‘‘I have no doubt of that. How bad is it?’’

‘‘Bad. He stripped me!’’

‘‘What?’’ I asked, shocked.

‘‘You and your dirty mind. He stripped me of my title,’’ she wailed. ‘‘It was horrible!’’

I closed my eyes for a moment. ‘‘For the love of all that’s . . . what exactly happened?’’

Ten seconds of silence followed my question. ‘‘It’s my spring.’’

‘‘What about it?’’

‘‘I’ve been so busy with Kostya the last month, the spring . . . He was so very needy, you understand, I mean, seriously needy, and he took up vast amounts of my time and attention . . . and the spring . . . well, it just sort of . . . became tainted.’’

‘‘You let your spring go unattended?’’ I asked in stark disbelief. Naiads, as water beings, had charge of various freshwater resources. Some protected lakes, others rivers, and some, like Cyrene, personally watched over and preserved springs that fed a number of rivers and underground tributaries. I was familiar enough with the Sisterhood of Hydriades to know just how serious a matter it was to let your charge go without due attention. ‘‘Oh, Cy. How could you do that?’’

‘‘It was Kostya! He needed me, Mayling! No one has ever needed me the way he has. He . . .’’ Her voice dropped to an almost inaudible whisper. ‘‘He’s so incredibly sexy. I just couldn’t resist him.’’

I sighed softly to myself. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my life, it’s that chastisement has little effect on my twin. ‘‘Sometimes I wish you’d given up some other trait than your common sense to create me.’’

‘‘I’m sorry,’’ came the very small reply.

‘‘I know you are. So you were too busy being madly in love with Kostya to watch your spring, and it became tainted. Surely that’s not irreversible. Why is Neptune involved?’’

‘‘Because Hahn the German sylph wants my position; that’s why. Did I ever mention him?’’

‘‘No. Him? I thought sylphs were female.’’

‘‘Don’t be so behind the times. At the last consortium of elemental beings, they dropped the gender requirements to be more in line with the political correctness of the mundane world. Normally I wouldn’t have a problem with a man wanting to join the sisterhood, but Hahn is evil, Mayling, pure evil.’’ Cyrene’s voice was filled with righteous indignation. ‘‘He wants to become the first male naiad, and duly applied to the sisterhood. When I told him that there wasn’t a position open, he claimed we were refusing him based on his gender and threatened to report us to Neptune.’’

‘‘Wait a minute.’’ Cyrene’s life always seemed to be something straight out of a soap opera, so I was used to the usual assortment of odd characters who were attracted to her. But this seemed a bit odd even for her. ‘‘Aren’t sylphs air elemental beings? Why does he want a job connected with water?’’

‘‘I told you—he’s evil! No sylph in her right mind would want to switch biases, but Hahn is after notoriety rather than really wanting to preserve the world’s freshwater resources, as we naiads do.’’

I bit back an obvious response.

She continued without the least twinge of guilt. ‘‘Well, naturally, we weren’t going to let him in after he threw that big scene and threatened to go over our heads, and now it’s very clear to me that he thinks that if I get in trouble with Neptune, he’ll be a shoo-in for my job. Honestly, how was I to know that a couple of weeks tending to poor Kostya’s mental wounds would cause half the crops in Italy to fail?’’

‘‘Half the . . . agathos daimon, Cy!’’

‘‘It’s only half! It’s not all the crops in Italy, like Hahn claims! But he had to go running to Neptune blabbing that I was abusing my position, and how the mortals were suffering because of it, and you know how Neptune is about mortals.’’

‘‘I don’t, actually. I’ve never met him.’’

‘‘Oh, he’s gaga about them. He spends all his time going to surfing competitions with them. It’s all he thinks about. That and punishing innocent naiads. But that’s neither here nor there—you have to help me, Mayling. You have to go to Neptune and explain to him that because of all the trouble with you being dragged off to Abaddon, I didn’t have time to take care of the spring.’’

‘‘Oh, no. You’re not going to use me as a scapegoat for the fact that you fell under the charms of a black-eyed dragon. You can just explain the circumstances yourself.’’

‘‘But he won’t listen to me!’’ she wailed, her voice again thick with unshed tears. ‘‘Hahn has filled him with so many lies, Neptune won’t believe anything I say.’’

I rubbed my forehead. ‘‘And just why do you expect Neptune to listen to me?’’

‘‘He’ll listen because you’re you, Mayling! You’re important now! You’re a celebrity!’’

‘‘What on earth are you talking about?’’ I rubbed my forehead again. One of the side effects of speaking with Cyrene was a tendency to headaches. ‘‘I’m no celebrity.’’

‘‘Sure you are. You’re all they talk about at the clubs—the dragon’s mate who is also consort to a demon lord. It’s almost as good as what happened to Aisling, although you don’t have a demon like she has.’’

‘‘I have you,’’ I said with irony that I knew would completely bypass Cyrene.

‘‘And obviously that’s much more cool,’’ she agreed. ‘‘That’s why I want you to talk to Neptune. Everyone is talking about you, and he’ll listen to you because you don’t have an interest at stake. You just want to see justice done.’’

‘‘Even if he did listen to me, I’m not going to lie, Cyrene. The situation with Magoth and me had nothing to do with the reason you neglected your spring.’’

‘‘Of course it does! I was so worried about you!’’ she protested, and I sighed as I heard the sincerity in her voice. I knew that in her mind, she had fully justified her actions by using me as a scapegoat. I thought about arguing the point with her, but long experience with Cyrene had taught me one thing: she was going to win. Somehow, no matter how firm my intentions, I always ended up caving in and helping her. ‘‘All right, I’ll give him a call. What’s his number?’’