Marci laughed. “Little late for that. According to Amelia, Bob’s hand’s been in my life since before we met. But other than the dying part, I like where he’s taken me, so I’m going to stay on the ride. If nothing else, it’s nice to have someone on our side who knows what he’s doing.”
“I’m not so sure about that,” Myron said, giving Amelia a dirty look. “Isn’t Bob the crazy one who nearly ran you over with his car at the diner outside Heartstriker Mountain?”
“He’s not so bad,” Marci said with a shrug. “And he’s never wrong.” She sat down on the ground beside the scrying circle. “We’ll wait for his signal.”
“You won’t be sorry,” Amelia promised, hopping into her lap. “My brother put a lot of work into this. Trust me. It’s going to be awesome.”
Myron rolled his eyes at that. Raven didn’t look particularly happy, either, and Shiro seemed ready to throw them back out into the dark. For all the mixed reactions, though, they must have respected Marci’s authority as Merlin at last, because no one challenged her further, not even Myron. They all just stood there in silence, watching the empty shell of the evacuated DFZ through the scrying circle as the spirit’s groaning grew worse and worse and worse.
Chapter 13
Chelsie appeared in the empty darkness of Julius’s old house, the only place she was certain no one would be. Sure enough, it was deserted. There weren’t even signs of squatters, despite the fact that the entire front wall was still hanging open from where Conrad had cut it in half.
That was to be expected, though. Even if they didn’t know what they were looking at, humans instinctively avoided dragon lairs. Not that Julius had made much of a lair here, but it must have been enough, because Chelsie couldn’t so much as smell a human.
Her eldest brother was another matter.
After chasing his shadow for so long, Bob’s scent hit her like a punch. He washere, and he was close. So close, she didn’t even have to search. She just followed her nose, following his scent out of the house and through the dark of the rumbling DFZ Underground like the predator she was.
Not surprisingly, the scent led her straight to the empty lot from the picture: a flat, desolate stretch of mud wedged between the road and the river. The steep drop to the water was lined with rocks to prevent erosion, and the stretch of mud above it still bore the marks of a sunken foundation where some idiot developer had learned the hard way not to build on a flood plain. Beyond the shore, the Detroit River ran wide and silent, its night-black water glittering in the colored lights from the Skyway promenade that jutted out above the water like a cement boardwalk. Other than that, the only light came from the single orange streetlight that marked the end of the road, and beneath it, leaning against the battered wooden pole like a juvenile delinquent, was the dragon she’d come to find.
“You’re early,” Bob said, looking up from the glowing screen of his ancient brick of a phone. “Did I lay the trail too well?”
He smiled at her like he always did, but Chelsie wasn’t playing. “Give it back.”
“‘Give it back?’” he repeated, eyebrows shooting up in faux astonishment. “That’s it? No trademark Chelsie ‘Hello, brother,’ or ‘Why did you do it, Bob?’”
“You taught me long ago that asking you for explanations was useless,” she snarled. “But things are different now. I’m free, which means I don’t have to care about you or your plans anymore. I’m just here for what’s mine.” She thrust out her hand. “Give me my egg, Brohomir, or we’ll see how good your knowledge of the future really is.”
Bob heaved a long sigh. “There you go,” he said, pushing off the pole. “Straight to threats. No attempt at reasoning or to discover my motivation.” He shook his head with atsk. “We really need to work on your conflict-resolution skills.”
“There’s nothing to resolve,” Chelsie said, looking around the lot for some sign of what she’d come for, but there was nothing. No bags or boxes, nothing that could contain a dragon egg. Bob wasn’t carrying anything, either. Not even his Magician’s Fang, not that he ever wore it. Still, his lack of a weapon or anything that could serve as a hostage made Chelsie nervous. She’d known this was a trap from the moment Julius had gotten the call. Everything was with Bob. But traps could be broken, and thanks to Julius, she was off the seer’s script. She just had to stay on target, and speaking of targets…
“Last chance,” she growled, looking him in the eyes again. “I’m prepared to do whatever I have to, but this doesn’t need to end in violence. Just tell me where my egg is, and we can both go our separate ways.”
“I didn’t go through all the trouble of getting you out here just so we couldleave,” Bob said, exasperated. “Don’t you want to knowwhyI stole your Precious? Because I’ll tell you. I’m dying to, actually. Do you know how hard it’s been to keep all of this brilliance to myself? It’s killing me. So go ahead. Ask, and I’ll tell you everything.”
He finished with his most charming smile, but Chelsie had seen this ploy go down too many times to fall for it herself. Bob might have fooled the rest of the clan into thinking he was an unpredictable mad genius, but Chelsie had watched him just as she’d watched every other Heartstriker. His motives were inscrutable to anyone who didn’t also know the future, but his habits were as ingrained as any other old dragon’s, and the only time he ever offered to explain himself was when he was stalling.
Whatever plot he’d called her out here for must not be ready yet, she realized. That meant if Chelsie was going to get her egg and escape before the trap closed, she needed to do itnow. So she did, pushing off the dirt with her bare feet as she lunged at his throat.
As expected of a seer, Bob dodged her first strike, but no amount of precognition could save him from the second, which landed her balled fist right in his stomach. As he gasped in pain, Chelsie seized the chance to step in and wrap her arm around his throat, pinning him in a choke hold against her chest.
“That was… uncalled…for,” Bob choked out, gasping for breath as he grabbed at her arm. “Can’t we…talk about it?”
Chelsie’s answer was to squeeze tighter. She was trying to make him pass out when Bob somehow managed to hook his foot behind hers. She was repositioning when he kicked up hard, yanking her off balance just long enough to break free.
He scrambled away into the dark, getting as much distance as possible before whirling around to watch her with a wary expression Chelsie had never seen on her eldest brother’s face before.
“For the record, I did not expect that.” He swallowed against his bruised throat before flashing her a weak smile. “Brava. You’re faster than I anticipated.”
“That’syourfault,” Chelsie said, circling. “Bethesda’s Shade couldn’t afford to let anyone know the full extent of her abilities, even you. And who made me that?”
Bob sighed. “You can’t blame everything on me, you know.”
“Why not?” she growled. “Everythingisyour fault. You’re the all-knowing seer. You saw my disaster coming—all of it, from the very beginning—and you didnothing.”
“I did a great deal more than nothing,” he said, insulted. “Do you have any idea how hard I’ve worked to bring us to this point? How delicately and painstakingly I’ve planned every little detail leading up to—”
