“That means we’ll have to go back out through the lake,” I pointed out, flipping on the tiny flashlight.

She grimaced. “It can’t be helped. We must report this news to Gabriel.”

Our trip out of the depths of Fiat’s tunnels was fraught with tension, but no real danger. It was a bit of a battle to get Maata out, since she refused when Cyrene offered to deck her, but in the end we managed by dint of yet another sleeper hold.

Maata and I both ended up swallowing water in the struggle to get her out, however, and I swore, as I crawled onto the banks of the lake and collapsed, hacking and wheezing as I tried to replace the water in my lungs with air, that I heard her mutter something about never again accepting watchdog duty.

I had to admit I didn’t blame her.

Gabriel, however, had another opinion, one that was made all too clear when, several hours later, we straggled into the Paris suite.

“You did what?” he asked Maata as she stood before him, his lovely smooth voice going a bit gravelly around the edges. His fingers flexed, a sign that I was coming to know also meant he was upset.

“You can yell all you want. I’m going to find Kostya,” Cyrene said, dark smudges beneath her eyes. She didn’t even say good-bye, just turned around and walked out of the room.

“May wished to follow the man she thought was Baltic, so we did. I did not leave her side at any time, and we were in no actual danger—” I heard Maata say as I went to the bedroom to drop off my overnight bag, but she was interrupted when Gabriel growled out a word I didn’t recognize.

Maata’s face, when I emerged from the bedroom, had adopted a stony look that spoke volumes. “I’m sorry, Gabriel. I thought—”

“Well, I’m not sorry, not one little bit,” I said, stopping her before she could apologize further.

Tipene sat at a table beyond, silently tapping away at a laptop, but glancing between his wyvern and fellow bodyguard.

“Little bird,” Gabriel started to say, but I held up a hand.

“Don’t even think of telling me this is none of my business. Maata didn’t want me to go after the mysterious dragon, but I weighed the options and decided that the chance to find out who he was made it worth the risk. So if you want to vent your spleen on someone, do it on me and not her.”

Gabriel looked for a moment like he was going to explode, but suddenly relaxed and managed a wry smile. “Drake told me you were going to drive me insane. I thought he was basing his opinion on the fact that Aisling often puts him in that state of mind, but now I begin to see the true wisdom of his words.”