Luckily, Chuan Ren’s cries as she saw me distracted the guard, which allowed me to shadow and race out of her cell even as she was beating it on the head and demanding that it catch me.

“Oh, man, you came back? I figured you’d ditch me. I gotta say, May, if I was in your shoes, I probably would have left me behind,” Jim said as I scooted into the linen closet where it was hidden.

Its words may have been flip, but relief filled its voice, and it butted its head against me in a gesture of affection.

“I won’t say I didn’t consider it, but I do try to keep my promises,” I answered, patting it on the head and suffering a couple of happy swipes of its large tongue. “Before you start celebrating, though, we have to get out of here.”

“I thought you were just going to find a way out of Abaddon via the beyond, and let Aisling summon me,” it said.

“That was the original plan. It’s been changed due to some unknown dragon finding his way into the shadow world.” I opened the door and peeked out. Although I hadn’t encountered anyone on the way back to the closet, signs of occupation around us were audible.

Jim whistled. “Dragon? Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“Ah. Baltic,” Jim said, nodding.

I glanced down at the demon. “Why do you say that?”

“He studied with a famous archimage named von Endres. Antonia von Endres, I think. Everyone knows that mages have the ability to overcome most types of magic,” Jim said with complacence. “If it’s a dragon in the beyond, it’s gotta be Baltic. He’s the only one who has the ability to get in there. Which . . . Oh, wow, that means he probably is hunting you.”

“Me? I don’t see why, unless it’s for the shard, and if it really is Baltic, then that won’t make sense since he was the one who stuffed the blasted thing in Kostya’s lair to begin with.”

“What makes you think that?” Jim asked with a little curl of its lips.

“Well, someone who had the shard to begin with must have done it, and who else would have taken it from Kostya only to return it?”

“Dunno, but I don’t think who used to have it is as important as who will be trying to get it now.”

“Good point. And the sooner we get out of here, the safer the shard will be. Do you know if Bael’s palace has a physical manifestation in our world?” I asked Jim.

“Yeah. House in England. Aisling went to it once. I think there’s also a London house.”

“Which means there’s probably one in Paris, too, if he’s maintaining multiple entrances from the real world to Abaddon. Let’s hope we can find it quickly, before we’re spotted.”