Relief spread over her face, and suddenly she hugged me. “Oh, thank God, I was right after all. I wondered if he’d ever find anyone after Cyrene, but there you are, and you’re perfect. You look absolutely perfect for him, and I’m sure you’re just what he needs. Drake will be so happy. We’ve worried about Kostya, you know. Now, about the curse—”

“Whoa now, I didn’t say I was his mate, if that’s what you’re implying with the hugs and such. I’m not exactly sure what a mate is, because Mr. Pigheaded won’t tell me other than declaring that under no circumstances should I consider myself one, or that he is looking for one, or for that matter, does he even want me… Wait, what do you mean you’re worried about him? Worried how?”

Aisling waved away the sudden worry I had that maybe Kostya wasn’t all he seemed. “It’s nothing to fret over. He’s just… well, intense. I’m sure you’ve noticed that.”

“Oh yes.”

“A lot of that comes from the fact that he spent so long in captivity. In solitary confinement, actually, although he doesn’t like to talk about it. He feels things deeply, but he doesn’t want people to know that, so he puts on this brusque front and… and… really,” she said with a little laugh, “I’m sure I’m preaching to the choir. You probably have figured all this out about him by now.”

“Sure,” I said blithely, hoping I looked like I was full of all sorts of Kostya-insights. And to be honest, I had gleaned much of what she told me. “It’s just that he’s very reticent to speak about himself. That whole thing about him not having a mate, or even wanting one. Mind you, he usually says that right before he kisses me, but that’s neither here nor there. What does matter is that some dudes called the red dragons burned down my family home and tried to kill us, and now Kostya says I have to go to Paris with him in order to be safe. Why me? For that matter, why Paris?”

“She really is this clueless,” Jim told Aisling. “You have no idea what a cross it is to bear.”

“Quiet, demon.” Aisling looked startled to find herself saying that, a look of sadness crossing her face, followed by obvious resignation. “It’s so odd not to have Jim bound to me… but you’re right. It’s obviously fine with you, so I need to let that wait until we deal with the situation at hand. The curse is our primary focus—or at least, the breaking of it is. We need to find Asmodeus’s ring and use it to end the curse and bring the weyr together again. Not to mention keep the mortal world from being affected by the dragons warring, but so far, the battle hasn’t spilled over to them. And we’d like to keep it that way.”

I shifted uncomfortably, part of me wanting to tell her that I had the ring she was looking for but feeling too over my head to make that call on my own. I needed to talk with Kostya first.

“So where is this Asmodeus person?” I asked in an attempt to change the subject from that of the ring’s location.

“Abaddon, so far as we know. Oh, I should probably give you a super-quick history lesson.” She pursed her lips a moment while watching Drake block a sudden attack by Kostya. “The premiere prince is the demon lord who rules the other seven princes. Asmodeus is the current premiere prince. He took over from a truly evil man named Bael, and we thought that we were going to be fine with Asmodeus in place, but then two years ago he killed off most of the red dragon sept and kept a few to perform horrible experiments on, with the end result that now he has an army of red dragons who are partly demons.”

“So those red dragons that attacked us are part demon? Ugh.”

Aisling nodded. “As if a dragon isn’t hard enough to kill, now they’ve got demonic strength added into the mix.”

“Hmm.” I thought about the red dragons left dead outside my home. Their corpses had disappeared into black curls of smoke before I had gotten Kostya to the doctor, which confirmed their demonic aspect. “Why?”

She gave me a curious look. “Why are we trying to kill them?”

“No, why would this head demon prince guy want you guys fighting with each other? I don’t understand why he put a curse on you if he was just going to send his super-dragons to wipe you out.”

“That is a very good question, and we don’t know for certain what his motivation is in destroying all the dragons.” She gave a little head shake, sliding a look back toward her husband. “We assume it’s to destroy the dragons, but as to why… we just don’t know. It kind of came out of the blue, to be honest. And worse, we worry that Asmodeus might be looking beyond the dragonkin to the rest of the Otherworld… and then to the mortal world.”

“Eek!”

“Indeed.” She glanced again behind her. “All we really know is that Asmodeus has declared war on the dragons by slapping us with the curse and turning the red dragons against us. I could speculate for hours as to the whys and wherefores, but I don’t know how long Drake is going to be able to stand having Kostya so close, so we’d better deal with the important things right now. You said the red dragons burned down your house?”

“Yes. They attacked us when we escaped, which is where Kostya was injured the second time, but he appears to be back to normal now. Assuming beating up every dragon he comes into contact with is normal for him.”

She gave a little laugh. “It’s not far off.” She gave me a long look before adding, “You know, most of the wyverns are really happy to find their mates. But Kostya… well, let’s just say there’s a good reason for him to be a little gun-shy. That doesn’t mean that you have to put up with it, though. I’m a big believer in taking charge of situations, and clearly you’re not the sort of person who lets people walk all over her.”

I thought of how I’d spent the last two years and kept my mouth shut.

“So the next time Kostya’s kissing you and telling you that you’re not his mate, you might just turn his fire back on himself. That might show him a thing or two.” At that moment, Drake smacked Kostya upside the head, which sent him flying.

Drake stood over him, his hands on his hips, and said loudly, “Are you done with your talk?”

“Just about,” Aisling said, frowning. “That wasn’t very nice, Drake. You might have given him a concuss—Oh, dear.”