Gabriel disappeared, and I ducked into what was an alley in the real world, returning to our reality without anyone but him seeing me; I took the hand he offered, hurrying homeward with a thousand questions buzzing through my brain.

“He didn’t deny either his identity or being the source of the curse, though.”

I glanced at him as we ran up the front stairs, avoiding the spilled blood. “You don’t think he’s Baltic? Just because he took the form of a white dragon when you came to save me in Abaddon?”

Gabriel shrugged. “I think it’s clear who he is. But that is less important than what he is. He’s far more powerful than he should be, and that leaves me concerned for your safety, especially now, when you bear the shard. I do not want you to meet him alone.”

“You’re cute when you go protective and Drake-like on me, but I assure you it’s not necessary. I can hold my own against him.”

“Yes,” Gabriel said as he opened the door to one of the spare rooms. “That’s just what I’m afraid of.”

An hour later, I did my duty as a wyvern’s mate.

“Hello, beautiful. I take it I’m not in the underworld?”

The man before me looked like he’d taken a beating. His face was bruised and still swollen, although the spot where his cheek had been torn open was now closed, and healing. His voice was hoarse and cracked, his lips red and rough, but his eyes held a sort of wary amusement that told me Savian must be feeling a whole lot better.

“I haven’t been there, but I would imagine it looks something like Abaddon, and not at all like the best guest room in a large house in the middle of London,” I answered.

He tried to smile, grimaced at the pain, and settled for just one side of his mouth quirking up. “I gather you healed me?”

I shook my head, nodding toward the man on the other side of the bed. “Gabriel did, thanks to his magic silver dragon healing saliva.”

Savian groaned and closed his eyes for a moment. “Please tell me he didn’t lick me.”

Gabriel laughed.

“Don’t get me wrong—I’m very grateful you didn’t let me die—but the thought of being licked by anyone but a naked, supple woman sitting astride me . . .”

“You needn’t get yourself into a dither,” I said lightly. “If it makes you feel better, Gabriel used a salve as opposed to going to the source. What happened to you? You look like you were hit by a Mack truck.”

“I feel like it,” he answered, struggling to pull himself to an upright position.

Gabriel moved quickly to help him while I adjusted pillows behind him. He sighed with pleasure as he leaned back.

“It’s not a what that hit me, but a who. Now I know why they told us at the thief taker’s academy not to tangle with goetists.”

“Who?” Gabriel asked.

I sat on the edge of the bed, careful not to jostle the thief taker too much.

Savian didn’t answer immediately, giving Gabriel an odd look.

“Go ahead,” the latter told him, to my surprise. “She would have found out soon anyway.”

“She being me, I suppose. What would I have found out? And just why are you keeping secrets from me?” I asked, wondering if I should be outraged.

“I don’t know the woman’s name, although I suspect she’s the one they call Thala.”

“Thala?” I searched my memory but came up blank, turning to Gabriel to see if he knew it.

He shook his head. “I do not recognize the name, either.”

“She’s pretty. Very pretty. Deceptively so,” Savian said, frowning and wincing at the same time. “No woman ought to look as pretty and frail as she did and be able to take me down without even breathing hard.”

“What did she look like?” I asked.

“Little taller than you, not so petite, stacked. Brown eyes, and the most glorious red hair I’ve ever seen.”

“Red hair?” I glanced at Gabriel. “The woman with Baltic who Cyrene and Maata and I saw at Fiat’s house had red hair, and the rest of the description fits her. I thought she was a dragon, but Maata said she was of mixed blood.”

Gabriel looked thoughtful for a moment. “How was she connected with the one you sought?” he asked Savian.

“Companion. Bodyguard. Lover, wife, girlfriend—I have no idea. She was there where you said I’d find him, so I gather she has some sort of a close relationship with him. All I know for sure is she doesn’t like being surprised, she knows more ways to disable a man than a mortal could, and she had more than a passing familiarity with arcane power,” he answered, gently touching his face. “I think she tried to blow my head off with some sort of a spell, and when that didn’t work, she settled for taking a two-by-four to me.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t subdue her,” I said, thinking of the time he hauled me to Paris to stand trial.

He made another half grimace, half smile. “It’s all I could do to keep her from killing me. Where she had her training is beyond my conception, but I sure as hell wouldn’t mind spending a couple of years there, myself.”

“A spell,” Gabriel said slowly. “Was she a mage?”

“I doubt it. Her power felt . . . different. Not pure. The half-dragon thing fits, if she’s the woman May saw. She certainly had strength beyond what’s normal for mortals.”

“If the woman I saw is this Thala, then that means you were doing a job involving Baltic.” I gave Gabriel my blandest look. “Care to explain?”

He grinned, blast his delicious hide. Although I tried very hard not to let him know just how affected I was by the sight of his dimples, somehow he knew, and I had no doubt he was using them deliberately to weaken me. The dragon shard knew, too, but it cared even less than I did. It demanded I jump his bones right then and there. “You knew I had to find that last shard.”

“Yes, but I expected that we’d try to find it together,” I answered, laying emphasis on the last word. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you have been taking lessons from Drake on how to be an annoying wyvern. Spill.”

Gabriel’s grin took a wry twist as he nodded again at Savian. “Her every wish is my every command. Spill.”

“All right, but I’d prefer not having anyone angry at me.” Savian paused for a moment; then he, too, grinned at me. “Unless there’s a chance it’ll tick you off enough that you dump the boyfriend and hook up with me?”