Light Dragons 02 - The Unbearable Lightness of Dragons

sweetie?”
    “Hardly that,” Drake said, his lips tight. “It seems we have much to discuss at the sárkány , however.”
    “At the very least, you can officially call off the silly war.”
    Drake turned his glittering emerald eyes on Aisling. “Silly?”
    “Sorry. Regrettable war.”
    “Better.” He turned back to us, his eyes examining Constantine for a moment. “I do not know what has passed to leave your lieutenant trying to kill all three of you, but I believe there will be no problem in the weyr retracting its declaration of war. As for the issue brought to head by Constantine’s shade . . .”
    Constantine stopped glowering at Baltic and directed his attention at Drake. “I remember you. You’re my godson’s younger brother, the one claimed by the reeve for the green sept. You share her genetic traits, but you are not a reeve yourself? Interesting.”
    “Of course he’s not a reeve,” Aisling said, smiling up at Drake. “That would mean he could have more than one mate, and he’d never do that.”
    Drake looked startled at the thought.
    “What exactly is a reeve?” Jim asked.
    “One whose bloodline is particularly close to the First Dragon,” Constantine answered.
    Next to me, Baltic stiffened.
    “Close?” I asked, my blood turning cold. “Close how? Really, really friendly? That sort of close?”
    “We will leave now, Ysolde,” Baltic declared, all but shooing me past them.
    “Close as in close. Biologically so,” Constantine said with a shrug. “Ask Baltic. He knows—as the son of the First Dragon, he also is a reeve.”
    Baltic swore under his breath, then took my arm.
    “Baltic is the son of the First Dragon?” I heard Aisling gasp as I turned to face the man whose love was everything to me.
    “You’re a reeve?” I asked him.
    “Whoa, he’s a first-generation son. Didn’t see that coming,” Jim said in tones of amazement.
    “Now, chérie —” Baltic started to say, his eyes going all warm and soft with emotion.
    “You can have more than one mate? What was all that business about you dying because he killed me?” My voice rose as I jabbed my finger in Constantine’s direction.
    “I believe I’ve already established my innocence on that front—” Constantine started to answer.
    I spun around and shot a fire-tinged ball of arcane light toward him.
    “Er . . . my apologies for interrupting. You go ahead and continue yelling at Baltic,” he said quickly, eyeing the hole in the wall where the ball hit.
    I turned back to Baltic.
    “Ysolde—”
    “Don’t!” I held up my hand to stop him. “Just answer one question, Baltic. Can you take another mate?”
    “There is no other female in the world for me.”
    “That’s not what I asked!”
    He pulled me up against his chest, allowing me to search the depths of his eyes. “There is no other female but you. There never will be.”
    “But you could—”
    His fire wrapped around us, sinking into me, merging with the slumbering fire that was buried deep within me, his mouth moving on mine. “You are my life. You are my soul. You are the beginning and end to me. It will always be so.”
    I stopped fighting him, accepting the love that was so evident in his eyes, in the beat of his heart, in everything he was. We were together, and there was nothing that could change that, not even death.
    “That is so romantic,” Aisling said with a little sniff.
    “Serious Hallmark moment,” Jim agreed.
    “Why don’t you ever say things like that?” May asked Gabriel.
    “He’s still a reeve, you know,” Constantine said, marching over to us as Baltic released my lower lip. “Whereas I’m n—”
    Baltic’s fist shot out again. I stared into his beautiful dark eyes, basking in the glow of love and desire and need that shone in them. Behind me came the sound of wood crashing to the floor accompanied by a large, heavy object. “I love you, too.”
    “Come, mate.” He held out his hand for me, then cocked an eyebrow at Brom, who slipped around Pavel and obediently trotted after us, Pavel bringing up the rear with a twitch of his lips.
    As Baltic passed Gabriel, who with a stunned expression stared at where Constantine lay struggling with the remains of the table, he paused. “He’s your problem now.”
    “Like hell he is,” Gabriel said, his expression changing to one of sheer horror.
    “You haven’t heard the last of me, Baltic,” Constantine warbled from underneath the broken table. “I’m not finished