5
Maya
Don’t freak out. Don’t freak out.
Sheknewthe Blackburns were rich. She knew dragons hoarded ridiculous amounts of treasure. Apollo had caught her up on what he called “all that dragonly nonsense” after she moved to Hideaway.
But this?
This was too much.
“Really?” she said weakly. “The real Troy? The one they made a movie about? The, um … theIliadTroy?”
“So we have always claimed.” Corin’s eyebrows drew together. “If not Troy itself, then another city of similar vintage. That necklace is over three thousand years old.”
It was a good thing she was already sitting down, because she was going to faint.
“Oh.”
“And someone took them from my clan’s vault to give to you.” His expression darkened. “This should have been discovered earlier. For this much treasure to be taken from our hoard is unthinkable.”
Any other time, she would jump to reassure him—but she was still feeling quite dizzy, actually, and anyway, she didn’t work for him anymore.
“I think I’m just going to…” She dropped her head between her knees.
Corin was at her side at once. He touched her shoulder. “Miss Flores—Maya—”
“I’m fine. I just—need a moment.” To breathe. To let the world stop spinning so very fast.
“Chree-chree?” A murmur of magic, and Tomás wrapped a pudgy hand around her fingers. “Mama?”
“It’s okay, sweetpea. Mama’s just…”Looking at the floor from very close up.She bit her lip.
This was worse than the watch. So, so much worse.
Tomás looked between her, and Corin, and his hoard, still spilling out of his old briefcase. He wavered, clearly caught between staying near his mother and defending his treasure from the other dragon.
His little face began to crumple.
Her head was still spinning, but too bad. “Everything’s fine,” she reassured Tomás. “See? Let’s put your hoard right here and you right here, and we can cuddleandyou can have all your treasures.” She tugged the suitcase onto her lap and settled Tomás onto it, smiling at him. He smiled back, wrapping his arms around her neck.
Blackburn did not smile.
“What is it?” she asked, her heart rate spiking again.
“I assumed the Ocean of Stars was an outlier,” he said. His face still looked like a thunderhead, but his voice was restrained. “But these pieces are some of the most valuable of our hoard.” His eyes fell on her, dark as a starless night.
She swallowed.I don’t even want to think about what that means in terms of monetary value.“From your family hoard, not your personal hoard?”
“If they had been from my personal hoard, I would have known it long ago. This is—” He shook his head. “An even greater insult, to steal from all of us.”
“If you want them back—”
“No. The treasures were stolen fair and square.” Somehow, his expression lightened. “And gifted to a hatchling, which makes them untouchable.”
“All mine!”
“Yes. All yours, little Flores.” His tone was friendly, but a muscle twitched in his jaw, and his eyes were still pitiless black. She’d never seen him so furious.
