his noncorporeal form.
Urian rolled his eyes. “Good to be a shadow, huh? Makes me wish I was one.” He drew a sword and prepared to attack.
And just as Falcyn began the incantation, a bright light flashed near them. It was intense and searing. So much so that it temporarily blinded him.
Until his sight cleared enough to see the last creature he’d have ever expected to appear in their midst.
Simi Parthenopaeus.
Dressed in a short purple skirt, black-and-red-striped leggings, and a matching corset, she was the Dark-Hunter Acheron’s… something. No one was quite sure what, and Acheron was never big on giving details, on Simi or anything else.
She drew up short as she surveyed everyone around her. Her red horns sprouted on top of her head as a tail came out from underneath her short skirt. A set of leathery bat wings sprang out, letting him know the Charonte Goth demon was ready to battle. Otherwise, her wings would have been of soft black and red feathers.
Urian’s eyes widened. “Simi? What are you doing here?”
“Akri done told the Simi that you’d be acting all weird and funky lately, and that the Simi should be keeping her eyeball on you, Akri-Uri. So… your heart rate picked up during my commercial break. Since I knew you wouldn’t be with no heifer cow-like redheaded goddess creature doing things that make the Simi go blind, I thought you be troubled. So then I thought, Simi, you best be checking on that old ex-Daimon to make sure he okay and not about to get et by something not friendly.”
She scowled as she put her finger to her cheek to consider her words. “No, that be wrong. Beintrouble.” She grinned widely, flashing her fangs. “You in trouble, Akri-Uri? Can the Simi eat your troubles? ’Cause I don’t think these dragonlies be on the Simi no-eat list. Pretty sure Akri won’t mind if the Simi eats them up.” She bit her lip with a childish enthusiasm that almost made Falcyn smile. Especially as she reached into her coffin backpack and pulled out a bib and a bottle of barbecue sauce to prepare for her meal.
The moment she did, the dragons actually stood down. Some even gulped audibly.
And that made Maddor nervous as hell. “What’s going on?”
Xyn laughed. “No one is dumb enough to tangle with a hungry Charonte. Don’t you know?”
Simi gasped. “Say it no so! The Simi so-o-o-o-o hungry! It been a whole twenty minutes since the Simi ets her last diamond.…” She pouted as she turned around, looking for a meal.
As she stepped forward, the dragons stepped back.
“Yeah!” Urian blustered at them. “That’s right! I’ve got a Charonte here and I’m not afraid to unleash her. Hah!”
A dragon sneezed beside him, blowing out fire that came a little too close to Urian.
