Playing With Fire - Katie MacAlister [54]
I didn’t correct his mistaken impression that I was worried about the likelihood of Magoth convincing me to destroy Gabriel—now that I’d felt the strength of the bond that connected me to Gabriel, I had little fear that Magoth’s seductions would fall upon anything but fallow ground. But I did wonder what it would be like to live with Gabriel, to bear his child, to have him treat me as if I was the most precious thing on the planet. And there was something else about Drake and Aisling, an awareness that I found both curious and intriguing. They didn’t touch each other often, didn’t even appear to be looking at each other much, but if Aisling shifted slightly to get more comfortable, Drake was instantly there, adjusting a pillow or sliding a glass a little closer to her.
I wondered if the obvious sympathetic bond they shared was something unique to them, or whether a version of it would come as I spent time with Gabriel.
His fingers brushed the back of my neck lightly as if in unspoken answer.
‘‘Kostya insists that you have the phylactery,’’ Drake said without preamble.
His brother, who was pacing along the far edge of the patio, whirled around and glared at Gabriel. ‘‘There is no one else who would steal it! He must have it. I demand it be returned to me.’’
Gabriel’s fingers tightened on my shoulder. ‘‘Disregarding the fact that I do not, in fact, have the phylactery, your claim to it is asinine. Drake found it in Fiat’s lair—if anyone has a claim on it, it would seem Drake does . . . or at worst, Fiat. But not you, Konstantin Nikolai Fekete.’’
The black dragon did not like hearing Gabriel use his full name, and I didn’t blame him. Everyone knew that names have power, and I certainly wouldn’t want a wyvern I was more or less warring against invoking mine.
Kostya snarled and would have lunged toward Gabriel, but István and Pál had taken up positions on either side of him, grabbing him when he started toward us.
I leaped to my feet, ready to shadow and go after him if Drake’s men couldn’t control him.
‘‘I begin to think you are more like a falcon than like a blackbird, Mayling,’’ Gabriel murmured gently, pushing me back into the chair. ‘‘Do not trouble yourself over Kostya.’’
‘‘Mei Ling?’’ Kostya asked, the anger in his face giving way to surprise. ‘‘Mei Ling the thief?’’
‘‘She is not a thief, not a real one,’’ Gabriel said with a flash of his silver eyes. ‘‘She simply acquires objects for her employer, nothing more.’’
‘‘And yet you claim you did not steal my phylactery?’’ Kostya turned to his brother with an angry gesture. ‘‘What more proof do you need? She is a thief, and his mate. Obviously, she stole it to please him!’’
‘‘She couldn’t have,’’ Aisling said, shaking her head.
‘‘Gabriel and May met last night for the first time,’’ Drake explained.
‘‘Bah! That was what they wanted you to think, in order to excite sympathy for their cause. But I am not so easily fooled as you are, brother. They are working together, and I will not allow them to succeed with their infamous plans.’’
The sudden calculating look he shot me sent cold chills down my spine. ‘‘Gabriel,’’ I whispered, leaning toward him, ‘‘I think we may have a problem.’’
‘‘I will not allow him to harm you,’’ he answered in a louder tone of voice than was strictly necessary. ‘‘Do not fear for your safety, mate. He will not touch you.’’
‘‘That’s not quite what I meant,’’ I said, intending on pointing out that as Dr. Kostich hadn’t lifted the price on my head, it was entirely possible Kostya might turn in information about me in order to gain the benefaction. I hated to think what he could do with a powerful archimage on his side.
Before I could mention all that, Kostya started ranting about the injustices done to him. ‘‘I swear to you that the black dragon sept will regain what we once held but was taken from us!’’
‘‘Oh, not that again,’’ Aisling said, whispering to her husband, ‘‘Can we hit a fast-forward button, do you think?’’
‘‘We will face death to restore to the sept the pride, the glory, the true essence, of what it once