Page 67 of Asher

“Yes,” David confirms. He pulls out his phone and sighs. “I guess we need to go back to the village to make the call.”

Caolan smiles indulgently at him. “I can take you to him, love. For you, I’ll do anything.” He pauses. “Well, almost anything, which is why we’ll go to the front gate and wait for someone to let us in. The security at the dragon estate is excessive.”

“Can’t argue with that,” David mutters.

“Should we go back to the village and wait?” Zac asks, but David shakes his head.

“No. If I know Brandt, as soon as he hears about this, he’ll come to look for himself. We won’t be long.”

They leave moments later, and Garrett wanders over toward the wall. “I discovered a dragon treasure hoard. Although… it hasn’t been that long since the dragons came back to Earth, right? How did Zac not notice a huge dragon coming and going from here?”

“Maybe the dragon has an elf friend who portaled them in,” Zac suggests.

“Even if they don’t, you probably wouldn’t have seen them. Dragons have this spell that conceals them from sight,” Alistair informs us. He sighs. “Sometimes I really wish I had magic like that.”

“We’re all glad you don’t,” Gideon says. Alistair glares at him and goes to stand with Garrett. They put their heads together and begin murmuring.

“This is so surreal,” Micah says. “I can’t believe this whole thing was built by a dragon. Sometimes I still don’t believe dragons are even real.”

“Oh, they’re real,” Gideon mutters darkly. “And they love karaoke.”

I try not to shudder as I cast a glance at my husband, who is a fiend for karaoke. “So they’re like hellhounds?”

He nods. “They get along like a house on fire. Or worse, like fur on fire. Which happened a lot in one of their stupid little games.”

“You know,” Micah muses, “we might want to consider trying to attract dragons to live here. They could come and go as they please because they can fly.”

“No.” Gideon shakes his head. “You don’t understand. They will drive youinsane. I don’t even know how you cope with the hellhound living in the same house.”

“I beg your pardon?” My voice is cold, and I prepare to defend my husb—

“Just throw me up there, Alistair! It’s fine if you don’t catch me; bones heal.”

Gideon raises an eyebrow, and I sigh. Hard to defend that. “No throwing,” I call. I’m the one who’ll have to look after him while he’s healing, and I’m a terrible nursemaid.

“But I want to see the ones near the top!” Garrett pouts, and I feel myself weakening.

“The ladder’s still here,” Zac points out helpfully, and as the two hellhounds scramble for it, I glance gratefully at him.

“Thanks.”

He shrugs. “I don’t want a pouty broken hellhound in the house, either. But should they be putting a ladder against that wall before the dragons check it?”

“We touched it,” Micah points out. “It’s probably safe to touch.”

I doubt Garrett will listen if I try to stop him, so I just call, “Be careful!” as they prop the ladder against the wall/door and start bickering over who gets to go up first.

“That’s not going to end well,” Gideon sighs. “If Alistair breaks his stupid head, Sam’s gonna yell at me.”

“Really?”

“After he yells at Alistair,” he amends. “Sam’s fair that way.” He strides toward them, and we watch as he confiscates the ladder.

“Can’t touch the wall until we know it’s clear. You know better, Alistair.” He brings the ladder with him as he rejoins us, a smug expression on his face. Behind him, both hellhounds are glaring at his back.

Micah’s gone back to gazing at the wall/door. “Do you think the dragons will let me examine the puzzle when it’s solved? Because the engineering involved must be incredible. I’d love to meet whoever designed it.”

“Maybe you can,” Zac suggests as I wander to the nearest crate and peer inside. “You can both geek out over engineering and bits of metal.”

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