by Rachel Aaron
It was a sign of how crazy his good mood had made him that his first guess was that it was the tracker calling in at last with Svena’s location. A hope that fizzled when he walked over to the bed where he’d tossed his phone to see Bethesda’s name shining up at him from the screen.
Fast as it had risen, his optimism took a nose drive straight through to his feet. It was such an intense reversal that, for a moment, Julius seriously considered not answering. But ignoring Bethesda was practically begging for disaster, and so, wrapping the tattered remains of his good mood around him like a blanket, he grabbed his phone and lifted it to his ear with a deep breath.
“Good morning, Mother. ”
“Try afternoon,” she said, the disdain in her voice so ingrained it was almost lazy, like this was her default setting and she just couldn’t be bothered to put in the energy for anything more. “Really, Julius. Sleeping in is a luxury reserved for those of us who’ve done something with our lives. ”
“Actually, I wasn’t sleeping,” he said, draping the towel over his bare shoulders. “I was working on the water glass trick. You know, the one Justin used to make me do? He reminded me last night that I’ve been slacking, and since I’m out of the mountain now, I figured I’d better get back in shape. ”
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There was a moment of stunned silence. “Julius,” his mother said at last, drawing his name out into something between a growl and purr. “Is this some kind of shock left over from your little adventure last night, or have you finally learned how to lie?”
“Neither, I hope,” he replied. “I just thought it was time I started taking more responsibility for myself. ”
“Really?” Bethesda said, her tone loading the word with so much skepticism he was surprised it didn’t collapse. “You’ll forgive me if I have trouble believing that after the hissy-fit you threw last night, begging Ian for money and generally making a spectacle of yourself. ”
Julius winced. Of course his mother had heard about that. Bethesda heard everything. “Yes, well. ” He stopped to clear his throat. “I followed Ian’s advice and took initiative. Justin came to help, too, and together we turned things around. Now I’m just waiting for my lead to come in and, barring disaster, this Three Sisters business should be finished on time. ”
He paused, holding his breath as he waited for—not a compliment, of course, since it wasn’t the end of the world—but some sort of acknowledgment of his lack of failure. He might as well have been waiting for his mother to announce she was starting a charitable institution, because all Bethesda said was, “Oh, so you’ll have everything tied up by tonight, then?”
Julius started to sweat. Like the rest of his family, he’d learned never to give his mother a deadline. The moment Bethesda had a date, it became an iron-clad requirement you were expected to meet, preferably beat, at all costs. But then, Ian had already demanded Julius find Katya today, a fact that his mother almost certainly knew, which meant this whole line of questioning was nothing but a tactic to intimidate him. It was a classic Bethesda maneuver, and the fact that he’d actually seen through it ahead of time for once made Julius feel almost confident.
“I told Ian tonight,” he said. “Therefore, I’ll have it done tonight. ”
His mother chuckled, a cold, light sound. “My, my, so self-assured. Did I call the right son?”
Julius had to spot her that one. Fortunately for his fledgling ego, however, a reply was not required.
“I know this is asking you to play against character,” she went on. “But do try not to mess this up. It’s such a simple task, finding one little runaway dragon, and I can’t tell you how unhappy I’d be if Ian’s chance with Svena, and, thereby, my chance at becoming a grandmother, fell through because of your incompetence. ”
“Grandmother?” The word popped out before Julius could stop it, and he bit his tongue. He had to get better at this poker face stuff before he blurted out something that got him killed. Thankfully, his mother only chuckled.
“Don’t sound so surprised. Those ice snakes are as stuck-up as they come, but Ian is so handsome and takes so much after myself that I think he has a real chance at this, provided he’s not undermined by underperforming siblings. ”
Julius swallowed.
“Just think what a triumph this would be for us,” his mother continued. “I’ve mated into every important dragon clan on the planet over the last thousand years. Those three old fossils were the final holdouts. They always thought themselves so far above me. I can’t wait to see the looks on their faces when they finally wake up to discover one of their precious daughters has slept her way onto the winning team. And not just any daughter, but the White Witch herself!”
She cackled after that. An honest-to-God cackle, and Julius began to sweat. He couldn’t imagine cold, vicious Svena condescending to touch a Heartstriker, let alone agreeing to something as serious as a mating flight. But while he privately considered his mother’s plan to be wishful thinking bordering on delusion, Bethesda the Heartstriker wasn’t stupid, and she wasn’t the sort to drop information thoughtlessly over the phone. If she was telling him her hopes for Ian, there had to be a reason, and it wasn’t just so he’d know the stakes. After all, for Julius, the stakes for this job were already life and death. Telling him about a potential mating flight wouldn’t change his motivation one way or the other, so why was she doing it? And why phrase it so that it sounded like Ian’s chances with Svena hinged entirely upon Julius’s success? Surely his mother wasn’t really pinning her hopes on—
Julius’s breath left him in a rush. “You’re setting me up. ”
“Pardon?” his mother replied sweetly.
“You don’t actually care about finding Katya,” he said. “This whole job was just a ploy to give Ian a chance to seduce Svena. ”
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“Naturally,” she purred. “Why else would we help them?”
“But we’re not,” Julius said. “You’re baiting them. Svena’s one of the oldest and most revered dragons in the world. Bob would barely have a chance with her, much less Ian. If Svena plays with him and dumps him, it makes our whole family look bad. You’d never let anyone gamble with Heartstriker pride like that, but Ian’s one of your favorites, and he’s ambitious enough for two dragons. You wanted to let him try, but you needed a safety measure, someone else who could take the fall if things went bad. ”
The whole puzzle was coming together as he spoke, and with every piece that snapped into place, Julius got angrier and angrier. “That’s why you had Ian give me the job, isn’t it? I was the excuse he used to involve himself in Three Sisters politics and get closer to Svena. But you never even meant for me to find Katya, did you? That’s why the deadline is so ridiculous. You want me to fail. That way, if Ian can’t land Svena, he can just blame it on me for not getting the job done. ” His hand clenched so hard on the phone he nearly cracked the glass. “I’m nothing but your fall guy!”
“Why, Julius,” Bethesda whispered tearfully. “What a terrible thing to imply about your mother. ”
He didn’t buy it for a second. “It’s true, isn’t it?’
“Of course it’s true,” she said, dropping the hurt mother act as easily as she’d picked it up. “But I don’t see why you’re so upset. It’s not like you were doing anything with your life. Ian, on the other hand, is already a success, and any good player knows you always sacrifice the lower-value piece to support the higher. ”
Her casual words made Julius’s stomach clench with a sharpness that surprised him. It wasn’t that he was shocked his mother was using him—that was the only reason Bethesda had children—but he hadn’t realized that she considered him quite so…disposable. “If you never meant me to succeed, why the big setup? Why even bother sealing me?”
“Come now, Julius. You’re a weakling and a coward, but you’re not usually an idiot. Try to keep up. Sealing you wasn’t just necessary to make Svena buy Ian’s story that we had the perfect t
ool to nab her skittish sister, I also needed it for you. ”
“For me?” Julius repeated, disbelieving. “But I thought I was the lesser piece you were throwing away?”
“You are, dear,” Bethesda said. “But I’m your mother. I understand your weaknesses better than anyone, and I knew right from the start that if I didn’t build a proper fire under your feet, nothing would get done at all. The seal was the easiest way to keep you desperate and hard-working while also conveniently making it highly unlikely that you’d get into any real trouble in DFZ. Plus, it kept you from flying away, which I felt was pertinent. You always were a runner. ”
She finished with a chuckle, but Julius didn’t know what to say. His mother had played him utterly, saying and doing exactly what was needed to make him jump at her command. She’d only been wrong about one thing so far: he was an idiot. An idiot for thinking that by giving up his freedom and hiding in his room, he could also hide from his mother’s plans. What a joke. The only thing he’d managed by sticking his head under the sand was to miss the trap closing around him, and now it was too late. If he ran, he was dead. If he failed to get Katya, he was dead. Even if he did find her before the deadline, if Ian’s power-grab didn’t work, Julius was still the fall guy. Bethesda would figure out a way to make it his fault, and then he was dead. Anyway he looked at it, he was dead. Anyway, that was, except one.
He cleared his throat. “Do you know how successful Ian has been with Svena so far?”
“I have it on good authority they slept together last night,” she said, too smug to take offense at the tactless question. “Though I’d rather you didn’t poke your snout into Ian’s business. He’s fighting an uphill battle with the Three Sisters pride as it is. The last thing he needs is you mucking it up in some misguided attempt to save your life. Really, Julius, I’d think the fact that your ultimate survival is in Ian’s hands would be a relief. He’s a much better dragon than you are. ”
That went without saying, but Julius wasn’t about to sit back and wait while his brother, who also considered him disposable, played dice with his life. But while it was far too late to wiggle out of his mother’s trap, that didn’t mean there was nothing he could do. If he couldn’t avoid being Ian’s fall guy, then he’d just have to make sure there was no fall to take.
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“Well, Mother,” he said stiffly. “Not that this hasn’t been a delightful call, but I’m afraid I have to get moving if I’m going to get Katya back before your deadline. ”
“See that you do,” Bethesda said. “I’ll be expecting a full report. Oh, and Julius?”
He fought the urge to sigh. “Yes?”
“Don’t do anything stupid,” she said, her voice curling into a deadly whisper. “You’ve had years to prove you were more than a pawn. You didn’t, which means you’ve surrendered your right to balk when I use you as one. I’ve spent a great deal of time and effort getting my pieces in line for this. It would be very bad sport of you to try and buck the system this late in the game just because you’re upset you didn’t do more with your life here at the end, don’t you think?”
Julius couldn’t begin to respond to a statement like that. Fortunately, it didn’t seem to matter. Bethesda took his obedience as a given, no confirmation needed.
“Good boy,” she cooed. “I’ll talk to you tonight. ”
“Yes, Mother,” he whispered, but she’d already hung up, leaving Julius alone with his growing panic.
He forced it down with a deep breath. Panic was a luxury he couldn’t afford right now. His only chance to survive was to dig up the calm, plotting dragon that lurked somewhere inside him and figure this out. But as he was sitting down on the bed to do just that, his phone rang again.
Julius swore under his breath, but when the AR threw the name up in front of him, it wasn’t his mother. It was the Unknown Caller, which was almost worse. With a surge of longing for the days when the powerful members of his family couldn’t be bothered to look his direction, much less call him, Julius brought the phone back to his ear. “Hello, Bob. ”
“Wrong. ”
The cold female voice chilled him to the bone, and Julius almost hung up right there. The only reason he didn’t was because he knew it wouldn’t do any good. “Hello, Chelsie. ”
He could almost hear the Heartstriker family enforcer giving him her famous deadly smile before she ordered, “Go to the window. ”
Julius obeyed at once, standing up and walking over to the suite’s enormous window overlooking Lake St. Clare. He was wondering if Chelsie was going to tell him to jump out of it when she said, “Look down. ”
He did, and found her at once.
Thanks to its location up on the skyways, the Royal Hotel was perched high above the lake it overlooked. It also boasted an impressive elevated boardwalk that extended almost fifty feet out over the water below. It was the middle of the day, and the bright white boards were packed with tourists and other wealthy people getting lunch from the numerous restaurants and cafes that ringed the edges of the cliff-like dock. From his high window, the crowd looked more like an undulating mass than a group of individuals, but even so, Chelsie was impossible to miss thanks to the ten-foot ring of empty space the colorful river of humanity was giving her.
No matter how civilized people became, some instincts never really went away. To the casual observer, Chelsie would look completely human, just another woman enjoying the summer sun on a bench by the water. Julius couldn’t even tell what she was wearing from so far away, but it wouldn’t be anything crazy. A dragon’s predatory aura didn’t rely on trappings or appearances, and Chelsie’s was a mile wider than most when she chose to let it show. Even safely tucked inside his hotel room a dozen stories up, Julius could feel the bite of her attention like an icy claw on his spine, and his heart started pounding all over again.
“I have more important things to do with my time, so I’ll be brief,” she said. “I know Mother just called you. ”
The obvious question had barely formed in Julius’s mind before Chelsie answered it. “I’ve lived with her for a long time. I know how she thinks. I also know that you are likely a mess right now. I don’t blame you for feeling that way, but I do want you to look out at the water. ”
Her tiny figure turned toward the lake as she said this. Julius’s eyes followed, but all he saw was the white pillar of Algonquin’s tower.
“That’s right,” Chelsie said, her voice barely more than a whisper even over the magically augmented speakers. “That is who rules this city. I know you’re feeling backed against the wall at the moment. You might even be considering doing something reckless, so this is a courtesy call to remind you of the price of acting out in a city where the slightest failure in judgment could bring the Lady of the Lakes down on all our heads. ”
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“Wait,” Julius said, confused. “You want me to watch out for Algonquin? You’re not calling to tell me not to act out against Mother?”
Chelsie scoffed. “My job is to keep the Heartstriker clan alive and in line, not babysit her plans. ”
There was a note of ingrained frustration in her voice that Julius had heard a thousand times in his own, and for a moment, he felt a whisper of empathy for the sister who’d had to deal with their mother far more and far longer than he had.
“I’m not telling you not to crack,” Chelsie went on, her voice flicking back to its normal sharpness like it had never left. “I’m just asking that you do it in a way that won’t cause trouble for the family. I’d hate to have to come down on you for something as stupid and preventable as making a scene in Algonquin’s city. ”
“I have no intention of making a scene anywhere,” Julius said. “But I appreciate the warning. ”
“Everyone gets one,” his sister replied. “And for what it’s worth, I wish you good luck. You’ll need it. ”
Julius placed his hand on the cold glass, unexpectedly touched. “Thank you, Chelsie. ”
“I’m not doing it for your sake,” Chelsie snapped. “I’m doing it for mine. I hate killing dragons under fifty. You’re barely more than hatchlings, and it’s just depressing. So don’t make me do it. And don’t forget I’m watching. ”
Like Julius could. But before he could say anything else, the call cut out. He lowered his phone with a sigh, watching his sister’s tiny figure far below as she got up from the bench and vanished into the colorful, swirling crowds that mobbed the boardwalk. When he could no longer see her, he sank back down on his bed.
It was nice to know Chelsie didn’t relish the idea of killing him. That wouldn’t stop her, of course, but his sister’s unexpected warning had made him feel slightly less alone in the face of Bethesda’s plots. But while it was comforting to know he wasn’t the only one, his sister had been absolutely right. He was up against the wall, and his only hope of getting down again was to find Katya as soon as possible. He’d just started typing a message to his old guildmate to see if his tracking program had found anything when he heard a soft knock on the door that connected his suite to Marci’s.
It was a sign of how flustered he was that he went ahead and told her to come in before he remembered he wasn’t wearing anything but his boxers. Thankfully, he’d been working on his speed all morning, and he managed to grab his pants and shove them on before she opened the door.
“Hey,” she said as she came in, “I just—” Her voice cut out as she stopped short, eyes flicking to the bathroom full of soggy towels, then to the bed torn up by his tossing and turning, and finally to him, standing shirtless and sweaty in front of the window. “Rough night?”
“Sort of,” Julius said, wiping his face with the towel around his neck so she wouldn’t see his embarrassed wince. When he looked up again, Marci’s eyes were locked on his bare chest. She stared just long enough for Julius to see her cheeks turn bright pink before she whirled around and walked swiftly to the doorway that led into the relatively untouched living room portion of Julius’s suite.
“I’m sorry to bother you,” she said when she got there. “But I heard you talking, so…” She stopped with a frustrated sound, drumming her fingers on the door frame. Then, like she’d come to a decision, Marci turned around again and looked him straight in the eye. “I wanted to tell you I’m very sorry about what happened earlier. ”