“I told you it was difficult to kill a dragon. Are you hurt, dearling?”

I opened my eyes at that, smiling a little to myself at the sight of Kostya’s face a few inches from my own. The silver flecks in his eyes were as brilliant as polished starlight, glittering at me in a way that warmed me to the tips of my toes, which was odd considering that I was wet and cold. I reached up and moved a lock of hair that had fallen down over his forehead. “Dearling?”

“Answer my question,” he ordered, his brows pulling together.

“Do you know, I wouldn’t recognize you if you weren’t scowling,” I said, laughing, and tipped my head so that I could kiss him. “I’m not hurt, no, and I like the dearling. Can I call you dearling, too?”

He looked slightly horrified. “No! It is not suitable for you to refer to your wyvern by such terms. I should not have done so in a public place, but my emotions got the better of me.”

“Good. We’ll have to let your emotions run away with you again.” I pushed back on his chest until he moved away enough for me to sit up. I looked around, the sounds suddenly rushing in to me. Three fire engines sat a block away, water playing on the burned remains of G&T. The street between us was filled with police cars, a fire official’s car, tons of bystanders, and three ambulances, only one of which was doing any business. “What happened? Is Aisling okay? And why am I soaking wet?”

“Aisling is fine. Drake has taken her home. You are wet because I was unconscious when the mortal fire department arrived and began spraying everything in sight with water. And as for what happened—apparently, you blew up the entire building.”

I pulled my gaze from the milling crowd and emergency workers and turned to gawk at him in openmouthed astonishment. That’s when I noticed the gash on the far side of his face and the remains of blood that had obviously been hastily wiped up. The gash was still bleeding, but sluggishly now, and was about the size of my palm, running from his temple down to the middle of his cheek.

“Kostya! You’re hurt! You must let the ambulance guys take care of you.”

He gave a wry twist to his lips before answering. “It will heal of its own accord.”

“Did you get hit with something when I—Holy frijoles, I blew up the building? Did you get hit by a flying piece of furniture? Oh, man, I feel terrible now. I was just trying to blow everything away from us, not having it backlash and hit you.”

“This isn’t due to the explosion.” He got to his feet and helped me to mine. I wobbled for a few seconds and was quite happy to clutch him in order to steady myself. “I dragged you from the remains of the building first, then helped Drake and his bodyguards recover Jovana and her assistant. That’s when Drake and I realized the truth.”

“What truth?” I ripped off a bit more of my shirt and dabbled at Kostya’s wound.

“That we were outside the bounds of the club.” He touched the side of his head and grimaced. “Drake found the table leg I’d been using while I was ensuring you weren’t harmed.”

My eyes just about bugged out. “He hit you? Oh! That rat bastard! I’m so going to have a few things to say to him!” I flexed my fingers and twirled the ring. “We’ll just see who takes unfair advantage of a situation.”

To my surprise—and utter delight—Kostya gave a short bark of laughter and pulled me close in a bear hug, saying into my hair, “Dearling, you can’t use your ring against my brother. Not only is he my kin, but also Aisling would gut us both if we did anything to harm him.”

I giggled into his neck, then gently pulled his head down so I could let my lips do a few things to his. “All right, but don’t think I’m not going to have Rene or Jim tell Aisling what he did. Were Jovana and Guillaume hurt? I don’t suppose there’s any chance that Bael was, either?”

“Jovana was slightly injured. Her assistant has been taken away to the mortal hospital, so I do not know his status. As for Bael…”

A little shadow passed over my mind at the last word, accompanied by a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach.

“He is free,” Kostya finished.

It took a second for me to process that. I blame the couple of explosions in a short period of time for the lack of brainpower. “Free? As in loose in the world?”

“Yes.” Kostya’s eyes darkened, the silver bits dimming as he glanced over toward the blackened remains of G&T. “Do you recall what he said just before your explosion?”

“Not really.” I frowned into the distance, trying to sort through the feelings that roiled around unhappily inside of me. There was worry in there, and anger, and something worse, something that made me sick to my stomach… guilt.

I sucked in my breath, memory flooding my mind. “He thanked me for freeing him! He said I met his expectations.” I grabbed Kostya’s shirt with both hands and shook it. “What expectations? How did he know me? Sweet sardine sandwiches, Kostya! What did he mean?”

Jim emerged from the crowd, padded over to us, and snuffled my legs. “Heya. Charmer just got here and is talking with the Watch dude who is taking notes about what really happened, while making the mortal police think it was just a gas explosion. You okay, Eefums? You look a bit frazzled around the edges.”

“I feel frazzled,” I said, releasing my death grip on Kostya’s shirt. “I’m fine. And thank all the gods and goddesses that the Charmer is finally here. I can work with him to get the curse broken right away.”

“Her. It’s a chick. I told her you were over here.” Jim tipped his head to the side and eyed Kostya. “Drake really brained you, huh, Slick? Good thing Pal and Istvan were outside and pulled him off. I thought you were a goner for sure. Hey, you think that café is doing business? I could do with a sandwich or two. Oh, there’s the Charmer. I’m going to check out the café and see if the owner is too busy to notice a handsome, yet scorched, Newfie mooching around the kitchen.”

I dabbed a bit more at Kostya’s face, making tsking sounds until he took my hand, kissed my fingers, and said softly, “I appreciate the concern, Aoife, but my wound is minor and will heal shortly. Do you feel up to speaking with the Charmer, or would you like to rest first?”

“Hello,” a voice behind me said, somewhat breathlessly. “Are you Kostya? Jovana said you had an emergency job for me. I see you’ve been having some excitement here.”