Page 70 of Guardian's Dilemma

“They’re your treasure?”

He tilted his head to the side, brushing it against the blanket. “Of course.”

“What about your gold?”

“You thought that was our treasure?”

“Well… yeah. You were guarding it.”

“I was guarding our clan. The vault is positioned to give me the best tactical advantage over anyone breaking into the territory. It’s near enough to the castle that I can reach it quickly but it’s far enough away that, when someone breaks in, I can lead them there, away from our real treasure.”

“And your real treasure? That’s…”

I still wasn’t grasping that. Just as I thought I’d finally learned to understand dragons. Well, that I’d learned to understandGlimmer, and then he went and said something like that.

“My clan. My clan is my treasure.” And then he added, almost guiltily, “Mostly.”

“Is there someone in your clan who isn’t your treasure?”

“No.”

“Then there’s someone outside your clan whoisyour treasure.”

“Yes.”

“Who?”

“My mum. She… belongs to another clan. I trust them to protect her. But she’s my treasure, too.”

There I had learned that I hadn’t found the last dragon clan in the country. There was one other.

“And Seren,” he added.

“The one whose hair you have in your locket?”

Glimmer grinned at me. Perhaps I’d sounded a bit curt. A bit jealous.

“Yes. He left our clan. Well, technically, he was disowned. But he has a mate. He’s part of his mate’s clan.”

My eyebrows were going to disappear right into my hair if they rose any higher up my forehead. There weretwoother dragon clans theridirehadn’t known about.

“You won’t hurt them, will you?”

I shook my head. “I’m not aridireany longer.” Glimmer settled, the tension easing out of his shoulders. “Besides, they’re your treasure.”

I was testing the word out, seeing how it felt in my mouth.

“I knew you’d understand.”

“It’s strange, to call a person your treasure.”

“But they are. What better treasure is there?”

He had me there. Perhaps Glimmer had it right all along and it was us humans who had it backwards, thinking of treasure as gold and jewels.

“Does that mean you’ll stay?” he asked.

“With you?”

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