Light Dragons 01 - Love in the Time of Dragons

the big table. “Ignore him. He’s a bit grumpy because we ran out of his favorite cereal for breakfast.”
    He stopped glaring at me and transferred his glare to her. “You did not just tell her that! For the love of the saints, woman, I am a wyvern! You do not tell people I’m grumpy over breakfast foods!”
    “If someone makes a fuss about not having Cap’n Crunch, then that someone is just going to have to take his lumps,” she said, blithely unaware of his furious gaze. “Come on, I think they’re waiting for us.”
    Kostya turned without another word and stomped over to the table, Cyrene at his side. I returned to my chair and watched with interest as the wyverns gathered around the table. There were only five chairs there, and before they sat, Gabriel, Drake, and Kostya all made a point of retrieving a chair and placing it next to theirs. The guards and the other dragons in attendance all took up spots on the chairs lining the wall.
    Jim gave me a poignant look, but bound to silence as it was, it said nothing. I was grateful for that, since it meant I could try to sort through my mental turmoil while the dragons went through the formalities of their meeting.
    “Kostya Fekete,” the blue wyvern named Bastian said. “You have called this sárkány on behalf of the black dragons. State your business.”
    I looked up from where I’d been sightlessly staring at my hands.
    Kostya stood at the foot of the table and looked at all the wyverns present. “I am here to seek reparation. The mate of Baltic has revealed herself, and the black dragons demand that she be held liable for the crimes he committed against the weyr.”
    “What?” I asked, standing up, so stunned by Kostya’s demand I forgot that May warned me not to speak before I was called upon. “That’s ridiculous!”
    Bastian frowned at me. “You have not yet been recognized by the weyr. Please remain—”
    “I will not remain silent!” I stormed over to the table, suddenly furious. “Certainly not while you people accuse me of something I didn’t do.”
    “You are the mate of Baltic,” Kostya snarled. “By the laws that govern the weyr, you are just as responsible for his actions as he is.”
    “I am not his mate. I am not even a dragon! I’m human! You all must be able to tell that!”
    The wyverns exchanged glances.
    “You see? No one is denying it, because it’s true. I’m human.”
    “You appear human, yes,” Drake said in a voice that held an Eastern European accent. “But Gabriel’s mother assures us that your dragon self resides within you, simply waiting for you to waken it.”
    “Even if that’s true, that doesn’t give you people the right to try me for a crime I didn’t commit! Don’t you watch CSI ? That’s totally illegal!”
    Kostya’s scowl darkened. “You are a mate, his mate. And unless you’d like to bring him before us, then it is you who will pay the price for his crimes.”
    “What crimes, exactly? The war with the silver dragons that Gabriel said wiped out your sept?” I made a disgusted sound. “If the dreams I had were actually echoes of the past, then you were a part of that sept, too, which means you were a part of the war. How many silver dragons did you kill, Kostya?”
    He snarled something extremely rude under his breath. “We are not discussing my actions. I have made my peace with the weyr.”
    “Oh, did you really?” Furious, I did something I never do—I made a scene. I leaped onto the conference table and stomped down its length to stand in front of Kostya. “You supported Baltic in everything he did! Everything! He couldn’t pass gas without you telling him how fabulous he was!”
    Kostya growled, positively growled as he leaped to his feet, his chair flying backwards several feet. “That is not true!”
    “Do your friends here know just how much of a yes-man you really were? Do they know how you followed him around like a puppy, doing anything he demanded?”
    “My past has nothing to do—”
    “Do they know how you let Baltic hold a sword to my throat and threaten to kill me just because I was born a silver dragon?” My voice rang out loudly.
    The entire room was silent.
    “Er . . .” I cleared my throat as I realized what I’d just declared. “That’s assuming that I am what everyone says I am, which I still maintain is very unlikely.”
    Kostya, goaded into a fury, yelled at me. “I am not to blame for Baltic’s actions! I kept him in check until he