Chapter Fourteen

‘‘Are you sure this is the right road?’’

Cyrene consulted the map we’d purchased in Faro before setting off west along the coastline to the small town of Sagres. ‘‘It’s the only road, so it has to be the correct one.’’

‘‘I just hope we don’t end up lost. I don’t have a lot of time to deal with this situation of yours.’’ I slowed the car as the road shot around a hairpin curve, perched high on a rocky cliff overlooking the pounding surf. Judging by the intensity of the waves crashing into the cliff side, I wasn’t surprised people came to Portugal for surfing.

Cyrene slid me a coy glance. ‘‘Are you going to tell me about that?’’

‘‘About what?’’ I asked, knowing perfectly well what she was talking about. I still hadn’t decided what to tell her about the conversation Gabriel and I had had with Jian the previous day.

‘‘You know perfectly well that you’re hiding something from me. It’s written all over your face.’’

‘‘Nonsense,’’ I said, wishing for something like the five thousandth time that I could see my reflection. ‘‘I have a perfect poker face.’’

‘‘If that’s the case, then you’ve got a full house and you’re trying to make me think you’ve only got a pair, so spill.’’

I drove silently for a few minutes, trying to decide if I could trust her with the details. I’d never kept secrets from Cyrene, not big ones, and I was fairly uncomfortable with holding back information that I knew would interest her . . . and likely impact her, if she continued her fling with a certain black dragon. But I had promised to protect Gabriel and his dragons, and if that meant keeping things from my twin, then that’s what I must do.

It was just all so confusing.

‘‘It’s something to do with Kostya, isn’t it?’’ she asked, watching me avidly.

I schooled my face to the same blank expression I wore around Magoth. ‘‘Not really, no. It has to do with another dragon sept.’’

‘‘Oh? Which one?’’

‘‘Red,’’ I said reluctantly, torn with conflicting desires.

‘‘Mayling, I’m your twin, your creator,’’ she said, patting me on the arm. ‘‘You can trust me.’’

I slid her a quick glance, shifting the car into a lower gear as we tackled a long incline. ‘‘What about Kostya?’’

‘‘What about him?’’

‘‘You were pretty insistent at the sárkány that you were his mate. That implies you’d feel honor bound to tell him about anything related to dragon politics.’’

She examined a perfectly buffed and polished fingernail. ‘‘He was just as insistent that I was not his mate.’’

I pulled the car off the road into a narrow overlook intended for tourists, turning to face her in the small rental car. ‘‘What are you going to do about that?’’

‘‘About Kostya, you mean?’’

I nodded.

She made a little face. ‘‘Nothing. He’s just in denial right now, Mayling. I told you he was suffering from some emotional issues that had to do with him being held prisoner. He’s confused about our relationship; that’s all. Once he gets his feet back under him, he’ll see that we were meant to be together.’’

Her words struck a sore spot. Gabriel and I belonged together—even without the dragon shard prompting me to exhibit dragonish tendencies, I knew that we were fated to be together, to share our lives. Perhaps Cyrene felt the same thing about Kostya? Stranger things had happened.

‘‘All right, then; let’s say you are Kostya’s mate. That doesn’t give me a lot of confidence about revealing things that I’d rather not have him know right now.’’

The look she gave me was filled with injured dignity. ‘‘If you told me something in confidence, I would never repeat it!’’

‘‘Cy, you’ve blabbed just about every secret I’ve ever told you, including a few that weren’t even true.’’

‘‘Those were your own fault,’’ she said, ruffling up just a little. ‘‘Telling me you were a lesbian just so I’d stop trying to fix you up . . . Honestly, May!’’

‘‘We’ve moved past that misunderstanding,’’ I said, not wanting to open up that particular can of worms again. ‘‘What I want to know is whether or not you’ll go running to Kostya with everything I tell you.’’

Her nose wrinkled up as she thought about that for a moment. ‘‘Probably I will.’’

I sighed and took the steering wheel again.

‘‘Unless you tell me specifically not to, that is. Despite what you think, I can keep a secret. But I don’t want to be in a position where I have to make a choice between you and Kostya. I love you, Mayling. You’re my twin! But I love Kostya, too, and I don’t want to have to pick one of you over the other.’’

‘‘Fair enough,’’ I said, pulling the car back onto the road, noting a sign that indicated that the small town where a local surfing competition was being held was only a few kilometers away. ‘‘What I have to say doesn’t concern Kostya directly. However, I don’t want you to repeat any of this to him.’’

‘‘Grace of the naiads,’’ she swore, drawing a symbol representative of water elementals over her heart.

I took a deep breath, relieved that we’d come to an understanding. Cyrene may not be the wisest or most savvy person on the earth, but I knew her heart was good, and if she swore by the grace of her kind not to tell, then she wouldn’t. ‘‘You remember the red dragon named Jian?’’

‘‘The good-looking one?’’ She nodded. ‘‘Kostya said he was the son of the previous wyvern.’’

‘‘That’s him. Well, he came to see us yesterday, asking for our help.’’

‘‘To overthrow that witchy wyvern? I don’t blame him one bit. I didn’t like her at all. But what do the silver dragons have to do with the red ones? I thought all of the septs were fairly insular.’’