He stiffened. “You suspect—”
“Yesterday, we assumed that the only reason I was targeted was to get to you. What if we were wrong?” She was so tense she was almost trembling. “What if the treasures aren’t a threat—they’re a gift?”
“That is one possibility we did not discuss yesterday,” he said carefully. “That the treasures are not a threat.”
He couldn’t believe he was saying this.
“That they are, instead, a gift,” he forced out. “If Tomás’s father—”
“It can’t be him.” Maya went white—with fury or fear, he couldn’t tell. “There’s no—no way. Impossible.”
“I understand you’re no longer together.”
She barked out painful laughter. He moved closer to her automatically, offering comfort that he had no right to give.
“If he has passed away, perhaps a relative of his—”
“If he’s dead?” She shook her head. “I don’t—hell. He might as well be. Either way, there’s no way he would know where I am.”
Corin’s dragon lashed its tail. A protective instinct unlike anything he’d ever known rose up in him. “Did he hurt you?”
“What? No. He just—it didn’t work out.” She opened her mouth, then hesitated as though rethinking what she’d been about to say.
Her shoulders slumped. “The truth is…”
The truth was, he was the one who should have sent Maya gifts. Who should have festooned her in gold, in treasures beyond imagining.
She looked up at him and her eyes went huge. “What is that?” she gasped.
Corin frowned. Then he saw it. The huge wings of shadow that blotted out every light except the eerie green that flashed along its edges.
His wings.
His magic.
Horror seared white-hot through his veins. He hadn’t even noticed the power emerging. With a snarl of effort, he contained them, forcing the magical wings back beneath his skin.
Maya was still blinking at him, her face pale. “What…”
“You shouldn’t have seen that.” Angry guilt made his voice rougher than he’d intended. Her eyes flashed.
“Why not? What was it?”
The reason I can never claim you.He bit his tongue, drawing blood.
Her eyes saw too much. “Tell me,” she insisted.
“No one else would ever send you the gifts a dragon uses to court their mate.” His voice was too harsh.
And he had said too much. After so long saying nothing at all, that one telltale word had slipped out.
“No oneelse.” Her expression was frozen. He couldn’t tell what she was thinking. Was she elated? Afraid?
She licked her lips, and he tracked the movement like a man dying of thirst dreaming of water.
And she saw him do it.
Her breath shook. “You said you don’t care what the people here think, because you’re not here for them. Who are you here for? Why are youreallystaying? Don’t say it’s to find out more about your stolen treasure. You’re not going to find the thief, or protect your hoard, by loitering around Hideaway. Whoever stole it isn’there.” She searched his face. “But I am.”
