5. Maple
FIVE
MAPLE
The drive back to Phoenix had passed in a haze of stunned silence, both Maple and Gerri lost in their own thoughts as the desert landscape had blurred past the windows.
But now, standing alone in her familiar condo, Maple felt like she'd been transported to an alternate reality where everything she thought she knew about the world had been turned upside down and shaken until nothing made sense anymore.
She paced the length of her living room for what felt like the hundredth time, her boots wearing a path in the hardwood as her mind struggled to process the morning's revelations.
Dragons weren't just real—they lived among humans, hidden in plain sight, with their own towns and ambitions and ancient traditions that stretched back centuries.
This incredible discovery should have made her joyous, should have sent her reaching for more answers and more evidence.
Instead, all she could think about was the way her body had responded the moment Rune Trigg walked into Bram's office.
God, what was that?
The memory sent heat flooding through her system all over again. She'd thought her reaction to the artifact was intense, but when Rune's presence had filled that room—his scent of sandalwood and spice wrapping around her like a warm hug—every nerve ending in her body had suddenly come alive.
The connection between herself, the artifact, and him had formed a perfect triangle of awareness that left her breathless and confused and wanting things she couldn't even articulate.
"This is ridiculous," she muttered, running her hands through her dark hair and pulling it loose from the ponytail she'd twisted it into that morning. "Completely, utterly ridiculous."
But even as she said it, she could still feel the lingering effects of whatever had happened between them.
Her skin felt hypersensitive, her pulse still slightly elevated, and there was a restless energy thrumming through her veins that made it impossible to sit still.
It was exactly like her reaction to the artifact but amplified a thousand-fold.
Like he was a direct extension of the artifact himself.
The thought made her heart race with something that felt dangerously close to excitement, which was absolutely not what she should be feeling about a man who'd threatened to press charges against her and ruin her career.
Rune Trigg was intense, overbearing, and clearly used to getting his way through sheer force of will and intimidation.
Everything about him screamed danger and control, from the predatory grace in his movements to the way his blue eyes had flashed almost golden when he'd gotten angry.
She should be terrified of him. She should be investigating how to unbind herself from this artifact and figuring out how to get as far away from him and his hidden dragon world as possible.
Instead, she couldn't stop thinking about the way his voice had roughened when he'd looked at her, or the careful distance he'd maintained between them, as if getting too close might trigger something neither of them was prepared to handle.
The artifact hummed from its box in the cabinet, a warm thrum of energy that seemed to respond to her thoughts of Rune.
She'd kept it wrapped and locked away in her childhood treasure chest—a ridiculous precaution that somehow helped muffle its effects—but she could still feel it calling to her, stronger now than it had been before their trip to the hidden town.
Before she'd met Rune.
"Stop it," she told herself firmly, pressing her palms against her temples. "Stop thinking about him and focus on the facts."
The facts were staggering enough on their own.
She'd spent five years chasing rumors and shadows, following leads that took her to the edges of respectability in the archaeological community, all because she'd never been able to fully abandon the childhood dreams of dragons and magic that her parents had worked so hard to discourage.
And now, in the span of twenty-four hours, she'd discovered not only that dragons were real, but that an entire civilization of them existed alongside the ordinary human world.
The Grand Canyon region, with its ancient red rock formations and vast, unexplored territories, had always suggested that the earth held more secrets than academic history had ever acknowledged. But dragon shifters living in hidden towns, with their own governments and traditions and…
"Claim markers," she whispered, the words Gerri and Bram had used echoing in her memory.
That's what they'd called the artifact—not just a dragon relic, but a claim marker specifically. Something that had been buried by Rune's ancestors centuries ago, something he'd apparently spent decades hunting down and destroying until he thought he'd eliminated them all.
Why would he want to destroy them?
The question nagged at her, along with a dozen others that had been building since she'd walked out of that council building.
What exactly was a claim marker supposed to do?
Why had it reacted so specifically to her touch?
And what was the connection between the artifact's effects on her and the way her entire body had responded to Rune's presence?
Like they were tied together somehow. Like the triangle carved into the red rock represented something more than just ancient symbolism.
She moved to the cabinet and pulled out the treasure chest, her fingers hesitating over the latch.
Even through the wrapping, she could feel the artifact's warmth, that strange pulse of recognition that made her blood sing with awareness.
It was getting stronger with each passing hour, and she had no idea what that meant or where it might lead.
But Ben deserved to know what had happened. He'd been with her when she'd found the artifact, had seen it glow and react to her touch. He was already implicated in her trespassing, already part of this whether either of them liked it or not.
And more than that, he had the right to know she was safe.
The decision made, Maple pulled out her phone and scrolled to Ben's number. He answered on the second ring, his familiar voice grounding her in a way that made her realize just how off-balance the morning had left her.
"Maple? Everything okay?"
"I need you to come over," she said without preamble, her tone carrying enough urgency that she heard him shift into full attention mode. "Right now. I can't discuss this over the phone, but I need to tell you everything that happened this morning."
"Everything that happened?" His voice sharpened with concern. "I thought you were just going to talk to your mother about the legal issues with the artifact."
"It's more complicated than that." She moved to the window, looking out at the familiar Phoenix skyline that suddenly felt like it belonged to a different world than the one she'd woken up in. "Much more complicated. Can you be here in fifteen minutes?"
"Already grabbing my keys. Maple, you're scaring me a little here. Are you in trouble? Do we need to—"
"Just come over," she interrupted, her free hand unconsciously moving to rest over the treasure chest. The artifact pulsed against her palm through the wood, warm and insistent and alive in a way that defied every rational explanation she'd ever learned.
"I promise I'll explain everything when you get here. "
The familiar sound of Ben's boots outside her door fifteen minutes later felt like an anchor in a world that had suddenly shifted off its axis. Maple opened the door to find him standing there with his characteristic easy grin, though concern flickered in his features as he took in her appearance.
"This better be good," he said, stepping inside and shrugging out of his worn leather jacket. "I had to cancel my date with Jackie tonight. We were finally going to try that new place downtown with the rooftop bar."
Maple gestured helplessly at herself, then at the open treasure chest sitting on her coffee table, the artifact glowing like a captured star against the dark velvet lining. The red stone pulsed with an inner fire that seemed to respond to her proximity, growing brighter as she moved closer.
"Does it look like everything is good here?"
Ben stopped mid-step, his attention shifting from her frazzled state to the sight before him. His expression shifted from mild concern to something approaching alarm as he took in the way the artifact seemed to breathe with light around her.
"Wow, Maple. You look like you're unraveling piece by piece." He moved cautiously toward the coffee table, keeping a careful distance from the glowing stone. "What the hell happened this morning?"
Maple sank onto the couch, running her hands through her hair in a gesture that had become habitual over the past twenty-four hours. The words tumbled out in a rush, each revelation more impossible than the last.
"My mother brought someone with her—this petite woman named Gerri Wilder who's apparently some kind of legendary matchmaker.
Gerri took one look at the artifact and told me it was a dragon claim marker.
Then she drove me to a hidden dragon town to meet this old guy named Bram who was supposed to explain things better, but he really didn't."
Ben held up a hand, his eyebrows climbing toward his hairline. "Wait. Your mother knows a matchmaker?"
"That's all you got out of that?"
"No, but that part seems really confusing." Ben settled into the armchair across from her, his field-trained mind clearly struggling to process the information. "I mean, your mother's about as romantic as a geology textbook."