“Except you are much more flexible and not nearly so stodgy as Drake is.” I answered him with a smile of my own, drawn as if by magnetism across the room until I stood in front of him. I put my hands on his chest, stroking the soft material of his shirt, my fingers leaving little trails of fire. “Which means that once you realize that we were in no danger at all, you will stop feeling the need to do the protective male thing, and will sit down and listen to what we have to say. Am I right?”

“Grrr,” he said, his fingers still flexing.

“Am I right?” I cooed, rubbing my nose against his and biting his lower lip.

“If you’re going to attempt to seduce me into a good mood, it’ll take quite a bit more effort than that,” he answered, his eyes lighting with renewed interest.

Inside me, love, lust, desire, need . . . a whole swirling mass of emotion flared to immediate life, powered by the dragon shard.

I stepped back, dropping my hands, not wanting to lose any more of myself. “Perhaps later. We have some important news to tell you, and I really don’t think it can wait.”

A curious look passed over his face but was gone before I could try to figure it out. “I have news for you as well, but by all means, tell me about the dragon you followed.”

Maata murmured a few words and slipped out to change her clothes.

“She’s been through a lot, you know,” I told Gabriel as he led me over to a couch. “The only way we could get into Fiat’s underground area was via the lake.”

He refrained from shuddering, but I suspected it was a close thing.

“We’ll skip over the part detailing how we got her through to the tunnel’s entrance,” I said, smiling as she emerged from her room, pulling on a dark sweater.

She made a face and took up a second laptop, sitting next to Tipene at the table.

I went over our actions that led us to the underground chambers, reporting most of the conversation between Fiat and the other dragons.

“You saw the man fully this time?” Gabriel asked.

“The dark-haired one? Not his face. He had his back to me in the room underground, and when we saw him earlier, in the square, he was partially in shadows.”

“Interesting. Describe him to me,” Gabriel said, one hand resting on my knee as he closed his eyes in thought.

I went over a description of the man, pausing as something occurred to me. “Something doesn’t mesh. I think I’m wrong. He can’t be Baltic.”

One of Gabriel’s eyes opened to consider me. “Why not?”