Chapter 8
“Remember,” Fredrick said, clutching his Fang in his hands as he looked around at his gathered brothers and sisters. “We only have one chance at this. Julius is depending on us to bring the clan. Whatever happens, we must uphold that, but we will not return as servants. Agreed?”
The others nodded, their newly revealed golden eyes resolute. It was a sight to behold. Before he’d left, Brohomir had pulled Fredrick aside and handed him an envelope containing step-by-step instructions in Amelia’s hand for how to break Bethesda’s green-eyed curse. It was the same spell the Planeswalker had cast on him, but while Fredrick was no mage, his brother Ferdinand was. He’d cut straight to him, and then they’d cut to each of their siblings in turn, breaking the curse as they went.
Being free of the last vestige of Bethesda’s control over them felt as good as Fredrick had hoped, but he hadn’t expected all his brothers and sisters to share the Qilin’s eyes. In hindsight, though, Fredrick didn’t know how it could have been otherwise. They were the children of the Golden Emperor, the most magical dragon to ever live, with a fire that had been carefully tended for hundreds of thousands of years. Of course his mark would be on all of them, even if his luck was not.
But Fredrick had no need for luck. With his siblings beside him and their real mother’s Fang in his hands, he could make their future himself. This was just the first step, and Fredrick meant to step big, motioning for the others to take position behind him in the sterile, cement-brick underground hallway. When all his family was in place, Fredrick nodded at his sister Frieda, who was standing in front of the heavy steel doors at the hallway’s end.
The moment his head moved, Frieda hauled back and kicked the doors open, knocking both off their hinges and clearing F-clutch’s way into the bunker deep below the Heartstriker compound in the District of Columbia, where all the rest of the clan was waiting.
They were all there, too. Fredrick had known they would be. His new sword knew where every Heartstriker was, but it was still intimidating to see so many green eyes turn to look at him. Every Heartstriker in the family except for Bethesda and Ian—who were still at the mountain—and Julius, Amelia, Chelsie, and Bob—who were already in the DFZ—was packed into the warded bunker hidden below David’s Washington, DC, mansion. Conrad himself was standing on the riser at the front, addressing the army of dragons he’d gathered to fight the Qilin’s invasion.
The moment he had the clan champion in his sights, Fredrick started looking for the second most dangerous target, but the other knight of the Heartstrikers found them first, stepping out from behind the door Frieda had just kicked down with his Fang drawn and his teeth bared.
As always, Justin came out ready to fight. He stopped in surprise when he saw who it was, and then his mouth curled into a dismissive smile. “It’s okay,” he announced, lowering his sword. “It’s just the Fs.” He tilted his head at Fredrick and the others. “Where have you guys been? And what’s wrong with your eyes?”
“Nothing,” Fredrick said calmly as his siblings fanned out to form a wall behind him. “They’ve simply returned to their natural color.”
That should have been the bomb drop of the night, but Justin didn’t even seem to be listening. He was too busy gawking at the Fang of the Heartstriker in Fredrick’s hand. “Where did you get that?” he demanded. “Where’s Julius?”
“He’s fine,” Fredrick said, lifting the blade. “This isn’t his sword. It’s Chelsie’s.”
“I know that,” Justin snapped. “You think I wouldn’t recognize the sword that stabbed me in the back? I want to know why you have it, and why aren’t you at Julius’s side? You’re supposed to be looking out for him! What are you doing here?”
“I would like to know that as well,” Conrad rumbled. He jumped down off the riser, and the rest of the clan parted like water as the giant dragon made his way to the back of the room. “I ordered everyone to gather here two days ago so we could prepare to take our mountain back from the Golden Emperor. You were exempt since you were watching Julius, but the rest of your clutch is still part of the family. Like every Heartstriker, you were all expected to appear when summoned, but only Frieda showed up.” The champion’s hard green eyes narrowed. “If this is rebellion, Fredrick, you picked a bad time. I can’t afford to be lenient when so much is at stake.”
“It is not a rebellion,” Fredrick replied, jaw clenching. “It’s true we have little reason to love Heartstriker, but Julius risked his life to prove that we are all family, and him we will never betray. He is the reason we are here now. Julius asked me to bring you all to the DFZ so that you may fight for the clan against Algonquin’s End.”
“Is that it?” Justin said, chuckling. “If that was all you wanted, why’d you kick the door down?” He waved at the dragons behind him, whom Fredrick now realized were all fully equipped for battle. “We’re already ready to roll. You didn’t have to get all gangster about it.”
“I didn’t think you’d be so prepared,” Fredrick admitted. “I’d heard nothing, so—”
“You didn’t think we would cower from a fight, did you?” Justin said, insulted. “What do you think we’ve been doing here? Having a party? We’ve been prepping to take back Heartstriker Mountain for the last thirty-six hours! We were just about to head home and kick some golden butt when we heard Amelia’s voice in our fires.” His eyes dropped again to Fredrick’s sword, and a grin spread over his face. “Now I get it. You’re here to bring in the cavalry! Julius sent you here with Chelsie’s dimensional can opener so you could ferry us to the DFZ, didn’t he?”
“He did ask me to bring you, yes,” Fredrick said, his voice growing hard. “But before I take you to join the others, my siblings and I have a requirement that must be met.”
Angry whispers rose from the crowd of watching dragons, many of whom were looking at Fredrick in the way he knew all too well: the disdainful glare that said he was wasting their time. That he was lesser, not even a piece on their chessboards. Seeing it now made his jaw clench. That look was why he’d had Frieda kick down the door, and he would not leave again until he’d wiped it off every one of their faces.
“Heartstriker has treated my clutch as slaves from the moment we were born,” he announced, his voice shaking with six centuries of suppressed fury. “Julius Heartstriker won us our freedom, but your thinking has not adapted. Now that I am one of the Fangs of the Heartstriker, I will not allow that to continue.” He raised his sword for everyone to see. “Before I take you to the DFZ to join the fight, each of you must swear on your fire to treat my clutch the same as any other in the family from this point forward.”
He’d waited all his life to say those words, but they were met with laughter. Some dragons looked merely amused, while others mocked him openly. Justin was rolling his eyes, but Conrad looked dangerously insulted, reaching for the large Fang lashed to his back with a look of cold malice.
“You dare waste our time with this?” the champion growled. “Amelia was very clear. Every dragon is needed to defeat this enemy. As the greatest clan in the world, we should be leading that charge.”
“And our fires will be snuffed if we don’t show up,” added a dry voice as David pushed his way out of the crowd. “Amelia will do it, too. She’s never cared about anyone except Bob, and she doesn’t make empty threats.”
Conrad nodded. “Time is already short. If we fail to answer the summons, not only do we risk our fires, we cede our place at the top. They will call us cowards!” He bared his sharp teeth. “You are gambling with our honor, and you dare to ask for our respect?”
“We are not asking for respect,” Fredrick snarled, stepping forward to meet the tall knight eye to eye. “All we want is to be Heartstrikers, same as any other! I was just in the DFZ. I know exactly what is at stake, but I also know that the end of the world is the only thing big enough to make you stubborn snakes listen. If we Fs did our part and quietly obeyed, things would just go back to how they always were the moment the crisis passed. Now, though, you must listen to us, and that is why, before we go anywhere, I want a binding promise from each of you that F-clutch will no longer be treated as servants, but given the same rights and deference granted to any other dragon in this family.”
“Why should we give you anything?” Conrad demanded, crossing his massive arms over his massive chest. “You say you want to be equals, yet you come to us like enemies with threats and demands. But your blade is empty, eldest F.”
“Quite,” David agreed, holding up his sleek black phone. “We’ve been hearing about Svena’s portal from other dragon clans for the last half hour, so if you were counting on playing the ‘I’m your only way’ card, that ship has sailed. We don’t need you to get to the DFZ.”
“You don’t,” Fredrick acknowledged. “But we don’t need you, either.”
He opened his hand, letting his Fang fall to the bunker’s cement floor. The sword landed with a crash that made everyone flinch, even Conrad. But though it was still rocking loudly against the hard floor, Fredrick made no move to retrieve it.
“I picked up that sword for Chelsie’s sake,” he growled. “But that time is passed. We are happy to fight for a clan that accepts us, but if you can’t promise that, then my siblings and I will leave Heartstriker.”
“You can’t do that,” Justin snapped. “No one leaves the family unless they get kicked out.”
“Try and stop us,” Fredrick snarled back, drawing himself to his full height. “Can you not see what’s standing in front of you? We are no longer sealed dragons. We’re Fs, the largest of Heartstriker’s remaining upper alphabet clutches! In the whole clan, there are only ten dragons older or bigger than we are. Nine if you don’t count Amelia, whom I’m sure no longer considers herself a Heartstriker. But there are twenty of us, full-grown dragons ready to fight.”
He blew out a line of smoke, letting Conrad see just how big he was beneath his human mask. And he was big. As the eldest son of the Qilin, Fredrick was well aware that he was much larger than he should have been given age alone. The rest of his clutch was the same, but none of them had had any idea of their true size because of the seal. Yet another thing Bethesda had stolen from them. That time was over, though. This was a new age, one where they had the power, and while the timing was unfortunate, Fredrick refused to let another minute pass without forcing the rest of the clan to acknowledge that.
“You are the Champion of the Heartstrikers,” he said, tilting his head up slightly so he could glare at Conrad. “You value the power and prestige of the clan above all else. I’m sure you can find your way to the DFZ without my help, but do you want to? Because we have no end of places we can go as free dragons. If you want Heartstriker to remain the top clan in the world, though, you need us.”
By the time he finished, Conrad was growling so loudly he was shaking the cement. It was a terrifying sound, because as big as Fredrick was, Conrad was bigger. Putting him on the spot like this was a dangerous gambit, but Fredrick and his siblings had all agreed they’d seize this chance with both hands or not at all, so despite the sweat trickling through his black hair, Fredrick held his ground. But then, just when the knight looked ready to call his bluff, David stepped in front of him.
“We’ll take it.”
Conrad jerked back, glaring down at his younger brother, but the draconic senator from New Mexico waved the look away. “Now’s not the time to be inflexible, Conrad,” he said, flashing Fredrick a smooth smile. “If you think about it, we’re getting this for a song. Our clan has treated the Fs worse than humans for six centuries. Once they got unsealed, I was sure they’d be out for our blood, but apparently they’ve fallen into Julius’s gravity just like all the rest of the upper alphabet, because they’re not demanding retribution. They’re not even asking for an apology. All they want is a binding promise that we’ll treat them ‘equally.’ A promise I have no idea how they’ll enforce since it’s a proven fact that most Heartstrikers treat their siblings like dirt.”
That comment drew a laugh from the crowd, and David’s smile widened. “You want to be treated like normal Heartstrikers? Fine.” He extended his hand to Fredrick. “I swear on my fire to treat you with the exact same callous disregard I give to every other sibling who hasn’t proven themselves useful. And since I’m the highest-ranking Heartstriker present with the exception of Conrad and Justin, I also swear on my fire to make all of our lesser siblings do the same on pain of my displeasure. That way we won’t have to sit here and wait for you to squeeze a separate oath out of every single dragon while the world crumbles around us.” The crowd laughed again, and David’s green eyes twinkled. “That good enough for you, prince of the Fs?”
Fredrick didn’t answer at once. He was too busy replaying David’s words in his head, frantically looking for the hook or double cross he knew had to be there. For once, though, the most political Heartstriker seemed to be playing him straight. From the way he was bouncing on his feet, David actually looked even more eager to get to the fight than Justin, which was out of character enough to make Fredrick extra leery.
“Why are you in such a hurry?”
“Because I have a lot of plans in the air, and I’d rather the world didn’t end before they came to fruition,” David said. “I’m also chairman of the Senate Armed Services committee, and I’ve already pulled every string I have convincing the president to scramble all of our forces to the DFZ’s defense. That’s a lot of political capital wasted if I’m not there for the victory photo op.”
Fredrick sighed. There was the David he knew. In a way, though, his blatant maneuvering for power was reassuring, because it meant he was serious. If David saw Fredrick and the others as the means to his ends, he’d keep his promise to the letter, and he’d force every Heartstriker below him to do the same. That was as much as Fredrick could hope for, and he found himself reaching out for the older dragon’s hand.
“We’ll take it,” he said as they shook.
“As you should,” David said, squeezing Fredrick’s fingers painfully before looking over his shoulder at Conrad. “Your turn. Quickly now.”
“I will swear nothing,” Conrad snarled, looking down his nose at Fredrick. “Knights do not give in to threats. But I will give you my word that if you fly with us against the enemy, I will treat you all as Heartstrikers. Nothing less, nothing more.”
“Yeah, what he said,” Justin piped up, standing as tall as he could at his older brother’s side. “Now can we get going? At this rate, Julius will probably trip over something and kill the Leviathan by accident before we even get there, the lucky bastard.”
Fredrick glanced at his siblings. When they nodded their agreement, he turned back to the knights. “We accept.”
“About time,” Justin growled, drawing his sword. “Take us to Detroit!”
Fredrick nodded and bent down to pick up his sword. When his hand wrapped around the hilt, though, David placed his elegant Italian leather shoe on the blade. “Not with that,” he said when Fredrick glared at him. “I know how Chelsie’s blade works, and if we have to wait for you to ferry the whole clan over by twos, this will take forever. I have a much better idea.”
Fredrick snatched his sword out from under the older dragon’s foot with a growl. “What?”
David lifted his phone again with a smirk, dragging his fingers through the invisible AR interface before raising the speaker to his ear. “Mother?” he said when the call picked up, his smirk transforming into a full-on grin as he met Fredrick’s eyes. “It’s me. I’ve got them.”
Fredrick didn’t need to hear Bethesda’s cackle on the other end. He was already wincing, sliding his sword back into its loop on his belt as he hoped against hope that he hadn’t just made a terrible mistake.
***
Julius paced nervously back and forth beside his ruined front porch. A few feet away, Amelia, the Qilin, Svena, Arkniss, the infamous Marlin Drake, and all the other heads of the newly arrived clans stood in a loose circle. In a concession to the now-cramped space, all of the dragons had donned their human forms, which just made it easier to see the angry impatience on their faces as they waited for the one clan that had not yet arrived.
“Where are they?” Julius hissed, pacing faster. “What is Fredrick doing?”
“Relax,” said Bob, who was sitting on the cracked porch step, eating an apple he’d found who knew where. “They’ll be here before you know it.”
Julius looked at him hopefully. “Did you foresee that?”
“No,” Bob said, biting a chunk out of the fruit with his sharp teeth. “I’ve been too busy searching the future for an exit ramp to worry about nonessential details like arrival times. But Fredrick is loyal to you to an unhealthy degree. If he told you he’d bring them, he’ll make it happen. In fact, I bet we’ll hear something…” He paused, mouth moving silently like he was counting in his head. “Now.”
Sure enough, Bob’s brick of a phone began to vibrate in his hands. Grinning, he offered the device to Julius, who snatched it up, slamming the antique to his ear with a rush of relief. “Fredrick!”
“Not quite,” replied a cruel female voice.
As always, the sound made his stomach clench, and Julius closed his eyes with a silent curse. “What are you doing, Mother?”
“That’s my question,” Bethesda replied idly. “Planning a war without telling me, Julius? That’s not very democratic. Aren’t you the one who’s always going on about how we’re an equal council and no one should make decisions on their own?”
“This was an emergency,” Julius said sharply. “And I was trying to bring you in. Fredrick said he would—”
“Fredrick’s done quite enough,” Bethesda snapped. “Fortunately for you, David’s already handled everything. But we’ll discuss your pet F’s almost-treason later. For now, be an obedient child for once and hand me to Amelia.”
Julius almost dropped the phone. “You want to talk to Amelia?” He glanced at his oldest sister, who looked as shocked as he was. “You’ve got to be kidding.”
“Less talking, more doing,” Bethesda replied, snapping her fingers—or maybe her teeth—into the phone. Unsure what else to do, Julius handed Bob’s phone to Amelia. She snatched it up with a bloodthirsty smile, bearing all her teeth as she said in her sweetest voice, “Hello, Mother, this is your new god speaking.”
Julius wasn’t above blatantly eavesdropping on this conversation, but even his sharp ears couldn’t hear what Bethesda said in reply to that. As best he could tell, she’d ignored it entirely and was now rattling off instructions very quickly. Utterly unacceptable instructions if the look on Amelia’s face was anything to go by.
“Have you gone senile?” Amelia snarled into the phone. “Why, in any world, would I lift a claw to help you?”
“Because it helps you as well,” Bethesda said, her smug voice finally loud enough for Julius to hear. “A mother knows her children, and you’ve always been more greedy than vindictive. Too greedy to throw away your chance for a grand display of power and a fast solution to your problem just to spite me.”
She must have hit the nail on the head, because Amelia swore in several languages before hanging up the phone and tossing it back at Bob, who caught it without looking. Julius was opening his mouth to ask what was going on when his sister suddenly turned to him. “Do you know what a hype man is?”
Julius stared at her in bewilderment. “You mean the guys who whip up crowds at concerts? Yeah, but what does that have to do with—”
“Great,” Amelia said, reaching up to tie back her thick, wavy black hair. “Get in there and start hyping.”
“Hyping what?” he said. “What’s going to—”
“Not going,” she said, pushing curious dragons out of the way as she cleared a large spot on the gravel drive. “Coming, and in hot.” Amelia spread her hands. “You’ll see in a second. Just go tell the other big shots that Heartstriker is here.”
That was going to be a hard sell considering Heartstriker was most definitely not here. But if this whatever-it-was was big enough to convince Amelia to work with Bethesda, it was too big for Julius to fight, so he threw up his hands and did as she asked, jogging over to the circle of fed-up looking clan heads.
“What is taking so long?” Svena snapped when he got close. “What’s the Heartstriker doing? Taking a nap?”
“They’re on their way right now,” Julius said, hoping that was true. “My whole clan should be here in just a—”
A surge of power cut him off. Behind him, Amelia’s magic clenched like a snapping jaw. This was followed by a giant whoosh of air as the Planeswalker threw up her hands to tear a gaping hole in the air directly above her head.
The portal was enormous, a perfect rectangle that spanned the entire width of the shelter created by the spiraling on-ramps. It happened so fast, Julius didn’t even get a look at what was on the other side before a feathered dragoness in golden armor swept through.
She was unspeakably beautiful. As large as Conrad with rainbow-colored plumage brighter than a bird of paradise’s, Bethesda the Heartstriker was famous for a reason. Her colors were so vibrant, she seemed to glow in the dim light of the cavern, an illusion that was flawlessly enhanced by the gleaming golden battle armor covering her chest, claws, and neck. Armor that was clearly mostly for show since her glorious, long-feathered tail had been left completely exposed, but at least her head was protected by the diadem of her transformed Fang.
Unlike Julius’s sword, which formed a bone-colored crown at the front of his head when he was a dragon, Bethesda’s encircled the back, catching the enormous crest of feathers that fell like a waterfall down her neck. The result looked a bit like a hairpiece, or an evil queen’s high collar. Either way, between the plumage, the gold, the crown, and her own impressive size, his mother looked every inch the feathered goddess she’d once been worshiped as. Even Julius, who’d seen her like this before, had his breath stolen as she folded her huge wings to land in the wreckage of his house, crushing the last standing pieces of his home flat as she wrapped her tail around her feet like a colorful, smug cat.
“You can all stop worrying,” Bethesda announced in the shocked silence. “The Heartstriker has arrived!”
“After everyone else,” Svena snapped, glaring up at the dazzling dragoness. “Is this why you’re late? Needed time to fluff your plumage?”
“My plumage doesn’t require fluffing,” Bethesda said, running her claws over her glossy rainbow feathers. “Unlike you sad snowflakes, I always look this good. But that’s not the tone you should be taking with your savior, White Witch.”
“Mother,” Julius hissed, “stop it.”
“Why should I stop telling the truth?” Bethesda asked innocently. “Heartstriker is now officially the greatest clan in the world! No other family has ever united the clans as Julius has, and no dragon has ever produced a god.” She nodded pointedly at Amelia, who shrugged as if she couldn’t argue with that. “Add in the fact that we now control two of the world’s three seers, and there’s no denying that Heartstriker is on top in every way.” Her brilliant green eyes slid over to the Qilin. “What was that your mother said? ‘Breeding will tell?’”
“Mother!” Julius snarled, but as usual, Bethesda ignored him, turning her triangular head to gaze out at the crowd of dragons watching her like she was the center act of a three-ring circus.
“Who’s the broodmare now?” she crowed triumphantly. “You’ve all looked down on me and my children, but we’ll see how your tune changes when my clan—the largest dragon army ever assembled—swoops in to save all of your scales.” She lifted her head to the portal. “Justin!”
The moment she bellowed her second knight’s name, Amelia’s portal flickered like a slide projector flipping images, and Justin hopped down in human form with his Fang in his hands. He’d scarcely landed before all of Heartstriker came through after him. Unlike Bethesda, they were all human—the space couldn’t possibly have held them otherwise—but it was still an incredible sight. Even Julius, who’d seen his whole family gathered just a few days ago, had never witnessed them like this. Every Heartstriker was armed and ready to fight, their faces grim as they moved to stand in formation around Bethesda. Fredrick led his siblings out last, hopping down with his hand on the hilt of his sword as he led the Fs to Julius’s side.
Conrad came out last, and then the portal flipped again to Ian, who jumped down from the ruins of Heartstriker’s throne room without a word. Conrad met him at the bottom, eying the assembled dragons warily as he escorted the final Council member to Bethesda’s side. When everyone was through, Amelia closed her portal with a flourish and returned to her place in the leader’s circle. When Ian motioned for Julius to come join him in their mother’s shadow, though, the youngest Heartstriker missed the signal due to the palm he’d pressed over his face.
It wasn’t that he begrudged his mother her gloating. Bethesda had been the butt of the dragon world’s bawdy jokes for centuries. As horrible as she was, Julius couldn’t say his mother didn’t deserve a moment of glory now that the clan she’d taken so much heat for breeding was one-fourth of the world’s entire dragon population. He did, however, wish she’d been more tactful about it. Lording victories over your enemies was one thing, but they were supposed to be coming together as allies, and the looks the other dragons were shooting her definitely didn’t trend in that direction. Even the Qilin looked pissed, a very bad turn since Julius had been secretly counting on his continued good luck to help them do the impossible. He was trying to think of a way to stop his mother before she blew everything up in his face when she hopped off the house, transforming in midair to land beside him in a puff of bitter smoke and clattering of gold.
“There,” she said, casting off her now comically oversized armor to reveal the equally glittery, human-sized gold mesh dress hidden beneath. “Now we can begin.” She stuck her now sword-shaped Fang of the Heartstriker into the gold chain at her waist and turned to Julius. “What’s the plan?”
“Why are you asking me?”
The question popped out before Julius realized how silly it was. He’d been at the center of this thing from the start, of course he’d be the logical person to question. But as much sense as it made… his mother never asked him for advice or input. She hardly spoke to him unless it was an order or an insult. To have her staring at him now like she expected competence threw Julius seriously off his game. Fortunately—or perhaps unfortunately—Amelia was there to back him up.
“Because you’re the poor chump in the middle, Baby-J,” the Planeswalker said, wrapping her arm around his shoulders. “I tie the dragons together, but you’re the one with his claws in everything. The Merlins, the UN, the spirits, us—we’re all here because of you. Also, your human’s the one who came up with this plan, so unless you want to cede Marci to me—which I’d be totally cool with, by the way—that makes all of this your responsibility.”
The gathered dragons nodded as though that were the only logical explanation, and Julius slumped in defeat. He didn’t even bother trying to explain that Marci wasn’t his human, because that never worked, and he didn’t feel like wasting his breath again. Time and dragon attention spans were too short as it was, so since everyone was looking at him now anyway, Julius launched into a carefully pared-down explanation of their situation and the plan to fix it that he’d been rehearsing in his head since Marci left. He thought he had a pretty good wrap-up of everything, but by the time he was through, the dragons looked angrier than ever.
“Let me make sure I’ve got this straight,” said Arkniss, who looked even more treacherous in his human form than his black-scaled dragon had been. “Algonquin got duped into screwing us all over, and now you want us to clean up her mess?”
“Yes,” Julius said, nodding. “Because we’ll all die if we don’t.”
“How like a spirit,” the old dragon muttered, blowing out a line of acrid smoke. “And we’re going to be working together with the Phoenix?” When Julius nodded again, Arkniss glanced over at General Jackson, who’d set up camp in the corner by Myron’s unconscious body. “Strange bedfellows, indeed. But then, you Heartstrikers never were discriminating.”
“What was that?” Bethesda asked, cupping a hand to her ear. “I couldn’t hear you over the sound of my children saving your piebald hide.”
“Considering some of those children are mine, I think I have a right to complain,” Arkniss snapped. Then he gave her a smile. “Though I always did like your sharp tongue.”
Julius’s face went scarlet as his mother blew the black dragon a kiss, and Amelia rolled her eyes. “Can we save the inappropriate innuendo until after we get out of mortal peril?” she groaned. “If we have to wait around for all the ‘your mom’ jokes, the Leviathan’s going to eat us before we get off the ground.”
“I agree,” said Marlin Drake, stepping forward, which made Julius step back.
It was a silly reaction. As leader of the clanless dragons, Marlin Drake had no family magic of his own. He was merely the head of a coalition of outcasts, most of whom had only banded together to keep stronger clans from hunting them down. The other dragons in the circle were far more powerful, but while Drake’s pedigree was technically the lowest, he was still the most famous individual Julius had ever met in person.
As the first dragon to go public after the return of magic, Marlin Drake had rocketed to worldwide fame with countless movies and television shows. Sixty years later, he commanded his own media empire, running three major networks in addition to hosting what was still the world’s highest-rated weekly talk show. Bethesda watched religiously and had been a regular guest on the program for decades. Even Julius, who tried his best to stay out of politics—draconic or human—had seen more episodes of Saturday Night With Marlin Drake than he liked to admit. But despite his mother’s patronage, he’d never actually met the ludicrously famous First Dragon in Television. That made seeing him now surprisingly intimidating since Drake was even more charismatic in the flesh than he was on his show, a feat that didn’t seem physically possible.
“It’s Julius, right?” the handsome dragon said, holding out his hand with a well-timed toss of his television-perfect blond hair. “With a J?”
“I don’t know what else you’d spell it with,” Julius said nervously. “But I—”
“How wonderful to meet you,” Drake interrupted, grabbing Julius’s hand and shaking it vigorously. “And nice work bagging the first Merlin, by the way. You must have a serious eye for talent.”
Julius’s face began to heat. “I—”
“I’d love to have her on my show when this is over,” Drake went on. “And you as well, since you’re the point man on all this. Speaking of, how long do you think it’ll be before your girl lands her banish? I’ve got a full helicopter camera crew ready to capture the whole thing for my exclusive report, but they’re grounded at the moment due to magical interference, and I’d hate for them to miss the action.”
“There’s nothing for your humans to miss, you vain idiot,” Svena snapped, stabbing her finger up at the towering, shadowy form of Ghost, who was still holding the barrier for them even though Marci was gone. “No one can fly right now, thanks to this mess. If it doesn’t clear soon, we’ll still be down here clicking our scales when Algonquin’s End kills us all!”
“It’d better hurry up,” Bethesda said irritably. “What’s the good of gathering everyone together if we can’t set a claw outside this dirt pit without getting crushed?” She looked down at the half-frozen mud coating her golden boots before turning her sneer on Julius. “Why did you live here again?”
Because she’d made him, and because it kept him away from her. “It was a good base,” he said instead. “It still is.” He nodded at the crowd of dragons surrounding them, none of whom were even pretending not to be listening. “We have every dragon in the world here now, and the Leviathan still hasn’t noticed us. I think that’s pretty impressive.”
“Or telling,” said She Who Sees, the dark-skinned dragoness whose extended family claimed most of the African continent. “He could be ignoring us because he knows we’re not a threat.” Her sharp black eyes flicked to Julius. “You said that thing was from beyond our plane. Are you sure we can fight it?”
“Actually, the bigger it gets, the more effective we become,” Amelia said authoritatively. “Normally, the Leviathan would be outside of our ability to hurt physically. We’ve all tangled with it before in various scuffles over the DFZ, so I’m sure we all remember just how impossible those shadow tentacles were to fight. Now, though, it’s using Algonquin’s magic to shove itself into our plane. That means the Leviathan is covered in spirit magic, and we all know how well spirits burn.”
The other dragons smirked appreciatively at that, and Julius let out a breath in silent thanks that Marci wasn’t here. “The point is, we can damage it,” he said. “Maybe not enough to defeat it, but that’s not our job. All we have to do is keep the Nameless End from sucking up the last of Algonquin’s water for the few hours it will take Marci to prepare her banishment.”
“A few hours is a long time to fight something we cannot defeat,” the Qilin said warily. “Especially when we cannot even take off yet.” He lifted his golden head to the hole in the roof where the black tentacles were moving faster than ever. “It’s gorging itself on her magic as we speak. By the time we can fly, it might already be too late.”
“We can make it,” Julius said forcefully. “All the spirits and mages have assured me that the magical fallout is dropping, and there’s a lot of Algonquin left to drink. It doesn’t matter if we only stop him from getting one bucket’s worth of her water. So long as we keep that last gallon safe, the Nameless End can’t fully take over Algonquin, and we still have a shot.”
He hoped, anyway. This was Marci’s plan, and he trusted her with his life, but even as he sold her strategy to the others, something about it still didn’t sit right with Julius. No matter which way you cut the problem, Algonquin was always the one at the heart of it, and yet she was the one factor everyone seemed happy to ignore. Even Marci’s solution was only to banish her magic. It didn’t touch on the spirit herself. Considering Algonquin’s despair was the cause of this entire crisis, that felt like a mistake. But while Julius was torn, none of the other dragons suffered his misgivings.
“Well, I’m looking forward to it,” Svena said with a proud lift of her chin. “Algonquin shot my mothers out of the sky. Vengeance is overdue.”
“Please,” Bethesda said, rolling her green eyes. “You’ve been praying for your mothers to die for centuries so you could take over.”
“That doesn’t mean I can leave their deaths unanswered,” Svena snapped. “Some of us still have honor.”
Bethesda rolled her eyes again, and Julius reached up to rub his temples. “Whatever our reasons, the goal is clear. If Leviathan gets full control of the Great Lakes, everything is done for. We must protect Algonquin’s remaining water at any cost, but the area we have to cover is huge, so communication will be key. We don’t want to accidentally hit any of the UN forces that will be coming to help us.”
“I think you mean getting hit by the UN,” Arkniss said. “I’ve tangled with Emily Jackson before. The UN’s Phoenix is a dragon slayer to her core. How can we be sure she won’t shoot us down the moment our backs are turned?”
Considering that was exactly what she’d done to Marci, Julius had a hard time answering. But if he’d learned anything about Raven’s construct, it was her steadfast dedication to results over personal feelings. She’d happily kill every dragon in the world to save one human life, but she’d just as happily work with them if that was what was needed to secure humanity’s survival.
“So long as we’re fighting together, I don’t think we have to worry about betrayal from the UN side,” he said. “General Jackson doesn’t like or trust us, but she knows we’re necessary to achieving her goal of protecting humanity. So long as that’s true, I think she’ll be a good ally.”
“What about after?” the black dragon pressed. “The Phoenix can overlook, but she does not forget, nor forgive. She will tolerate our help while she needs us, but the moment the operation is done, those jets she’s sending will turn on us, mark my words.”
“We’ll deal with that when the time comes,” Julius said grimly. “But right now, we can’t afford to be picky. We don’t even know if we’ve got enough dragons to do our part properly. If we start mistrusting our human allies as well, this fight will be over before it begins.”
No one seemed to like that, but no one argued with him, either. “We’ll just have to hope for the best,” Amelia said at last, shoulders slumping as she looked at Julius. “I’m glad you’re taking point on the UN thing, Baby-J. You’re the only one of us who knows how to play nice.”
“He doesn’t ‘play’ nice,” Bethesda said, her voice disgusted. “He is nice.”
“But that’s to our advantage right now,” Marlin Drake pointed out. “He’s the right tool for the job.”
“That doesn’t make him any less embarrassing,” Bethesda snapped, pressing a dramatic hand to her temple. “How did I end up with such a son?”
Julius knew better than to bother with that one. He was about to move the conversation on when Raven—who was normal bird-sized again—swooped out of the shadows to land on Amelia’s shoulder.
“Finally,” she said, grinning at her fellow spirit. “Are you here to clear us for takeoff?”
“Alas, I am not,” Raven replied. “The ground convoys are moving thanks to absurd amounts of shielding, but flight is still too dangerous.”
“Then why are you butting your beak in?” Amelia asked. “This is dragon business.”
“Because you and I need to go,” Raven replied, his voice dropping. “It’s started.”
Amelia’s face turned deathly pale, and a heavy lump formed in Julius’s stomach. “What does that mean?” he demanded. “What’s started?”
“Nothing you can help with,” Raven said, flapping into the air. “This isn’t a matter for mortals. We’ll handle it. You just focus on killing the bits you can reach.”
Every dragon in the circle looked dangerously offended at being lumped in with mortals, but the bird spirit had already vanished, winking out of existence in front of Julius’s eyes. Amelia followed suit, vanishing in a lick of flame.
With the Spirit of Dragons gone and everything on hold until they could fly, the rest of the circle broke up as well, the clan heads walking back to inform their dragons of the plan. Since Bethesda and Ian were already explaining the situation to the Heartstrikers, Julius took the opportunity to head for General Jackson so they could discuss how the UN and dragon forces were going to fight together, hopefully without anyone shooting anyone else in the back. This left Bob sitting forgotten and alone on the front porch step—the only part of the house that was still standing now that Bethesda had flattened it—slowly chewing his apple with his eyes closed and his pigeon on his shoulder, keeping him company as he searched and searched through the ocean of the future for the one drop where they lived.