“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.”

“Why do you need that?” she asked, still wearing a puzzled expression.

I explained briefly about the dragon heart.

“So, the red dragons will hand over their piece, and that will give you two of the five?”

“Temporarily hand over, yes. It’ll be returned to them.”

“Two isn’t going to do you much good,” she pointed out. “Not if you need all five shards.”

“Gabriel has that worked out. Drake will loan us his piece in exchange for helping Jian.”

“Why would he want to help Jian . . . ? Oh. To end the war?”

“Yes. That’ll be part of the deal Chuan Ren is going to have to agree to in order to be freed. Assuming I can free her, that is.”

“You’re going to need Magoth for that, I bet,” Cyrene said with surprising prescience. “Do you know where he is now?”

“Oddly enough, he’s been keeping a low profile. Gabriel has had people watching for him, but as far as we know, Magoth and Sally are holed up in his house in Paris.”

“Hmm. I’d have thought Magoth would have been raising hell by now. Ha. Hell.”

I couldn’t help but smile. “I’m sure he would if he could, but I think he’s finding out just how limited he is without any powers.”

“Is he going to be able to help you with Jian, then?” Cy asked.

“He should be able to, but whether or not he will remains to be seen.” I skimmed over the horror that thought brought me. I truly did not want to think of what I’d have to do in order to get Chuan Ren released.

“That still leaves you two shards short of a complete dragon heart.”

“One. The blue wyvern has a shard, as well.”