“Enough,” Fiat shouted, getting to his feet after a particularly clumsy block by Dmitri that ended with the younger dragon bleeding from the chest. “I grow weary of this. End it now, Dmitri.”

A roar of frustration filled the room as Dmitri, sweating, bleeding, and clearly at the end of his strength, made a last-ditch run toward Drake. Drake did no more than parry the awkward attack, but it was enough to send Dmitri slipping on the floor, sliding a few feet on his back. Drake held the sword tip to his throat again.

“Do you yield?”

Before I had time to even think, Fiat hauled me to my feet, a sharp pain accompanying the prick of something sharp against my neck.

“I believe that question is to be asked of you, Drake.”  I rolled my eyes over to look at Fiat, careful not to turn my head.

“Fiat, do not be ridiculous.” Gabriel’s voice floated over my head. I couldn’t see him, but I could hear the dismay in his voice. “Release Aisling. We will talk this over.”

“The time for talk is long past,” Fiat said loudly.

Drake still held a sword to Dmitri’s neck as he looked across at Fiat. His eyes were dark green, almost glowing with an inner light. “What the hell do you think you are doing?”

“I am ensuring the future of the weyr.” Fiat’s voice was silky, rife with satisfaction. “I am doing something that should have been done long ago—eliminating the obstacle to peace, true peace, as enforced by one who holds the power to keep the septs in line, not that mindless democratic drivel you’ve been feeding us for the last century.”

“Fiat”—Gabriel took a step in his direction—”please, do not do this. We will discuss your concerns for the future of the weyr—”

“Stay back! That’s all you and Drake know how to do—talk. Now is the time for action, not endless discussions about how we should live in peace. You’re both nothing more than politicians, your blood so diluted that you’re more human than dragon. Well, I do not suffer from such weakness! In this syringe I have fugu venom, the most poisonous of venoms in the world, drawn from the ovaries of the fugu puffer fish. One step in Aisling’s direction, and I will inject it directly into her bloodstream.”

“What the heck is fugu venom?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“A venom so toxic, there is no antidote to it. It causes paralysis which is lethal one hundred percent of the time when injected into the blood. Shall I describe to you the effects? The paralysis begins as a tingling of the skin, moving quickly to vomiting, dizziness, and weakness. The muscles in your lungs are locked rigid, making it impossible for you to breathe. Humans die of asphyxiation anywhere from five to twenty minutes later.”

“I’m not human anymore,” I pointed out, wishing like hell Jim was here to help me. I expected it to arrive with help at any moment. Surely Jim would have told Nora what was going on. She would probably call Rene, and the three of them would come bursting in at the exact moment I needed them.

Or so the scene went in my mind. Reality, unfortunately, had different ideas.

“No, you are not human. But what do you think will happen to your brain without oxygen?” Fiat leaned close, his breath brushing my face. “The fugu poisoning will strip your body of the ability to provide you with oxygen, leaving you in a coma after ten minutes without air. I believe an hour is all it will take to ensure that you spend the rest of eternity brain-dead, your being trapped in a living tomb from which there is no escape, unable to move, speak, even think.”

A chill gripped me, horror crawling up my arms. I was banking on my immortality to keep me from being seriously damaged, but I’d never considered being trapped in my own body.

“You are so incredibly insane—” The needle burned as it slid a little deeper into my neck. I shut up.

“Fiat, this is folly.”

“Stay back,” Fiat snapped at Gabriel.

“I merely want some answers, nothing more. What do you mean you do not suffer from the weakness of diluted blood? Your mother was human just as ours were.” Gabriel’s voice was soothing, his body language deliberately relaxed to present no threat. He took a step toward Fiat.

“Why do you assume so? Because there is an archaic and asinine rule stating that no wyvern can be born of two dragons?” Fiat laughed, the movement jostling the needle so it slipped in a little more. I held my breath, my attention on Drake.

His face was a mask of indifference, but his eyes, oh, his eyes said everything his expression didn’t. They burned with fury and deadly intention. Within him, dragon fire raged so greatly I could feel it across the room. His control of it was nothing short of miraculous.

Fiat laughed a cold, calculating laugh that made my stomach turn over. “Do not be so foolish, Gabriel. I am proof that the rule is just as outdated as your ideas of democratic peace. My uncle was born to be wyvern of the blue dragons, but he was too weak to stand up to me. I took his name, his fortune, his position within the sept, and when the time was right, I took the sept itself. And now I’m on the verge of ensuring that I will rule the weyr as was preordained. Dmitri, fulfill your destiny!”

Fiat really was insane. I knew that now, but being on the wrong end of a poisonous syringe meant I kept that thought to myself. As I watched, mute with horror and impotence, Dmitri shoved aside Drake’s sword, getting to his feet.

“Do you yield?” he asked Drake.

Drake was silent, his eyes burning on Fiat.

“You must choose,” Fiat told him, smiling. “Which do you value more? Your mate or your sept?”

“This is ridiculous,” I said, very careful not to move. “Even if you do turn me into a zombie, I won’t be dead, not technically. You won’t have destroyed Drake.”

“You think not?” Fiat looked back at Drake. “We will allow him to make the choice nonetheless. Do you yield the sept to Dmitri? Or will you sacrifice your mate?”

Dark power nudged at me, inviting me to use it again. I closed my eyes against the siren lure of it. There was something wrong with it, something that I instinctively knew was bad, something that would ultimately end in my destruction.

You are a prince of Abaddon now, the dark power sang to me. You do not have to suffer fools such as Fiat. Use the power you have gained to protect yourself. Use the power to right the wrongs. How can something be evil that is used for good?