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you killed!”
    “ I will not be the one to die,” he said with brash arrogance.
    “By the rood, man! I don’t want anyone to die!”
    He dropped the bag onto a chair next to the bedroom door. “I have decided, mate.”
    Tears of frustration sprang to my eyes. My throat worked for a moment as I watched him gather up his keys, wallet, and cell phone. “Please,” was all I could get out, but the word was imbued with emotion.
    He turned slowly toward me, his face dark. “You ask too much, Ysolde.”
    “I know. But I have to. Don’t you see? I want you safe, but I also want to have a future. You keep saying I’m a dragon, but you’re denying me the chance to have roots. I want to explore my dragon self, but I can’t so long as we’re outside of the weyr.”
    “The two things are not mutually exclusive,” he said, taking my hands in his and gently pulling me against him.
    “They are for me. We did a war once, Baltic, and it ended in unthinkable misery. I will not go through that again.”
    His eyes closed for a moment, his face twisted with the same pain I felt so deep inside me.
    “Please,” I whispered against his mouth, allowing myself to melt against him. “Talk to the weyr again. With Thala and Fiat cooperating, we can get all of the issues straightened out, and then we can be happy.”
    “I have you. I am happy.”
    I melted a little more, reveling in the taste and scent and feel of him, my hands drawing intricate patterns on his back. “Meet with the wyverns, give serious thought about lifting the silver dragon’s curse, and I swear that Aisling, May, and I will have Thala free by the time you return from Dauva.”
    He was still and silent for so long that I was about to give in to despair, but at last he swore under his breath, and kissed me swiftly. “I will do this one last thing for you, mate, but this is it! There will be no more boons! It is the absolute last one—do you understand?”
    “I understand,” I said, smiling up at him.
    His gaze slid toward the bed, but before I could do so much as kiss him, he sighed and gently put me away from him. “I will miss my flight if I allow you to thank me properly. I do not like this plan you have to free Thala, but I am aware that it is not you the wyverns want dead, so you may proceed with it despite my misgivings. You will not put yourself in any danger, however.”
    “So bossy,” I said, giving in to my desire and kissing him. “Fire. Please.”
    He bathed me in his dragon fire as he took charge of the kiss, allowing me to feel both his passion and his love.
    “Farewell, my heart,” I said as he picked up his bag. “Come back to me safe.”
    He paused for a minute at the door, a curious look on his face. “You said the exact same thing to me three hundred years ago.”
    “But then you were going out to battle Constantine. You won’t be doing that this time,” I said, smiling a little at the bittersweet memory.
    “Perhaps. Perhaps not,” was all he said before leaving.
    I stared at the door for a few minutes wondering what the hell that meant, but chalked it up to Baltic’s indulging in a little mystery. He liked to do that, claiming it was his way to bring back all the many missing gaps in my memory. To be honest, I thought it was more his way of teasing me, but since I enjoyed puzzling out a good mystery, I didn’t quibble.
    Two hours later I watched the sun begin its descent into the gentle hills to the west before considering the chair that sat before me. I stood in a back corner of the velvety green lawn, well away from the house and anything that might accidentally get in the path of my sometimes wonky magic.
    The frog that sat on the chair in a glass jar looked back at me with shiny black eyes.
    “Just in case something goes wrong and I turn you into a banana, I want to apologize now. I don’t think it will, but I feel obligated to warn you that with the interdict on me, my magic doesn’t quite do what I intend it to do.