She pointed. There wasn’t much to see—just the edge of a roof and the bumper, in gleaming pastel pink.
“There is no way in hell Saint-John Montfort drives a car that color.”
“But what an interesting idea for a lure.” Corin’s eyes narrowed with suspicion. “Apollo will be up here soon. Felicity is staying in town in case someone is taking this opportunity to sneak in the back.”
“Blackburns are the only dragons who can turn invisible, right?”
“So I believe.”
Movement caught the corner of her eye. “Look—”
Matching mops of dark hair disappeared behind a craggy boulder. Corin swore and charged forwards. “What the hell are you two playing at?”
Agitated whispers burst from behind the rocks. “Shit! Quick, he’s coming!”
“Come on, we need it back—”
Maya blinked. “The Dans?”
A woman’s voice, strident and commanding, broke through the Dans’ whispered pleas. “I’m not talking toeitherof you. I thought I was coming here to deal with—”
They rounded the boulders. A zing of magic brushed over Maya, but she barely noticed until Corin drew her back behind the magical boundary. She was too busy staring at the woman who’d been hiding there.
“Seline Montfort?”
Two of the Dans were there, too, but before she could see which two, they exploded into their dragon forms. Corin growled something under his breath, one arm extended in front of Maya protectively, but the Dans leaped into the air and fled back down towards the town.
Leaving Seline Montfort standing with her arms folded.
She was in her early twenties, with a perfect waterfall of strawberry blonde hair and an expression on her face like she’d expected filet mignon and been served dog food.
“I’m going to kill all three of them,” she snarled, and then saw Maya and Corin. Her eyes widened for a moment, and then she remembered herself and sneered down her nose at them. “For legal reasons, my previous statement was meant purely metaphorically.”
“May I ask what you’re doing here, Ms. Montfort?”
“You can ask your cousins that,” she sniffed. “I can see I was brought here under false pretenses. If I’m not going to—whatever. I’m leaving.”
She shot a haughty look down at the town, but something in the way her gaze lingered made Maya think shehadwanted to meet with one of the Dans. Just not either of the two who’d shown up.
What was that about?
Seline spun around, clearly intending to stalk back to her car.
“They said they needed something back off you,” Maya called before she could get away. “What was it?”
“Ugh.You canhaveit. If he’s not even going to come and steal it back, what’s the point?” She reached over her head and pulled off a necklace Maya hadn’t seen, hidden beneath her clothes. Rubies caught the sunlight.
Corin hissed in a breath.
Seline flung the necklace half-heartedly in their direction. “This was a total waste of a trip,” she complained. “You can tell those—oh, whatnow?”
Another car pulled up behind them. Maya’s car. Apollo was at the wheel, and—
Alarm bells started going off in her head even before her mom got out of the passenger side and opened the back door to get Tomás out of his seat.
Even if by some miracle her mom had missed Tally shifting into seal form on the beach, there was no way she wouldn’t have seen two dragons wheeling over the water.
“The last missing piece from my clan’s hoard. You stole this from one of my cousins?”
