“We’ve moved past that misunderstanding,” I said, not wanting to open up that particular can of worms again. “What I want to know is whether or not you’ll go running to Kostya with everything I tell you.”

Her nose wrinkled up as she thought about that for a moment. “Probably I will.”

I sighed and took the steering wheel again.

“Unless you tell me specifically not to, that is. Despite what you think, I can keep a secret. But I don’t want to be in a position where I have to make a choice between you and Kostya. I love you, Mayling. You’re my twin! But I love Kostya, too, and I don’t want to have to pick one of you over the other.”

“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?”