A thin little curl of smoke escaped his nose. For some reason, that always charmed me. I leaned in to give him a quick lip nibble and kiss.

“Oh, yeah, now, that’s what I’m talkin’ about,” Jim said from the foot of the metal ladder.

I shot the demon a glare, and pointed. “Leave!”

“I was just—”

“Leave!” I ordered again. “Go tell Magoth if he orders just one more item from that high-end sex shop, I’ll stick his twelve-inch glow-in-the-dark spiked dildo where the sun don’t shine.”

Jim gave me a wounded look before it obeyed my command. “And I thought you were going to be fun. You’ve been hanging around Aisling too much—you really have.”

“Come in here,” Gabriel said, pulling me deeper into the coolness of the semifinished lair. Steel- and iron-lined to minimize the effectiveness of any magical attacks against it, the lair resembled a small wine vault, with long, gleaming shelves waiting for the placement of treasure he held in England. “Are you sure, little bird? You were not thinking of me, and the shard reacted to that?”

I smiled and kissed the tip of his nose. “I like the fact that you don’t for one moment think I really was attracted to Magoth.”

“Tch.” He made a dismissive gesture. “You love only me. I know that you could never be attracted to him.”

I didn’t enlighten him to the fact that Magoth had, previous to my meeting Gabriel, come very close to seducing me. “Much as thinking about you does stir the dragon inside me, in this case, it wasn’t due to that. And yet, I don’t think it was really reacting to him, either. It was as if . . .” I paused, trying to sort through the unfamiliar emotions to form them into some semblance of sense. “It was as if the shard was reacting to what he represented—a dark, dangerous power. I’ve never felt like that around Magoth before, so I can only assume that, for some reason, the shard is suddenly wanting power.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Gabriel said, shaking his head so his shoulder-length dreadlocks trembled. “The shards of the dragon heart hold power themselves. They would not seek more.”

“It doesn’t make sense to me, either. I’m just telling you what it felt like, and that I’d really like to see the last of Magoth. Maybe I should send Bael another e-mail—”

“No.” Gabriel leaned forward and kissed me swiftly, his lips demanding and aggressive. “I would prefer you not becoming involved with Abaddon.”

“I’m consort to an ex-prince of Abaddon,” I pointed out gently, touching the frown between his brows. “I don’t see how much more involved I can become. When he kicked Magoth out of Abaddon, Bael said he’d finalize Magoth’s expulsion in two months, and that deadline is almost upon us. Perhaps I could prompt Bael into reinstating Magoth. I can live with being his servant, Gabriel, but I can’t live with myself if the shard makes me do something we’ll all regret.”

“We cannot remove the shard from you without bringing the other shards together to re-form the dragon heart,” he said, his voice rich with distress. He touched my cheek, gently tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. “And you cannot do that without having a proper lair in which to do so. The shards are the most valuable relics of dragonkin, little bird.”

“I know.” I leaned into his palm for a moment, trying to remember what it felt like to just love him without the distraction of the shard trying to force me into a dragon state.

“Once the lair is functional, then we can go about locating the last shard, and the ceremony can commence to withdraw the one you bear—”

“Hey, May? There’s someone at the door for you.”

Jim’s voice interrupted Gabriel, causing us both to turn and glare at the furry demon.

“Jim, I realize that Aisling allows you great freedom, but you are interrupting a private conversation. Frankly, I don’t care who—”

“I think you’re going to want to see this guy,” Jim said with a knowing look.

I frowned. “See who?”

“That thief taker who nailed your ass and dragged you to the committee.”

“Savian?” I asked, the sudden memory of the charming, if more than a little roguish, Englishman coming immediately to mind. “What’s he doing here?”

“Dying,” Jim said succinctly.

Chapter Two

It’s amazing how fast dragons can move when they are driven to it. The words had no sooner left Jim’s mouth than Gabriel and Tipene were gone, the faintest of blurs caught out of the corner of my eye the only indication that they had been present. I didn’t wait to ask Jim what Savian was doing dying on our doorstep; I shadowed, and raced out of the lair, skidding to a halt when I finally made it to the front steps.

“Is he dead?” I asked, slipping out of the shadows.

Tipene was in the process of lifting a lifeless body from the steps. Blood pooled beneath it, stark against the white stone, little crimson trails of it snaking their way down the steps toward the street. Gabriel wasn’t surprised to see me, but Maata, who was holding the door open, jumped when I emerged from the shadows right next to her.

“I keep forgetting you can do that,” she said, giving me a weak smile. “It’s a bit unnerving seeing you suddenly materialize out of nothing.”

“I was just hidden from your sight, not dematerial ized,” I said, peering over her shoulder to see Savian.

At the sight of the bloodied, battered body, I wished I hadn’t.

“He’s not dead,” Gabriel answered. “Tipene will take care of him until I can see to his injuries. Maata, come with me. Little bird, can you see any signs of who left him here?”

“How could she see signs that we can’t?” Maata asked.

“Things look different in the shadow world,” I said, glancing around.

She frowned.“I’m confused.You just said that shadow walking meant we couldn’t see you. Why would something look different? Oh, wait—are you talking about going into the Dreaming?”

“The beyond, the Dreaming, the shadow world . . . different words for the same thing. It’s just an alternate reality, but only a few people can access it, and yes, that’s what I’m talking about. When I’m in the shadow world, I can see signs that aren’t visible in our world. Gabriel?”