by Rachel Aaron
She pulled a white business card with an address written on the front, and Julius nodded. “That’s in town.”
“I know,” she said, giving him a sheepish look. “But I can’t even find the front door. If you can get me outside, though, I can probably find my way from there.”
He could do a lot better than that. “Fredrick?” he asked, glancing up the stairs. “Would it be possible to get a car to take Marci into town?”
“Absolutely, Great Julius,” the F said, turning to the human with a painfully polite smile. “If you would follow me, Miss Novalli.”
Marci shot Julius a nervous look. “Is he for real?”
Julius nodded. “I’m sorry he was rude to you before. Fredrick’s had a rough time of it here in the mountain, and it’s given him some odd ideas about things. But he seems like an honest dragon who’s good at his job. You should be fine.”
By the time he finished, she was grinning at him. “Look at you, all official! It’s almost like you’re part of the ruling Council of a dragon clan or something.”
Julius winced. “Please don’t say that.” It sounded as if she were praising him for being his mother.
“It was meant in the nicest way possible,” Marci assured him, clutching her bag. Then, without warning, she rose up on her toes and pressed a kiss against his cheek. It was the barest brush, a quick touch of her lips that was over almost before it started, but that didn’t stop it from sending a jolt of electricity straight down to his toes. He was still reeling when she pulled away, slinging her bag securely across her chest.
“I’ll call you to report the moment the meeting’s over,” she said as she hurried up the stairs toward Fredrick. “And I haven’t forgotten you promised to take me flying, so make sure to leave room on your schedule tonight, okay?”
Still speechless, Julius could only nod, watching in a haze as she flashed him a final smile and took off, following Fredrick up the stairs and out the door at the next landing. He was still grinning like an idiot when Justin finally stood up to join him.
“It’s like that now, is it?”
“You’re just jealous,” Julius said, not bothering to wipe the happy grin off his face as he reached up to touch the spot on his cheek where Marci had kissed him.
His brother rolled his eyes in disgust. “Yeah, well, if you’re done staring after your mortal like a lost puppy, we’ve got real problems.”
“Like what?” Julius asked, because this crisis had ended fantastically better than he’d expected.
“Gregory to start,” Justin said, leaning over the railing to glare down the center of the stairwell. “He was obviously after the girl to get leverage on you, which isn’t a bad plan given how stuck on her you are.”
He paused there, clearly waiting for his brother to sputter and deny it. When Julius just kept grinning, Justin continued with a sigh. “Your mage sent him running, so I doubt he’ll bother her again. Now that I’ve spread his failure around to the entire clan, though, he’s going to be madder than ever, which means we might actually get a real fight.”
Now it was Julius’s turn to sigh. “Don’t say that like it’s a good thing. The entire point of this is to end the cycle of brother fighting brother, remember?”
“That doesn’t mean some brothers don’t deserve to have their tails kicked,” Justin said stubbornly. “He talks a big game, but that Amazonian gutter snake clearly doesn’t have the guts to take me head on, which explains why he went after your human. Now that I’ve put his failure out there for everyone to see, though, he’ll have no choice but to put up or shut up.”
“That’s why you did it?” Julius cried. “To antagonize him?”
“Well, that and it was hilarious,” his brother said with a shrug. “But this needs to happen, Julius. Dragons like Gregory don’t just forget. If we don’t shut him down hard now, he’ll be a thorn in your side forever.” He cracked his knuckles. “I say we go find him now while he’s still licking his wounds and put an end to this nonsense for good.”
“No,” Julius growled, fists clenching. “For the last time, Justin, you don’t free a dragon clan from threats of violence by using threats of violence!”
“Oh, I wasn’t going to threaten,” Justin assured him. “I was just going to do it.”
“That’s even worse!”
“Says you,” Justin snapped. “But you’re a freak of nature: a pacifist dragon. The rest of us are normal, and if you want to make a point to a normal dragon, you need to use claws.”
“That’s not true,” Julius said stubbornly. “We’re not animals, Justin.”
His brother snorted. “Gregory is.”
Considering he’d just attacked Marci, defending Gregory was not high on Julius’s list, but he couldn’t let that slide. “Gregory is angry,” he said, trying his best to stay calm and reasonable. “He’s only acting like this because I’m threatening his position. He’s a traditionally strong dragon, which means he was at the top of the old system. Now I’m changing things and threatening to upset that, so he’s fighting back the only way he knows how. I’m not excusing what he’s done, but fighting back in the same way isn’t going to make things better. We can’t make a clan free from bullies by being bullies ourselves.”
“So you’re just going to roll over for him?” Justin said. “If you let this slide, he’ll be after you forever.”
“No, he won’t,” Julius said confidently. “Because no dragon bangs his head on the wall forever. Once he realizes the old violence doesn’t work anymore, he’ll find new ways to solve his problems. Hopefully ones we can work with. But I don’t care what he does, we are not going to go looking for a fight, and that’s the end of it.”
Justin looked surlier than ever by the time he was done, but to Julius’s amazement, he didn’t keep pushing. He didn’t look happy, but he didn’t keep arguing, either. A fact for which Julius was incredibly grateful, at least until his brother changed the subject.
“What I really want to know is where was Chelsie during all of this?” he said angrily. “You won’t let me punch in Gregory’s head, but policing family idiots is supposed to be her job. Why wasn’t she here doing it?”
“Probably because she’s busy,” Julius replied. “The vote has the entire clan crammed in together. That’s a hundred and fifty dragons in close quarters, many of whom are involved in ongoing blood feuds. I’m pretty sure the only reason no one’s died yet is because Chelsie’s been working her butt off.”
“That’s no excuse,” Justin growled. “I was stabbed through the heart by a crazy dragon seer not two days ago, and you don’t see me slacking. Look at you.” He slapped Julius on the back. “Fit as a fiddle. Not a single assassination attempt all morning, unless you count a little bit of C4.”
Julius was pretty sure that counted, but his brother sounded oddly let down. “Do you want me to get assassinated or something?” he said, rubbing his bruised back.
“Not gonna happen,” his brother said cockily. “But I wouldn’t mind if someone tried. The whole reason I agreed to let you have the Fang Council seat was so that I wouldn’t have to go to meetings, but that’s all we’ve done all morning! I thought your peace-and-love routine would pull dragons out of the woodwork, but other than one attack on your mage, no one’s tried anything direct. It’s all been traps and curses and other cowardly nonsense.”
“Why would they do anything else?” Julius asked, pointing at his sword. “I’ve got a weapon that stops any Heartstriker with killing intent cold before I even see them. Attacking me head on is pretty pointless.”
“Yeah, but I still thought they’d try,” Justin said irritably. “You’re a weakling, easy prey, and thanks to your demonstration at the vote yesterday, everyone knows you have to be actually grabbing your sword for it work. That’s a pretty big loophole in an unbeatable weapon. You should be drawing real assassins by the dozens, but we haven’t seen so much as a knife up a sleeve. I didn’t even get to punch Gregory!” He pouted. “What’s th
e point of being your bodyguard if I don’t get to do anything?”
Julius sighed. He supposed he should be comforted that Justin was so eager to protect him, but that didn’t change the fact that this was all about ego at the end of the day. He was about to tell his overly aggressive brother to swallow his disappointment and prepare for more meetings when the hairs on the back of his neck began to tingle.
“Speak of the devil,” Justin said, lifting his lip in a sneer at something on the steps behind Julius. Or, rather, someone.
“Hello, Chelsie,” Julius said, turning around to greet his sister. “We were just talking about…”
The words died on his tongue. When he’d seen her last night, he’d thought Chelsie looked a little haggard. Now, though, she looked almost as bad as Amelia.
As always, she was dressed in black combat armor, with her Fang on her hip. But while she looked normal enough at first glance, the harsh glare of the stairwell’s lights showed that her armor’s matte black surface was heavily splattered with darker stains, some of which were still wet. The smell hit Julius a few seconds later, a pungent mix of dragon blood and fear, neither of which belonged to her.
This wasn’t to say Chelsie wasn’t injured. Her stern face boasted several faint bruises, and she was holding her left arm at an odd angle, like she couldn’t completely use her shoulder. She also seemed to be heavily favoring her right leg, but Julius didn’t want Chelsie to think he was casing her for weaknesses, so he forced his eyes away from her injuries and back to her face.
Naturally, Justin was not so polite. “What happened to you?” he demanded, looking her up and down. “Losing your touch?”
Chelsie answered that with a cutting glare that rolled off her hardheaded brother like water off a duck’s back. “So who got you?” he asked excitedly.
“No one you’d expect,” Chelsie growled, finally giving up. “And before you get any ideas, they were all lucky shots.”
He snorted. “Likely story.”
“Very likely,” she growled. “I’ve fought close to thirty of our idiot siblings this morning already. With those numbers, some hits are bound to get through. Even the blind pig finds an apple every now and then.”
Justin was already opening his mouth to keep arguing, and Julius scrambled to get ahead of him. “I’m sorry you’ve had such a hard time.”
Chelsie shrugged. “It was inevitable. Enforcing the clan rules is my job, and even smart dragons can lose their heads when power is up for grabs. But I didn’t come to complain. I’m actually here to offer you an apology.”
Julius blinked. “Me?”
His sister lowered her eyes. “I suspected Gregory was going to make a play for your human,” she said. “That’s why I went back downstairs after you left and rearmed all the wards on my rooms. I didn’t expect her to be able to break out anyway, or that Gregory would find her before I finished reminding a pair of Hs that a change in clan power doesn’t mean they can get away with murdering each other.” She looked at him again. “I’ve already dealt with Gregory, but I wanted you to know I’m sorry I was late. I hope your human is all right.”
Chelsie apologizing to him was more than Julius knew what to do with. Even Justin was shocked speechless, his jaw hanging open. Finally, after the two of them had stood stupidly for way too long, Julius found his voice at last. “Marci’s fine,” he said in a rush. “She wasn’t a prisoner, anyway, so there’s no worries about her getting out. But, um, you didn’t… That is…”
“Did you kill Gregory?” Justin finished for him.
“No,” Chelsie said, shaking her head. “I only kill dragons who deserve it, and seeing how he’d just been defeated by a human, I decided he was already going to suffer plenty. But he knows I’m watching, and he shouldn’t be bothering you or Marci again.”
“So you didn’t even rough him up?” Justin said, appalled. “I turned into a dragon in the DFZ for five minutes, and you took my sword and had me chained to a chair for a week! Gregory straight-up attacks Julius’s mage, and you let him off with a warning?”
“I gave you plenty of warnings,” Chelsie snapped. “You just chose to ignore them. Gregory, by contrast, is still on his first offense of the year. I would have come down harder, but like I said, I’m a little busy at the moment. And again, it’s not like he isn’t going to suffer. You just sent news of his defeat by a human to the entire clan. I wouldn’t be surprised if he up and left altogether after this.”
That would suit Julius just fine. But before he could thank his sister again, Chelsie winced, clutching her arm.
“What?” he asked, instantly on guard.
“Nothing,” she muttered, closing her eyes with a deep breath. “I have to go.”
That made Julius more nervous than ever. “Where?”
“None of your business,” she snarled, but the angry words were undermined by the obvious pain in her voice, and Julius bit his lip.
“Are you sure you’re—”
“I’m fine,” Chelsie growled. “I just need to take a short break and change into something with less blood on it. You.” She stabbed her finger at Justin. “Stay out of trouble. And you.” She stabbed her finger at Julius. “Keep your hand on that sword. And don’t do anything nice. Gregory’s not the only one who sees taking you out as his road to power, and I might not be around to save you next time.”
“You weren’t around this time!” Justin yelled, but Chelsie was already gone. She didn’t even bother to wait until their backs were turned. She simply pulled her sword and sliced down, splitting the air in a strike almost too fast for Julius to see, leaving them staring at the empty step.
“Show-off,” Justin grumbled.
“I don’t think she was showing off,” Julius said, looking worriedly at the blood she’d left on the stairs. “I think she’s really hurt.”
“You can’t hurt Chelsie,” his brother snorted. “She’s invincible.”
Normally, Julius would have agreed. But everyone had their limits, and between Justin, Vann Jeger, and Estella, Chelsie had been up against hers for a long time now. Mother still hadn’t let her rest, either, sending her to get shot in the DFZ first thing yesterday and making her get up before dawn this morning to keep the clan from tearing itself apart. Even for an old and powerful dragon, Chelsie was obviously being worked far beyond what she could handle, and the more Julius thought about that, the angrier he got.
“I’m going to go talk to her,” he said, starting down the stairs.
“Are you crazy?” Justin growled, stomping after him. “Chelsie doesn’t talk. She threatens. And if that doesn’t work, she hits. It’s called being clan enforcer.”
“All the more reason for me to do something, then,” Julius argued, taking the stairs down two at a time. “Chelsie’s the best at what she does, but no one dragon can police an entire clan alone. She doesn’t even like her job. She’s only doing it because Mother makes her. She has to work harder than all the rest of us combined, and that’s not fair.”
Justin snorted. “Fair has nothing to do with being a dragon.”
“It does in my clan,” Julius growled. “The whole point of moving to a Council was to free us from Mother, but that can’t happen if some of us are still trapped under her thumb.”
“Yeah, well, life ain’t fair,” Justin said. “I’m sure Chelsie doesn’t like her lot, but it’s not like you can just make Mother set her free.”
“Why not?” Julius asked. “Because that’s exactly what I’m planning to do.”
Justin froze on the stairs behind him. “What?”
“I’m going to free Chelsie,” Julius said, stopping as well to turn and look at him. “Mother’s making her do this just like she makes F-clutch act like servants, and it’s wrong. So I’m going to find a way to set them all free and put a stop to this once and for all.”
Justin stared at him like he’d lost his marbles, and then he turned away with a curse. “Look,” he said at last. “I’m all for not having to deal
with Chelsie lurking behind me anymore, but what you’re saying is insane. I know that you’re not exactly up on how our clan actually works since you were basically living under a rock until a month ago, but Chelsie’s been the Clan Enforcer since forever. She’s an institution, not to mention one of the only reasons this clan keeps functioning. Do you know how many rebellions we would have had before now if Chelsie hadn’t been there to stomp them down?”
“All the more reason to set her free,” Julius said. “What kind of clan are we if the only thing keeping us together is our unifying fear of Chelsie? That’s not healthy.”
“Maybe not,” Justin said. “But it works. And what makes you think you can set her free, anyway? Chelsie’s as sneaky as dragons come. If there was a way to wiggle out of this, she’d have done it ages ago. You already overthrew Bethesda. If Chelsie was going to go, she would have done it then. The fact that she’s still here doing her job just proves that she’s in a bigger mess than you can clean up with some Council edicts and wishful thinking.”
Bethesda herself had said something similar yesterday morning, but it was far too early for Julius to accept defeat. “I won’t know until I try,” he said stubbornly, starting down the stairs again. “If I can just talk to her and explain what I want to do, maybe she’ll at least tell me what Bethesda’s using to keep her in line. That’s more than I have now.”
“Yeah, good luck with that,” his brother grumbled. “Chelsie keeps her secrets even closer than her enemies. If you start asking questions, she’s just going to slam the door in your face.”
Knowing Chelsie’s temper, a simple door slam was the probably a best-case scenario. But that was a risk he was willing to take. Even when she was being terrifying about it, Chelsie had always been there for him. Now, Julius was determined to at least try to return the favor, so he picked up the pace, taking the service stairs two at a time as he jogged down the endless corkscrew toward the very bottom of the mountain.
***