by Rachel Aaron
Julius grit his teeth. He should have known that was coming. Dragons did nothing for free. Amelia had them over a barrel, too. She knew they couldn’t possibly fight Vann Jeger, which was why she’d just made such a big deal that she could. Now, the only question left was, “What do you want?”
Amelia laughed. “From you? Nothing. You’re adorable, Baby-J, but not very interesting. Your human, on the other hand, has much to offer, so I’ll be dealing exclusively with her from now on, say over breakfast?”
This question was directed solely at Marci, who was staring at Amelia like the dragon was Santa Claus and a winning lottery ticket rolled into one. Before she could say what she was clearly going to say, though, Julius grabbed her arm and pulled her into the corner.
“What are you doing?” he whispered, putting his back to Amelia, who wasn’t even pretending not to listen. “You can’t trust her. She’s a dragon.”
“You’re a dragon,” Marci pointed out.
“That’s different,” Julius hissed, growing more afraid by the second. “We’re talking about a serious power, here.”
“But that’s exactly what we need!” she whispered excitedly. “If breaking the curse is off the table, then our only other option is to find someone big enough to take on Vann Jeger. Plus, she’s a dragon mage!” Her voice squeaked. “A dragon mage, Julius! One who worked with humans before the magic vanished!”
“I think you mean owned humans,” he growled, but Marci wasn’t listening.
“Just think of how much she must know!” she said, almost levitating with delight. “I blew it with Bethesda yesterday, but this could be my second chance, not to mention our only chance on the Vann Jeger front. I know you think she’s dangerous, but—”
“I don’t think, I know,” Julius said. “You can’t trust a word she says. For all we know, she planned this from the beginning.”
Marci gave him a deeply skeptical look. “Are you implying she’s responsible for Vann Jeger? Because that’s ridiculous. She didn’t even care about me until she saw Ghost.”
“I don’t like that, either,” he grumbled. “And I’m not implying anything. I’m just saying dragons can’t be trusted until you know what they’re planning, and even then you can’t be sure.”
“I don’t care if she’s planning to eat me for dinner,” Marci said, crossing her arms over her chest. “This is too good a chance on too many levels for us to possibly pass up. And it’s not like she can kidnap me.” She pointed at the sword on her neck. “I’m kind of leashed to the city at the moment, remember?”
Julius opened his mouth to remind her that didn’t mean Amelia couldn’t do something inside the city, but Marci cut him off. “I’m doing this.”
The way she said that made it clear there’d be no changing her mind, and Julius sighed. “Fine,” he said. “Just… just promise me you’ll be careful. I don’t want you to get hurt.”
Marci smiled like that was the best thing he could have said. “That’s amazingly sweet of you, Julius, but it’s perfectly okay. I’m not going to get hurt, and I’m not going to do something dumb. Have a little faith.”
“I do,” he said earnestly. “But…”
She arched an eyebrow. “But?”
But you’re a human, he wanted to say. And she’s an ancient dragon who sees mortals as playthings and pawns. That match never ended well, but as much as he wanted to grab Marci and run away so Amelia couldn’t take her, doing so would make him just as bad—another dragon ordering a human around like he owned her. Julius could never do that, which put him in a conundrum. One he’d been in for a while, actually, which stung, because it meant his brother had been right.
He had to pick. Was Marci his friend or his human? His equal or his servant? Because he couldn’t have it both ways. He didn’t want a human, though. He wanted his clever partner and ally. He wanted her, and so he stepped back with a shaky breath. “I trust you,” he said quietly. “Do whatever you think is right.”
She beamed and squeezed his hand before turning back to Amelia. “I’m ready.”
“Thank goodness,” the dragoness said. “That was getting too sappy to stomach.” She knocked back the rest of her giant mimosa and vanished the bucket-sized glass with a flick of her hand. “So what’s your pleasure? Waffles? Pancakes? The heads of your enemies on sticks?”
“Whatever you like is fine with me,” Marci said, scooping up Ghost and placing him carefully in her shoulder bag, along with several notebooks. “I just want to get there quick. I have so many questions to ask—”
The slam of a door cut her off, and everyone jumped. Well, everyone except Amelia. She merely turned at a leisurely pace to face the doorway where Justin was now standing shirtless with Julius’s sword in his hands.
Julius didn’t even know how his brother had found Tyrfing’s hiding spot in the ceiling, but he had it now, and he was pointing the needle-sharp tip straight at Amelia’s face. “How did you get in here?”
“Justin, stop,” Julius said. “Can’t you see she’s our sister?”
“Impossible,” his brother growled, looking Amelia up and down. “She doesn’t have the eyes.”
“And you, clearly, don’t have the brains,” Amelia said, glancing back at Julius. “Which one is this? I can’t keep all you babies straight.”
“This is Justin,” Julius said quickly. “The Fifth Blade of Bethesda. Justin, this is our sister Amelia.”
Justin’s scowl faded. “Amelia?”
Julius nodded.
“A-melia?”
Amelia rolled her eyes to the ceiling. “Yes,” she said loudly. “AAAAAAAA-melia. Seriously, do you kids do that to everyone? Because if so, we’re going to have a long talk about manners.”
She flashed them both a condescending smile, to which Justin responded by baring his teeth. “How do I know you’re who you say?”
“Hmm,” Amelia said, tapping her finger against her chin. “I could turn you into dragon hamburger. Would that suffice? But then, how do I know you’re who you say?” She looked pointedly at Tyrfing’s narrow blade. “You seem to be short the necessary equipment for a Fifth Blade.”
Julius winced. Of all the things she could have chosen to pick on, she had to pick that.
“You’ll be missing something soon!” Justin snarled, taking a menacing step forward. “If you really are Amelia, then I don’t need my Fang to teach you a lesson. Everyone knows you’re a coward who ran to hide on the outer planes rather than doing her duty to the clan.”
“Is that what they’re saying about me now?” Amelia said, clutching her chest dramatically. “I’m wounded. But then again—” her hurt look fell away “—even after being branded for cowardice, my position is still better than yours. How many Fifth Blades have there been now? Ten? Eleven?” She shrugged. “They die so fast, I can’t keep track. But I guess that’s how it is when your job is to be Bethesda’s attack dog.” She gave Justin a cruel smile. “Maybe I should be congratulating you for slipping your leash? Who’s a good boy?”
By this point, Justin’s growl was rattling the floorboards, and Julius decided it was time to intervene before structural damage occurred. “Let’s just stop,” he said, putting his hands up. “We’re all on the same team here.”
“She’s on no team of mine,” Justin snapped, looking down his sword, which was still pointed at Amelia’s head. “She’s a traitor, Julius. A Heartstriker in name only. She’s been living on the outer planes for years, refusing all of Mother’s summons. I don’t know why she’s back now, but it’s not to help us.”
Amelia lifted her chin. “Maybe it’s different for you, whelp, but dragons don’t come when called. I’m here because it suits me. No more, no less. Now.”
She flicked her finger, and magic roared into the room. It slid through the air like a heated knife, overpowering even the scent of Marci’s spellwork before turning to focus on Justin. He jerked a second later, his whole body shooting bolt upright on his tip-toes like he’d been grabbed an
d lifted by a giant, invisible hand. He was wiggling there in vain when Amelia walked over to pat him on the head.
“That’s better,” she cooed, plucking Tyrfing from his frozen hands and tossing it to Julius, who caught it only by reflex. “Angry children shouldn’t play with knives.”
Justin’s eyes widened, but with her magic holding him, he couldn’t even open his mouth. Amelia knew it, too, and she grinned like a fiend as she reached up to pinch his cheeks. “Poor little baby. You might be big for your age, but we both know you’re just an overgrown whelp pretending he can keep up with the big kids.” She tilted her head back toward Julius. “You clearly think your brother is less than you, but at least he has the good sense to know when he’s outclassed. You, on the other hand, are like a mad bull in a bullfight, and unless you wise up real quick, with about the same life expectancy. That’s why I’m going to do you a favor.”
She touched him on the shoulder, and Julius felt the magic holding Justin double. “There,” she said, smiling. “Now you can’t be stupid. See what a loving sister I am?”
By this point, smoke was pouring out of Justin’s mouth. Amelia ignored it completely, turning instead to beckon Marci over.
“You stay here with your adorable brother and think about your poor life choices,” she said as the mage hurried to her side. “Meanwhile, Marci and I are going to go discuss my price for dispatching Vann Jeger in private. We should be back with your salvation in an hour or so.” She lifted her arm and smiled at Marci. “Shall we?”
If Marci had beamed at Amelia before, she was now looking at the dragon like Amelia was her own personal hero. She grabbed her offered arm, hefting the bag containing the still sleeping Ghost onto her shoulder as she waved goodbye to Julius and, more pointedly, to Justin. That only made the trapped dragon puff smoke harder, but it was all for nothing. Amelia and Marci were out the door, their footsteps hurrying down the stairs. But then, when they reached the first floor, the footfalls vanished. Marci’s scent vanished as well, leaving the house unmistakably empty. A few seconds later, the magic holding Justin vanished as well, dropping the dragon on the floor in a furious heap.
“Where is she?”
“I think they’re gone,” Julius said, already worried. He had no idea how a dragon and a mage could vanish instantly like that, but it couldn’t be good. But as much as he wanted to run down and check, he had to deal with his brother first, because Justin looked ready to burn the house to the ground. “Would you calm down?”
“Calm down?” Justin yelled. “Calm down? What is wrong with you?”
“What’s wrong with you?” Julius cried. “Barging in here and threatening our sister when she’s just trying to—”
“If you say ‘help,’ I’m going to throw you out that window,” his brother snarled. “Amelia doesn’t help anyone but herself.”
“How is that different from every dragon?” Julius asked, shaking his head. “What’s your grudge against her, anyway? She’s been off this plane since before we were born.”
Justin drew himself to his full height. “Unlike you, I’m not ignored by everyone important. I’ve heard plenty about the Planeswalker. She’s a high-functioning alcoholic who’d sell out her own mother for an inch up the magical ladder.”
“Again,” Julius said. “How is that different from every dragon? Mother tried to sell me out just last month, in case you forgot.”
“Would you stop being bitter and listen?” Justin snapped. “Amelia isn’t like the rest of us. Even before she started spending all her time on the outer planes, she was weird. Plenty of dragons like having humans around, but Amelia’s a crazy cat lady, except replace ‘cats’ with ‘humans.’ Conrad told me once that she had a whole village of the bastards back in the old days, and now you’re trusting her with yours?”
“That’s just gossip,” Julius said, trying not to sound alarmed. “And anyway, this is Marci’s decision. She’s not an idiot, and her life’s the one on the line here. I trust her to take care of herself and make her own decisions.”
“Are you stupid?” Justin shouted, getting in his face. “She’s your human! If she’s making any decisions, it should be how best to serve you!”
Julius stepped back. “What the—You’re the one who told me I had to choose if she was my human or my friend!”
“I didn’t think you’d pick friend!” Justin roared. “Seriously, who does that?” He looked away with a growl. “I swear, Julius, if I hadn’t hatched next to you, I wouldn’t believe we were the same species.”
Julius looked away as well. He was so tired of constantly coming up short in his brother’s estimation, especially when Justin was being such a stubborn, pig-headed idiot. “Well, it doesn’t matter now, anyway,” he said. “Marci will bring Amelia around because she’s brilliant like that, and then this’ll all be over.”
“Not happening,” Justin said. “Vann Jeger is my kill!”
“You mean your death,” Julius snapped, turning to face him head on. “I know you think you can beat everything, but it’s time to face the truth, Justin, and the truth is that if you go up against Vann Jeger, you will die. Marci and I will probably die, too, and Algonquin will get a nice new set of dragon heads for her collection. Amelia might well be everything you say, but she’s also the only one of us who has a real chance against that monster. I understand you’re desperate to prove you’re hot stuff and get your sword back, but you’re going to have to find somewhere else to show off. I’m not letting you gamble all our lives for your stupid pride!”
He was yelling by the time he finished, and Justin’s eyes narrowed. “Big words from a whelp who can’t even swing a sword properly,” he growled. “But I don’t take orders from the Failure of the Heartstrikers. I will have my fight, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me.”
He stalked closer with every word, his eyes gleaming a menacing green. Normally, that kind of pressure would have sent Julius scrambling back, but not today. There was too much at stake to back down now, and Julius was so, so sick of being pushed around.
“I don’t have to stop you,” he said, glaring up at the towering dragon. “Because you don’t know where it is.”
His brother arched a skeptical eyebrow, and Julius reached up to tap the side of his neck. “The fight location is marked on Marci’s tattoo, and since she’s not here, that means you have no idea where to go. I’m not telling you, either, because I don’t want you to die.”
Justin bared his teeth. “You can’t be—”
“I am,” Julius snarled. “I am deadly serious. You are not going to the fight tonight, and if you try to crash it, the Planeswalker will just lock you down again. Either way, your life’s going to be saved whether you want it to be or not, so you might as well accept it.”
Justin’s answer to that was to blow a long, hot plume of smoke through his teeth, and for several terrified heartbeats, Julius was sure this was it. He’d finally pushed his brother too far, and now he was going to be burned to death. But just as he was preparing for the end, Justin turned away.
“You always were the master of hiding behind bigger dragons,” he said, resting Tyrfing on his bare shoulder. “But one day, Julius, you’re going to wake up and realize that there’s more to life than merely staying alive. I just hope, for your sake, that there’s something left worth conquering.”
“Not all of us want to conquer everything in our path,” Julius reminded him, but his brother was already stomping down the stairs. Seconds later, Julius’s bedroom door slammed so hard, several of Marci’s empty chalk boxes fell off the shelves. Julius picked them up again with a sigh, fighting the urge to go down and apologize. So what if Justin was mad? He had nothing to say sorry for. His brother would just have to deal with not committing suicide by Vann Jeger tonight.
But even as he told himself that he was right and Justin was being a stubborn idiot, the knotted feeling in his chest only got tighter. He wrote it off as being exhausted, starved, and magically drained. He jus
t needed rest and food and maybe a do-over button for this whole horrible twenty-four hours. Since that last one was out of the question, he settled for going downstairs to raid the fridge, emptying the contents of every takeout box onto a single plate. He didn’t even bother warming it up, just shoveled the whole thing into his mouth as fast as possible before collapsing on the living room couch. Upstairs, he could hear his brother stomping around in his room, but Julius couldn’t deal with Justin anymore right now. He couldn’t deal with anything, so he turned over, shutting his eyes against the world as he willed himself into instant, exhausted, dreamless sleep.
Chapter 9
When she followed Amelia downstairs from the workshop, Marci expected her to take them outside to a car, maybe even a limo like the one Bethesda had arrived in. Instead, the dragon led her into the kitchen, where a door-sized hole in reality was hanging in the air in front of their refrigerator.
Marci stopped cold, eyes wide. “Is-is that—”
“A portal?” Amelia finished, ducking through. “Naturally. Now come along so I can let the idiot go before he wastes all my magic.”
Marci could only suppose Amelia was talking about Justin. Another time, the implications of that comment would’ve been interesting to explore, if only to shed some light on how dragons actually cast spells. At the moment, though, Marci was too distracted by the floating gateway to properly follow up. “Is that really a portal to another dimension?!”
“Nope, this one goes uptown. Portals to the planes are way more dramatic. Now come on.”
She stuck her arm back through the hole and snapped her fingers impatiently. Eyes wide as they could go, Marci obeyed, carefully stepping through the door-shaped gap. The moment she reached the other side, the hole vanished, leaving her standing alone with Amelia in a small, cement room with a single metal door.
The similarities to the bleak prison cell where Vann Jeger interrogated her were enough to make Marci instantly nervous, but there was no drain in the floor this time, and the “door” was nothing but a flimsy, corrugated metal sheet that slid up on a track. Once she got over her initial shock, the little room actually reminded Marci more of a storage unit than anything else.
