Eamon looked at the mess where portals usually open up in our penthouse. “Shit! Desmon’s going to end up with potting mix and a giant plant in his library if we don’t hurry.”
I looked at my phone. “You’ve got five minutes.”
The next five minutes were a flurry of activity as they quickly and carefully moved the giant plant into its new planter and filled it in with potting mix. They had just gotten the Bird of Paradise back into its spot by the door when the familiar telltale signs of magic tickled the nape of my neck, making the tiny hairs there stand at attention.
The portal opened up exactly where the plant had been, and Seth’s head popped through the black, swirling vortex.
Seth was Desmon’s personal wizard, though by his love of the punk goth aesthetic and his ability to take everything as a joke, one would never be able to guess that he was probably the strongest wizard on this side of the planet. He was okay once you got used to his mildly grating attitude.
“What the hell happened here?” Seth wrinkled his nose at the pile of dirt still on the floor before looking up at Tansy. “Hey, Sis.”
He was also Tansy’s long-lost brother… or was it the other way around, since she was the one who’d been missing.
“Hey, Seth. How are Liam and Hazel?”
“Naked and very satisfied.” The wizard was mated in a triad to a demon and a human woman.
“Eww! TMI!” Tansy covered her ears. “Get out of here!”
“As you wish.”
I chuckled, shaking my head, and followed Seth through the portal. The swirling vortex spat me out in Desmon’s library like it always did, and I was greeted by old books, dark wood, and the collected weight of centuries of deliberate acquisition. Dragons were known for hoarding things, and while Desmon had a museum and a personal cave of wonders, plenty of his collection still ended up at his estate. Desmon stood leaning against his desk rather than behind it.
“I’m going to have lunch,” Seth said nonchalantly. “Just call me when you need to go back.”
He disappeared out the door, leaving me with the Dragon of Darlington.
“Thank you for coming quickly.” Desmon gestured to the oversized chair next to him as he made his way behind the desk.
I sat, but he didn’t take his own seat. Instead, he paced. There was a nervousness to him that had my senses on high alert. It took something serious to affect a dragon.
“A woman called the museum this morning, and she asked for me specifically.”
That wasn’t unheard of. Desmondidown the Darlington Museum, and there were all kinds of people in this world, including women crazy enough to call the museum and ask to speak to a dragon directly.
“They had Mateo take the call, pretending to be me.”
Mateo was head of security at the museum. Desmon trusted him implicitly, and from what I gathered, he treated Mateo and Seth like sons he never had. They’d both lived at the estate for some time, and rumor was that he’d kept their rooms intact even now, years later, and they still had dinner together sometimes.
“A young woman from New York City claims to be in possession of a dragon egg.”
My eyes went wide. A dragon’s egg was a treasure indeed.
“Mateo thought it was a hoax at first,” Desmon said. “The story was outlandish, and he was skeptical. He might have hung up on her.”
“Hethoughtit was. So that means he doesn’t think so anymore. What changed his assessment?” I asked.
“I did. The woman sent a video of the egg to the museum’s public email shortly after. We were lucky that Carly was the one who opened it, so no one else knows about it. It looks genuine. But more importantly, the woman says that it feels warm like it’s generating its own heat, and when she put her ear to it, she could hear a faint heartbeat. But she thinks she might be imagining it. She even said she was keeping it upright because she’s afraid of the baby drowning.”
“A live dragon egg!” For some reason, I initially thought it was non-viable or perhaps a fossilized one. Those would fetch a fortune on the market as well, but a live one? That was priceless. I shook my head. Something didn’t sit right. A live, viable dragonegg would be guarded with a dragon’s life. How did it end up with some random woman from New York? “All of that could be faked, though, right?” I mused out loud. It really was a far-fetched story.
“Of course. No dragons have come out reporting a missing egg, however. Though I doubt any would admit to losing something this important.”
“What does she want? Money?”
Desmon looked grim. “We don’t know. Mateo called her back, but she never picked up. We tracked the signal to a stretch of the I-80. It’s still there and hasn’t moved.”
“She ditched her phone,” I surmised.
