Me and My Shadow

by Katie MacAlister

  I was judged and found worthy. The heart re-formed, then exploded with a song that sang to the heavens. I sank back onto my heels as the light from the now-shattered heart faded; I was moved so profoundly I couldn’t begin to sort through the emotions.

  The shard was gone. It lay before me glowing softly in its crystal case, alongside four other cases. I smiled when I saw it, touching the newly filled phylactery with reverent fingers. Gabriel and I had argued over what to put on the phylactery for my shard. He claimed that it now belonged to the silver dragons, since I possessed it, but I insisted that it be left unmarked, thinking we would work out later to whom it really belonged.

  “Smart shard,” I said, smiling as my fingers stroked over the gold symbol of the silver dragons that now bound the phylactery. “We will see that you are well taken care of.”

  The door behind me flung open. Gabriel threw himself across the doorway, once again in human form, turning his back to me as he fought like a madman to keep Baltic out of the room.

  Baltic grabbed him by the neck and yanked him forward, spinning to fling him down the hall. He turned back to me, panting heavily, blood streaming from several wounds on his arms and torso, his eyes lit with an unholy light.

  “Mate,” he snarled.

  “True enough, but I will never be yours,” I answered, scooping up the phylacteries and dumping them back into the strongbox.

  “I felt something. What have you done?”

  “Nothing you can change.”

  He snarled at me. “You think not?”

  I shoved the strongbox behind me, and pulled out my dagger as he reached for me. “What you felt was the dragon heart being re-formed and resharded. I saw the first dragon, Baltic. I saw him, and I know.”

  He froze, confusion in his eyes. “You . . . know?”

  “I saw him. You won’t have the dragon heart now. It’s been sharded again.”

  Gabriel reached him just as he threw back his head and roared his anger. Eyes as bright as the full moon, Gabriel jumped onto Baltic, twisting his body as he did so, using the momentum to pull Baltic from the room, back out into the hallway, yelling over his shoulder, “Fly, little bird!”

  I fled into the shadow world, taking the box of phylacteries with me, slipping past where he and Kostya battled Baltic, once again in dragon form. Baltic must have sensed me passing him, for he suddenly spun around and charged toward me. Gabriel yelled and threw himself on the dragon’s back, shifting as he did so. He brought Baltic to the ground, their sleek dragon bodies twisted together as they fell. I paused at the top of the stairs, not wanting to leave Gabriel, but knowing I should get the phylacteries to safety.

  Kostya shifted to human form, yelling at Gabriel, “He is mine!”

  Savian staggered up the stairs, one arm hanging limp, his usable hand still clutching his piece of wood. “Took care of that redheaded she-wolf. Just the one dragon left? Good,” he said, then keeled over on the floor.

  “Must I do this again?” Kostya bellowed, raising his sword over his head. “How many times must I kill you before you stay dead?”

  “Gabriel!” I yelled, coming out of the shadow world.

  “May, go!” Gabriel shifted at the last second and leaped out of the way of Kostya’s downswing. The sword flashed in the air as it passed through the spot that a nanosecond before was occupied by Baltic, and embedded itself deeply into the floor.

  Chapter Twenty

  “Where’s Baltic?” Aisling asked, her face red and shiny with sweat. “What’s happen—oh, god, not another one!”

  I waited until her contraction was over before handing the lockbox containing the phylacteries to Drake, who rose when I entered the small inner room that was part of his lair. I tried to keep from looking around, knowing how touchy dragons were about having their treasures regarded by other dragons, but I couldn’t help but raise my eyebrows at a couple of familiar-looking paintings hanging on the wall. I wondered if the appropriate museums knew they had forgeries as I eyed the gold items, chalices and aquamaniles, as well as numerous other treasures, all glinting warmly, making my skin feel sensitive and hot.

  “Would you like a Cajun crisp?” René said, offering her a package of potato chips. “Or I have a chocolate orange if you’d like something sweet.”

  “No . . . orange . . . just . . . Baltic . . . ,” Aisling panted as she worked through the contraction. At last it was over and she waved a feeble hand at me. “Someone tell me what’s happening.”

  I obliged her. “Baltic is gone. He disappeared into the shadow world again. For someone who bears the title dread wyvern, he sure runs away fast enough when a battle doesn’t go his way.”

  “We felt the heart re-forming,” Aisling said, still panting a little, taking a sip of water from a glass Nora held for her. “You got it sharded all right?”

  “Yes.” I glanced at Drake as he held the strongbox clamped under one arm. “They’re all there, all five. Gabriel would like you to keep them safe until they can be distributed to their proper owners.”

  Drake released Aisling’s hand, nodded, and put the strongbox onto a shelf. I did look around then, amazed at the objets d’art that Drake had gathered over the centuries. “This is an impressive collection. But not so much gold as I expected to see.”

  Aisling laughed, twitching at the sheet that covered her. She was lying on some sort of a raised platform, a mattress from a bed having been laid on top of it. “You haven’t seen what I’m giving birth on, have you? René, would you?”

  I was a bit surprised to find René in the inner room with Aisling while she labored, but evidently Aisling was comfortable with him there. He grinned and pulled up the corner bottom of the mattress so I could see what was underneath.

  It wasn’t a table, like I’d thought. It was a long wooden case with a glass top, lit from within with soft lights that caressed the surfaces of the gold coins that filled it almost to the rim.

  “I just hope that Gabriel doesn’t make you give birth on top of his hoard of gold,” Aisling said with another laugh that trailed away into a shriek of pain.

  Kaawa bustled over as Drake helped Aisling into a sitting position, allowing her to press back against him as she strained.

  “This is looking good,” Kaawa said from her position between Aisling’s legs. “Another couple of good pushes, and I think the head will crown.”

  “Time for me to leave,” I murmured, averting my eyes from the sight. There were some things I was quite happy to leave as a mystery until such time as I needed to know. “Good luck, Aisling. We’re all outside thinking of you.”

  Her eyes screwed up as she continued to scream, but she managed to wave a hand at me to let me know she’d heard.

  I left the inner room, passing through to the outer one, where István stood guard at the lair entrance. He opened the door for me, asking how it was going.

  “Head’s about to crown, so it probably won’t be much longer. Drake looks exhausted.”

  István smiled as Gabriel, outside the lair waiting for me, stood up. “I hope it is fast. Drake told me he was never going to go through this again.”

  I laughed and allowed Gabriel to gather me into his arms, breathing deeply of the scent of him. Kostya sat on a bench leaning against the wall as Tipene tended to the damage on his torso, Cyrene clinging to his hand as she wept over him.

  “Did you tell Drake that I would be happy to offer my assistance with Aisling? Did you tell him that I have more experience with dragon births than my mother?” Gabriel asked, nuzzling my ear in a way that sent shivers down my arms and back.

  “Yes,” I lied.

  He nipped my earlobe. “You do not lie well, little bird. How do you feel?”

  I looked up at him in surprise.

  “You no longer bear the shard. Do you miss it, or is it a relief to have it gone?”

  I remembered the sensation of seeing the first dragon, of having him see me, acknowledge me, judge my heart and soul, and find them not wanting. I r
emembered the wisdom in those eyes, the history that they had seen, and continued to see, and I smiled. “I am a dragon now. The dragon heart is a part of me just as it is a part of you, so no, I don’t miss the shard. It will remain with us forever.”

  “I give that about a three point two on the profound-o-meter,” a male voice said.

  I stopped nuzzling Gabriel’s neck to look behind me. Jim stood there, its hands on its hips, an extremely disgruntled look on its face.

  “Can I have my magnificent form back now? Or is there something else you’d like me to do? Tote a barge? Haul a bale? Or just stand around and be a laughingstock to amuse everyone?”

  “Oh, Jim, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to forget about you. But you’re not a laughingstock, I’m sure. You’re actually a very handsome man in that form. Isn’t he handsome, Gabriel?”

  “Eh.”

  I poked him in the ribs.

  “I suppose as human forms go, it’s not outright repulsive,” Gabriel allowed, his dimples dimpling.

  “Ignore him. You’re very handsome. I particularly like the cleft chin.”

  “He lacks a certain something,” Savian said from where he was flaked out inside the sauna, recovering, he said, from the various traumas his body had gone through in the last few hours. “He looks like the sort of man who would drool on another man when he was lying in a pool of his own brains and blood.”

  Jim narrowed its eyes at the towel-clad Savian. “Drake’s going to be all pissy if he knows you’ve been keeping the door to the sauna open while you have it running.”

  Savian pursed his lips for a moment, and considered whether he wanted Drake pissed.

  “Don’t listen to Savian—he’s feeling challenged because he doesn’t have the corner anymore on the unattached-handsome-man market,” I told him.

  Gabriel pinched my behind. “You think I’m handsome!”

  I grabbed two handfuls of his hair and pulled him down for a quick kiss. “More than any other man on the planet, but I did, in fact, say unattached handsome man.”

  “Yeah, yeah, handsome, riiight,” Jim answered, making a rude face. “That’s why Aisling almost had a heart attack when I went up to help her, like you ordered me to do.”

  “You probably just took her by surprise,” I said, licking Gabriel’s lower lip.

  He growled at me, his eyes bright with interest, then gave me what I wanted and kissed me with all his fire, all his passion, and all his love.

  “Kaawa yelled at me because Aisling was laughing so hard when she saw me that she totally blew off pushing during a contraction. That ain’t handsome, sister.”

  Gabriel lifted his head. “Don’t call her that.”

  I laughed when Jim made another disgusted face. “Go ahead and change back to your preferred form. I’m sure Aisling will thank you later for all the help you gave her and Drake.”

  The demon’s form shimmered and condensed down to a large black shaggy dog. It sighed with relief. “Oh, man, that’s so much better.” It lifted a leg and checked, then plopped its butt down and cocked an eyebrow at me. “Whew. Package is A-OK. All right, get on with the nitty gritty. What happened with Baltic? How come there’s not a big ole dragon corpse rotting away upstairs? Why did Savian insist Drake lock that redheaded chick in the storage room? And why is Dr. Kostich so pissed?”

  Before I could answer, the door to the lair opened and Nora popped out, flustered but excited. “Well! It’s happened! It’s a boy! Drake is thrilled. Aisling is furious. She insists that Kaawa has made a mistake, because she knows she is supposed to have a girl, but I looked, and there’s no mistake. It’s a boy.”

  I leaned into Gabriel, pushing him into the wall as he was about to move toward the lair. “Give Aisling and Drake our congratulations, please.”

  “Mayling, please let me go. My mother is not as experienced as I am with dragon—”

  I clapped a hand over his mouth and smiled at Nora as she laughed and went back into the lair.

  “Your mom is doing just fine,” I told him as he gently bit my hand. “You, however, would just cause Drake to go ballistic. You will stay here and explain to Dr. Kostich what happened to Baltic, because if he yells at me once more, I’m going to go steal something else from him, and this time I won’t give it back.”

  Gabriel laughed, squeezing me tightly. “All right. Let us go upstairs and deal with the archimage. Tipene probably has his arm healed by now.”

  We made it two steps before Nora appeared at the door again, this time looking harried and flushed. “It’s . . . it’s a girl!”

  We all stopped and stared at her. “I thought you said it was a boy?” Cyrene asked. “You said you checked. Didn’t she say she checked?” she asked Kostya, who nodded.

  “I have a niece, not a nephew?” he asked.

  “I did say I checked, and I did. Check, that is. But no, you’re not understanding me—it’s a girl, too. Aisling has had twins. Er . . . real twins, not like you two,” she said, glancing between Cyrene and me.

  “Twins. Double congratulations, then,” I said, and wondered aloud what Aisling and Drake would do about names. “How is Aisling holding up?”

  “A lot better than Drake,” Nora giggled. “And as for names, I couldn’t say for certain, but I do know the names Aisling had picked out were Iarlaith if it was a boy, and Ilona if it was a girl, so I assume they will use those. I had better get back. There was a bit of blood and fluids and suchlike before the first baby came out, and René fainted at the sight of it. Men are so silly, really. I should go revive him. This is such an exciting day!”

  Nora disappeared into the lair again.

  Jim made hacking noises. “Baby guck! May, can you please take me to Paris so I can stay with Cecile until Aisling gets over gushing out babies and ooky stuff?”

  “I’m sure we’ll find a way for you to go visit your girlfriend while Aisling is recovering,” I said, shooing the dog upstairs. We followed, pausing once we got to the hallway.

  Drake’s call for reinforcements had brought a number of green dragons to his house, most of whom were now devoting themselves to clearing up the mess, and beginning the repairs. Pál was overseeing both, asking us for news as we trooped into the sitting room, which luckily remained more or less intact.

  “Twins, boy and girl. Aisling’s fine, Drake is a mess, and René fainted.”

  Pál laughed. “He was boasting to Aisling about his seven children, and how useful he was to his wife in the delivery room. That’s why she asked him to stay with her. That, and to distract Drake.”

  “Sounds like he wasn’t horribly successful on either front.”

  “I’m exhausted,” Cyrene said, tugging on Kostya’s arm. “I think I’m going to go take a nap. I’ll see Aisling and the babies later, once they’re cleaned up. Kostya’s tired, too. All that being stabbed and fighting wore him out.”

  Kostya looked surprised for a moment, then caught the glint in her eye and agreed. “Perhaps a nap would be a good idea,” he said, and gave her a wolfish grin that had her giggling and running up the stairs.

  I shook my head as they left, and said softly to Gabriel, “I don’t know that I’m ever going to get used to that.”

  “You and me both,” he said with a wolfish grin of his own, and I thought seriously for a few minutes about demanding a nap.

  “There is still much we must do,” he said, accurately reading my mind. “But later, once it is done, then I will do all those things you are thinking about. Particularly the one where you are on your hands and knees and I take you from behind—”

  I stopped his words with a quick kiss, then straightened my shoulders and entered the sitting room.

  Dr. Kostich was there, but he wasn’t alone.

  “Sally?” My brain, somewhat fried by this point, sluggishly tried to figure out what on earth the newest demon lord in Abaddon was doing in Aisling’s sitting room, chatting happily with Dr. Kostich.

  “—Mama always said that there’s a place for everythin
g and everything in its place, and I always believed that was true, but you know, my time spent in Abaddon has been quite the eye-opening experience. I see now that my dear mama just wasn’t right, no, she wasn’t. Because honestly, how do you explain portals? If your arcane magic was as strong as you say, why, then, you could just seal portals to Abaddon and no creepy crawlies would ever get through, would they? But they do. Therefore, dark magic has to be the stronger. May! You look horrible, sugar, just horrible. Are you using that salt scrub I recommended?”

  Sally ceased patting Dr. Kostich’s hand, which was a good thing, since he was staring at her with unadulterated disbelief.

  “What are you doing here? How did you get in?” I asked, looking around the room to see if any other demons were in attendance. I knew Drake had some sort of a demon alarm, but it must have been disabled with the attack and subsequent rebuilding.

  “Oh, some very nice workmen let me in when I said I was a friend of yours.” She smiled her sharky smile at me.

  Dr. Kostich transferred his horrified gaze from her to me. “This . . . woman . . . is your friend?”

  “Well . . .” Sally’s eyebrows rose.

  I cleared my throat, not wanting to cause trouble. “Sally is a demon lord, and she served as Magoth’s apprentice for a few weeks. I know her from when I was trapped in Abaddon.”

  “I see.” His brows lowered.

  “Yes, we did meet there, and we had ever such a lovely time, didn’t we, May? We had lots of fun talking about all sorts of girl things, like interesting ways to accessorize spikes, and how to get bloodstains out of leather harnesses, and just exactly what Magoth’s penis curse says. But silly chatterbox me, here I’m keeping you standing there when you clearly need to get some rest. I’ll get right to the point: I’m here because of Magoth.”

  “Agathos daimon—he’s out?” I asked, trying to figure out how he could have gotten out of the Akasha.

  She bent a stern look upon me. “No, and that was very naughty of you to have him banished without telling Lord Bael. He was most displeased when he heard what you’d done.”