Up in Smoke - Katie MacAlister [104]
I stepped out of the shadow world and was instantly slammed against the wall, Chuan Ren’s claws digging deep into my throat.
“You,” she spat, her dark eyes glowing with a red light.
The dragon shard inside me filled me with instant fury. Scarlet claws burst forth from my fingers, the silver scales following immediately as they rippled up and over my arms. I fought not just Chuan Ren, but the shard itself, which desperately wanted me to fully shift into a dragon.
“If you kill . . . me, you’ll never . . . get out,” I managed to gasp out as Chuan Ren attempted to throttle me.
I didn’t expect her to release me at that, but to my surprise, she did just that. Her hands dropped to her sides, allowing me to slide to the floor, my fingers back to being my own. I rubbed my neck, coughing and wheezing as I tried to get air into my abused windpipe.
“Gabriel said he would not free me,” she said, suspicion thick in the air.
I nodded, clearing my throat a couple of times to make sure I could talk. “He can’t buy your freedom. Bael guaranteed that. But we don’t need to get him to give you up when you are being held here against your will.”
She grabbed my collar with one hand and hauled me to my feet, giving me new respect for her physical strength. “How?”
“Aisling will recall you. Since she’s the one who banished you here, she can recall you without going through elaborate ceremonies, or getting Bael’s permission.”
“Aisling,” Chuan Ren said, her lips curling as she all but spat the name. “I will see her dead for what she’s done to me.”
“I don’t think so,” I said, shoving her hand off me. “In fact, you’re not only going to be polite to her; you’re going to call off the war against the green dragons. Unless you like spending your time as Bael’s guest, that is.”
An interesting parade of emotions passed over her face. Fury, disbelief, and more fury were followed by suspicion, and finally a cold, calculating look that indicated she was weighing her need to leave Abaddon against her desire to continue the war.
I expected some sort of protest on her part, but once again she surprised me. I guess it was because she had been wyvern for so many centuries, and thus used to making decisions on the fly, but she took less than a minute to work through all of her anger and allow reason to take its place. “There’s nothing to stop me from declaring war again,” was all she said.
“That’s between you and the green dragons, although I should mention that your son has promised us the use of the Song Phylactery in exchange for freeing you.”
The air cracked with energy as she sucked in a huge breath. I thought for a moment she was going to blast me with a fireball, the dragon heart insisting that I take immediate action against her, but she released her rage before I could do anything. “Tell me what he agreed to.”
I explained the terms of the agreement with Jian along with our reason for wanting use of it, and after a moment’s thought, she nodded her head. “Red dragons always honor their word. When you have the other shards collected, I will provide you with the Song Phylactery so that you can re-create the dragon heart. But you will not have the shard until then.”
“That’s acceptable,” I agreed, wondering about her lack of demand for its immediate return afterwards. “I’ll need your formal acceptance of this peace treaty before I can tell Aisling to begin the recall.”
She snatched the thick vellum and pen I pulled from my leather bodice, snarling under her breath as she signed her name to it, using the nib of the pen to nick her finger, and sealing the treaty with blood, as was customary in the Otherworld.
“Excellent. I think you’ll find that this was the wisest choice.”
Her look should have dropped me dead on the spot. I just smiled as I rolled up the treaty and tucked it away. “I have to go back to the shadow world to let Aisling know she should begin the proceedings. It shouldn’t take long, although I do feel that I should