“It looks lovely here,” Marianne said warmly as she entered the room. “So much better than letting it all waste away in our mountain.”
“And you’ve got a right to it,” her mate added. “These were never our treasures. We guarded the Light, as so many guardians before us did. Everything we guardians accumulated belongs to the Light—and its new champions.”
“We’ve talked about it, Dad,” Jared said, amused. “Those books and scrolls are way too valuable. They’d have to be stored correctly—and we’re planning on a house filled with kids and crayons and tiny fingerprints.”
“We’ll guard it for you.” His dad still looked reluctant. “But you know that you only have to ask—”
“You’ve already given me so much.” Jared raised his arm, showing off a golden bracelet with embossed griffins, their eyes made from tiny sapphires. He ran a finger along the gold, smiling faintly. “This means a lot more to me than all the gold in the world.”
There was a matching bracelet clasping Chiara’s own wrist. Hers was smaller, more ornamental and feminine. Apparently it had been worn by a mated pair of guardians a thousand years ago.
Even now, Chiara couldn’t help but smile at the thought.
It made her feel a connection to the long line of griffin shifters who’d kept the Light safe for such a long time. Maybe she wasn’t a shifter—but just like those griffins so long ago, she and her mate were bonded and had fought the shadow of darkness.
And there was more. Jared’s parents had gifted them a large box full of treasure: jewelry made from gold and silver, strings of beautiful pearls, sapphires, rubies, diamonds, and emeralds.
It was overwhelming, and sometimes, Chiara still felt like a child playing pretend when she opened it to pick and choose what to wear.
She might not be a princess—but she was the Lady of Light now. With or without gold.
Jared met her eyes. He was smiling faintly, and Chiara knew that he was thinking about the same thing.
That they didn’t need gold or emeralds or diamonds to be happy—but that there was something that felt right in claiming the guardians’ legacy.
This was who they were. The fight they fought had been fought by many, many generations before them.
They were a part of that now. And they were proud of this legacy.
A moment later, there was the sound of laughter coming from the garden. She recognized the voice. That was her dad—and he seemed to be in a good mood.
Amused, she made her way to the glass door that led outside. It seemed that a few of their guests had been early, and now she could see why.
Naomi stood in the garden, looking radiant as she showed off the newest addition to their shifter town. Both her dad and the sheriff were currently bent over the tiny infant, making admiring sounds while Gregory proudly watched.
A new generation of dragons would grow up in Mountain View. No wonder the town was excited. Everyone here loved Gregory and Naomi—and Chiara could understand why.
For all that Gregory was a powerful dragon shifter, he truly cared about this town and the people in it.
And Naomi had been delighted to have another human woman settle down here. Not once had anyone made her feel out of place—not even when Chiara told them about her past job, back when she was writing about the great supernatural conspiracy she was trying to expose.
Of course, she was no longer doing that, even though now she knew that werewolves were real. But to her great surprise, she’d found that she quite liked their werewolf sheriff. And she definitely wasn’t going to expose Sheriff Banner to the human world.
No, she had better things to do now. After she’d teamed up with Liana, the ocean dragon’s mate, to hack into her alien conspiracy friends’ database, she and Liana had kept talking.
Liana was running a very successful game that allowed her players to breed colorful dragons. And she’d been intrigued by all of Chiara’s tales about the supernatural things she’d once believed were out there.
In the end, it was Liana who’d suggested a new project to her. A game for older teenagers, where players would have to puzzle their way through mysteries, finding hints and secret treasure maps and dealing with aliens, vampires, and werewolves who were all following their own secret goals.
And who better to come up with those adventures and mysteries than Chiara, who knew more about alien conspiracies than most other people?
“Chiara!” her dad called out when he could finally tear himself away from the adorable infant and found her still in the door. “Hurry up! There’s someone here who wants to meet you.”
“Hey,” she murmured tenderly when she’d finally made her way over, bending down over the baby. “Look at how tiny you are.”
“Not for very long,” Naomi said, looking exhausted but happy. “I’m determined to enjoy the wingless state. Who knows what trouble he’ll get up to once he starts to shift.”
“You won’t be trouble, will you?” Fascinated, Chiara touched the tiny, curled fist with her finger. “Look at you. I bet you’ll be the sweetest little dragonet to ever fly around this town.”