“I know,” he said. “And I’m sorry for that. We try—but we can’t always stop every rogue shifter. It’s the same in your world, isn’t it?”
She glared at him again. “Perhaps,” she admitted. “And what do you mean by we?”
“I work for the council of elements.” Jared looked down at the amulet she held in her hands. “I grew up with the storm dragon, Gregory, one of the elemental dragons. His parents took me in when I was a baby.”
She pressed her lips tightly together. After a moment, she returned the amulet to him and watched as he put it back on.
She hadn’t known that he’d been an orphan. Which, perhaps, made it all too understandable that he’d been hunting for the same thing she was. It was the only connection he had to the family he’d never known.
Still. He’d lied to her. And he was one of them—part of that world she’d tried so hard to expose.
“Never mind about me,” he said as he tucked the amulet back beneath his shirt. “Recently, an old enemy of ours awoke something ancient and powerful. So powerful that millions of years ago, it was locked away deep below the earth. Now it’s free. And it found allies.”
“The shadow dragon.” She shuddered when she remembered the same shadow looking at her from the eyes of the men serving him.
“Darkness.” Jared clenched his jaw. “That’s what the foolish fire dragons have found and tried to use. Now the element of darkness is free. And there’s only one way to stop it.”
“And that’s why you were out here?” Chiara asked, slowly beginning to realize what he was saying.
Jared nodded. “There’s a new seat on the council. A new, fifth element. That has never happened before—but an old prophecy says that the five have to stand together against the one. Which means that there must be a new elemental dragon out there.”
“You think my map doesn’t lead to a magical artifact,” she said, her mind reeling. “You think...”
“I think it leads the way to another elemental dragon. One we need on our side to defeat this threat.” He paused for a moment. Softly, he then continued, “The symbol on the seat for the new dragon is the same symbol that’s on my parent’s amulet.”
“And on my map.” Then she remembered what they’d found in the crystal maze.
She pulled the golden disk out again, studying the stylized mountains and constellations. “And now we have a new map. A map that might lead to your new dragon?”
Jared nodded.
She turned it back and forth, staring at the small symbol engraved at the center. The triangle with the three lines.
How weird that she still didn’t know exactly what it meant, but she’d sacrificed her entire life to hunt for it.
I guess I should be grateful I didn’t end up running into yet another dragon instead of a magical ring, or whatever I was expecting.
Of course, it also meant that her hopes of exposing the paranormal world were dashed.
Can’t exactly take a dragon home with me and show him to my manager...
Not without a huge tranquilizer gun, at least.
At the thought, she began to giggle.
Actually, that was probably the best thing that could happen to that particular outpost of hell. Let a dragon wreak destruction in the call center. Not a single of her former colleagues would be sad to see it go.
Jared was still watching her when she calmed down. He still looked worried. Which he should be, because she hated shifters, and he’d lied to her.
But he looked also strangely vulnerable. There was a sadness in his eyes she couldn’t quite place.
Unless...
What if he hadn’t lied to her? Not about the important part, at least?
None of the shifters she’d met so far had ever looked sad.
Or happy. Or in love...