The Fire King by Marjorie M. Liu

Soria is an operative of Dirk and Steele, a detective agency filled with many people with supernatural and paranormal power. Soria's is the power to understand any language like a native, as long as there is someone native around who speaks that language. But a betrayal in her past led her to losing her right arm, which made her retreat into her apartment and live a hermit like existence. Or maybe not so much hermit-like as like a jail, since she actually barricaded herself inside.

Nut a pair of Dirk and Steele employees lure her out with a bit of wonder, a 3000 year old faerie tale of an actual Chimera, the product of two different kinds of shifter that somehow mated and produced a child. Since Shifters only mate with their own kind, no one is sure how such a thing could occur, but that is how the story goes.

Karr is the truth behind the legend. Conceived 3000 years ago, he comes from a time when the Egyptians and the Hittites were still fighting, and he has two forms. But the story goes that he sacrificed himself for his own people, so why is he still alive, and why has he awakened now? Because he speaks a language lost to time, no one else can communicate with him, or understand him when he speaks. No one, that is, except Soria.

Karr, for his part, was thought dead and sealed away. All his life, he fought the shifters, and now they have him. He considers himself their prisoner, and doesn't trust them in the slightest. The fact that Soria is working for them is more than enough reason not to trust her, either, but she's also the only person who can understand what he is saying, and he must rely on her to translate both his words and those of his captors correctly.

So when he's stolen away, she helps him, for the people who are stealing him wish him ill, precisely because he exists. Some of the longer-lived breeds of shifter want the secret of Karr locked away forever so that the modern shifters will never find out what is possible- that Karr is not only a lion, but a dragon as well- that it is possible for the shifters to interbreed and make children with both forms, which the old-time shifters consider an abomination. So Karr must die again- permanently this time. As Karr and Soria are forced to rely on each other for communication on Karr's part and protection on Soria's part, can these two desperately wounded people- hurt in both heart and soul, find a way to trust each other and connect intimately? Because if they can't, the consequences will be deadly for both of them...

I like Marjorie M. Liu's Dirk and Steele novels, but some of them can be very depressing to read. This was definitely one of them. Chimeras used to be very prevalent, but looked down upon, like a white woman having a half-black child would be not that long ago (yes, I know that's offensive, but it illustrates the kind of thinking the Old-fashioned shifters do- or don't do, depending on your preference). Long ago, the shifters went to war with their own children to wipe out the Chimeras, and they certainly don't want t Karr turning up to remind them of what they did.

Karr, on the other hand, doesn't know why he survived- some of his memories are gone to amnesia- and after 3000 years in a cold tomb, that's kind of understandable. But the knowledge of his existence is needed, because shifter breeds are increasingly rare and dying out. In some cases, not enough of a breeding population survives to perpetuate the race. Knowledge that one breed of shifter could breed with a different breed could be enough to save both races- if the old Shifters were willing to let them know it was not only possible but viable. Now, Karr is wanted all over- not dead or alive, just dead.

Soria, too, is something of a mystery. We get hints of her backstory, but we also do find out about her secret- that she killed someone. The man really deserved it, but she wasn't ready to face herself as a killer. She does have a core like an iron spring, it can be depressed quite a bit, but will eventually snap back. She's also rather funny when she's not being depressed, with a dry, ironic sense of humor that occasionally made me snort like a warthog. If you like your humor like that; you're going to find a lot to like here.

Did I like this book- yes, I did. I have only read a few Dirk and Steele books, so most of the characters from there were completely unknown to me- I think I read two before this one, And yes, I'd recommend both this series and this book. It was interesting and added a lot to the series and the world-building. Definitely recommended.