Page 18 of The Sirin Sisterhood (The Sons of Echidna #2)

Xim

Xim had to go in with a battle plan. Chartering a flight was simple; all she had to do was tell Grace where she wanted to go, and within an hour, the family’s jet was waiting for her on the tarmac, ready to take the heiress to any destination her heart desired.

If it was just Lucy needing the plane, then Xim could snap her fingers and make it happen, but Lucy had returned from the abyss with a crazy tale and a family of monsters in tow.

Xim’s family hunted monsters.

She needed to play her fathers against one another if she wanted to help Lucy. She braced herself for battle. Neither of her parents would be impressed with her if they thought for a second that she was anything short of the perfect, dutiful daughter.

Henry and Victor Farrowatcher sat on opposite sides of the same desk, talking in hushed whispers that turned into silence as Xim entered the room.

“Dad?”She forced a smile as both of them turned to her, their conversation forgotten the moment their daughter needed their attention.

Victor wore his lab coat over his shirt, his dark hair a tousled mess.

He ran his hand through it, making it even messier as he flashed Xim a smile. He looked stressed.

Henry, in contrast, was immaculate in his tailored suit, his hair– the same white hair as Xim’s– neatly combed back.

He was bigger than his husband, his muscular body complimented by dark wool and silk fitted to every one of his powerful angles and by the dry amusement on his face, smiling as he chewed absently on the tip of a gold pen.

“Xim, darling. I hope you have good news for your father, he’s starting to go bald with worry. His little plan is falling apart.”

“It is not my little plan, Henry!”Victor sighed, throwing his hands up. “It’s my life’swork,and our best hope of breaking your curse!”

“Well I’m glad we have a plan B,”Henry laughed, turning his attention back to Xim. “Speaking of plan B, I heard your little friend is back.”

Victor looked up, relief palpable in the arch of his brows. “Lucy?”

“Yes,”Xim nodded, rolling a seat across and joining her fathers at the desk. “There are complications, though.”

“Is she safe?”Victor asked, his animated eyebrows contracting in a worried frown.

“Did she learn anything?”Henry joined in the interrogation. “Did she find the family?”

“She did, but– things got pretty crazy there, from what I understand. She brought them back with her.”

Henry threw his head back with a sharp laugh of disbelief. Xim didn’t blame him. It must have sounded too good to be true. “All of them? The last of Echidna’s kids are all here? That settles it, then.”He placed his pen down and stood, fixing his suit. “We take them out right now.”

“Wait!”Xim panicked, grabbing his sleeve. She glanced to Victor for help.

“Henry, she’s right,”Victor agreed, shaking his head. “Slow down. Eliminating them now may not guarantee total extinction, and I need specimens for my research.”

Henry didn’t look convinced. He rolled his eyes, pulling his arm free and adjusting the cuff.

“They want to travel to find another family, to ask for help,”Xim explained quickly. “They’ll lead us to others, families we’ve never been able to find on our own.”

Victor got up, blocking off his husband’s impatient exit. “Others we mightneverfind on our own.”He placed one firm hand on Henry’s chest. “I’m closer to breaking the curse than your family ever was. I’ve made more progress in the past twenty years than they have in five centuries.”

He was right, and they both knew it. Xim could see the hesitation on Henry’s face.

◆◆◆

Your family will only be free when your hunters have killed every monster that lives. Until that day comes, their own ambition will cut them down in their prime.

No one had believed that the curse actually had any power. The monster they had slaughtered was just a beast that claimed to be divine, and what could it do to them once it was dead?

The family deaths that followed were written off as unfortunate accidents at first. It wasn’t until every generation for a century had lost their heirs in the prime of their life that the curse was taken seriously.

Leaving behind their too-young families to pick up the pieces in the wake of their deaths, only for the exact same tragedy to seize their children as they reached their prime.

In a furious panic, the family doubled, then trebled their monster-killing efforts, scouring the land.

Hunting monsters, seen as a noble cause before the curse, became an obsession.

Chasing the half-remembered words, the family of hunters desperately slaughtered every monster they came across, and still, they died, damned by the ambition that drove them to begin with.

Centuries later, the hunter Henry met the scientist Victor.

Victor took some convincing, but the numbers showed there was truth to Henry’s claims of a family curse, and the scientist was as unorthodox as he was brilliant.

Tirelessly, he exhausted all of the options modern medicine could offer, then the less traditional avenues, and finally, he came to a single, simple conclusion.

If a god had cursed the family, then a god could break that curse.

So he got to work. Xim joined him the moment she could read and write, proving her hunger to learn, her ambition that might someday grow to be fatal.

Eager to nurture her brilliance, Victor brought Xim into his experiments, raising her alongside a lab-made goddess in hopes that, eventually, they could use her to save their family.

The goddess project had ultimately been a failure, withno real power manifesting before she was snatched away by her misguided parents, but Victor never gave up hope, certain that Lucy was still the key to something greater than herself.

◆◆◆

“Let me handle this. You wanted me to be more involved in family matters, didn’t you?

”Xim stood as well, facing Henry. “They may be fish in a barrel, but I can use them to lure more in! Wait until the barrel is full, then wipe them out all at once. Strike too soon, and we risk them scattering. We will lose Lucy as well.”

Henry raised his brows, watching her with what she knew could only be disappointment.

“Are you hearing yourself, Xim? You are asking me to release a pack of beasts into the world. Have you forgotten what it is that we do? We hunt monsters.”He shook his head, disappointment slipping into anger.

“Do you know why? Because they kill people! Our family has been revered for centuries as the last line of defense against their evil, and now you and Victor not only want to use them but to let them go. How many lives is that going to cost?”

“Dad, half of them are children.”

“Children grow up.”

“I’ll track them. All of them. I’ll take full responsibility; if any of them go missing, I will personally hunt them down and skin them for the trophy room.

”She stood her ground, even though she believed her father was right.

If Lucy hadn’t been so involved, she would have already had them in body bags, but they were Lucy’s family now, and Xim had to be careful.

She didn’t want to lose her only friend, even if her friend was becoming one of the creatures she despised.

“I want you to go to the family archives and read the testimonies from the villagers who lost everything. I want you to remind yourself why we do what we do. Why we did it even before the curse,”Henry ordered, reluctantly surrendering.

“I want you to remember why, even in an age of enlightenment, all of humanity is still afraid of the dark.”

Shaking his head, Henry left, his immaculate shoes angrily tattooing his frustration.

“Despite what he thinks, the God Genome project is not dead in the water,”Victor sighed, watching Henry leave before turning back to Xim.“Tell me about Lucy. Does she seem different to you?”

He sank back into his chair, and Xim only then noticed how deeply exhausted he looked.

He must have been spending every waking moment in the labs, and she knew why.

The curse took her family members in their prime, and her father must be reaching that soon.

Victor didn’t want to lose his beloved any more than she wanted to lose her dad.

“She seemed different, but only because she went on a crazy adventure. She told me about testing her powers, so that’s encouraging. I just– dad, I don’t see how she will help us if we hurt her new friends.”

Victor nodded, sliding his chair next to hers to embrace his daughter.

She leaned into his arms, face pressed tight against his chest to stop tears from welling up.

His lab coat smelled like chemicals, a scent she had grown to find comforting.

“She might be more willing to help if we promise to release them.”

“Your fatherwill never let you do that. They’re dangerous, Xim.”

“If she heals dad, then it’s worth it. Andthere’s no harm in them living out their lives, as long as they can’t breed more. Their bloodline can still end with them–humanely.”

It was as kind as she could bring herself to be to the family of monsters, for Lucy’s sake.