Light Dragons 03 - Sparks Fly

we’d be comfortable in a room with someone else, though, so if you could just give us a room with a nice big bed, we’ll be happy as two little clams.”
    I ran my hand through my hair, feeling more than usually harried. “Just wait a few minutes, Cyrene, then we’ll talk about the situation. Maura-”
    “No.” She stood at the front door, a firm, decisive expression warning that she had reached her limit. “No more excuses, no more good-byes, no more conversation. I’m in far more trouble than you can imagine, and I have to go call Emile in an attempt to keep the most horrible event you can imagine from happening. I don’t want to be rude, and I do appreciate the fact that you made my incarceration here as pleasant as possible, but the answer is still no.”
    “But-”
    “Good-bye, and good luck with whatever it is that Savian has undertaken on your behalf.”
    The door closed firmly behind her as she left. I frowned at it for a moment, trying to decide what would be best to do with regard to her. I wanted to help her, and yet at the same time, I needed to know the location of the sepulcher. Perhaps if she got that information from Dr. Kostich, she would tell me, as well as Thala?
    “Hellfire,” I swore, deciding that would never happen. If Savian didn’t come through with a location in the next twenty-four hours, I’d just have to try to get the information from Dr. Kostich myself. Somehow.
    “And damnation,” Kostya said, giving Cyrene an irritated frown.
    “Look, I’m trying to be nice to you; I really am,” Cyrene said, frowning right back at him. “You could work with me!”
    “I don’t want to do anything other than to wish you to the devil,” Kostya snapped before turning his back on her to face me. “Why are you here?”
    “I live here,” I said, making a helpless gesture.
    “In Riga?” His eyes narrowed in suspicion. “That insane mate of yours intends on doing something here, doesn’t he?”
    I set his feet on fire. He did nothing other than tighten his lips, although the fire made Cyrene squawk and leap back. “Baltic is not insane, which you very well know.”
    “Does he intend to rebuild Dauva?”
    “Of course he’s going to rebuild. Did you ever doubt he would? You know how much he loved it.”
    “I cannot allow that,” Kostya said loftily, his voice rife with impatience. “It is too close to St. Petersburg, where my home is located. I will not have Baltic on the black dragons’ back doorstep.”
    “Will you cease bothering my mate!”
    I folded my arms over my chest and waited for the explosion. Baltic strode into the house, his dragon fire simmering inside him, his attention focused on Kostya.
    “You don’t deny you are building here deliberately to threaten my sept?” Kostya spun around to ask.
    “Has he annoyed you, Ysolde?” Baltic asked, his eyes as hard and shiny as hematite when he looked at Kost-
ya, but warm and full of mysterious depths when they turned to me. “You will not let me kill him, as I ought, I know, but I will see to it that he does not bother you in such a manner again.”
    Kostya sneered. “As if you could-”
    “What is going on, here? Are you having a party without me, my most beloved of all females?”
    “Oh, that’s all we need,” I said, sighing and moving over to take Baltic’s arm, when he turned toward the voice at the open doorway. “Constantine, you have the worst timing of anyone I know.”
    “Thank you,” he said, materializing just so he could grab my hand and press a wet kiss to it. “It warms me to my cods to know that you care.”
    “She does not care about you or your cods!” Baltic snarled, snatching my hand away from Constantine. “She cares only about me and mine!”
    “The current derangement of her mind is not as important a subject as one I have to impart to her regarding-godson!”
    Constantine evidently just noticed Kostya standing to the side, because he turned to him with delight written all over his face. “Now you cannot escape me. I will challenge you once and for all for my sept.”
    “You what?” Kostya asked, all astonishment.
    “I was the heir to the black wyvern before Toldi even met your mother. Thus, the sept is mine by rights. If you do not hand it over, I will challenge you for it, although I shouldn’t have to challenge anyone for what is mine.”
    “It is my sept,” Kostya said between grinding teeth. “I have no intention of letting you challenge me any more than