Jim emerged from the crowd, padded over to us, and snuffled my legs. “Heya. Charmer just got here and is talking with the Watch dude who is taking notes about what really happened, while making the mortal police think it was just a gas explosion. You okay, Eefums? You look a bit frazzled around the edges.”
“I feel frazzled,” I said, releasing my death grip on Kostya’s shirt. “I’m fine. And thank all the gods and goddesses that the Charmer is finally here. I can work with him to get the curse broken right away.”
“Her. It’s a chick. I told her you were over here.” Jim tipped his head to the side and eyed Kostya. “Drake really brained you, huh, Slick? Good thing Pal and Istvan were outside and pulled him off. I thought you were a goner for sure. Hey, you think that café is doing business? I could do with a sandwich or two. Oh, there’s the Charmer. I’m going to check out the café and see if the owner is too busy to notice a handsome, yet scorched, Newfie mooching around the kitchen.”
I dabbed a bit more at Kostya’s face, making tsking sounds until he took my hand, kissed my fingers, and said softly, “I appreciate the concern, Aoife, but my wound is minor and will heal shortly. Do you feel up to speaking with the Charmer, or would you like to rest first?”
“Hello,” a voice behind me said, somewhat breathlessly. “Are you Kostya? Jovana said you had an emergency job for me. I see you’ve been having some excitement here.”
I froze at the words, for three seconds my entire body feeling as if I’d been magically converted to a marble statue. Slowly, I turned to face the Charmer.
She stared at me in outright astonishment. “Aoife?”
I nodded, speechless for a moment.
“You know the Charmer?” Kostya asked, his voice expressing disbelief. “Why did you not tell me that you were acquainted with one? We could have avoided asking Jovana for help.”
I stared at the woman in front of me, her face almost as familiar as my own. “Bee, what… how can you… you’re a Charmer?”
Her gaze moved from me to Kostya and back. “You’re with a dragon.”
I nodded again, sliding my arm around Kostya’s waist. “I am.”
“Aoife is my mate,” Kostya said matter-of-factly, pulling me tighter against his side.
I stopped staring at my sister to gaze at him in equal surprise. “Oh, you pick now to finally admit it?”
A little flash of humor flitted through his eyes. “Yes. I thought you’d like to know.”
I pinched his side to let him know I appreciated the irony in him throwing my own words back at me.
“You’re a wyvern’s mate?” Bee’s face twisted in amazement. “I just can’t believe… I left you in Sweden.”
“How do you know this woman?” Kostya asked.
“She’s my sister.” I took a deep breath, giving Bee a long, long look. “The very same sister who helped have me committed to a loony bin because she said the things I saw at the Faire couldn’t possibly be real, when all the while she knew very well they were. That sister.”
“Ah.” Kostya was silent for the count of eight, then gave me a little squeeze. “That situation is not of prime importance at this moment. We will deal with it later. Come, Charmer. We have much to discuss.”
During the trip to Drake and Aisling’s house, I turned inward, unable to chat with Bee. My anger was so hot, I literally set fire to Rene’s car three times before I finally managed to get a handle on it. It was the hurt that filled me, though, a deep, scarring pain, at the knowledge that my own sister would betray me as she did.
I’d always loved my sister and looked up to her as someone who seemed to so easily make her way through life. But now… now she seemed like a complete stranger. Someone who looked familiar but was replaced by a person I no longer knew.
Bee made a few efforts to engage me in conversation, but I couldn’t discuss the situation with her. Instead I sat silent, drawing strength from Kostya pressed to my side, struggling with my own sense of worth.
I looked out the window of the taxi, not really seeing anything of the streets we drove down. I was aware that Bee expressed amazement when Kostya told the tale of our recent adventures, but not even her statement that the ring couldn’t be in better hands drove me to converse with her.
Ten hours later the sun finally set, leaving the section of Paris containing the remains of the G&T lit with soft yellow streetlights, the air still smelling of smoke, but the burned shell of the building no longer hot enough to burn us when we shuffled in through what had once been a door. Only two walls remained, and they looked about ready to fall in. Kostya, Drake, and the bodyguards cleared a spot on what had once been a small dance floor next to the bar and set up a couple of folding chairs they had brought in their car.
“Thank God the magic still works,” Aisling said as she took a seat. She gave me a grim smile. “It’s been a hell of a day, made all that much worse because we couldn’t talk once we got back home. Kostya, how is your face?”
“Not of any concern,” he told her, and placed a chair for me, holding out a hand. I took it, not looking at my sister, who sat on a chair that Drake set up. Pal and Istvan arranged a few more chairs, forming a circle.
“We are all here?” Drake said, looking around. “Good. We shall begin, then. Rene, would you tell us what you found out earlier?”
Rene, who had just sat on the other side of Kostya, stood up again and cleared his throat. “It took some doing, but I eventually traced Bael to the house in Provence where we know Asmodeus to have an entrance to his palace in Abaddon. Whether or not he has returned to Abaddon, I could not tell. I simply know that he has access to it via the house. What his actions will be are just as impossible to guess.” He sat down again, looking tired.
Voices grew and ebbed as a couple of people strolled past the burned-out club.
Drake, evidently nominating himself as chairperson of this meeting, waited until their footsteps faded away before saying, “Thank you, Rene. That was quick work, considering the circumstances. We will naturally dispatch as many dragons as possible to watch Bael’s moves. Jim?”
“I wasn’t licking my balls for the fun of it!” Jim said quickly, straightening up from where he had, in fact, been licking his noogies. “It’s called grooming and is perfectly normal for a dog to do! There’s nothing kinky or weird in it at all.”
Drake sighed. “What do you have to report to us?”
“Oh, that.” Jim shook and sat down, donning an officious expression. “Aisling sent me to Abaddon to see which way the wind was blowing there, but there wasn’t the slightest whiff of Bael or even a concern that he was out of the Akasha. I don’t think anyone knows, although I can’t imagine that’s going to be the case for long. Demons like to talk.”
“So he’s not in Abaddon.” Aisling spoke slowly, a little line appearing between her eyebrows as she puzzled out the situation. “But he’s in Asmodeus’s house, which has access to it. Well, I think Drake’s right, and it’s foolish to guess what he’s going to do. Surveillance is our best bet.”
“Kostya, you are in agreement?” Drake asked his brother.
“Yes. I will provide a detail of black dragons to take turns watching Bael.”
“I don’t understand why you want to keep tabs on him,” I said softly to Aisling. “You said he was booted out of Abaddon to the limbo place, so isn’t he pretty much neutered, magically speaking?”
Aisling shuddered. “I doubt if anything but outright destruction could neuter Bael. Even crippled by being removed from Abaddon, he’s still a dangerous person.”
“Dangerous to dragons, or other people?”
Her eyes met mine in a long look filled with bleak despair. “Everyone.”
“Great. And I let him out.”
Drake ignored our whispered consultation. “Excellent. We will get word to Bastian and Gabriel so that they may also provide dragons to watch Bael.”
I elbowed Kostya. He leaned over and whispered in my ear, “The wyverns of the blue an
d silver dragon septs, respectively.”
“There’s more than just the three septs?” I asked, a little surprised by that fact.
“There is a sixth sept as well, but they have only five members, two of whom are children, so they cannot provide extra dragons to monitor Bael.”
“Pardon me for interrupting,” I said, raising my hand. Everyone turned weary faces toward me. “Why is Bael so dangerous? From what you’ve all said, he’s a former demon lord. Yeah, he summoned a few demons, but you said they were destroyed and sent back to their holding bin. Or wherever demons live when they aren’t doing demon things. I don’t understand why you guys are so concerned about Bael being out and about.”
“He’s a master trickster,” Aisling said at the same time that Drake answered, “In his prime, he was infinitely more powerful than the current reigning prince.”
“But he’s no longer in charge,” I argued.
“It doesn’t work that way, Aoife,” Bee said, her face tight with worry. “Even though he doesn’t have his full powers, he’s still pretty awful.”
Aisling nodded. “The head of the Guardian’s Guild is going to have a lot of things to say when I tell him that Bael is back. We’re supposed to protect mortals from demons and demon lords, and if Bael, the most powerful of all of them, is now running around in our world…” She shivered and rubbed her arms.
I felt sick to my stomach. “And I let him loose.”
“You did not do so intentionally,” Kostya said in a comforting tone.
“No, but that doesn’t really matter now, does it.” I sank into a miserable silence while Drake continued on with the meeting.
“Now we turn to Bee Ndala, the Charmer who has kindly consented to help break the curse.” Drake made a little bow in Bee’s direction. “I understand that you have a connection to Aoife?”
“We are sisters,” Bee said, her voice and manner subdued.
I slid a quick glance at her but couldn’t look for long without almost choking on the sense of betrayal.
“How felicitous. It will make working with Aoife that much easier. What do you need from us in order to break the curse?”
“Normally, nothing external to what I can do by myself, since it’s usually just a matter of untracing the curse, but with this one… I’m sorry, but curses by demon lords are much more involved than lesser curses. The curse laid on all of you is going to require something more.”
“You can’t break the curse?” I asked, a bit exasperated. “Are you sure you’re a Charmer?”
“I’ve been a Charmer a lot longer than you’ve been a dragon’s mate,” my sister answered in a snippy tone.
“Do not speak to my mate in such a manner,” Kostya warned her. “She does not deserve it.”
“Mate?” Drake’s eyebrows rose.
“Yes.” Kostya looked more than a little pugnacious. “Do you have anything to say about that?”
“Not I.” Drake looked like he wanted to laugh but managed to control his lips.
“Well I certainly have something to say!” Aisling gave a little cheer and beamed at Kostya and me. “I’m so glad you finally saw the light, and I just know you both will be as happy as Drake and I are. A new mate! I can’t wait to tell May and Ysolde. They will be thrilled to welcome you to the union. Did I mention the mates have our own union? We used to meet once a month to discuss things, but of course that got put on hold with the curse. I can’t wait to get back to the meetings—we always have such fun at them. What?”
The last word was addressed to Drake, who was giving her an odd look.
“You are babbling,” he told her.
“I’m allowed to babble. This is a big occasion! But I will attempt to stem my enthusiasm until after the curse has lifted. Go ahead, Bee.”
Bee lifted her hand in a helpless gesture. “I can’t.”
“Why not?” Kostya asked.
She made a regretful face. “It’s the nature of the beast. With a normal curse, I could unmake it without any outside help. But with the origination lying with a demon lord who is in the mortal world, I’m going to need a token, something personal belonging to the one who laid down the curse. And then there’s Aoife’s ring.” She slid a glance toward me. I lifted my chin. “I would like to tell you all that I’m capable of handling the curse by myself, but I’m afraid that such a thing is beyond any Charmer. The ring is going to be a necessity. It will need to be relinquished to me, and I’m sure Aoife won’t want to give it up. It will be up to you all to take it from her—”
“You bitch!” I spat out, leaping to my feet.
A shocked silence followed.
I was too furious to care. “How dare you imply that I won’t do everything in my power to save the dragons from this curse? What sort of person are you that you think I wouldn’t give everything I owned to let the dragons live in peace again? Wait, what am I saying—I know what sort of person you are. You’re someone who throws your sister, your own flesh and blood, into a lunatic’s asylum even though you knew full well I was telling the truth. You’re that sort of person, so I guess it shouldn’t surprise me that you think I’m made of the same traitorous, self-centered, egotistical material!”
Aisling’s eyes were round as she watched me.
Kostya stood up when I did, but he said nothing, just stood close enough behind me that I could feel his heat, feel his fire simmering below the surface.
“Whoa,” Jim said sotto voce. “I didn’t see that coming. Eefable’s sister is the one who had her committed? Bad form, Charmer Sister. Seriously bad form.”
“It wasn’t bad form at all,” Bee suddenly snapped, jumping up and stomping over to face me. “I was trying to protect you, you ninny!”
“Protect me?” I sneered. “By telling me I was crazy and having me locked up for years? What was it really, Bee? Were you jealous of me? You’re the one who was always gallivanting off helping third-world people, while I just stayed at home and took care of the house. What was it I had that you wanted? Huh? Go ahead and tell me. I’d dearly love to know what drove you into betraying me.”
She took a deep breath, then turned to Kostya. “Do you know who gave her the ring?”
“No,” he admitted. “Obviously, he must be a member of the Otherworld, but beyond that, I do not know of him.”
“His name is Terrin, and he’s a steward in the Court of Divine Blood. I don’t know how he got Asmodeus’s ring, but the second Aoife told me who her boyfriend was, and what had happened at the Faire that night, I knew that she was in danger, terrible danger.”
“Oh, sure you did.” I crossed my arms and felt the ring grow hot on my hand. I wouldn’t be human if I didn’t admit that for a second, just a tiny little second, I thought about using it against her. But fortunately, my sense of morality and Kostya’s warm presence behind me kept me from doing anything rash.
The look she gave me was almost as cold as the one I had laid upon her. “You won’t believe me, of course, and there’s little I can do about that except tell you that I had no way to protect you from what was sure to follow. I knew about the dragons being cursed; we all knew about it. And here was the ring that not only all the dragons were seeking, but also all of Abaddon, in my little sister’s hands. I had business to attend to and my little sister was in grave peril from a number of fronts. I did the only thing I could do—I made sure you and the ring were hidden away from both the dragons and Asmodeus.”
“You sent me to a nuthouse!” I yelled, waving my hands in the air. “You let me believe I was crazy!”
“It was the only thing I could do!” she yelled back. “All the Otherworld was in an uproar. I had no way of knowing what the dragons would do if they found you possessed the key to their salvation, but I did know what would happen to you should Asmodeus’s demons run you to earth.” She took a deep breath. “And believe me, I would not wish that on my worst enemy, and especially not on my little sister. Oh, Aoife, don’t you see? It was the only thing I could do given that s
ituation.”
I stepped back into Kostya’s embrace, his arms strong around my waist, his chest solid behind me. Tears that I hadn’t known were flowing made my throat ache. I rubbed away the wetness on my cheeks and swallowed the rest of the tears. “I don’t know what to think other than there must have been another way. One not involving shock treatments.”
Her gaze dropped to her hands, which were clutched together, her knuckles showing white. “I’m sorry about that. I had no idea they would do something like that to you. The woman running the facility assured me that you would be treated very gently.”
Kostya’s arms tightened in silent support and comfort. I put my hands on his and leaned back against him. “It’s a moot point, I guess. What’s done is done, and the important thing right now is to break the curse. Despite what you think, it will not be necessary to have the ring taken from me. You can have it.”
I pulled it off my finger and was going to hand it to her, but Kostya stopped me.
“No,” he said, putting it back on my finger. “The ring chose you, Mate. It is you who must aid your sister in destroying the curse. It will not work for her.”
I turned in his arms. “You don’t know that.”
“I do.” His eyes were back to glowing with that mercurial light from the depths of black velvet.
I couldn’t help but smile. “You just want me to have to deal with my emotional issues, don’t you? I know how you think, Kostya, and I’ll agree on one condition—that you do the same.”
“Work with the Charmer?”
“No.” I bit his chin. “Deal with your issues. Namely, me.”
The familiar martyred look came over his face. “You’re going to make me say it, aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Right here, in front of witnesses?”
“Uh-huh. It’s better that way.”
He squeezed my behind. “Better for who?”
“Say it, Kostya.”