Page 66 of Asher

He puffs out his chest. “My bro Caolan would have brought me.”

“Okay, but more importantly, why would I invite you anywhere after you nearly ruined my wedding?”

“I wasprotectingit!” he yelps. “But hey, while we’re on the subject—”

“You’re clear through most of the cave,” David interrupts as he and Zac come back. “I’m not getting anything from the crates, either… which is just as well, since you’ve already rummaged through them.”

“We didn’t know wards existed that could be hidden so thoroughly,” Zac protests.

“Let me just check the wall, and then we’ll see if we can scan through it.”

“Have we called Brandt yet?” Caolan asks.

“Who’s Brandt?” Micah mutters as we look toward the elf examining the crates.

“Why are you asking us?” Asher hisses, and I elbow him. No need to take his mood out on others.

“We haven’t,” Gideon says. “Why would we need to call Brandt?”

Caolan points to the symbol on the lid of the crate he’s standing beside. “Because that’s an ancient dragon numeral.”

CHAPTERTWENTY-EIGHT

Asher

“It’s awhat?”David demands as Alistair crows loudly. Beside me, Garrett gasps, and when I look at him, he has his hands clasped under his chin and an expression of utter delight on his face.

“It’s a dragon treasure hoard,” he says. “I am the discoverer of a dragon treasure hoard!”

“Technically, Isaac would be the discoverer,” Micah says, then clamps his mouth shut when I glare at him. If my husband wants to be the discoverer, he can be the discoverer. Isaac will be thrilled just to be named as part of the group.

“Isaac’s the team leader,” Garrett allows, his sense of fair play showing up. “Now, hush so I can listen.”

“Here,” Caolan says, tapping the symbol. “It says four.” He glances down the line of crates. When we unstacked them, we were careful to keep them in the same order, and this one is in the first—formerly top—row, fourth from the left. He takes two steps to the next one and peers at the lid. “And this says five.”

David joins him. “I know dragon numerals,” he protests. “Dragons use the same numerals as elves. That’s not a five.”

“I saidancient,” Caolan reminds him. “I can’t remember why, but for a few millennia a long time ago, they used different numerals. To be fair, I only know this because I was on one of the teams helping to move archives after the world started coming apart. We were shown what all of them meant so we wouldn’t accidentally miss anything. I think even some dragons wouldn't recognize them.”

I frown. I don’t know a lot about dragons, but aren’t they big? We’d have noticed a dragon coming and going from here, right? And if they were in biped form, they’d pretty much have to come through Hortplatz. There’s no other road up this mountain.

“Well, that certainly makes this a lot easier,” David says with relief. “Let’s call Brandt and have him send a dragon out to take a look. I wouldn’t be able to recognize a dragon ward anyway.”

“I might,” Caolan offers, “but I’m not seeing anything. Wait… it’s not a ward, exactly.” He squints at the wall, then turns that same look on the boxes. “I’m not sure what it is, but a dragon definitely magicked all this.”

“Is it dangerous?” I demand. Garrett was the first to open a crate, and everyone who’s ever watched a movie knows the person who breaks the seal cops the worst of the curse.

The elf shrugs. “I’m trained to recognize dangerous magic, so no. I don’t know what it does, though. The dragons have some weird spells, and because of how their magic works, sometimes the normal stuff looks different.”

I have a feeling asking for more information would lead to a long and complicated conversation that I won’t understand, so I just nod.

Garrett’s cousin opens his fat mouth. “How is it diff—”

“Let’s worry about that later,” Garrett interrupts, probably because I started growling. It was involuntary, I swear. I don’t think I could take Alistair—he’s trained in combat, and I’m trained in finance.

I could tank his credit rating, though.

“If calling Brandt is the best step to take now, we should do that,” my sensible, sexy husband continues. “Brandt would be… oh, you mean the dragon species leader? That Brandt?”

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