“I’m not actually a dragon,” I told it, feeling it important to point out that fact.

“You’re not?” it asked, looking surprised for a moment. It eyed me for a second. “You look like one. You smell like one. You sure you’re not?”

“Quite sure. I’m a doppelganger!” I said, shaken more than I wanted to admit. A tiny little wisp of smoke escaped my lips, wafting in lazy curlicues in front of my astonished eyes.

I clamped my lips shut tight, panic rising inside me.

Gabriel’s arm tightened around me. “This is not important, little bird. Let us be on our way. The sooner we have Chuan Ren, the sooner we can be done with Abaddon.”

I wanted to argue with Gabriel that it was, in fact, very important to me, but he was right about getting the worst over with quickly. I allowed myself to give a mental grumble about Magoth going back on his word to help us after we had him released, but cut that short as Noelle ordered the demon to obey her command.

“Fine,” Valac snapped, grabbing my wrist. “But the next time you need a courier, get one of the minor minions. I don’t have time for this!”

The trip to Abaddon via demon often left me retching after being deposited there, since the act of being yanked through the fabric of being was such an abomination, it was literally sickening. But this time, rather than leaving us collapsing in a gasping, gagging heap, Valac deposited us both on our feet, feeling nothing more than a slight queasiness.

“I’ll tell the master’s secretary you’re here, but don’t expect much. He doesn’t see people without appointments,” Valac said as it marched out the door.

“Are you all right?” I asked Gabriel. He looked remarkably well, considering what had just happened to us.

His eyebrows rose slightly. “Of course. Shouldn’t I be?”

“Well . . .” I frowned, moving around him. My arms and legs felt fine, too, not at all resembling the normal trembling, weak appendages they usually were after being called to Abaddon. “It’s just that normally the trip here is a bit hairy.”

He shrugged. “Dragonkin don’t suffer the way humans do. Should we seek an audience with Bael, or rely upon the demon to let someone know we’re here? I’m inclined to do it myself. I don’t think we can trust that demon.”

I followed him as he left the room, wordlessly stomping out the little fires that broke out around me.

“Good evening,” Gabriel said to a young man who stood in an elegant hallway, a notepad in hand as he checked off items on a list. “I am wyvern of the silver dragon sept, and this is my mate. We seek an audience with Bael.”