“The ring. Terrin said it was magic, but I don’t know how it works.”

Another wall of my house crumbled in a roar of flames. Jim and I stumbled backward another few yards. I dragged my gaze from the sight of my childhood home being destroyed to where Kostya fought. One of the dragons was crawling away, his arm at an odd angle. The other two were wailing away on Kostya.

“Yeah, I don’t see a giant glowing eyeball or anything, but that doesn’t mean diddly so far as magic rings go. At least, I think that’s true. I’m not absolutely certain since I can’t remember squat. Ouch, that’s gotta hurt.” Jim flinched as one of the dragons tore off a piece of the picket fence and started beating Kostya with it.

“I just don’t know what to do,” I said, still twisting the ring, but at that moment, two more men emerged from the far side of the house. They, too, shifted into dragon form, but it was the long, silver sword that one of them held that decided me. “Stay here!” I told Jim, and ran forward a few steps, holding my hand out in a dramatic fashion while yelling, “I use this magic ring to stop you!”

For a moment, the dragons fought on as if nothing had happened, but then all of them, even the one moaning on the ground, turned to look at me.

“Oh, hell,” I said, my eyes almost popping out of my head when the dragons sprang toward me. I backpedaled, waving my hand wildly in front of me, praying the magic in it would go off before the dragons reached me.

There was a rush of air, an oath snarled in a voice that seemed to come from the depths of the earth itself, and then Kostya was there in front of me, back in human form, one side of his body hitched higher than the other, with blood dripping down his arm. “Use it!” he demanded, snatching up a piece of driftwood and wielding it as if it were no different than the shiny sword. He turned to face the dragons, using his body to shield me.

“I don’t know how!” I wailed.

“Focus on them. Harness the power of the ring. Use it on them!”

“You say harness the power as if I’m supposed to know how, but—”

The dragons leaped at that moment, all five of them (the one guy on the ground had to be happy with crawling toward us in a menacing fashion). Kostya snarled something unintelligible, his legs apart, head down, clearly ready to sacrifice himself in order to give me a few seconds of time.

I knew with absolute certainty that he would not survive the attack. My fingers doubled into a fist, and clutching my hands together, I closed my eyes and bowed my own head, forming a mental image of the ring as a giant club. I swung it back, gathering my strength for one breathless moment before slamming it down before me, my eyes snapping open at the percussion blast that resulted.

Before us, all six dragons lay flat on the ground, each one surrounded by a ring of fire—dragon fire. Kostya staggered forward a step, then dropped to his knees, leaning heavily on the driftwood while he surveyed them.

“Well, what do you know about that?” I said, staring at the carnage before me. “I have a magic ring.”

Seven

“So, let me recap for that part of my mind that’s still high-fiving itself over the fact that I wasn’t ever crazy and did actually see what I thought I saw two years ago. Curses are real.”

“Yes.” Kostya nodded toward my phone. “Make the call.”

“Not until I get a few things straight in my mind. Curses are real, and they can affect more than one person.”

“As I told you.” His lips thinned in impatience. “All of dragonkin are subject to the curse.”

I counted to eight to let my mind slide over the idea of the world being inhabited by a whole bunch of people who were in reality dragons. “And you guys are trying to break the curse, right?”

“Of course. It has pitted the septs against one another. Make the call.”

I consulted the piece of paper he’d given me and slowly tapped in the numbers. “And this ring, the one Terrin gave me two years ago, is the thing that can do that? Break this curse that makes you dragons crazy?”

“Yes.”

“Then I’ll just give it to you—” I started to say, but stopped when he made a sharp gesture, followed by some swearing when his shoulder protested.

“It isn’t that easy.”

Before I could ask why, a voice spoke into my ear.

“Hello?” The voice was that of an American, which really took me by surprise. “Hello? Is someone there? You called me, so I assume you are, but if you’re one of those telemarketers—”

“Sorry, I’m here. Not a telemarketer. Um… are you Aisling Grey?”

“Yes. I don’t recognize your number. Who are you?”

“My name is Aoife, Aoife Ndakaaru. Well, actually, I go by Aoife Dakar, because Dad always shortened his name to that, but I don’t suppose you want to hear about my family name.”

“Why wouldn’t I? Dakar is a very interesting name. So is Ndakaaru. Is it African?”

“Yes. Senegalese, to be exact. Dad was from there. My mom was Irish.”

“I hear you on that. My name is Aisling.” She laughed. “Oh, you know that, don’t you? What can I do for you, Aoife Dakar?”

“Kostya wants you to know that your demon is here with us, and he’s okay, although he does seem to have to go walkies a lot. Also, he’s lost his memory.”

“What?” Aisling’s shriek made my ear ring for a few minutes. “Jim’s with you? Wait a minute—Kostya told you to tell me that? Drake! Oh my God, how is he?”

“Kostya or Jim? I’m sorry, Kostya said that I was supposed to call Jim an it, but he’s a boy dog. I can’t do it.”

“Kostya! No, Jim. Oh, hell’s bells, both of them—how are they both? Pal, where’s Drake? Well, go get him. Tell him it’s important. It’s Kostya. At least, it’s a friend of Kostya’s—I don’t know. I can ask. Aoife, are you… uh… Kostya’s girlfriend?”

“What’s she saying?” Kostya asked.

“She wants to know if I’m your girlfriend.”

“Oh my God, is he there right now?” Aisling asked, her voice going up half an octave with excitement.

“Yes, he is. Do you want to talk to him?”