“Jim,” I said, feeling obligated to chastise the demon dog even if it was my charge only temporarily. “That’s not very supportive. I’ve heard that childbirth can be a very frightening time for a woman. I’m sure Aisling would appreciate your empathy rather than your burning desire to escape what is an exciting time for her and Drake.”

“Lawdy, Miz Scarlett, I don’t know nuthin’ about birthin’ babies, and I don’t want to know, either,” Jim answered, marching past István, one of Drake’s personal guards, as he stood holding the door for us.

“That’ll be enough out of you, prissy,” I said, frowning at the demon. “And no more Gone with the Wind DVD. I take it everything is all right?”

The last question was addressed to István, who nodded as we entered the house. “Aisling threatened to go home to her uncle to have the baby. Drake swore he would tie her down to a couch if she kept insisting on doing things like walking and moving around. Nora and Pál had an argument over whether Aisling should be allowed to go to the bathroom by herself, and they aren’t speaking to each other. René has been teaching Aisling how to swear in French, which she does with frequency.”

“So all is normal,” Gabriel said with a little flash of his dimples.

“As normal as it gets around here,” István said with a wave toward doors that I knew led to a large sitting room. “Me, I’m staying out of Aisling’s way. She put a binding ward on Drake this morning that left him mad enough to burn down half the master bathroom before he escaped it.”

“Oh, man, I missed seeing that? Sucksville.” Jim’s eyes narrowed in speculation. “What did he do to piss her off so much, and do you think I could get him to do it again?”

I pulled out a small piece of paper from my pocket and showed it to Jim. “I have here the exact steps needed to banish a demon within my command to the Akasha. Would you like to go now, or later?”

“Geez! I was just teasing! No one can take a little joke anymore! Man, Gabe, I don’t envy you a life spent with a doppelganger without a sense of humor.”

“Now would be good,” István said from behind us.

Jim cast the dragon a look over its shoulder as it opened the door to the sitting room. “Et tu, István? Hey, Ash! Lookin’ good there, babe. Wow, I didn’t think you could get any fatter, but you did. You’re not going to, like, pop, are you?”

I sighed and wondered if Aisling would mind me banishing her demon less than twenty-four hours after it had been given into my care.

“Aisling, what a pleasure it is to see you again,” Gabriel said, his hand on my back as we entered the room. He took both her hands in his as he pressed a kiss to her knuckles. I stifled the urge to smack him on the back of his head, chalking up the sudden spurt of jealousy to the dragon shard. “You are glowing, as you should be. You do not mind that May and I have dropped in to see you?”

“No, not at all.” She was lying on the couch, a thick blanket over her legs and bulging midsection. “I’m delighted to have someone sane to talk to. Here, let me move so you can sit with me, May.”

She struggled to sit upright. Gabriel, with one hand behind her, the other on her arm, gently assisted her. Or he started to. . . . A sudden roar from the doorway, followed immediately by a fireball that shot past me and hit Gabriel with enough force to fling him backwards a few feet, ended his attempt at help.

“Now, that’s what I’m talking about,” Jim said with satisfaction as it plopped its big butt down next to Aisling. “Action at last!”

“Hello, Drake. He wasn’t really touching her; he was just helping her sit up,” I said as the green wyvern, and Aisling’s very attentive, very jealous husband, stormed into the room, his emerald eyes spitting fury at Gabriel.

Drake never took his eyes off Gabriel as he helped Aisling into a sitting position, carefully tucking the blanket around her before narrowing his gaze on the love of my life. I was a bit surprised to see Gabriel grinning in return. Although he had a much less volatile temper than Drake, he didn’t take kindly to being pushed around, especially by another wyvern.

“Well, I can see I’m not going to have to break up a fight between you two, at least,” I said, moving nonetheless to stand between the two men.

“Aisling is near her birthing time. It is natural that Drake should be intolerant of other males around her while she is vulnerable,” Gabriel said, his hand sliding around to my waist as he made a little bow to Drake. “Had I known he was right outside the room, I would have allowed you to assist Aisling.”

Drake looked like he wanted to pick a fight with Gabriel, smoke issuing in little puffs from his nose, but Aisling put a hand on him and tugged him down onto the couch next to her. That seemed to do the trick, for his gaze left Gabriel for the first time, and he acknowledged my presence with a nod.

“May, you are welcome here. Aisling will enjoy your company.”

The exclusion of Gabriel in the welcome was pointed, but luckily amused him.

“We are not here for a social visit, although of course it is always a delight to see Aisling,” Gabriel said, turning the power of his dimples on her.

I nudged him with the tip of my toe, perhaps harder than was necessary, because he laughed and pulled a chair forward for me, taking another one just beyond my reach.

“And I thought Ash was jealous. Whew. Glad my Cecile isn’t like you two,” Jim muttered.

Both Aisling and I gave it a glare. It took the point and rolled over onto its back. “Belly rubbles, Ash? Pwetty pwease?”

“You are here on weyr business?” Drake asked as Aisling, with a little roll of her eyes, scratched Jim’s hairy belly.

“No. Our business involves Kostya. I could not reach him at his house, and thought you might be able to help us locate him.”

“He’s been away,” Drake said slowly, his expression unreadable. “But I expect him back at any time.”

“Assuming the sárkány he called is still scheduled for two days from now, I would expect that he would be in town making preparations for it. Where has he been?”

Drake’s gaze shifted an infinitesimal amount. “St. Petersburg, I believe.”

St. Petersburg . . . just a hop, skip, and a jump plane-wise from Riga, and Baltic’s ruined stronghold. I slid a glance toward Gabriel, but his face was as impassive as Drake’s. His emotions, however, weren’t quite so subdued. A sense of quickening excitement nudged at my awareness, prodding the dragon shard to wake up and take in the surroundings.

“We will speak with him later today, then, when he arrives back in England.”

“He should be back by now,” Aisling said, glancing at the clock.

Drake shot her a warning look.

“What?” she asked him.

He made an aborted gesture.

“Oh, for Pete’s sake . . . Gabriel and May are our friends. They know Kostya called the sárkány in order to get the black dragons recognized as a sept. It’s not going to be any shock to them to know he’s been trying to find Baltic’s lair so he can properly take over as wyvern.”

Drake sighed, the fingers of one hand stroking her knee. “This is a serious matter, kincsem. Circumspection should be uppermost in your mind at all times.”

“Circumspection, my aunt Fanny,” she snorted. “I’m not going to play games with our friends.”

“Mate, I insist—”

“And that’s another thing,” she said, rounding on him as best she could considering her bulk. “You’ve turned into Mr. Bossy Pants these last few weeks, and I’m really getting tired of it. I’m pregnant, Drake. I’m not made of glass, I’m not going to burst into labor if I do things for myself, and my mind is just as strong as it ever was. Jim, so help me god, if you say just one thing, I’ll have May banish you to the Akasha for the next two hundred years.”

“Hey, all I was going to say is that I wouldn’t be bragging about the state of your mi—”

“Silence,” I told Jim.

It shot me a glare, huffed to itself, and plopped down with a disgusted air.

Aisling and Drake were frowning at each other.

“If I correct you, it is because you are outside the bounds of weyr etiquette,” Drake told her.

“It’s just Gabriel and May!” she answered.

“A wyvern, and a wyvern’s mate.”

“They are our friends,” Aisling said, waving her hand toward us. “I feel perfectly within my right to say what I think in front of them, no matter what position they hold.”

“They are also opposed to my brother receiving the recognition he seeks,” Drake countered, his eyes flashing with annoyance.

“Your brother,” Aisling said, breathing heavily, “is almost as annoying as you are. Almost!”

Gabriel’s lips twitched. I was having a similar problem keeping a straight face, but knew it would just make things worse if I laughed outright.

“You are being emotional because of the impending birth. I would remind you again that such outbursts are not conducive to the calming environment you seek for the event itself,” Drake said with maddening serenity.

Aisling gasped. “Are you calling me unhinged?”

“No, of course not—”

“You are!” She struggled to her feet, slapping off his helping hands, clutching the lap blanket to herself as she squared her shoulders and leveled him a look that should have dropped him dead on the spot. “That’s it! I’m de-mating you! I’m filing for a divorce! I’m going to go back to Uncle Damian and have the baby there, where people think I’m sane and competent and don’t tell me what to do every minute of the day. Jim, heel! You can come home with me.”

She stormed out of the room without a look toward us, Jim, still bound by my command to silence, trailing behind her. Drake, a martyred expression on his face, paused in the act of following her, saying, “She’s a little emotional right now. You will no doubt forgive her.”

“The baby is only a few days overdue, I believe?” Gabriel asked.

Drake nodded. “The midwife has confirmed that all is well, but the strain of waiting is beginning to take its toll on Aisling.”

I kept the comment to myself that Aisling wasn’t the only one being affected.

“You will excuse me. I must see to soothing her ruffled feathers before she books another flight to the US.”

“Another one?” I couldn’t help but ask, trying not to smile.

Drake sighed again as he opened the door. “She threatens to return home daily now. It is becoming tiresome to explain to the airlines that the reservations must be canceled. If you wish to remain here for Kostya, you are welcome to do so. He is expected for dinner. I thought it would distract Aisling.”

I gave in at the expression of suffering on his face, although I waited for him to close the door before I laughed out loud. “Poor man,” I said.

Gabriel grinned. “It is unkind of me, I know, but I cannot help but think Drake has made his bed, and is finding it not quite so sweet to lie upon.”

I was about to agree with him when it struck me that perhaps he didn’t mean it in the way I thought. “Aisling is putting up with a lot from him, too, you know. That overprotective act can be wearing to the nerves, and I can only imagine how annoying it would be to be treated as if one was made of glass.”

“And just how would you like to be treated?” Gabriel asked, walking behind me. His voice was rich with innuendo, causing my back to stiffen with sudden arousal. The dragon shard in me knew exactly what he was doing—he was flirting, teasing me, fulfilling a dragon’s need to play with its prey. He walked in a circle, not touching me, but his eyes glittered with a quicksilver heat that left me short of breath.

“How do I want to be treated?” I asked, struggling to hold on to myself, the true part of me, not the dragon-tainted bits that were slowly, insidiously taking over my sense of self.

“Yes.” He pathed around behind me again, causing me to shiver with anticipation. The dragon shard stopped insisting I pay attention to it, and simply took over, allowing my body to shift and stretch and transform into a silver-scaled form that was so foreign to me, and yet so familiar.

“I want to be treated like this,” I said in a sultry voice I almost didn’t recognize, and whipped my tail around one of his legs, jerking it toward me so he fell backwards onto the floor. Before he could protest, I was on top of him, licking him with fire, tasting him, wanting him, needing him to complete the self that waited so impatiently.

He growled deep in his chest, a mating sound that skittered along my body like a static charge. He, too, started to shift, but a noise at the door was followed by a soft voice saying in French-inflected English, “I have returned, although I could not find the pickle-flavored crisps you . . .”

I struggled to my feet at the sight of the man in the doorway who held a shopping bag from a prestigious store. “Er . . . hello.”

“René, is it not?” Gabriel asked, completely composed despite the fact that a strange man walked in just as I was about to have my dragonly way with him. I fought the dragon shard for control, slowly, inch by inch returning my body to normal. The man named René greeted Gabriel pleasantly enough, but he watched me with a decidedly wary look as the last of the silver scales shimmered into my normal skin color.

“It is a pleasure to see you again,” René said, his eyes flickering to me again.

“This is my mate, May. Little bird, this is an old friend of Aisling’s, a daimon who has been of much assistance to her.”

Daimons were fates, I knew. I’d never actually met one before, although I thought it was interesting that they were occasionally assigned to individuals who they felt needed a little help.

“Including as a purveyor of hard-to-find delectables,” René answered, holding up his bag with a grin. “Drake, he refuses to leave her side, so it is up to me to bring the so-charming Aisling the food she craves most.”

“I thought pregnancy cravings were over by the time birth was imminent?”

He shrugged, a loose-shouldered gesture that made me think of smoky bars in Marseille filled with slinky women in loud-print dresses. “It depends on the woman, hein? I have seven little ones myself, and when the maman desires something, it is better to humor her, I have found. With my wife, it was macaroons. Always the macaroons. At all hours, she must have macaroons. Aisling, she has a passion for crisps of the most repulsive flavors, but it is not for me to deny her when she most desires them. I find the crisps just as I found the macaroons for my Brigitte. Did you say ‘mate’?”

Gabriel grinned as René gave me a thorough visual inspection. “Despite the curse, yes, she is.”

“But I thought . . . you are not a dragon, then?”

“To be honest, I don’t know quite what I am anymore,” I answered with more than a touch of despair.

Gabriel took my hand, his fingers warm and strong, offering comfort. “Do not fight the shard, May. Control it as we discussed, but do not fight it. I will not allow it to consume you.”

René’s eyebrows went up. “A shard? You do not mean . . .”

“I’m technically known as the Northcott Phylactery, yes,” I said, giving Gabriel’s hand a squeeze to let him know I appreciated the support. “I’m a doppelganger, really.”

“A shadow walker? How very interesting. I have only ever met one other of your kind.”

“Ophelia?”

“Oui. You know her?”

I shook my head. “Not really. I gather she’s having a rough time being on her own, but other than one or two conversations on the phone with her, I have no contact with any other doppelgangers. We tend to stay pretty much on our own.”

“Ah, you were not born,” René said, nodding his head as he figured out how we had gotten around the curse put on the silver dragons by the dread wyvern Baltic. “Very clever. And now you are here to help Aisling with the birth, Gabriel?”

“I would be happy to act as midwife, but Drake, I believe, would rather birth the child himself than let me near his mate.”

“Dragons,” René said, nodding, adding in an aside to me, “They can be very protective.”

“So I gather. Perhaps you can answer a question for me. Are daimons assigned to particular individuals, or can you be hired? I know Gabriel will feel otherwise, but I certainly feel as if we could use a helping hand—”

A racket exploded from the entrance of the house, a woman’s shouts carrying loud and clear over a more masculine rumbling.

“Cabrón! Do you think I will be kept from seeing my grandchild? Move aside before I have my son throw you into the gutter where you belong!”

“Who on earth—?” I started to ask, but I asked it to an empty room, Gabriel and René immediately racing from the room. I followed, pausing at the door to take in the sight of a tall, olive-skinned, dark-haired woman chewing up István, who was probably double her weight, not to mention built like a truck. To my intense surprise, István was backpedaling madly as the tall Spanish woman yelled, her hands gesticulating wildly.

“Where is my Drake? Where is my grandchild?” She punctuated her sentences with blows to István’s chest. “Stop running from me and fetch—”

The woman caught sight of us from the corner of her eye. She stopped hitting István and rounded on Gabriel, her black expression suddenly turning sly and sultry. “Gabriel!” she all but cooed.

Hackles I didn’t know I possessed went up at the sight of her as she sauntered toward Gabriel, brushing past René as if he didn’t exist, her hips swaying with an unmistakable message. My fingers lengthened into claws, but I curled them up, refusing to give in to the shard’s demand that I deal with the brazen hussy who was going to be one very sorry person if she so much as laid a finger on my mate.

“I did not know you were here,” she continued, her voice a blatant invitation.

I don’t remember moving, but somehow, I found myself standing in front of Gabriel, my hands clenched as I thought for a few seconds of how nice she would look unconscious on the entryway floor. “Hello. I’m May.”

“This is my mate, Catalina,” Gabriel said, laughter obvious in his voice as he snaked his hand around my waist, gently pulling me over to his side. “Mayling, you have heard me mention Drake’s mother, yes? This is doña Catalina de Elférez.”

“Mate.” She said the word as if it were rancid, her dark eyes scrutinizing me for a moment.

I am no stranger to piercing looks, or the importance of presenting a placid expression even when my brain is screaming to run away, so it was not much of an effort to smile at her. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Her expression changed from hostility to wariness. “You have a mate. Is she . . . ?” She hesitated for a moment, then gestured vaguely toward me. “Is she mentally damaged?”

I gaped at her in surprise. “I beg your pardon?”

She leaned close toward Gabriel, her gaze resting on me with obvious curiosity, as if I was some sort of a bizarre sight she’d never come across. “Resurrection, if not done properly, can often lead to damage of the brain.”

“Resurrection?” I gaped a little more before turning to look at Gabriel.

His dimples were fighting to show, but he merely tightened his arm around me, and reassured Catalina that I was not the equivalent of a mental squash. “I did not resurrect her in order to bypass the curse.”

“No, no, I would never suggest that you did such a thing, since we both know that resurrection without sanction is very much disallowed in the weyr.” Her gaze was still wary on me as I mustered up once again the same smile that had soothed many of Magoth’s temper tantrums. “But, my darling Gabriel, you must take some steps to cover up this horrible tragedy. Just look at her. Look at that grimace. That is not a grimace of a sane person.”

“It’s a smile,” I said through my teeth, holding on to the blasted thing for all I was worth. “I’m smiling, not grimacing.”

“Yes, of course you are smiling,” she said loudly, patting my arm as she gave Gabriel a sympathetic look. “You are very good to stand by her despite the failure of your experiment. I will, naturally, not breathe a word to anyone what I have noticed about her. Your secret is very safe with me.”

“I have not been resurrected!” I said rather louder than was probably necessary.

She waved a hand toward a mountain of black leather luggage that a driver was still bringing in. “I have some pretty toys I brought for my grandchild, but your poor, sweet mate shall have her pick of them. They will no doubt amuse her, and keep her happy for many days. Now, my darling Gabriel, you must promise me you will do everything in your power to rescue my innocent grandchild from that she-devil’s clutches. Do you know that my Drake refused to allow me to be here when the child was being born? It was her doing, naturally, but I am nothing if not an excellent mother, and I did as he bade me, no matter how cruel it was.”

She snaked her hand through Gabriel’s other arm and tugged him away from me, toward the room we’d just left.

I looked at René. He grinned at me.

“The baby is not yet born,” Gabriel said, casting me a look over his shoulder, part embarrassment, part reluctance, as she dragged him toward the sitting room.

“No? Well, there is time for us to save the poor little one before it is tainted by that demon lord my darling Drake insists on calling mate. Come, now, tell me all that has happened since I have last seen you, although naturally we will not discuss the tragic result of your attempt to find a mate.” She paused and glanced toward us, then inclined her head to him. “Will your mate be all right if she is left alone? She does not have suicidal tendencies? I knew a resurrected mage who seemed perfectly normal, but any sound of a bell would set him to rending his clothing and pulling out his hair. It was very tragic. Your mate will be fine left alone? Yes? Excellent. You must tell me everything while my rooms are being made ready.”

The door shut behind them, leaving René, István, and myself alone in the hallway, Catalina’s taxi driver having deposited the last few cases before he hurried out.

“Drake’s mother,” I said to them.

István made a face. “She was not supposed to come. Drake told her not to come. Aisling will not be happy.”

René gave another of those loose shrugs and said, “There is no use in trying to tell Catalina anything. She does as she pleases.”

“I don’t look deranged, do I?” I asked, touching my face and wishing for the millionth time I could see my reflection.

“You look worried, but not deranged,” René told me kindly.

“Thank you,” I said, not much buoyed, but willing to take what I could get. I cast a glance toward the closed door to the sitting room. “I think I’ll go fetch Jim from Aisling. I’m sure Drake has calmed her down by now, and Jim is probably making a pest of itself.”

The demon wasn’t, in fact, in the way, but only because it had evidently been kicked out of Aisling’s bedroom. I found it lying on the floor on its back.

“You can talk now,” I told it, averting my sight from its nether regions.

“Geez, hanging around Magoth really taught you how to torment demons, didn’t it? I thought you’d never come up here to get me!” Jim rolled over and got to its feet, shaking itself in a way that left a corona of black hair on the floor around it. “Gotta be dinnertime. Let’s go eat.”

“Is everything OK in there?” I asked, nodding toward the door.

“Yeah, yeah, Drake started in with Ash about how he can’t survive the ages without her, and all that crap, and she fell for it just like she always does.” The demon shook its head disgustedly as it marched past me toward the stairs. “Women. Can’t live with ’em, can’t live with ’em.”

“I’m sure I can see to it that you don’t live at all,” I said sweetly, which merited an annoyed look from Jim as it went down the stairs. “By the way, Drake’s mother has arrived.”

Jim did an about-face. “Fires of Abaddon! You almost let me get within blasting range! And me just getting my coat to maximum fabulousness. Sheesh, May. I expected better of you.”

“Where do you think you’re going?” I asked as it headed back toward Aisling’s room.

“Gonna go warn Ash. She’s going to hit the roof, and I want to be there to see the fireworks.”

“Effrijim—” I started to say.

“Oh, man!” it whined, slumping to a halt. “Not you, too?”

“By the powers vested in me by your true overlord, I hereby charge, demand, and otherwise order you to leave Aisling alone unless she expressly desires your company, or if her life is in danger.”

Jim hesitated at the door.

“A visit from her mother-in-law does not constitute a threat to her life,” I warned, knowing exactly what it was thinking.

It raised an eyebrow. “You don’t know Catalina very well, do you?”

“Come on,” I said, gesturing toward the stairs. “Let’s go wait for Kostya to arrive. I’m sure, given his temper, there will be fireworks aplenty when he sees Gabriel and me.”

“There’d better be! That’s all I’m sayin’!”

In that belief, I was wrong, and evidently I had my twin to thank.

“Mayling!” Cyrene squealed when Jim and I arrived in the hall after spending an hour paddling around Drake’s basement pool. Since the silver dragons weren’t overly fond of water, it not being their element, they tended to view things such as showers as merely unpleasant experiences to be endured as quickly as possible. Although Gabriel’s house in Manukua had a pool, it was more or less for visitors, which made it difficult to find time for a pleasure swim. As Jim and I padded up the stairs from the pool, Cyrene spotted us and rushed across the hall, where Kostya was being greeted by his mother, with Gabriel and Drake in a wing formation behind her.

“You’ve been swimming?” Cyrene’s pupils dilated slightly, as was common whenever water was mentioned in her presence. As a water elemental, she had an affinity for freshwater sources such as springs and lakes, but she loved any form of water, and was known to take hour-long baths. “Drake has a pool?”

“Yes, but it’s not polite to arrive at someone’s house and demand to go swimming,” I said, grabbing her as she started past me toward the stairs to the basement. “You should at least say hello to Aisling.”

“Drake said she’s resting and will be down later,” Cyrene said, pouting just a bit before turning a smile on me. “You look happy. Has Magoth stopped hitting on you?”

“Oh, like that could happen,” Jim said, snuffling Cyrene’s hand until she fondled its ears and scratched its neck. “The day he stops hitting on babes is the day I give up being a demon and go back to spriting. Oh yeah, baby, right there. Urng.”

Jim’s eyes rolled up a bit as Cyrene’s long fingernails found a particularly itchy spot.

“Have you ever known Magoth to not have sex on his mind?” I asked.

“Oh, yes,” Cyrene surprised me, nodding. “But only when he’s torturing someone. And even then . . . well, we won’t go into that. At least he hasn’t been granted his powers.”

“No,” I said slowly. “And that actually worries me. I would have thought that as soon as Bael tossed him out of Abaddon, he would have given Magoth back his powers in order to unleash him on the mortal world. But he hasn’t done anything, yet. Magoth has petitioned him to be reinstated, but Bael hasn’t even responded to that except to say it’s under consideration.”

“Well, you have bigger things to worry about than that,” Cyrene said with blithe indifference to the idea of a demon lord being free to run amok among the mortals. “Kostya needs our help.”

My gaze moved from her to the man in question. Although Kostya was Drake’s older brother, a weird quirk of genetics had left the two men wyverns of different septs . . . or it would have, if Kostya was recognized by the weyr as such. “What does he need help with now? I thought he had the requisite number of black dragons to formally apply for recognition? Isn’t that what the meeting is all about?”

“It is, but not everyone supports sweet, adorable Kostya.” Her eyes narrowed into little sapphire slits as she looked at Gabriel.

“Sweet, adorable Kostya has tried to kill Gabriel more than once and, until the last month, has been hell-bent on destroying the silver dragons by forcing them to join his sept, so you’ll have to forgive us if we’re a bit jaded,” I pointed out.

Cyrene waved away the survival of the silver dragons as trivial. “Oh, that’s all in the past. He’s been the model of dragonhood since you came back from Abaddon.”

“That, I’m afraid, has less to do with the fact that he’s seen reason, and more because he realized he is going to need friends should Baltic take it into his head to reclaim his sept.”

“That is not Baltic,” Kostya said loudly, interrupting his mother. I had forgotten for a moment how good dragons’ hearing was.

“Hello, Kostya,” I said politely, summoning up a brief smile.

To my surprise, he bowed. The dragons, I’d found, habitually used what I thought of as old-world manners, including being able to make bows that, on them, escaped looking silly and just looked elegant and courtly. Even Gabriel, whose manners were more open and casual than the other wyverns’, could summon up a really world-class bow when he felt the need. I wondered for a moment if it was something genetic in dragons. “I beg your pardon. I am remiss in greeting you in my haste to speak with my mother. You look well, May.”

I wanted to goggle at his change in attitude.

“Thank you,” I said, a little stunned. By this point, I expected Kostya to be screaming for vengeance, or ranting about the past as he was wont to do.

“I trust the shard is not giving you any grief?” he inquired politely.

My eyes widened as I glanced toward Gabriel. He grinned at me and winked.

“Er . . . not unduly so, no. Thank you for asking.” I was prompted by the knowledge that formalities must be preserved even in informal situations to add, “You are well?”

“I am,” he said, inclining his head. “Cyrene and I took a little trip to my homeland. It is most pleasant at this time of year.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, finding the whole conversation too bizarre to let pass without comment. “Are you chitchat-ting with me?”

“Yes, he is. Isn’t he doing it wonderfully?” Cyrene asked, blowing him a kiss.

Gabriel laughed and moved over to stand next to me, his arm loosely around my waist. “It is quite amazing, is it not?”

Kostya smiled at Cyrene, and for a second, I was aware on a primal level of the charm that had attracted her to him. But although my acquaintance with Kostya had not been of a lengthy nature, it had been violent enough to leave me wary of such a benign appearance, even despite the dragon shard’s interest.

“Incredibly so,” I said, knowing my twin would completely miss the sarcasm in my voice.

Jim didn’t. The demon choked. I eyed it, about to forbid it to speak if it looked like it was going to say anything inappropriate. Catalina leaned toward her el dest son, whispering furiously as she gestured an elegant hand toward me. He looked at her for a minute before turning an astonished gaze on me.

“I am not mentally deficient,” I announced, just in case he believed his mother.

Jim snorted again and opened its mouth to speak.

I pulled out my dagger and spun it around my fingers before flinging it to the floor about half an inch in front of Jim’s toes. It leaped backwards. “All right, all right, I get the point! Man! I’m telling Ash you’re pulling weapons on me!”

“Do not say anything about it,” Catalina finished speaking to Kostya in what she no doubt imagined was a whisper. “It is best if you do not dwell on the sad situation. Her kind gets so upset.”

I smiled and slipped just a smidgen the normally tight rein I held on the dragon shard. It purred with satisfaction, sending silver scales shimmering up my arms, my fingers lengthening and turning crimson at the claws. I waggled them at Kostya. “Your mother has sage advice. And speaking of people who were resurrected, why do you think Baltic isn’t really Baltic?”

“He could not be,” Kostya said with a familiar stubborn set to his jaw. “Dragons are not easily resurrected.”

“Gabriel said that, as well, but his mom seems to think otherwise.”

“She’s never tried to resurrect a dragon,” Kostya replied with a glance at his mother.

“It is true, what my darling Kostya says,” Catalina said with a dramatic sigh. “I tried to have Toldi resurrected, but alas, he came back . . . less.”

“Less than what?” I asked, curious about the odd tone in her voice.

She cast me a sympathetic glance, nodding slightly toward me. “Just . . . less. It was a kindness to put him out of the way. Again. Which I did, naturally, because I was nothing if not a good mate.”

An odd sort of choking noise emerged from Jim. I picked up my dagger, noting that the demon’s eyes widened as I twirled it around my fingers. “ ‘Again’ as in you killed him before?”

“Oh yes. He was not a nice man, Toldi. He murdered most of my family, you know, in order to get me to accept him as mate. Which I did, but only because I knew I would be able to destroy him easily when I chose.” Catalina picked an invisible bit of fluff off Kostya’s arm, speaking with a nonchalance that would have been more at home in a psychopath.

I slid a quick look at Gabriel. One of his dimples appeared.

Drake sighed and gestured toward the sitting room, having cast a quick glance up the stairs. “If you insist on having this discussion, brother, perhaps you will do so out of Aisling’s hearing. If she thinks we are having a counsel regarding Baltic, she will want to be present, and it is her rest time.”

Jim made a whipcrack noise as it passed Drake on the way into the sitting room. I said nothing as Drake glanced at the dog, setting its tail on fire for a good ten seconds before the demon noticed. By that time, we’d all trooped back into the sitting room.

“So you killed him twice?” I asked Catalina, ignoring Jim’s hysterics as it ran around the room yelling at the top of its lungs until Drake put out the fire.

“Fires of Abaddon, Drake! I mean, literally fires of Abaddon!” it bellowed, pungent smoke trailing behind it as it marched over to where we sat.

“Sit down and be quiet unless you have something helpful to say,” I ordered it.

“Such a very odd demon,” Catalina remarked, watching as Jim obeyed my orders albeit with ill grace and no little amount of glaring. “And yes, my dear, I had to kill Toldi a second time. I couldn’t leave him . . .” She paused and gave me yet another pitying look that had me grinding my teeth. “But we have agreed not to speak of such unfortunate things. I just hope that Gabriel has the strength to do what is necessary when the time comes.”

She brushed off my look of utter disbelief with a smile at Gabriel before taking Kostya’s arm. “Come, my darling Kostya. Tell Mama what you have been doing these last one hundred and thirty years.”

“I have no time for talk, Mother,” Kostya said with a glance at his watch. “I have a sept meeting in less than an hour. I simply wished to tell Drake . . .” He hesitated a second, very pointedly not looking at either Gabriel or me. “. . . tell Drake that our trip was fruitful.”

Catalina demanded to see him at the first opportunity, and went off to oversee the unpacking of her luggage.

“You found the lair, then?” Gabriel asked after she left.

Kostya stared at him for a second, then sharpened his gaze into a glare and pointed it at his brother. “You told them where I was going?”

Drake shrugged one shoulder. “It concerns them.”

“They are not black dragons! The location of Baltic’s lair does not concern them!”

Kostya shook off Cyrene’s hand on his arm, and stormed over to his brother, clearly about to launch into yet another diatribe, but he remembered in time that he was watching his p’s and q’s. With an effort, he bit back what he was about to say, forcing a smile to his lips as he looked at Gabriel and me.

“It’s killing you to be nice to us, isn’t it?” I asked, leaning into Gabriel.

“Yes.”

Cyrene punched him in the arm.

His strained smile grew larger until I could see each and every one of his teeth. “No, of course it isn’t. I have realized the error of my intention to re-form the sept to its original glory, and have resigned myself to the fact that the si-silv—that you are happy on your own.”

“He can’t say it,” Jim said to me in a volume that was not at all sotto voce. “He was practicing last week, and he couldn’t actually get the words out.”

“Sil-ver,” Cyrene coached Kostya, giving his arm a squeeze. “Come on, punky, you said it on the plane. You can say it now. Sil-ver dragons.”

A shudder shook his body.

Gabriel rolled his eyes. “If the comedy hour is over, perhaps Kostya could give us a few minutes to discuss the issue of the Modana Phylactery.”

“What is there to discuss?” Kostya asked, his eyes narrowing. “I agreed to let your mate use the shard to re-form the dragon heart if you supported my sept within the weyr. That was our agreement. You gave me your word. You cannot change the terms now.”

“I do not intend to do so. But I am curious as to whether or not you found the phylactery when you found the lair. Do you have it?” Gabriel asked, his lovely voice as smooth as oiled silk.

Kostya’s gaze slid to his brother for a second. “Not yet. But I will.”

“Which means you, too, found Dauva.”

Silence filled the room for a moment as Kostya absorbed Gabriel’s words. Smoke wisped out of Kostya’s nose as he took a step toward us. “I might have known you would try to violate the agreement.”

“I’ve done nothing of the kind,” Gabriel answered, his expression and voice pleasant, but beneath my hand, his muscles were tense. “I’m simply ensuring that we don’t have to wait years for you to get around to bringing the shard to May.”

Kostya looked like he was about to burst, but evidently he was more in control of his emotions than he had been in months past. “So you found the lair, as well?” he asked through gritted teeth.

“We know of its location, yes,” Gabriel said.

I decided a little defusing wouldn’t hurt the situation. “Gabriel’s agent didn’t enter the lair. He couldn’t. So if you’re worried about us running off with all sorts of black dragon goodies, you can relax. Not that Gabriel would, anyway. I assume there’s some sort of rule about wyverns stealing from other wyverns.”

Silence filled the room as Gabriel, Drake, and Kostya all looked away.

“You’re kidding me,” I said, noting that no one bothered to agree with me. “You guys steal from each other?”

Once again, they avoided my eye.

I raised an eyebrow at Drake. “Are you telling me that if you had the chance, you would take stuff from Gabriel’s lair?”

“The green dragons are particularly adept at . . . liberating . . . items,” Drake said, somewhat defensively, I thought.

I turned to Gabriel. “You’d steal something from Drake?”

“Drake is one of my oldest friends,” he said smoothly, taking my hand so he could rub his thumb over my knuckles. “Of course I wouldn’t steal from my friend.”

“Nor would I steal from him,” Drake said quickly, not to be outdone on the altruism front.

“I value his friendship over anything,” Gabriel said.

“It is unthinkable to imagine I could steal from him,” Drake agreed.

“Completely unthinkable.”

“Utterly out of the question.”

I eyed the two of them.

“Unless it was gold,” Drake admitted.

“Yes, of course. Gold is another thing entirely,” Gabriel said, nodding. The other dragons nodded with him.

“If you’re willing to steal from your oldest and dearest friends, then how did you get anyone to agree to let us use their dragon shards?” I asked, wondering if I’d ever get used to dragon society.

“That’s different,” he said with a little shrug. “The dragon heart is the most powerful thing known to dragonkin.”

“Then shouldn’t it be harder for you to get the shards brought together?” Cyrene asked before I could.

“It would be suicide to attempt to use the dragon heart,” Drake answered.

“It is too dangerous,” Gabriel said, nodding. “There is no dragon alive who possesses the ability to wield the heart—for which you should be thankful, little bird, since the use of it would have far-reaching repercussions.”

“How far-reaching?” I asked.

Gabriel looked thoughtful for a moment. “Think destruction of at least half of the mortal world.”

“And a piece of that is inside me?” I said, clearing my throat when my voice came out a squeak.

Gabriel’s fingers tightened on mine. “Do not fear, May. To use the dragon heart, you must have two things: the power to control it, and its goodwill. Because of that, we do not live in fear of destruction. Wyverns in the past have tried to re-form the heart and use it, but their attempts were disastrous. We have learned from their losses. The only reason the heart will be re-formed is to shard it into proper receptacles.”

“You might want to tell Baltic that, ’cause I’m willing to bet he’s got other plans,” Jim said, and I had to admit I was thinking the same thing.

“Baltic would not be so foolish,” Drake said at the same time Kostya frowned and said, “That is not Baltic.”

“Pumpernickel, I think you’re going to have to get into the groove,” Cyrene told him, hugging his arm and pressing a little kiss on his earlobe. “Everyone seems to agree that it’s Baltic. I think we ought to go with the flow here and say it’s Baltic, too.”

“It can’t be him. I’d know,” Kostya said stubbornly.

“We shall see, won’t we?” Gabriel said with a smile that didn’t quite go to his eyes. “Now that we know the location of the lair, we can lend our assistance in opening it.”

Kostya shot Gabriel a suspicious look that was answered by a more genuine smile.

“We wouldn’t want the phylactery damaged in the process of opening the lair,” Gabriel added.

“That won’t be necessary. I am perfectly capable of retrieving the Modana Phylactery on my own, without damaging it,” Kostya insisted. “Your presence in Latvia will not be required.”

“Regardless, I feel for May’s sake it would be prudent to be there.”

“Latvia?” a voice said from the doorway, a delighted purr that sent cold chills down my back. “We’re going to Latvia? What an excellent idea! I haven’t been there since . . . ooh, since the black plague.”

Dismay filled my stomach as Magoth sauntered into the room, one of Drake’s bodyguards behind him, gesturing toward the bane of my existence as he said, “He demanded to see May.”

“I told you to stay put,” I said, frowning at Magoth, who was mouthing what looked to be obscene suggestions to Cyrene.

His attention immediately switched back to me. “An amusing attempt to be dominant, but as you know, sweet May, I prefer to be the one on top.” He looked around the room with obvious delight. “And just look what I would have missed! A trip to the Baltics. How—you will excuse the expression—divine. I have many fond memories of the area—death and famine and disease so thick it seeped into the land like blood dripping from a dismembered corpse. Now, that was a time to remember. There’s much to be said for the old ways, you know. This trip will be just what I need! When do we leave?”