Up in Smoke - Katie MacAlister [49]
“Before I tell you that, you have to answer me a question,” she said, laughing as we claimed our seats. Cy and I sat on one side of a table between two banks of seats, with Maata across from us.
“Ooh, food! I’m famished. I’ll get us some lunch,” Cyrene said, catching sight of a sandwich vendor outside the train who was doing a brisk business.
“You miss the train, and you won’t hear the last of it for decades,” I promised her.
She rolled her eyes and hurried down the aisle to the exit.
“What was it you wanted to know?” I asked Maata, one eye on my errant twin as she pounced on the sandwich seller.
“Did you threaten Sally on the phone?”
“Threaten?” I cleared my throat and put on the face I used with Magoth. “Why would I threaten her?”
Maata’s smile changed into a knowing grin. “Because she ran to Gabriel and told him he was making a big mistake, that you were definitely meant to be a demon lord’s consort.”
I relaxed back into my seat as Cyrene reboarded the train, her arms full of small sandwich packages and bottles of water. “Was that before or after she propositioned him?” I joked.
“After, as a matter of fact,” she said, then laughed again at the look on my face. “Oh, don’t worry; you’re Gabriel’s mate good and proper. Dragons mate for life, you know. He couldn’t leave you if he wanted to, and believe me, dalliances are the last thing on his mind.”
“I don’t doubt Gabriel’s fidelity,” I said, looking at the people as they started to blur when the train rolled out of the busy station. I had the worst urge to spill my worries out to Maata. I desperately needed reassurance that I wasn’t losing myself to the dragon heart, that Gabriel wasn’t bound so firmly to me not because I was meant to be his mate, but because of what was carried inside me. Passions faded; the gods knew I’d seen that often enough with Cyrene’s love affairs. Who was to say that the sexual attraction that Gabriel first felt for me was now replaced by his response to the dragon-heart shard?
“Here we are. Mayling, you can stop scowling; I got you a chicken one since I know you don’t eat mammals. Now, what did I miss? Did you tell Maata about threatening to cut off all of that junior demon lord’s hair and glue it on backwards?”
Maata choked on the mouthful of water she’d just taken. “Is that what you threatened Sally with?” she asked me.
“Disregard anything Cyrene says about me,” I said calmly, taking a chicken sandwich. “She’s peeved because she’s going to have to earn back her wings. So to speak.”
“If you had just thrown your weight around with Neptune, he would have reinstated me instantly!” she grumbled. “Honestly, what is the point of having a twin who is consort to a demon lord and mate to a powerful wyvern if she won’t help out with a few little problems?”
“A list of the little problems I’ve helped you with could fill a few books,” I answered, giving Maata an encouraging nod. “You were going to tell us what Sally was doing there.”
“She claimed Magoth told her to go bother you for a bit, saying that you and he could split her apprenticeship. Since she’s done a week with him, it’s evidently now your turn. Once she heard Gabriel tell me to meet you, I had a devil of a time getting out without her following.”
“Did she say what Magoth was doing?” I asked, chewing slowly on my sandwich as I mulled the situation over. Sally didn’t worry me much—she had little to no powers as an apprentice—but I had been concerned about the lack of information regarding Magoth during the last few days.
“Not really, no; just that he was still in Paris, working on a dozen or more different plans.”
“What sort of plans?” I asked, wondering if I should worry or if Magoth’s apparent quiet was a sign he was frustrated by lack of powers.
She shrugged. “She didn’t say, but Gabriel wasn’t worried, and I don’t think you need to be concerned.