“Fair enough,” I said, pulling the car back onto the road, noting a sign that indicated that the small town where a local surfing competition was being held was only a few kilometers away. “What I have to say doesn’t concern Kostya directly. However, I don’t want you to repeat any of this to him.”

“Grace of the naiads,” she swore, drawing a symbol representative of water elementals over her heart.

I took a deep breath, relieved that we’d come to an understanding. Cyrene may not be the wisest or most savvy person on the earth, but I knew her heart was good, and if she swore by the grace of her kind not to tell, then she wouldn’t. “You remember the red dragon named Jian?”

“The good-looking one?” She nodded. “Kostya said he was the son of the previous wyvern.”

“That’s him. Well, he came to see us yesterday, asking for our help.”

“To overthrow that witchy wyvern? I don’t blame him one bit. I didn’t like her at all. But what do the silver dragons have to do with the red ones? I thought all of the septs were fairly insular.”

“It’s a bit more complicated than that. It concerns me being the phylactery for the dragon shard.”

“Oh! Speaking of that, where is it?”

The road was particularly twisty as it followed the ragged coastline, but I chanced taking my eyes off the road for a moment to shoot a surprised look her way. “Where is the shard?”

“Yes. Is it inside you, like a tumor or something? Can you feel it? Does it hurt?”

“I believe it’s inside me, yes. There’s a small mark below my rib cage that wasn’t there before the Lindorm Phylactery exploded. But it doesn’t hurt.”

“So you don’t even know it’s there?” She blew out a relieved breath. “That’s good.”

I didn’t correct her. The fact that I was slowly losing myself to the dragon-heart shard would become apparent in time; until then, I wouldn’t mention it.

“What do Jian and his mother have to do with the shard inside you?”

“A few months ago Aisling banished his mother, Chuan Ren, to Abaddon.”

She nodded. “I heard that. That’s some kind of awesome, huh?”

“Impressive, yes. Jian wants us to get her back. Specifically, he wants me to get her back.”

“You?” Her forehead wrinkled. “But you didn’t cast Chuan Ren into Abaddon, Aisling did. Why isn’t he asking Aisling to bring her back?”

“That’s where the complicated part comes in. I guess he tried, and Drake wouldn’t consider the request. It’s understandable given how delicate Aisling is right now.”

“I suppose, although she doesn’t strike me as particularly delicate.”

I grinned at her. “To be honest, I agree, but I do understand Drake not wanting her to get involved. Chuan Ren must be absolutely furious with her.”

“So that’s where you come in? Gabriel is doing this as a favor to Drake?”

I hesitated for a moment, using a tricky turn as cover for my silence. “Jian asked me if I could use my connection to Abaddon to locate and free his mother. In exchange, he offered us the use of the dragon-heart shard that the red wyvern holds.”