A little stab of pain pierced my heart. He was right—I was the only one who could be his mate, whether or not he wanted me to be so.

“Stop that, little bird. You know I did not mean it in that way,” he said.

“Stop reading my mind,” I parried.

“I was reading your charming face, if you must know,” he said, brushing his thumb across my chin. “You don’t hide your thoughts very well.”

I let my gaze drop, not wanting to discuss the issue in front of others.

Kaawa gazed from Gabriel to me with a startled expression. “You can read her mind? Then truly you must be fated to be together. It is very rare for dragons to do that. You must be special indeed, wintiki.”

“She is, which is why I do not wish to spend the rest of our lives fighting off challengers,” Gabriel said. “I am prepared to deal with anyone who thinks he can take my mate away, but now that she bears the fifth shard, she will be prey to anyone who wishes to use her. I do not want to subject her to that.”

“No, of course not,” Kaawa agreed.

“Is it possible to get rid of the shard?” I asked her. “In some way that it won’t be harmed, that is?”

“And will not harm May,” Gabriel added.

“Hmm.” Kaawa studied the fire again, clearly lost in thought. “The dragon heart is the essence of dragonkin, that which formed with the first dragon. It was he who recognized that its power would be too much for any one dragon to wield, and so he separated it into five pieces, the shards you know now. One was given to the green wyvern, one each to red and black, and two to the blue dragons.”

“Two? Why two?”

“The first dragon formed the blue sept. He kept a shard for himself, and one for his sept, given to the wyvern he chose.”

“Is he still around? The first dragon, I mean?” I asked, wondering if there was some connection between him and the mysterious Baltic, who may or may not be pulling the strings for everything going on.

“No,” Gabriel said. “No one is certain he ever truly existed. He is more myth than reality.”

“He existed. He still exists, in all dragonkin,” Kaawa said with calm assurance.

“So the shards were divided up. How did this Ysolde person end up having one?” I asked.