“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.”