“Uh-huh. Then why were you setting Drake’s secret room alight earlier today?”

“That wasn’t me! Someone else must have done it.”

I shook my head. “Everyone here can control their fire. Well, except me, but like I said, ever since I became Fiat’s mate, I haven’t been able to use Drake’s fire at all.” I didn’t tell them how profoundly sad I was over that, missing the way we’d share his fire in moments of great intimacy.

Drake looked thoughtful for a moment before walking over to stand in front of me. “Kiss me.”

“What?” I glanced at the others. “I thought you didn’t like me doing that in front of sept members.”

“It’s not a matter of like or dislike, it’s a matter of respect, but that point is moot at this moment. Kiss me.”

He put his hands on my arms and would have pulled me to his body, but I still held the ball of electricity. I dispersed it, shaking my hands to lose the tingling feeling that came from holding energy. “OK, but you asked for it.”

Drake stood passive while I nibbled on his lips, my tongue teasing his mouth until it parted for me. I tasted and nipped and squirmed against him in a silent attempt to make him give me what I wanted, but he wouldn’t.

“Fire!” I finally said, pulling back just long enough to speak. “Give me your fire.”

His lips were as hot as ever as I kissed him again, his fire building within him until it spilled over into me, roaring through me with the velocity of a bullet. It fired my blood, scorched every cell in my body, setting alight not just my physical being, but my soul as well. I flung open the mental doorway and sent the fire back to him.

“Anyone got some hot dogs or marshmallows?”

I ripped my mouth from Drake’s, joy welling inside me as I realized that Drake and I stood together, flames licking up our legs. “It’s back!” I said, unable to contain myself as I did a little fire dance. “I have your fire again! But…how?”

His eyes glittered like backlit emeralds on black velvet. “I do not know, but I can guess. You are my mate again, kincsem. That is all that matters.”

“Woohoo!” I screamed, and leaped on him. He let me kiss his adorable face for a few seconds before patting my butt and reminding me of the job at hand.

“Later, we will investigate this miracle in fuller detail,” he said, his eyes promising all sorts of wicked acts.

“Boinksville, here we come,” Jim said as I stamped out the flames around us.

It took three balls of electricity slammed into it point-blank before the lock gave up the ghost. After that, the subsequent locks on the three inner doors were a piece of cake, and in no time at all, we were deep underground, in a labyrinth of dirt-floored tunnels that stretched out into darkness.

Drake, with the unerring instinct of dragons, led us down one of the tunnels until we arrived at an ancient stone door. We were in a section that was lit by yellow lamps clamped to either side of the passage. I trailed along after the dragons, trying to count the number of doors as we passed them, but lost track by the time we entered a natural cavern with a ceiling a couple of stories high that framed a gigantic stone door.

Just as Drake announced, “This is the entrance to Fiat’s lair. It will be heavily protected. Aisling?” I noticed something peculiar.

“Yeah, it looks nasty. Hey, come have a look at this.”

He frowned as I indicated a door set into the side wall of the cavern. “We do not have time to explore. I wish for you to look at this door now.”

“I’ll make a deal with you—I’ll look at your door if you look at mine.”

His lips thinned. “We do not have much time remaining to us.”

“Fine. But you have to look at mine next.” I stood in front of the giant stone door and took a good long look at it. Surprisingly, there were no locks on it. There were a whole lot of other things, however. “There are three…no, four wards on it. One curse, one prohibition, and something I’ve never seen before. It’s like words scratched into the surface of the stone.”

“That would be Fiat’s bane.”

“Bane?”

“A dragon’s bane is like a curse. It is unique to each dragon and used to protect their treasure from thieves. It can cause grievous injury and most likely death if disturbed. It will be the most difficult element for us to overcome.”

“Lovely. Now come look at my door.” I took his hand and started to pull him toward the door on the side wall.

“Mate, we do not have time—”

“I think you need to make time for this,” I answered with a meaningful look.

Kostya gave an exasperated sigh. “Drake! It will take at least an hour to break this door, possibly two. We must start on it now, not give in to your woman’s curiosity.”

“I’m so glad I met you first,” I told Drake. “If I’d known only Kostya, I probably wouldn’t have wanted to meet his brother.”

His expression was grave as I stopped in front of the door. “I trust you have a very good reason for this.”

“Yup. Take a look at that.” I gestured toward the small wooden door. It was made up of planks, bound together with bands of iron, and looked like something out of a medieval castle.

He looked. Behind us, Pál and István approached. Jim squinted at the door, saw what I saw, and raised both brows.

“It is a wall,” Drake said. “What’s special about it?”

I traced the outline of a simple ward. “It’s not just a wall, it’s a door, and it’s warded. You can’t see it because you didn’t draw it, but it is warded—with a perdu ward.”

That got everyone’s attention. I smiled to myself as the men crowded around the door. Perdu wards, as I have mentioned, are only used when someone wishes to obscure the entrance to somewhere. The fact that no one had noticed the door but me was of minor interest. That it was warded to be hidden indicated that something of importance was behind it.

“Can you open it?” Drake asked, fumbling around blindly until his hands closed on the curved door handle. He tried turning it but it was locked.

“No, but there are no other wards on the door. It’s wooden, so I think you should be able to break it down.”

All four dragons focused on the door. It didn’t so much burn as explode, bits of hot, twisted metal flying every where, a hail of scorched wood drifting down after it.