by Rachel Aaron
Encouraged, he slid his hand under the sheets to investigate and immediately encountered the familiar softness of medical gauze. Bandages, then. Also sheets, which meant he was probably in a bed. That was a definite improvement over the back of Bob’s car, worth checking out, and so, with a deep breath, Julius cracked his eyes open.
He was in a bedroom. That much wasn’t surprising, given the bed, but what was surprising was that he recognized it. The elegant beige and white room was one of Jessica’s guest bedrooms. Bob must have brought him to their sister for medical treatment after he’d passed out. That would explain the expert bandage job, and why he’d been upgraded from the couch. Seers always got the best stuff.
After a few groggy tries, Julius managed to sit up with relatively little pain. He was contemplating giving standing a go when the door opened and Marci burst into the room.
“Oh, thank goodness,” she said. “You’re finally awake.”
He smiled at the clear relief in her voice, but before he could ask any of the pertinent questions—how he’d gotten here, what had happened, was she all right—Marci flung herself onto the bed and hugged him tight.
She kept her arms on his shoulders to avoid his injuries, but Julius wouldn’t have cared if she’d crushed them. The feel of her around him would have been worth the pain. This was still lovely, though, and after a few seconds, he tentatively returned the gesture, putting his arms loosely around her waist as he breathed her in.
There were no tears this time, thankfully, just Marci and the distinctive scent of Jessica’s fancy soap. She’d showered and changed since he’d last seen her, but the pale lemon sundress she was wearing must have been Jessica’s, because it didn’t fit Marci at all in size or style. She was beautiful in it, though. Beautiful and alive and soft with her body pressed against his so firmly, he could feel the racing thrum of her heartbeat. And reckless as it was, Julius really, really wished that she would kiss him again. Right now. Instead, she pulled away.
“Sorry,” she muttered, dropping her eyes. “Got carried away. The others kept acting like your injuries were nothing, but I swear you almost died a few times back there, and…” she trailed off with an emotional sigh. “I’m just really, really happy you’re okay.”
“Me too,” Julius said softly, fighting the urge to sigh himself. That was quite possibly the nicest, most beautiful thing anyone had ever said to him, and he took a moment to revel in it while she checked his bandages.
“Wow, you do heal fast,” she said, tucking the gauze back into place. “Your skin’s already closed over. How are you feeling?”
Not nearly so good now that she wasn’t hugging him. “Not bad,” he said. “Almost normal, actually. Where’s Bob?”
“He left half an hour ago,” Marci replied, glancing nervously over her shoulder at the door. “I really wish he’d stuck around, though. Things are getting tense out there.”
That put Julius on alert. “What’s going on?”
“I couldn’t explain it if I tried. You’d better come see for yourself. Can you stand?”
Between the two of them, they managed to get him to his feet. Once he was up, the remaining grogginess cleared quickly, and he started looking around for something to wear. Unfortunately, his shirt was now nothing but bloody scraps, and he wasn’t about to ask Jessica for a spare. Going out bare-chested felt crass, though, so he settled for draping one of Jessica’s decorative throw blankets over his shoulders like a shawl.
When he was decent enough to face company, he let Marci help him into the hall, breathing deep to try to get an early warning for whatever was waiting. He caught the scent just as they turned the corner into the living room, and swallowed his groan just in time.
The apartment was full of dragons. Ian and Svena were sitting on the couch, the former watching with carefully veiled interest while the latter glared ice-cold daggers at Katya, who was standing by the window like she wanted to jump out of it. Jessica was in the kitchen, making drinks and looking like she wanted to throw the lot of them out the window, or at least out of her apartment. Her head snapped up when she heard Julius coming, and she went straight for him like a charging shark, yanking him away from Marci and back into the hall.
“What were you thinking, bringing all these dragons to my doorstep?” she hissed. “That’s the White Witch in there! Are you trying to get me killed? And you’d better teach your human some manners before—”
“Don’t speak that way about Marci,” Julius said, calmly removing his arm from his sister’s grasp. “I’m sorry for the inconvenience, but I didn’t ask them to come. Bob brought me here, so if you have problems, take them to him. Now, I’m going to go try my best to get these dragons out of your living room.” His eyes darted past her to the tray of gin and tonics she’d been in the middle of preparing. “I’ll also take a drink. And one for Marci, too, please.”
With that, he patted his shocked sister on the shoulder and walked back into the living room to see what was going on.
Katya was waiting for him when he got there. “I’m so glad you’re up,” she said, pulling him over to stand before the dragons on the couch like he was a prisoner facing his parole board. “This is the one who saved me.”
Julius froze, eyes wide. Svena was staring at him like she was contemplating just how slowly she wanted to gut him while Ian’s face was perfectly blank and unhelpful. “Well,” he said, scrambling to pick words that might best encourage Svena not to do anything permanent. “Justin did most of the work. I—”
“Because you asked him to,” Katya said firmly, glaring at her sister. “You see? It’s just as the human reported. Julius Heartstriker rallied his human and his brother Justin, a Blade of Bethesda, to come to my aid. They fought valiantly to save my life, which Estella would have thrown away. This is why I vowed a life debt to him, and I will not revoke it.”
Julius almost choked as she finished, looking desperately between Katya, who was standing with her chin lifted defiantly, and Svena, who looked ready to murder them both. “I think there’s been a misunderstanding,” he said. “I didn’t—”
A flash of movement caught his eye, and he glanced at the kitchen to see Marci waving her hands in a frantic play along gesture.
“What I mean is, Katya is telling the truth,” he corrected. “I found her this afternoon and convinced her to come home, but then she was abducted by humans—”
“Who were working for Estella,” Katya cut in. “She was using me as a pawn to breed war between our clans. You know she will stop at nothing to—”
“Enough!” Svena yelled, shooting to her feet. “You will not speak so of our sister in front of outsiders!”
“I’ll speak however I like!” Katya yelled back. “I am a daughter of the Three Sisters same as you, and it was these outsiders who saved my life when our sister endangered it!”
Svena lifted her lips in a deadly snarl and began speaking rapidly in Russian. Katya responded in kind, getting into her sister’s face so aggressively, Julius worried it would come to blows. Apparently, the youngest daughter of the Three Sisters took being kidnapped by humans on the orders of the eldest very personally. The defeated, tired girl he’d seen at the diner had vanished completely, leaving behind a dragoness who was absolutely determined to get her way and more than ready to drag Julius into battle with her if necessary.
“I am through being thought of as the failure of the clan!” Katya cried, in English now. “And I am done being kept like a prisoner by my own family! My debt is mine to give, and if I choose to give it to the one who risked his life to save mine, you cannot stop me.”
Svena shot Julius a nasty look. Or she would have, but Katya got in the way, growling loud enough to rattle the coffee table’s glass top. This got Svena’s attention as nothing else had, and the dragoness flopped back down on the couch with an angry sigh. “Fine,” she snarled. “I acknowledge your stupid debt. But you are still coming home.”
“No,” Katya said, her face breaking i
nto a wicked smile. “You just acknowledged my debt.”
“So?” Svena said. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“It has to do with everything,” Katya said proudly. “By your own words, I am now honor bound to answer the call of Heartstriker, and I can’t do that if I’m locked up in Siberia, can I?”
Svena’s ice blue eyes widened in surprise before narrowing to dangerous slits. “Very well,” she said slowly. “If you aren’t going home, then where would you live?”
“Here,” Katya said, standing tall. “I wish to remain in the DFZ.”
Julius’s breath caught. That’s what she was doing. This wasn’t actually about life debts or gratitude or any of that. Katya had just used the circumstances surrounding her kidnapping to modify their original plan to keep her in the DFZ. She’d also upped the ante enormously. Now that Svena had formally acknowledged the debt Katya owed to the Heartstrikers, not allowing her to stay and honor it was as good as refusing to pay. She was using her own capture to force Svena’s hand, turning her defeat into her means to victory, and the whole thing was such a beautiful twist on dragon politics that Julius couldn’t have stopped grinning if he’d tried.
Svena, however, was far less impressed. “You think I can’t see what you’re doing?” she said, her voice an icy threat. “You think to make a fool of me?”
“I don’t have to,” Katya said. “You’re making a fool of yourself if you let pride stand between you and such a good outcome for all involved. Come on, Svena. Do you really want to have to keep going back to Siberia every month to check on me? I’ve always thought that a sister who’s constantly running away is a much greater embarrassment than one who can’t use magic. This is a far superior arrangement for both of us, especially since I’ll be in a city where I shouldn’t cast anything flashy even if I could. And since I don’t want to run, you won’t have to worry about chasing me. Everybody wins.”
As Katya spoke, Svena’s expression had turned from furious to conflicted. Now, she was openly thinking it over, tapping her sharp nails on the arm of Jessica’s couch. “Estella will never permit you to live on the Lady’s lands.”
“She won’t,” Katya agreed. “But Estella isn’t here, is she?”
Julius didn’t understand the significance of that statement. Of course Estella wasn’t here. If she’d been in the apartment, a clan war would probably be breaking out right now. But physical nearness clearly wasn’t what Katya was referring to, because Svena gave her sister a cross look. “That is definitely not talk for outsiders.”
Katya shrugged. “It’s no secret that she’s not around right now,” she said. “Surely you don’t mean for us to sit around waiting on a seer’s convenience when it would be so much easier for you to step up in her absence and make the call yourself,”—she broke into a coy smile—“clan head?”
Svena raised a warning finger, but Julius didn’t miss the flash of interest in her eyes. Clearly, Svena like the idea of being clan head very much. Ian seemed to like it even better, because his face lit up like a young dragon seeing his very first pile of gold before he masked it.
“I think your sister makes an excellent point,” he said casually. “The DFZ’s strategic advantages are unparalleled if you’re going to be managing your clan’s assets in Estella’s stead. Just until she comes back, of course. In the interim, I would be more than happy to offer you a place to stay as a token of good will between our two clans. It just so happens that I own all three of the penthouses in my building. You could have your pick.”
Julius held his breath. Even though turning Ian into their advocate had been his plan from the beginning, he still couldn’t quite believe it was actually working. Better still, Ian wasn’t even paying attention to him. His eyes were on Svena, waiting for her to take the bait, and from the sour look on her face, she knew it. At the same time, though, there was no question that this arrangement worked enormously in her favor. Now, everything depended on what she decided was more important: pride, or getting what she wanted.
That was always a tricky call with dragons, and Julius began to sweat as the seconds dragged on. In the end, though, ambition won. “It would certainly make my life easier if you stopped running away,” Svena said, leaning back on the couch and generally making a great show of being highly put out. “Oh, very well. So long as you stay out of trouble and obey me as you would our mothers, you may remain here.”
“Thank you, Svena!” Katya said, running to hug her sister.
Svena sighed and waved her away, but even her cold dragon routine wasn’t quite enough to keep the smug smile off her face as she leaned over to whisper something in Ian’s ear. Whatever she said had him smiling, too, and they exchanged a meaningful look before Svena announced she was going to inform the rest of her clan of the new arrangement and walked off to the rear of the apartment.
Katya followed right on her heels, taking two drinks off the tray Jessica had just finished preparing as she passed. Being treated like a waitress in her own home was apparently too much for Jessica, however. She slammed the tray down on the counter and stormed off as well, leaving Ian, Marci, and Julius alone in the living room.
Ian glanced at the drinks and then at Julius. Getting the message, Julius grabbed the tray and set it on the coffee table in front of his brother, who helped himself.
“I understand you’re the mind behind all this,” he said, taking a slow sip.
“Partially,” Julius said. “Katya was the one who sold it, though.”
“Modesty ill becomes dragons,” Ian said, no longer bothering to hide his grin. “Svena told me just now that her sister named you as the instigator during that rather delightful bout of Russian. It seems I must reevaluate my opinion of you, Julius Heartstriker. You got the job done.”
“Thank you,” Julius said, taking a careful sip of his own drink. “Though if you want to tell someone, I’d appreciate it if you’d tell Mother.”
“I will,” Ian said, studying him. “I’m not quite sure how you pulled it off, but whatever you did, it was clearly effective. You got Brohomir on your side, prevented a clan war, solved Svena’s little sister problem and kept them both in the city, which makes my life much easier. And you got rid of Estella.”
“That wasn’t me,” Julius said quickly.
“Who cares?” Ian said with a shrug. “The point is that everything turned up roses for Heartstriker, especially this Heartstriker. So yes, I’ll be telling Mother a great deal. I can’t make her unseal you, of course, but if she doesn’t, it won’t be for lack of positive reporting on my end. You are absolutely wasted as a scapegoat.”
“Thank you,” Julius said, but it was more out of habit than anything else. He was still trying to wrap his brain around the fact that he’d actually pulled it off. The long shot plan he’d thought up in the car and then sold to Katya had actually worked. And while Ian’s good opinion wasn’t the same as their mother’s, he was reasonably certain she wouldn’t kill a dragon her current favorite son considered useful, which meant he might actually live.
Considering the number of times he’d squeaked past death tonight, that shouldn’t have come as such a shock, but Julius had lived in fear of his mother for so long, the idea that he’d wiggled out of one of her traps barely seemed possible. He was still wondering at it when he realized Ian had asked him a question.
“Sorry,” he said, shaking his head. “What was that?”
Ian gave him a cutting look. “I said, what are you going to do now? And don’t say go back to your room in the mountain. This Katya business has bought you a reprieve, but mother’s still going to expect you to do something with your life. So, what is it?”
Julius had no idea. Hiding had been his life for so long, he’d never actually put much thought into what else there was to do. The only thing he knew for certain was that he definitely wasn’t going back to the mountain, but beyond that, he had no clue. It must have shown on his face, too, because Ian sighed.
“Let
me put it another way,” he said, setting his drink down on the table. “What do you want to do? I have several businesses that can always use someone competent. I’d be happy to start you out somewhere in my organization in exchange for a few favors.”
That didn’t sound like something Julius wanted to touch with a ten foot pole, but his brother had still given him an idea. “Actually,” he said. “I think I’d like to start with the payment for this job.”
Ian’s smiled as he reached for his phone. “Now you’re thinking like a dragon. Very well, how much do I owe you?”
“We didn’t actually agree on a specific amount.” Which was a mistake Julius would never be making again. Right now, though, the oversight actually worked in his favor. “I was wondering if I could ask for a different kind of payment, though. You own a lot of properties in the city, right?”
“A few hundred,” Ian replied casually. “Including our family safe house, which I presume is still standing after its recent Justin infestation?”
“Last I saw,” Julius said, though the mention of Justin’s name made him wince. Overbearing as his brother could be, Justin had come through for him in spades tonight. He was trying to think if there was any way he could get back in touch with Chelsie and ask her to be lenient when Ian cleared his throat and snapped Julius back to the conversation.
“Sorry,” he said quickly, smiling at his brother, who was looking dangerously bored. “I was just thinking that, instead of paying me money, you could let me use one of your buildings instead. I’m thinking of starting a business.”
Now Ian looked flat-out shocked. “What would you do with a business?”
“Make something of myself,” Julius said, pulling himself a little straighter. “You and Mother were right, I wasn’t going anywhere hiding in my room. I’d like to change that, but I need a base to operate out of, preferably one without a human landlord to worry about. So if you’re offering me payment, that’s what I’d like. Please.”
