23. Maya

23

Maya

Maya stretched, easing the stiffness in her spine. Mrs. H had sent her home early, so she could play hostess for their newest guest, but it was more like going to a second job than actual time off.

Corin’s mother was hard work.

Delightful, but hard. And the longer she spent talking about Tomás with her, the worse Maya felt about how little her own mother had seen of her grandson recently.

And the next time I see her, I’ll have even more news , she thought fretfully. Not just hi, Mom, I left my job and moved to the coast and my baby can turn into a dragon, but hi, Mom, I did all that and now I’m seeing my ex-boss and he can turn into a dragon, too, and we’re looking for Tomás’s actual baby daddy who is also a dragon, and … I’ve been hiding all this from you for half a year.

Probably longer, by the time she got around to actually saying it.

Her shoulders slumped.

“This really is a darling town. I met some very interesting ladies earlier. Not at the cafe, which you don’t have, because you’re right, dear, that little ice cream parlor really isn’t the same thing, but out swimming. In this brisk weather! It’s all wonderfully Scandinavian. And I hear the restaurant is worth visiting.” Igraine fussed in her purse.

Tomás had been sitting on the mat, but he perked up, watching Mrs. Blackburn. Maya narrowed her eyes at him. She knew that look.

“She doesn’t have any marshmallows hiding in there, Tommy.”

“Indeed not.” Igraine snapped her purse shut. “Who has been sneaking you marshmallows, little dragon? Someone with a poor grasp of risk management, I expect. Or an interest in filing house insurance claims.”

“Because he’ll toast them?” Maya winced and wondered how much she could say without Tomás catching on. “He’s … been experimenting with, um, that particular skill. We had one very hard day. But he seems to have forgotten about it since then. Another coffee?”

Which was good news for Felicity and Apollo, as they only had to split their attention to watching the town’s borders, not distracting Tomás with flutters of magical sparks.

“Plenty of time for that,” Igraine said. “No idea what his power will be, yet? No? I suppose you’ll find out soon enough if it’s something cliché like the Montforts’ ordinary fire. The more subtle powers can be difficult to identify—wind, water. Moonlight.” She scoffed politely. “Your boy does have some red in his scales, though, so hopefully we’ll be expecting something fiery. Now. Tomorrow, I thought we could go over baby photos. I’ll show you Corin’s if you’ll show me yours. Deal?” Her smile was pure predator. “Over a late brunch?”

“I have work in the morning,” Maya explained over her shoulder as she refreshed her and Mrs. Blackburn’s drinks. Tomás’s scales were red, so his magic might be fiery? That seemed so basic. Could it be true?

The Montforts’ scales were red, too—she remembered the dull, old-blood color of Saint-John Montfort’s dragon when he attacked Hideaway Cove, and shivered.

“Work. Ye-es.” Mrs. Blackburn narrowed her eyes. “About that. Do you really think it’s appropriate for the mate of the Blackburn clan leader to run around cleaning rooms at a hotel? Cleaning rooms for her mate’s employees , at that. It seems rather backwards to me.”

Maya carefully set down the coffee pot. She took a moment to think. “Corin and I never actually told you that I’m his mate.” She turned around, smiling calmly, refusing to be pinned by Igraine’s piercing gaze. “You guessed.”

“As though it was hard!” Igraine waved her hands. “My son looks at you like a kicked puppy whenever you’re not looking at him , and when you do look at him, he’s like a puppy having his belly rubbed. No wonder he’s been such a misery these last few months.”

“He’s been miserable longer than that,” Maya said quietly.

“I know.” Igraine’s good mood dampened, but she rallied. “Well! And all it needed was a little push to get you together, hm? And in this delightful village! However , to return to my other point—”

“I’m not going to quit my job just because Corin’s strolled back into my life.” She raised a hand to forestall Igraine’s pained expression and what she expected to be an equally painful argument. “ Yet. I know that whatever official and unofficial duties I’ll have as his mate, they’ll take priority. I’m looking forward to it.” To doing what she’d always done, but as Corin’s equal, not his assistant? Being in charge? Forcing them both to take weekends off? “I’m really looking forward to it. But I’m not going to leave Mrs. H in the lurch when this is the busiest the Innlet has been in years. And it doesn’t matter to me if most of our guests are on Corin’s payroll. I’ll be looking after them as his mate. I might as well look after them now, too.”

Igraine sat back, a look of pleased speculation in her eyes. “Good,” she breathed. “You know, Miss Flores, I think we’re going to get along splendidly. ”

I think I’m lucky you decided that , Maya thought with a secret quirk of a smile. And wondered if, wherever he was, Corin was feeling like someone had just walked over his grave.

Under the table, something jingled. Maya ducked to look. “Tomás! Give that back to Mrs. Blackburn! I’m so sorry—” She winced an apology to Igraine as she reached for Tomás, who was pulling a handful of something glittery out of her purse.

“Not at all.”

“Excuse me?” Maya lifted her head and stared at Igraine, who was gazing down at her little thief son with an expression of … pride?

Her heart thumped.

Of course.

“You did that on purpose,” she said.

“And why ever not? He’s the child of my only son’s mate. Practically my grandchild, as soon as the two of you get around to doing things properly, which considering you didn’t even tell me the two of you were mates I’m assuming you’ve yet to do. And there hasn’t been a baby in our family for so long,” she added wistfully.

“You—you want to treat Tomás like your own grandchild?” Maya asked uncertainly. “Even though he’s not blood related?”

“He’s your child, isn’t he? And you’re my Corin’s mate. That’s all that matters.” Igraine smiled indulgently as Tomás waved the necklace around, making the stones clink together. “Oh, look at him. Yes! Quick, hide it away before anyone sees it. Keep it safe!”

Tomás’s wings buffeted the air as he transformed and flew upstairs. Igraine watched him go, her gaze fond. “Interesting coloring for a dragonlet. Then again, I’ve never known a dragon shifter to find their dragon form so early. He really is an extraordinary child. And … no idea what his power will be, you said?”

Maya drew a deep breath. “We—I—don’t know who his father is.”

“What does that matter? Corin will be an excellent father,” Igraine declared, as though that was the end of the matter.

Maya stared at her.

“You make it sound so simple.”

“There are enough difficult things in the world without weaving new griefs for ourselves.” Igraine’s smile turned brittle, and she looked away. “Corin’s father taught me that. And it took me too long to see that I should have taught Corin, in turn.”

Maya was still wondering what she meant by that when her phone rang. The universe had a perverse sense of humor, so as she dug it out, she tried to come up with something to say to her mom…

It wasn’t her mom on the other end.

“Hi, Caro. What do you need?”

“Your boyfriend isn’t around, is he?”

“What?” Maya blinked, then slapped herself on the forehead. “Corin? Why are you trying to call—”

“Because I’m not having my restaurant be the site of another goddamn dragon fight. Felicity was just in here, saying there’s another party of dragons at the perimeter and this lot are Blackburns. That makes them your boyfriend’s problem. And yours. Congrats.”

“Thank you?” Maya stuttered. “Um—”

It was too late. Caro hung up. Maya blinked at her phone for a moment.

“That sounded interesting,” Igraine said, baldly curious.

“There are other Blackburn dragons coming into Hideaway. Did you know they were coming?”

“I hadn’t a clue.”

And Corin was still gone.

Igraine put a hand on her arm. “Don’t worry. I’ll go look after them. If they’re here to bother you, I’ll be very clear that I got here first.”

“No.” Maya took a deep breath. “I’ll go.”

Corin needed a queen. She wouldn’t be any good to him if she couldn’t even say boo to whatever random relatives turned up.

A few minutes later, Tomás and his latest treasure on her hip, she pushed through the doors of the Hook and Sinker in search of Felicity. Caro was talking to her team behind the counter, but looked up as Maya entered.

Igraine had looked pleased when she volunteered to take the lead and had told Maya she was just going to touch up her face and would be right with her. Which gave her maybe five, ten minutes to deal with the situation herself.

Everything Igraine had said to her so far felt like a test, and she wasn’t going to fail this one.

“Here she is. Lady of the hour.” Caro nodded. “You just missed her. Felicity’s gone up the hill to see off the dragons. Or see them in.”

Maya hoisted Tomás a bit higher on her hip and stopped him from grabbing an empty glass off the counter. “Who’s up there? Did she say?”

“Dragons.”

“Yeah, but—that doesn’t narrow it down.”

“Blackburn dragons.”

“They’re a big family!”

Caro threw up her hands. “What do you want me to say? Felicity came around to fix the fridge that’s been playing up. Two minutes in, her magic does its glowy thing and she says we’ve got visitors. Corin’s family, the same lot as last time.”

Maya’s blood chilled. “The same lot as last time?”

Last time was when Corin chased her here. With his retinue of cousins in tow.

Caro’s eyes flicked past her. “Guess that’s them.”

The restaurant door slammed open. “Miss Flo-o-o-res!”

Maya stared. Silhouetted against the bright sunlight was a strange shape, like…

She blinked. Like three shapes, all trying to cram themselves through the doorway at once.

“Aedan?” She squinted. “Braedan and Caedan. What are you—”

“She’s here! I told you!” Aedan Blackburn elbowed his brothers firmly backwards, propelling himself into the room. Like all Corin’s cousins, he looked like a badly done photocopy of Corin. Same dark hair and brilliant eyes, but shorter and bulkier.

The Dans. She’d met them a few times, which was a few times more than she’d met most of the sprawling Blackburn clan, and largely due to the fact that they had a habit of showing up where they were least expected.

Like now.

The last time she’d seen them, they had been chasing her and Tomás through the night.

Her arm tightened around Tomás.

“What are you doing here?” she repeated, her voice brittle.

“We’re here to congratulate—hey!” Aedan half-turned, his expression turning furious. “Stop pushing, dick!”

“Get out of the way, then!”

“You get out of the way!”

“I’m behind you, you enormous prick—” Braeden lunged at his brother.

Behind them, Caedan, the third brother, raised his voice. “Both of you move before you get moved!”

Braedan—half a head taller than Corin and built like a string bean—got his arm around Aedan’s neck and grinned at Maya. “Hi, Miss Flores!”

“…Hi?” She waved weakly.

This was not what she’d been expecting.

Felicity jogged into sight outside, looked at the door completely blocked by three jostling dragon shifters, and gestured to Maya that she would go around the back.

She came in through the service door a moment later, surveying the three Dans with an expression of extreme doubt.

“And I’m regretting letting them in already,” she sighed. “I’m sorry, Maya, they looked so well behaved up the hill.” She hurried up to Maya and put an arm around her waist, giving her and Tomás a quick hug. “I can have them out of here quick as anything. Just say the word.”

“Hey, lady, we’re not going anywhere until—”

“That’s the hearthstone dragon’s mate , you absolute prune !” Caedan growled, and smacked the back of Braedan’s head. His chin clonked into Aedan’s skull.

“Oi! Watch it!”

“They are the guys from the night you arrived, right?” Felicity whispered, staring at the trio suspiciously. They still hadn’t managed to get through the doorway.

“I admit, they seem less terrifying in the daylight,” Maya murmured.

“And they’re … grown men? This isn’t some Thirteen-going-on-Thirty thing?”

“Corin always said they were frustrating.”

“You’re sure he said ‘frustrating’ and not ‘a pack of dumbasses’?” Felicity shrugged. “Hey! You lot! You said you had something important to pass on. Maya’s here now, so shoot, before I get bored and slingshot you back the way you came.”

“We, uh—” Caedan’s eyes flickered to Maya, then away with suspicious quickness. “Important. Yeah.”

“Did Corin send you?” Maya asked.

“Corin isn’t here?”

“No. He’s gone.”

All three triplets stared at her. “Oh, shit,” one of them muttered. “That’s not…”

“You said he would be here!”

“He was!”

“Well, he isn’t now!”

The temporary ceasefire exploded into scuffling again.

Felicity cracked her knuckles. “Want me to throw them out?”

Tiny golden flowers blossomed around her.

“No,” Maya said quickly. “I’m sure they’re here for a good reason. Corin is busy with other, um, clan business. So it’s probably a good thing these three are here, actually. Better to keep them contained. If there’s a problem in the clan, these three are usually involved.”

“They come another inch inside behaving like that, and I’ll murder all three of them,” Caro deadpanned. She raised her voice. “D’you hear that? That was a warning. You get one. ”

Caedan almost made it through the doorframe and was immediately flattened by the other two. Felicity waved her hand and the magical flowers faded. “Wait. What’s that?”

Wispy shadows gathered around the triplets. They were like the shadows that hounded Corin’s steps sometimes, but far weaker. The lightning that crackled at their edges was darker, too. Like the echo of light, rather than a lick of it.

Shit. “That’s the Blackburns’ magic. The duskfire.”

“What does it do?”

“It, um—”

He’d never actually showed her. Showed her his dusky wings, yes; showed her what they could do, no.

“It’s dangerous,” she said slowly.

Braedan’s brothers were wrestling him upside-down. One of his shoes fell off as his feet grappled with the top of the doorframe. Aedan flung a whip of lightning-edged smoke at them both. Braedan kicked out and the smoke-strike diverted, hitting a table and dissipating with a dark puff.

“They can control each other’s magic?” Felicity’s eyebrows shot up. “That must get annoying.”

“It explains why Corin insists on being the one to clean up their messes. If he can take charge of their magic like that it must make it easier. But—Fee, don’t throw them all the way out, but if you can get them away from the doorway?”

Tomás was watching the shadow-fight with wide eyes. His mouth made a silent O . Felicity noticed it at the same moment as Maya and they both tensed.

Then he waved one arm, imitating the Dans flicking shadows at each other, or Felicity controlling her sparkly magic.

Maya sighed with relief.

And one of the triplets shouted in pain.

Caro surged forward. “Hey, you lot! Quit it, or I’ll throw you out!”

“Yeah, quit it, Caedan! ”

“You’re the one who started using magic in front of—”

“Like that matters! Everyone’s a shifter here and even if they aren’t, they all know about magic. We don’t need to hide—”

Their voices overlapped until Maya couldn’t tell who was shouting what at whom. Just that they were all shouting at each other.

And their magic was getting away from them.

The wispy shadows billowed into heavy clouds. One rose to the recently repaired window above the door. A cracking sound echoed through the room.

Maya felt lightheaded as the smoke cleared. The window was broken.

Exactly the same way it had broken when Montfort attacked the town.

Golden light flared as Felicity launched herself to her feet. Her daisy-chain magic grew thorns. “You three! Out!”

For a moment, Maya thought it would work. The triplets turned shocked faces on the smashed window and the glass littering the ground. Caedan tugged his tie straight. “Uh,” he began.

Then someone flung another whip of magic. She didn’t see who. Shadows boiled around the three of them even thicker than before, rushing across the room towards her.

“Get away from her!”

Midnight wings curved around her and Tomás. The triplets’ magic dissolved before it even touched the effervescent lightning at the edges of Corin’s power.

He was standing behind her, his face a mask of rage.

His cousins staggered upright. Aedan raised a fearful hand. “Hey, Cor—”

“ Out. ”

Glass crunched underfoot as the triplets vanished back through the door. Maya moved unsteadily, reaching out one hand. “Corin—”

He stared at her hand, his face white, and took a step back. “I’ll deal with them. Wait here.”

“But—”

“This is my problem to deal with, Miss Flores. Wait here. ”

Maya snatched back her hand, stung.

Even when she was his assistant, Mr. Blackburn had never spoken to her that way.

She wasn’t going to let him start now.

She handed Tomás to Felicity. Then, head high, shoulders straight, heart only trembling slightly, she marched outside after her mate.

Corin was looming over his cousins like the angel of death giving judgement. His midnight wings seemed razor-edged in the failing sunlight. Aedan, Braedan, and Caedan cringed in front of him. All the fight had gone out of them.

Maya slowed as she approached them. It was hard to believe, looking at this tableau, that Corin was only a few years older than the others. They were hanging their heads like kids ready for a scolding—and Corin was in full grouchy headmaster mode. Except with his wings curled around them like that … She tipped her head to one side. It was kind of threatening. But it also reminded her of something else. What was it?

“What were you thinking? Don’t answer that. It’s pitifully clear none of you were thinking at all.”

“We—” Braedan croaked.

“I don’t want to hear it.” Corin’s lip peeled back with disgust. “The one time I leave the three of you to your own devices, and this is what happens? This isn’t one of our retreats! You can’t throw your magic around like that!”

“It was an accid—”

“We can’t afford accidents. You know that.” He ran one hand down his face. “ I know that. I should have seen this coming.”

“Cor…” Aedan looked pained. “We didn’t mean to—”

“You never do.” Corin’s voice was sharp, but his shoulders slumped. His wings faded into the twilight and she finally realized what they had reminded her of. Not an angel of death looming over the condemned.

A mother hen, scooping her chicks under her wings to make sure they didn’t get into trouble.

Even though his wings were made from the same magic that had undone all the repairs done to Caro’s restaurant since Montfort attacked it. Strange. If his magic was naturally destructive, why was his instinct to use it protectively?

Either way, his wings were gone now, so he had no excuse to push her away.

She snuck up behind him and tucked one hand under his arm. He tensed. “Miss Flores—”

“Call me that again in public and there’ll be trouble,” she said in her sweetest voice.

“Maya.” Her name flowed off his tongue and took all his tension with it. He turned towards her—hesitated—then raised one hand to touch her arms. “I asked you to let me deal with this.”

“No, you told me to wait inside. You’re not my boss anymore, Corin. You don’t get to order me around.”

The barest ghosts of expressions flitted over his face: wry regret, and a warmth she couldn’t put a name to. “I apologize.”

“Good. Don’t do it again.”

“I can’t promise that.” Thunderclouds built behind his eyes. “These three shouldn’t be here. They endangered you.”

“Pff. Hideaway sees worse than that when I try to put Tomás to bed at night.”

“I wish that were the case.” He looked behind her, and she followed his gaze to the broken window above the Hook and Sinker’s front door.

“It’s only a broken window,” Maya reassured him. “Caro might try to gut you for it, but she does that to everyone. She probably can’t even fit you into her gutting schedule until next week. I’m sure the mighty Corin Blackburn will helicopter in a full crew of glaziers well before then, making himself plenty of friends among the local construction workers.”

He didn’t even smile. Time to bring out the big guns.

“So this is what you meant when you said your magic brings back old wounds. That’s exactly the same way the window was broken after Montfort started stomping around.”

The Dans hissed in a collective breath. She wasn’t sure who whispered, “Ugh, you fired up Montfort damage?”

But it worked. Corin’s lip twitched.

For all of a microsecond.

“It’s only a window,” she reminded him.

“This time.” He grimaced. “The duskfire. When the end of the day is near, and you think you’re home and safe, the duskfire brings back all the pain and hurt you thought you left far behind you. Not just the physical. Our power feeds on misery, and returns it to the world tenfold.” His expression was icy, but his eyes were full of sorrow.

“Corin—” She reached up to touch his cheek. “Your grandfather didn’t have a solution, did he?”

“No.”

A strained noise came from one of the triplets. There was a strong sense of all three of them trying to edge away.

“You all stay right there,” she told them. If they wanted to get themselves into awkward situations, they could stick around and deal with the consequences.

“Please—”

“ Stay. ” She turned back to Corin.

His eyes were distant galaxies. Frozen. Lonely. Whole worlds he believed could hold nothing but pain.

God fucking damn his magic, and all the misery it put him through.

“I don’t care,” she told him, before he could say anything else.

“You said—”

“I know what I said. That doesn’t matter. I don’t care if you can never hand me a single earring without your magic throwing a fit. I don’t need gold. I don’t need jewelry. I need you. ” She took his hands. “You should have left me to solve my own problems if you wanted to be free of me, Corin Blackburn. I had almost convinced myself I was happy without you. The moment you were back in my life, I knew that was a lie. And I’ll never be able to make myself believe it again.”

“I’ll hurt you—”

“You’ll do no such thing.” She stepped closer and, before he could move away, kissed him. His lips moved in surprise, and then he gathered her into his arms and held her with everything he had.

“Your magic feeds on hurt and grief? Well, I was perfectly capable of being a miserable bitch on my own. No magic needed.” She held him close. “Then you turn up, and all the shadows leave my mind. Even when things are hard, they’re easier, because you’re here.”

He relaxed in her embrace.

“Admit it,” she murmured into his chest. “You don’t know how to be happy either, unless I’m around, do you?”

“I—no,” he admitted with a rueful almost-smile.

“Then there’s an easy solution.” She pressed her lips against his again. “I’m sure we can find room in our schedules for a little happiness. Magical or not.”

He gazed down at her, his soul raw in his eyes. “I’ll make it a priority.”