“A what?”

“Bracelet.” Rowan held out his hand, gesturing toward his wrist, avoiding looking at the bed again. He didn’t think he’d be able to refuse its sirenlike call. “You know, the thing you put on your arm. It’s in my bag now, where it can do no harm.”

“What on earth are you babbling about?” Bee glared at him. “Why would someone want to put a bracelet on her?”

“I assume because they imbued a binding spell on it.” He rallied the strength to give a shrug. “I’m just reporting the facts, such as they are.”

“It doesn’t seem to me like you’re doing anything—” Bee complained, but before Rowan could try to gather enough ire to take umbrage at that accusation, Constantine said something to her about being too harsh on him even if he was the infamous Dragon Breaker.

“He’s my little brother,” Bee told her dragon. “I’m allowed to be blunt.”

“In this case, more understanding is in order. I wish for him to get started as well, but he is mortal and is clearly exhausted. He can’t perform adequately if he is likely to fall asleep at any moment.”

“How thoughtful of you to worry about me,” Rowan said with a slight tinge of sarcasm.

“Do not thank me, Dragon Breaker. I merely wish for you to be able to do your job properly. It was my kin you killed with your magic.”

“By the gods, I don’t make magic!”

“Knock it off, both of you.” Bee took a deep breath, then made a face at Rowan. “Constantine is right. I’m being overly harsh, for which I apologize, but I just don’t think you understand how important this is to us. All of us, not just the dragons, but everyone.”

“I understand,” he said, lifting a hand, and with resignation, he looked again at his watch. “And for that reason, I’ll do everything I can to get into the old woman’s room and go through her belongings. But right now it’s too early, not to mention the fact that I can barely function. I’ll get a little sleep, wait until the small hours of the night, and then sneak into her room and try to find the ring, all right?”

“All right,” Bee said reluctantly, then softened the words by giving him a warm smile. “Don’t get hurt, okay? I mean, we want that ring—we have to have that ring so you can break it down—but you won’t do anyone good if you’re dead.”

“Thanks for caring,” he said wryly.

She made a face at him. “I almost forgot to tell you that May and Gabriel should be joining you soon. They were headed to Cairo, but said they’d stop by Munich when I told them that the thief was spending the night there. I’ll tell them where your hotel is, so keep your eyes peeled for a silver dragon and his mate.”

Great. More dragons. Just what he needed. “They are welcome to take over—” he started to say, but Bee interrupted him.

“I told you that the dragons are limited in what they can do. The First Dragon made it very clear that the person who could help us was mortal.”

“Mortal born,” Constantine corrected.

“Same difference. That’s why we’re having to rely on you to do the hard work, Rowan. But Constantine said that this silver dragon feels he can help support you somehow, and frankly, I figured you would welcome the help.”

From a dragon? Just how much help was he likely to receive? Not much, given the dragonkin’s view of him. “I very much do welcome any and all help.” He stifled a yawn. “Is there anything else?”

“Not right now. Just get that ring!”

“Do my best.”

“I know you will. Love you, kiddo.”

“Love you, too. I’ll let you know what I find.”

He ended the video call, and sat numbly while his brain tossed around the new bit of information that Bee had kept from him.

The First Dragon was involved, even if peripherally. The demigod progenitor of all dragonkin was not a person whom you soon forgot, and Rowan had painfully sharp memories of the times he’d met the First Dragon, especially the last contact.

Worse yet, fate had driven Rowan from his comfortable hiding spot just at the time when the First Dragon would be calling in the debt of danegeld, and Rowan had absolutely no way to pay it.

Until now.

“This had better do the job,” he told himself. “Because if saving the world from destruction doesn’t pay off the debt, there won’t be anything of me left to worry about.”

On that less-than-cheerful thought, he managed to set an alarm on his phone and remove his shoes before falling onto the bed in an exhausted heap.

He had a very bad feeling about his upcoming burglary, and fell asleep practicing a not-very-believable explanation of just what he was doing if he should be caught.

Three

“Is your man going to take us to dinner?”

I sighed and watched as Mrs. P cleaned out a small basket of seashell-shaped soaps, dropping them into her suitcase alongside the tiny shampoo samples, two washcloths, and a stack of notepaper from the zebra-striped desk that dominated the Oriental Suite. “Rowan isn’t my man, and no, so far as I know, he won’t be joining us for dinner.”

“I like him.” She gave a complacent nod, then patted her suitcase. “He will serve us both well, I think.”

I waited until she padded into the bathroom in search of more things to take before removing the towels from her suitcase. “Serve us well? You mean in helping us get taxis and things? Just because we’re at the same hotel doesn’t mean we can count on him for help getting to the airport tomorrow.”

“Serve us well helping us get me to my beau, of course,” she answered with a placidness that was disarming. She looked like she could have been anyone’s grandmother, and yet there she was trying to stuff a rubber shower mat into her suitcase.

“I think perhaps you’re a little confused about a couple of things,” I said as gently as I could. “You remember that we’re on our way out to Egypt where you’re going to take a trip down the Nile, right?”

“You are going to help me across the Duat to find my beau. You and your man,” she answered, nodding before glancing around the room for anything else that looked likely. She eyed a lampshade, then gave a little shake of her head.