“There’s your mama,” Felicity announced breezily. The hum of gold came into the room with her. “Sorry, Mays. He’s upset because we’restillnot hiding secret treasure from him, I think. Hunted through all our cupboards and was super disappointed.”
“Tomás! We’ve talked about ransacking our neighbors.” Maya held out her arms and a child much larger than Corin had been expecting ran over to her.
The last time he’d seen Tomás Flores, the boy had been wobbly on his legs and cuddling shyly into his mother’s shoulder. This child was much bigger, confident and fast, not a baby at all. A small child.
Tomás resembled his mother in coloring, with the same warm-toned skin and dark hair and eyes. He was every inch a dragon even in human form, bright-eyed and inquisitive and, apparently, frustrated at his carers’ inability to provide him with treasures to steal, and Corin was…
A strange feeling took hold of him. Was it jealousy? If Tomás was his, then Corin would have been the one to let his valuables dangle carelessly on the edges of low tables, leave treasure-boxes unlocked and vaults ajar. The child would steal a king’s ransom in gold and jewels, cementing his position as the beloved hatchling of his clan.
Corin’s chest felt heavy. Tomás had stolen the first piece of his hoard from him. But instead of it being cause for celebration, it had torn the boy’s world apart.
He clenched his jaw as Maya picked up Tomás, asking with repressed laughter in her voice what he’d been doing. Tomás grumbled something Corin couldn’t make head or tail of, and stared openly across the table at him.
“Oh.” Maya looked momentarily shaken. “Tomás, this is—well, you’ve met him before, actually…”
Tomás’s inquisitive eyes narrowed. “Mine,” he mumbled, clutching at the net bag that hummed with gold.
Not much gold, but some. One very familiar piece.
Corin’s gold watch, which he had inherited from his grandfather when he took his place as head of the clan.
“Yours to keep,” he told the child, inclining his head. “Stolen fair and square.”
“Mine,” Tomás repeated, and threw his hands around his mother’s neck.
“Stolen fair and square?” Maya almost managed to keep the outrage out of her voice. “That’s a change from—”
She bit her lip, stopping herself mid-sentence. “I suppose you’ve got the necklace back, so it evens out a little,” she said hopefully.
The necklace. Corin’s hand found it without looking, he was so attuned to the gold-hum. Strange, though, that Tomás hadn’t spared it a glance.
Strange.
And suspicious.
Maya had retrieved the Ocean of Stars necklace before the boy could add it to his hoard, clearly, but still … that much treasure, for a dragon child whose only other gold was a single watch and several stainless-steel spoons…
“What other treasures does he have in his hoard?” he asked.
Maya frowned at him. “This is it,” she said. “Everything in the bag.”
Corin glanced at the net bag. There was little in it—other than the watch, only a few baubles. “Are you sure about that?”
His doubts had stung Maya—she stalked ahead of him like an offended cat.
Leading him straight for her home.
It had not been his intention, but once the opportunity showed itself, his dragon wouldn’t let him ignore it.
Hideaway Cove stretched around the sheltered bay that gave the town its name. The housing stock was mainly older, wood-clad and picturesque, with some newer developments on the hill that led to an abandoned lighthouse. The place must be battered by winter storms and salt spray year around. He knew from his research that it wasn’t a wealthy town. Even its local dragon lived by his own work, not the inherited wealth of generations of treasure and power. And yet … the surrounding houses were well maintained. Tidy paintwork. Roofs and shutters in good condition. Apollo and Felicity’s home was no different, except that it was painted an outrageous yellow.
No cracked or shattered windows—in a town inhabited by shifters, which must include rambunctious shifter children, that was a miracle. The mayor was a builder of some sort, wasn’t he? Perhaps he blackmailed all his voters into contracting him to maintain their properties.
The alternative itched at him. Other shifters whispered about Hideaway Cove. It was a sanctuary in more ways than one. A place of what non-dragons might callcommunity.Not based ontreasure and authority, but kindness and people …helpingone another.
If that were true, this town might as well be another planet to the way he’d grown up. His family kept to themselves. No other shifter would trust a Blackburn, with their dangerous magic.
He didn’t even trust himself.
