by Rachel Aaron
Since his phone was currently in his hand, Julius knew it wasn’t him, and Marci didn’t even have a phone right now. But while his ears had never been half as good as his nose, they were still sharper than a human’s. Sure enough, after with a little hunting, he found Chelsie’s vibrating phone lying under a half-burned clump of grass next to her left forefoot with the words UNKNOWN CALLER shining bright on the screen.
The answering wave of relief almost made Julius drop the phone. He caught it at once, accepting the call and jamming the speaker to his ear. “Bob!”
“What happened?”
It was on the tip of Julius’s tongue to say Bob was the one who should know, but he couldn’t say a word. He’d heard Bob sound uncharacteristically serious several times over the last two days. Now, though, the seer sounded terrifying. Julius had never heard anything like the quiet, killing rage in his brother’s question, and he decided then and there to stick purely to the facts.
“I don’t know,” he said honestly. “We just found Chelsie unconscious.” Images of Amelia’s bloody body flashed through his head, and he clutched the phone tighter. “Do you think Estella got her?”
“Given that her future just vanished, I’d say that’s a safe assumption,” Bob growled. “How badly is she hurt?”
“She isn’t, actually,” Julius said, looking his sister over. “Or at least no more than she was after our fight with Vann Jeger. But she’s in dragon form and unconscious, and Algonquin’s task force is almost here.”
There was a moment of silence, and then Bob said. “Oh.”
“Oh?” Julius cried. “That’s it?”
“Of course not,” his brother said, sounding much more like himself. “I’m just relieved. That’s not half as bad as I expected.”
Julius didn’t want to know what Bob had expected if their current situation was a relief. “Well, she’s too big to move and she’s not responding to anything we say. If Algonquin’s security goons catch her like this, they’ll kill her before she can open her eyes.”
“Calm down,” Bob said. “Believe it or not, this actually is one of the better outcomes. Now listen carefully, because I’m going to tell you a fool-proof way of waking Chelsie up. Normally, I’d make you swear never to tell a soul before divulging this information, but your future’s one of the few remaining that hasn’t been scrambled into chaos yet, so I already know you’ll keep your lips zipped.”
“Of course,” Julius said, glancing over his shoulder at Marci, who was making frantic hurry up gestures. “What do I do?”
“It’s easy,” Bob assured him. “Just stand back and shout, ‘I know what happened in China.’”
“That doesn’t even make sense,” Julius snapped. “This is serious, Bob!”
“When it comes to Chelsie, China is as serious as it gets,” the seer replied. “Trust me, it works every time.”
“Every time?” Julius repeated skeptically. “How many times have you done this?”
“Well, not me personally,” Bob said. “I’m not suicidal enough to mention China around Chelsie myself. I was referring to all the times I’ve seen it work in the future, which, counting you, is one. Coincidentally, you’ll probably want to get behind something fireproof.”
That wasn’t a comforting thought. “So what happened in China?”
“You’ll have to direct that question to Chelsie,” Bob said. “Right after you pick out your funeral clothes. Now are you going to do this or not? I thought you were in a hurry.”
Julius was, and he didn’t have any more time to waste with Bob’s Bob-ness. “I’ll give it a try.”
“Let me know how it goes,” Bob said. “I have to hang up. I’m just leaving the airport now. I’ll call you again when you get home.”
There was a lot to unpack in that sentence, like which airport? And how would he know when they got home? But Julius had been around seers long enough now not to sweat the details, and he didn’t bother asking questions. He just hung up, shoving Chelsie’s phone into his pocket as he took cover behind the truck, motioning for Marci to do the same.
“What are we doing?” she whispered, crouching drown beside him.
“Your guess is as good as mine,” he whispered back, glancing over the hood at his sister as he took a deep breath. Here went nothing.
“I know what happened in China!”
He yelled it as loud as he dared and then ducked down, covering his head and Marci’s, but there was no giant fireball. Nothing happened at all, actually.
“Um,” Marci said. “Was that it?”
“It was supposed to be,” Julius said, alternating between angry with his brother for leading him wrong and terrified at the implications. If Bob no longer knew what was happening, they were beyond screwed. “Maybe I should try again?”
“I don’t think that’ll be necessary,” Marci said, peeking up over the truck’s hood. “Look.”
Julius raised his head, and his breath caught. The black dragon still hadn’t moved, but she was no longer asleep. Narrow green eyes were glowing like embers in the shadows of her black feathers. That was all he was able to make out before the dragon attacked.
Later, Julius was never actually able to accurately describe what happened next. One second he was crouching behind the truck, the next he was on his back in the grass with a giant dragon coiled on top of him, her flames lighting up the back of her throat as she demanded, “What do you know?”
“Nothing!” Julius said frantically. “I swear, I don’t know anything! I was just repeating what Bob told me to say to wake you up!”
The dragon blinked her green eyes in confusion, looking around the overgrown convenience store parking lot like she was only just now realizing where she was, or whom she was pinning to the ground. “Julius?”
“Yes,” he said, panting in relief. “It’s me, and you need to change back right now. Algonquin’s people are barely a block away.”
The first cars that had pulled into the field where they’d fought Vann Jeger had now been joined by several more, plus a SWAT truck. Fortunately, the officers were all too busy gawking at the mountain of ancient weaponry to notice the giant black dragon crouched in a parking lot just down the street. That luck wouldn’t last for long, though. Already, Julius could hear the wump wump of helicopter blades, and he turned back to his sister with his hands clasped together. “Please,” he begged. “Please, Chelsie, change back.”
The dragon stared at him a moment longer, her eyes glowing like green lanterns, and then, fast as she’d attacked, she collapsed, her enormous body crumpling until there was nothing to see but black feathers. Seconds later, even those were gone, leaving only Chelsie standing in front of them, human and—other than the empty sheath on her hip—completely naked.
Julius dropped his eyes at once, cheeks flaming. “Here,” he said, pulling off his still damp t-shirt and handing it to her.
Chelsie didn’t seem to care one way or the other about her nudity, but she accepted the clothing without comment. “Never mention this again,” she said stiffly as she pulled the shirt over her head. “Either of you. Is that understood?”
“Yes,” Julius said, elbowing Marci until she nodded too. “Now can we go?”
Rather than answer, Chelsie leaned down and scooped her Fang off the ground, sheathing the sword in a smooth motion before climbing into the truck. Julius closed the door behind her, cursing under his breath when he saw more security vehicles coming toward them down the road. “Marci?”
“Already on it,” she said, jumping into the driver’s side and reaching up to tap the circle of spellwork she’d written on the underside of the truck’s roof the last time she’d had to sneak away from Algonquin. “Gird your loins.”
The illusion washed over the truck before she finished, leaving Julius standing beside what looked like empty space. Fortunately, it still felt like a truck when he climbed inside, becoming invisible himself as well the moment he passed through the door.
“Now remember,
we can only do this when we’re out in the boonies,” Marci’s disembodied voice whispered beside him. “I hope I don’t have to explain the dangers of driving an invisible car in actual traffic.”
Julius nodded before he remembered she couldn’t see him. He still kept his mouth shut, piloting their invisible truck out of the parking lot and between the incoming lines of Algonquin’s anti-dragon task force trucks. Only when they’d made it through the flashing lights back to the semi-inhabited University Heights neighborhood where Marci had lived when he’d first met her did Julius finally release the breath he’d been holding. “I think we’re clear.”
Marci must have agreed, because the invisibility illusion vanished seconds later to reveal her grinning face. “Quality spellwork,” she said proudly. “Take the time to do it right, and it works the first time, every time.”
“Very high quality,” Julius agreed, flashing her a thankful look before turning to check on his sister. “Are you okay?”
“No,” Chelsie said quietly. She was sitting as far from the two of them as possible, leaning against the passenger door with her sword in her lap and her eyes locked on the dark road ahead. “I can’t remember anything after the fight with Vann Jeger.”
“That’s probably because of Estella,” Julius said quickly. “But it’s okay. We made it, and now we’re going to get you somewhere safe.”
He finished with a smile that was meant to be comforting, but Chelsie’s eyes were as cold and hard as green stones when they met his. “Do you have my phone?”
That seemed like a weird question, but Julius didn’t comment as he pulled it out of his pocket and handed the device over. “Bob called you,” he explained quickly. “That’s how I knew how to say the…um…thing I’m not supposed to mention.”
Chelsie nodded, though she didn’t actually seem to be listening. She was just staring at her phone with an odd expression.
“What’s wrong?” he asked nervously.
“We’ll find out when we get back to your house,” she said, closing her eyes. “I need to recover. Wake me up when we get there.”
Julius shifted nervously. But before he could think of a polite way to ask how she could possibly sleep at a time like this, Chelsie was out, curled in the corner with her head resting on the passenger window.
The sight filled him with decidedly mixed feelings. Happy as he was that his sister trusted him enough to sleep in his presence, he was also afraid that the sleep wasn’t by choice. Whatever had just happened to Chelsie, it clearly wasn’t over yet. But there wasn’t anything he could do for her in the car, so Julius forced himself to turn back to the road, manually adjusting the pickup’s ancient controls to avoid as many potholes as possible as they raced down the ruler-straight streets back to the glittering, double-layered city rising like a cliff face in front of them.
***
Amelia was waiting when they got home, sitting on the porch steps in the ill-fitting dress Marci had given her with a half-empty bottle of whiskey dangling from her fingers. She set it down as soon as they pulled in, pushing herself to her feet with a pained grin. “You lived!” she cried happily. “I guess that means we…What happened to you?”
This was directed at Chelsie, who half-stumbled, half-fell out of the passenger door the second the truck stopped moving. “I’m fine,” she muttered, regaining her balance. “Get inside.”
“Fine?” Amelia cried. “You’re missing half your magic!” Her eyes turned murderous. “Did one of Algonquin’s mages do this?”
“No,” Marci said sheepishly, scooting out of the truck behind Chelsie. “It was me.”
“Because I told her to,” Chelsie snapped.
“And why would you do something stupid like that?” Amelia snapped back. “Was your life not complicated enough already?”
Chelsie’s reply to that was a silent glare, leaving Amelia steaming. “What bit her?” she grumbled, crossing her arms with a hurt look as Chelsie marched up the steps into the house. “And why is she naked? Did she fight Vann Jeger as a dragon?” Her face turned spooked. “Do we need to start digging an air raid shelter?”
“No,” Julius said, shutting down the car. “We beat Vann Jeger. Well, really Marci did, but—”
“It was a team effort,” Marci interrupted, though she still beamed when Amelia gave her two thumbs up.
“—we’ve got another problem,” Julius continued. “Chelsie was attacked by Estella.”
For the first time since they’d arrived, Amelia was speechless, and Julius took advantage of the lull to get her back into the house.
Inside, they found Chelsie lying in what had been Amelia’s spot on the bloody couch with her head back and her eyes shut. Amelia, who probably shouldn’t have been standing either, sat down on the couch’s arm with an uncharacteristically grim expression. “Are you cold?”
“Freezing,” Chelsie said.
Julius, who remembered all too well how awful he’d felt after Marci had taken all of his magic, ran upstairs to get her a blanket that wasn’t covered in blood. When he came back down, Chelsie was eating an entire bag of frozen chicken wings.
“It’s all we had left,” Marci said before Julius could even ask. “I offered to order food, or at least put the wings in the oven, but—”
“No time,” Chelsie said, eating the raw, frozen wings bones and all. “We have to move fast.”
Amelia crossed her arms stubbornly over her chest. “Not before someone tells me what happened.”
“We distracted Vann Jeger,” Chelsie said in a clipped voice. “Marci’s spirit defeated him, after which I helped her bind him again, and then I took Vann Jeger’s head.”
Amelia’s eyes were huge by the time she finished. “You used your Mortal Spirit?” she cried, turning to Marci. “That’s amazing! What’s his name? How did he do it? TELL ME EVERYTHING!”
“Later,” Chelsie growled, baring her teeth when Amelia shot her a furious look. “There’s more to life than your curiosity. Estella attacked me just like she did you. The last thing I remember is chopping off Vann Jeger’s head. After that, there’s nothing until I woke up as a dragon with Julius in my face and Algonquin’s task force on my tail.”
Amelia’s look turned smug. “Nice Dragon saves the day again, huh?” She turned to Julius. “Is bailing us out of disasters your new hobby or something?”
Julius’s ears began to burn at that. But while it was nice to finally get some appreciation, he couldn’t claim credit for this one. “It was Bob,” he said quickly. “I just did what I was told. But while we managed to get Chelsie out safely, none of us saw the attack, so we still have no idea what Estella did. We can’t even go back and investigate since the whole place is overrun with dragon hunters.”
“We don’t need to go back,” Chelsie said, holding up her phone.
Julius frowned in confusion, and his sister sighed. “Estella hasn’t been targeting Heartstrikers at random,” she explained. “First Conrad, then Amelia, and, assuming Vann Jeger was telling the truth, Justin. I’m not sure if she’s specifically attacking Fangs and just went after Amelia because she could, or if she’s been systematically taking out any Heartstriker who could pose a threat, but either way, I was next. That’s why, after what happened to Amelia, I went ahead and rigged my phone’s camera and mic to record at all times.”
“You bugged yourself?” Julius said, impressed. “That’s clever.”
“Clever is Chelsie’s middle name,” Amelia said proudly, ruffling her younger sister’s short hair before Chelsie could smack her hand away. “So what are you waiting for? Play it!”
Chelsie glared and tapped her phone, turning it around so they could all see the video on the screen since her obviously disposable phone was too cheap to have public AR. Fortunately, the video quality was reasonably good even with the dark, though oddly, the first thing they saw was the phone falling out onto the ground as Chelsie collapsed against a tree.
“Never mind that,” Chelsie muttered, skipping ahea
d several seconds. “Here.”
After all that buildup, Julius was braced for something epic, but the exchange was actually astonishingly short. The whole thing couldn’t have lasted more than five seconds before Chelsie’s fire whited out the camera.
“What happened to Estella’s hair?” Amelia asked. “Cancer patient is not a good look for her. Was it like that when she attacked me?”
“Who cares about her hair?” Marci cried. “Is she freaking serious? Did she seriously set up all that Vann Jeger nonsense—me getting interrogated and having a curse put on my neck and all that stuff with Ghost—just so she could get the drop on Chelsie?”
“Actually, I thought that part was pretty clever,” Amelia said. “How else could you bait Bethesda’s Shade out into the open? Chelsie’s always had a soft spot for the babies.”
“Excuse me for not condoning child murder,” Chelsie growled, skipping the video back to replay the attack. “But I still don’t see how she knocked me out. She barely even touched me.”
Marci leaned over the phone. “I think she put something on you,” she said, backing the video up again and pausing it on the second when Estella’s hand shot out toward Chelsie’s neck. “See? Right there. She has something in her hands.”
Julius squinted at the barely visible black line. “What is that? A rope?”
“I think it’s some kind of chain,” Marci said, tilting her head sideways.
Amelia’s whole body jerked. “Say that again,” she demanded.
“What?” Marci asked, frowning. “Chain?”
The dragon mage’s face collapsed into a scowl Julius didn’t like one bit. “Is that bad?” he asked.
“Potentially apocalyptic,” Amelia replied, her voice deadly serious. “We need to call Bob.”
“I’m surprised he hasn’t called us,” Julius said, suddenly worried. “He said he’d call when we got home.”
“Maybe he’s busy?” Marci said.
“Or maybe he can’t see now that two of our futures are gone,” Amelia said grimly.
