“Oh, that makes me feel good,” I said softly.
“That discussion is not pertinent at this time,” Bastian said, pounding on the table with his fist until the two dragons retook their seats. “Kostya, how say you?” He sat down with a huff, his arms crossed, his expression black. “I will agree to a temporary stay so long as it’s for a reasonable amount of time.” I was taken aback by his agreement. That left one wyvern.
“Chuan Ren?” Bastian asked her.
“The red dragons don’t care what happens to the woman,” she answered. “Kill her, or do not kill her, it is of no concern to us. We are only interested in the whereabouts of Baltic.” “Why do you care where he is?” May asked.
Chuan Ren just smiled again. It wasn’t a pleasant smile.
“We are agreed, then, that Ysolde should have time to… what?” Bastian asked, looking puzzled. “How does one find oneself?” “My mother says the dragon inside her is waiting to be woken,” Gabriel said. “That is what must be done.” “But how do you go about doing that?” Bastian shook his head. “I’ve never before met a dragon who didn’t know he was a dragon, who wasn’t able to be a dragon.” “I think I may know of a way to do that,” May said thoughtfully. She sat up a little straighter when she realized all eyes were on her. “There is a house in the country that belongs to Baltic.” “It is mine now,” Kostya interrupted. “I have claimed it on behalf of the black dragons.” “That’s right, we have,” Cyrene said. “It’s a bit too big as houses go, and needs a lot of redecorating, but it has a nice pond. Kostie says we can dig up the garden to enlarge the pond into a small lake.” Kostya gave his mate a thin-lipped look that she ignored.
“When I bore the dragon shard, it caused me to react quite strongly to the house.” May’s gaze turned to me. “It actually had me feeling things that I believe you felt while you bore the shard.” “I bore a shard?” I asked, refusing to cope with one more bizarre thing. “A shard of what?” “A dragon shard, one of the five pieces of the dragon heart.” I closed my eyes for a minute. “Is the dragon heart something that’s going to make me completely lose the tiny shred of sanity I’m holding on to? Because I have to tell you, if it is, I think I’d rather just not know about it.” May laughed. “It’s not that bad, honest.” “The dragon heart is made up of five shards. Each of the wyverns here possesses a shard,” Gabriel told me. “For a while, May bore the same shard that you bore. Just as she did, you successfully re-formed the dragon heart — imbued with the power of the First Dragon — and allowed it to reshatter into five pieces.” “That sounds very clever of May and me, and I’m thrilled to bits to hear it despite the fact that I don’t have the slightest idea of the significance of any of that, but so long as it has no bearing on whether or not there is a dragon curled up inside me, I’m willing to move on.” “Brava,” Aisling said, applauding until her husband scowled at her.
“I take it you think that if I were to go to Baltic’s home—” “My home! It belongs to me now!” Kostya said.
“Pardon me, Baltic’s former home, that it would somehow prove I’m a dragon? Will I start setting things on fire? Burst into scaly lizard form? Suddenly become fascinated with gold?” I asked, too tired to mind my manners as I should.
“Judging by what I felt when I was there, yes, I think you’ll have some sort of a definitive experience,” May said.
“But Ysolde doesn’t bear the Avignon Phylactery anymore,” Kostya said.
May slid an unreadable smile toward her wyvern. “No, but I can attest to the fact that once you’ve borne a shard, it changes you. I’m sure it changed Ysolde, too.” “It sounds like a good idea to me,” Aisling said.
“With Kostya’s permission, we will take you to the house in question tomorrow,” Gabriel said. “You will not, I hope, mind if May and I accompany you?” “I will be there as well,” Kostya said.
“Oooh. That sounds interesting. Can we go?” Aisling asked Drake.
He raised his eyebrows and looked at Gabriel. “We have no reason to, but if Gabriel — and Ysolde — have no objection, I admit that I am curious to see if the house does have some effect on her.” Gabriel stated a time, and everyone agreed to meet at the house. I sat back in my chair, drained by the emotions I’d been through in the last few days, wanting nothing more than… I sighed to myself. I didn’t even know what I wanted anymore, other than peace of mind.
I expected to dream that night, and I did. I closed the door to Brom’s room after seeing him settled for the night, wished May a pleasant evening, and stepped into my room, and straight into a maelstrom of testosterone.
“You are too late, Baltic,” the man who stood in front of me taunted. “Ysolde has spoken the words. She has sworn fealty to me. She is now my mate.” I stepped to the side to look around Constantine. Baltic and about ten men emerged from the trees that formed a gentle curve around the cliff top where we stood, Kostya and Pavel immediately to his rear.
Instantly the silver dragons pulled their swords, surrounding Constantine and me.
“Is that true?” Baltic asked me, his expression as stormy as the sea that raged behind us.
I took a step forward, but Constantine put his hand out to stop me. “You will address me, and not my mate. Ysolde is mine. You will never have her.” “Why are you here?” I asked Baltic, shrugging off Constantine’s hand and pushing past his guards. They made a move to stop me, but fell back when I glared at them.
“Why do you think I’m here? I came to claim my mate,” Baltic answered, his eyes glittering darkly.
“Your mate? You said you didn’t want me. You said you would never have anything to do with a silver dragon,” I cried.
“I said I would never bed a silver dragon,” he corrected. “I have since changed my mind. You are my mate. I sent a messenger telling you I would come to claim you as such.” “I know of no messenger!” I said, shocked and horrified.
His expression darkened. “I should have known that Constantine would claim you for himself rather than let you be mine.” “Ysolde, my dove, let me deal with this,” Constantine said, his voice warm and rumbly and comfortable just as it had been for the three months while I had been with him in the south of France.
I spun around to face him, suddenly filled with knowledge that left me furious. “You knew he was coming for me, didn’t you? You knew my heart was breaking, and still you kept his message from reaching me. By the rood! That’s why you pressed me to make the oath to you! You deceived me!” “You are my responsibility,” Constantine said, taking my hands in his.
Baltic positively growled. Kostya, his eyes on the silver guards, held him back.
“I promised to care for you that first day when you were given to me,” Constantine continued. “I could not help but love you, my precious dove. Can you blame me for wanting you as my mate?” How stupid I’d been. How stupid and naïve, falling for the honeyed words and the promise of a lifetime of being loved, when in reality, I was being used as an instrument in a war that had raged for two hundred years. I pulled my hands from his and backed up, sickened by the way he’d fooled me. The guards looked to Constantine, but he lifted his hand to stop them. “You told me I was the one meant to be your mate, but all the while you knew Baltic was coming for me. You watched as I pined for him, pined for the love I would give my soul to have, and yet you bound me to you? Why?” “I love you,” he said, his eyes glowing with a strange golden light. “How could I let the one thing I love more than life itself go to a madman, a monster who would destroy our sept rather than let us live in peace?” I couldn’t look at him any longer. “You say you love me, and yet you ensured that I would spend the remainder of my days a shadow of what I could have been.” Constantine reached out for me, but let his hand drop before he could touch me. “You are merely confused, Ysolde, not truly in love.” “How do you know?” I lifted my head to glare at him. “How do you presume to know what’s in my heart? You won’t even listen to me! I told you that I loved him, Constantine, and you just told me he would rather see me dead than alive.” “You—” he started to say.