“Why would I?” She stared at him, hoping her expression was confident and collected, but afraid there was a hint of crazy lady showing through. “The sooner you can find out who stole your treasures, the better. Send your whole clan after them, if you need to. Assuming one of them isn’t the culprit.”
His eyes flashed. “You’re accusing someone from my clan?”
“Whoever sent me those treasures knew exactly where I was. The list of dragons who fit that description is short. We’ve ruled you out. Apollo has no interest in stealing gold, and no reason to send it to me. I would have noticed if Tomás had taken a long trip like that.” Even if she hadn’t noticed his growing hoard. “What about the others who followed you the night you chased me here?”
“My cousins?” One dark eyebrow rose to a perfectly doubting peak.
“The only people I told about moving here were my mom and Felicity. Neither of whom have any interest in your treasure. But your family were all over it. And they’realldragons. What else am I meant to think?”
To her surprise, amusement lightened his expression. “Accurate as ever, Miss Flores.”
“I’m only potentially accusing one of your clan if I can’t find anyone else to suspect.”
“You suspected me.” His eyes glittered.
“And I don’t anymore, because you wouldn’t look so grumpy about all this if this was some elaborate double-bluff and you reallywereresponsible.” She grimaced.On second thoughts…
No. Corin wasn’t behind this.
He opened his mouth. “Miss Flores—”
Her phone rang, the familiar peal making her jump. Corin’s mouth snapped shut.
“Who—” She picked up her phone and her heart sank.
Mom.
Had just mentioning her mom somehow summoned her? Maya’s throat tightened. “Excuse me,” she said quietly, and went into the hall. “Hi, Mom.”
“Maya?”
The hope and tension in her mother’s voice made her stomach shrivel as she closed the door behind her. “That’s right! Tomás didn’t steal my phone this time, ha ha.”
“Is this a good time? I was hoping you would see my message earlier, but maybe it didn’t get through…”
Was this a good time? Oh, god. If she could see through solid walls, she would have been staring straight at Corin. “Uh, not exactly—”
“Oh.”
Guilt guilt guilt. Maya sucked in a breath through her nose. “Can I call you back later? It’s just—been a weird day. There’s a lot going on, I know I said I would call you earlier in the week but—”
“No, no, I understand, you’re so busy—”
Their voices overlapped, and both fell silent at the same time.
“Well,” said her mother after a pause that lasted an eternity. “I would—there’s something I’d like to talk to you about, soon. Sometime when you have time.”
Same here,Maya thought, biting her lip.Like ‘Hey, Mom, by the way, your first and only grandchild can transform into a dragon.’
Somehow, no time had ever been the right time for that conversation.
“Maybe tomorrow?” she suggested, and immediately winced. As though tomorrow would be any less of a train wreck than today.
Her mother agreed, with a doubtfulness that Maya fully deserved, and she put down the phone, guilt crawling a familiar route through her gut.
Corin looked at her carefully as she went back into the living room. “Is everything all right?”
“On a scale of one to a mystery dragon sending me stolen treasure, my mom calling ranks well below all my otherproblems right now.” She groaned and ran her hands through her hair. “What do we do next?”
