I watched Aisling chuckling to herself, not doubting for an instant that Chuan Ren deserved her time with Bael, but amused nonetheless. “We wouldn’t ask you to reinstate Chuan Ren to this world without due cause, I assure you. But we felt this would solve all of our problems—allow me access to the red dragons’ shard, end the war between your two septs, and take care of Fiat.”

“I knew I liked you,” Aisling said, giving me a nod of encouragement. “So all that remains is for me to recall Chuan Ren, and we’ll see what she has to say. If she refuses to go along with it, we’ll just dump her back on Bael’s lap and figure out something else.”

I didn’t want to consider failure. There were no other options that I could see . . . other than allowing the shard to take me over completely.

“Right. Let’s get started,” Aisling said, trying unsuccessfully to hoist herself to her feet. “Drake, let me up.”

“You are not going to recall Chuan Ren,” her husband said, holding her back so she couldn’t rise.

She shot him an annoyed look. “You’re not going to pull any of that crap about it being too dangerous for me, are you? Because I can assure you that a simple thing like a recall is not going to go awry.”

“Kobolds,” Jim said, raising its brows. “Caribbean as a statue. ’Nuff said.”

“Shush, you. Drake, stop giving me that obstinate look. This won’t go wrong, I promise.”

“You are not summoning Chuan Ren into our house, where she can attack and possibly harm you,” he said calmly.

“But you’ll be here. And István and Pál, and Gabriel. Even May has a dagger! Chuan Ren isn’t going to have the chance to get near me.”

“It’s out of the question.” If I’d thought Drake had been stubborn before, I was to learn a new respect for the word. It took a solid hour of arguing before we finally came to a compromise.

“I don’t see that this is any less dangerous than me just simply summoning Chuan Ren,” Aisling said grumpily as she prepared to send Jim and me to Abaddon. “What if they’re caught?”

“May has access to the shadow world, and Jim can be resummoned if it loses its form,” Drake answered, his arm around her as he helped her to her feet after she’d drawn an emergency summoning circle on the floor.

“Oh, man! I just broke in this form, too! I’m gonna scream if I have to get another one!”

Drake ignored Jim’s complaint. “If either of them is seen in Bael’s domicile, they can take steps to protect themselves.”

“You might just want to remind Gabriel of that fact, because he doesn’t look any too happy about having May going to Abaddon without him,” Aisling said.