Gabriel nodded. Drake sighed.

“Would you mind putting him out?” the latter asked me. “Aisling will be annoyed if the heat builds up enough to set off the sprinklers.”

“Sorry,” I said, focusing my attention on extinguishing the flames that continued to consume Kostya. “I didn’t realize I had pulled Gabriel’s fire.”

“Indeed.” Drake cleared his throat. “I am pleased to see you well, May. I take it you are feeling no aftereffects of the explosion?”

My happiness dimmed at the reminder of what I had to do.

“Yes, thank you, I feel fine. I’m sorry about losing control of Gabriel’s fire, Kostya. That hasn’t happened before.”

Kostya snapped something and plopped himself down in a chair. Cyrene perched on the arm of it, patting out a few leftover tendrils of fire that were licking at his ears.

“Gabriel.” I brushed his hand with mine, needing the reassurance his touch brought me, but hesitant to ask for it in the face of what I had to confess. “I don’t know how to tell you this, but the phylactery . . . er . . .”

“It was destroyed when you used it,” Gabriel finished for me. The amusement in his eyes that had been spawned by the sight of Kostya in flames fizzled away until they were left shiny and flat, just like polished silver plates.

“I’m very sorry,” I said, uncomfortable with his placid expression. That was the face he used with others, not me. “You should have warned me that it had that much power. Cyrene said no one mortal was hurt, thank the gods, but still, I wish you had warned me what to expect.”

“I did warn you,” he said, his eyes still flat and hard. “I warned you to protect it.”

“No, I’m talking about after that, when you told me to use it—”

“Use it? You told her to use the phylactery?” Drake’s voice cut across my explanation.

“No.” Gabriel frowned slightly as he examined my face.

I frowned right back at him. “Yes, you did. When that man came into the shadow world, you yelled at me to use it.”

“Man? What man?” he asked.

“The dark-haired one who was pacing behind the gunmen.”

The three dragons exchanged glances.

The door opened behind me, Aisling returning from her trip to the bathroom.

“You’re not going to tell me you didn’t see him?” I asked them all.

“See who? What did I miss? Why do I smell smoke?”

She settled next to Drake, who spoke quietly in her ear, obviously explaining to her what had been happening while she was gone. She giggled as she looked at the still slightly smoking Kostya.

“Describe this man you saw,” Gabriel said.

“He was about your height, with long dark brown hair that was pulled back into a ponytail. He had dark eyes and a widow’s peak. Oh, and he was a dragon.”