Saina knew where they would go before Bastian led her to the staff house. A paper taped to the front door read “Bachelor Barn.” This was crossed out and beneath it, in different handwriting: “Crew Quarters.” This was crossed out with a side-note: “No Star Trek references!”

The common room was empty, sunlight streaming in through the open curtains. The decor was decidedly dated and 80s style, but everything was clean and tidy, and the couch looked comfortable.

Bastian’s room was at the end of a short hallway on the top floor; Saina guessed that this had originally been the master bedroom from the floor plan. Rather than a standard bedroom lock, it had a sturdy hasp with a keyed padlock on it.

Bastian unlocked it, then hesitated, one hand on the doorknob. “I don’t want this to be a surprise,” he said awkwardly. “I’m not sure how to explain it.”

“I’ve known a few dragons,” Saina said. “I know about their hoards.”

Bastian looked more uncomfortable, if possible. “It’s not a normal hoard,” he said, and he looked so anxious that Saina wanted to give him a hug. She squelched the uncharacteristic impulse.

He probably had a puny hoard, by dragon standards. Saina braced herself for a few sparse jewelry boxes and a couple of brass goblets. Maybe the walls would be tapestries that weren’t embroidered in gold.

She started to hum out of habit, wanting to ease Bastian’s tension, and made herself bite her cheek to stop. She was done singing her way out of awkward places of her own making.

Bastian took a deep breath, and opened the door.

Saina sucked her own breath in, and stepped into his dazzling nest.

There were no tapestries on the walls at all, only fine fishing net bleached white, covering every wall and each inch of the ceiling. It was even over the windows, and sunlight glowed through the treasure that hung on it, turning the room into a rainbow.

There were a few golden necklaces and rings laid out on the dressers - the sorts of things that Saina had seen in other dragon hoards. But most of it was treasure from the ocean: sea glass, shells, shards of mother-of-pearl, pieces of brilliant coral. A tall brass vase stood in one corner, pitted and crusted with barnacles. An entire anchor filled another corner, more treasure displayed on it. There were sea stars and sand dollars, and old gold and copper coins, polished clean.

It had all been selected for beauty, not value, and the effect was utterly magical. Each piece had been placed as carefully as it had been collected; the room was completely in harmony with itself. It made a song rise up in Saina’s throat that she had to stuff back with determination. She felt as if she had just come home.

Saina walked into the room in a daze. The floor was a fluffy, thick white carpet; her toes felt worshipped just wriggling in it. She couldn’t help but wonder how awful it would be to vacuum sand out of it, and she hoped her feet were clean.

The bed was a monster of comfort, with about a hundred throw pillows in sea themes, and a glittery comforter that Saina recognized from a Bedding and Bathing catalog. It had been advertised for little girls’ rooms; she hadn’t even realized it was offered in a King size.

Bastian was watching her anxiously.

“Do you… like it?” he asked, as if he were being forced to and was dreading her answer.

Saina laughed, and couldn’t keep her magic entirely out of the sound. “I love it,” she admitted, trying to rein in the effect.

It was no good, Bastian was looking at her with that dazzled look she knew too well, worshipful and adoring.

He cleared his throat. “It’s our tradition to gift our mate with the most valuable treasure from our hoard,” he said formally.

Saina stared. His mate? She’d only tried to make him feel well-disposed to her, to be her ally in a strange place. Instead, he’d fallen harder for her than anyone she’d ever enspelled.

Bastian was holding a necklace made of massive gold links and rubies that didn’t match with the rest of the hoard at all. “This was my coming of age gift,” he said. “It is worth more than anything else here.”

“Oh, oh, no,” Saina said.

He blinked, looking at the necklace. “I know it’s not very… elegant, but these are very rare rubies and it’s all solid gold.”

“No, no, no,” Saina repeated, trying to retreat to the door and nearly tangling herself in the fishing net beside it instead. Sea glass chimed reproachfully at her.

Bastian looked crushed, and stared at the necklace in distaste. “You’re right, it’s not good enough. I’ll get something else, find something… it’s all wrong.” He looked around at his room in shame and disgust.

Saina couldn’t bear the way her chest felt. She had caused that terrible look on his face. She was the reason he was embarrassed of his beautiful hoard. She had cracked the confidence of a man as good as he was gorgeous.

She reached out to him automatically and put a hand on his arm. The touch was electric. “I love the hoard,” she said. “It’s the most gorgeous hoard I’ve ever seen. But you can’t give it to me, not any of it. Not to me.”

“There is no one else in the world for me,” Bastian assured her, putting the necklace aside.

Saina felt saltwater in her eyes unexpectedly.

She’d heard plenty of professions of devotion before, been at the receiving end of adoring acts of compelled generosity, but this was the first time she had gone so far as to make someone love her before, let alone think she was their mate.

Worse, this was the first time she wanted it to be real.

While she struggled to regain her composure, Bastian gathered her up in her arms and kissed her.