The DFZ looked like she was about to have a mental breakdown at the idea of anyone getting anything for free, and I sighed. “If it makes it easier for you, think of this museum as my price for staying. I’ve always wanted to curate a collection, and yours deserves to be seen by everyone. Give me somewhere where I can show off your treasures to the entire world, not just the rich portion, and you won’t be able to get me to leave.”
That was phrasing the DFZ understood much better. “Deal,” she said, grabbing my hand and shaking it so hard my fingers ached. “Ugh, I’m so glad that’s over. I’ll come by after practice tomorrow and we can hash out the details. Right now I’ve got to focus on securing this place. There’s so many people trying to loot that even my ability to divide myself can’t keep up!”
I nodded. “I’ll be there.”
The DFZ grinned and vanished, taking her door with her. I was wondering what I’d just gotten myself into when I realized my father was still standing beside me.
“Is that all it takes to win your devotion?” he asked grumpily. “A museum?”
“I always did love showing off my treasures,” I replied with a shrug. “And you heard what I told the Gameskeeper. The DFZ is my city. I don’t have to be her priestess to want it to be better, and what kind of city doesn’t have a museum?”
“Seoul has several,” Yong reminded me, his face growing plaintive. “You are coming home for New Year’s, right?”
I smiled. “Sure, Dad.”
“And your mother’s birthday,” he added. “She wants to see you too. Also Autumn Eve. You can’t miss Autumn Eve.”
“Don’t push it.”
My father backed off at once. A sign of his new respect because dragons didn’t abandon fights they thought they could win. Not that he wouldn’t try again, but it was a big change for us, and I appreciated it.
“I’ll visit when I can,” I promised, stepping in to wrap my arms around him. “And I’ll call when I can’t.”
“Please do,” he whispered, squeezing me back.
That was one of the only non-ironic pleases I’d ever heard from my dad. It was a sign of how much I’d changed, too, that it didn’t even make me blink.
I would have hugged him longer, but the Peacemaker’s deadline was fast approaching. I barely got time to greet my mother and thank her formally for bringing in the cavalry before Yong and his household piled back into the helicopters and flew away, escorted out of the city by the largest formation of dragons the DFZ had seen since the Second Mana Crash.
“So what happens now?” Nik asked as the Peacekeeper’s forces dispersed. “Do you just go back to living in an apartment floating in nothingness?”
“Actually,” I said with a sly smile, “I was hoping I could move in with you. Fewer bad memories. That and I’m not entirely sure I can get back to my apartment now that I’ve lost my awesome door-opening powers.”
“I think I could make some room for you,” Nik said, wrapping his arm around my waist. “But I’ll have to find a new job. Cleaning’s going to be impossible now that everyone knows my face again, and despite what the DFZ seems to think, I’m not qualified to work at this museum thing you’re building.”
“You could take some time off,” I offered. “We haven’t discussed salary yet, but despite being forced into doing something for the public good, the DFZ’s still a beacon of capitalism, so I’m sure I’m getting paid.” I grinned at him. “I could support you for a change. You could be my kept man.”
Nik made a face. “No thanks. I see now why you were so insulted when I offered. Being ‘kept’ sounds so…useless.”
“We’ll find you something good to do, then,” I promised. “The DFZ has so much stuff, I couldn’t sort it all if I had a hundred lifetimes. You can help me go through the piles. That way you could still Clean but we wouldn’t have to go to auctions or even out in public unless you wanted to.”
“That’s your thing, though,” he said nervously. “Are you sure you’d want me around?”
“God, yes! I can’t tell you how badly I missed you when I was working there alone. And not just your company, either. My expertise is in antiques, art, and historical items, but there was so much other stuff I had no clue about. Just a few weeks ago I had to sort a garage full of classic cars on my own!”
Nik looked horrified. “You didn’t junk them, did you?”
I shook my head. “I ended up putting them back in storage, but this is why I need you! One person can’t process an entire city’s worth of treasure on her own, so what do you say? Want to partner up with me one more time?”
Nik grinned and grabbed my hand, lifting it to his lips until I could feel his smile against my skin.
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
Thank you for reading!
Thank you for reading all the way to the end of the DFZ trilogy! If you enjoyed Night Shift Dragons and the two books before it, I hope you’ll consider leaving a review. Reviews, good and bad, are vital to every author’s career, and I would be very grateful if you’d consider writing one for me.
This is the end of Opal’s series, but I’m definitely not done with the world of the DFZ! If you want to be the first to know I release something new, including more books in the DFZ universe, sign up for my New Release Mailing List! List members are always the first to hear about everything I do, and they get exclusive bonus content like the list-only Heartstriker short story, Mother of
