He nodded at his bloody leg, but Julius had had enough.
“You should be grateful you’re alive to complain,” he snarled, growing more furious by the second. “This was the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen you do. You nearly got us all killed! Youdidkill Amelia, and you almost killed yourself just now by—”
Bob slapped a hand over Julius’s mouth, cutting him off. He pressed another finger to his own lips next, flicking his green eyes pointedly at their sister. Julius had been so caught up with Bob, he hadn’t even noticed Chelsie getting to her feet. She was on them now, though, her whole body poised to run as she eyed the Qilin. But while everything about her reminded Julius of a violent cornered animal, the Golden Emperor was still staring at her as if she were the most wondrous thing he’d ever seen.
“You…” he said at last. “You look well.”
Chelsie’s jaw tightened. “You never were much of a liar.”
“Butyouwere,” he said, stepping closer. “Julius told me the truth, Chelsie. Youdidlie the day I banished you, but not about what I thought. You lied at the end, when you said it was all a ploy. Your brother claims he doesn’t know why, but I’ve decided I don’t care. I’m sick of living in the shadow of things that happened six centuries ago. I want to be alive now. I want to be happy again. I want…”
He trailed off, holding his breath like he was waiting for something to break. “I want you,” he finished at last. “Only you. Always.” He put out his hand. “Please give me a chance.”
Julius stared at the emperor in shock. That was not how he’d expected this to go. He’d thought the Qilin would demand answers, but it seemed he’d underestimated his own words earlier. Apparently, Xian really did just want to be happy again. Chelsie, though, looked more afraid than ever.
“I can’t.”
The emperor flinched. “Will you tell me why?”
“No,” she said sharply, crossing her arms tight across her chest. “I know how tempting Julius’s sweet talk can be. He got to me, too, but our past isn’t something we can just write off. It’s easy to say you don’t care when you don’t know, but—”
“Then tell me,” Xian said, taking another step closer. “I’m not afraid, Chelsie. Whatever happened, we’ll work through it. I know we can, because we’ve already tried the alternative, and it was awful. I have no illusion that this will be easy, but if I’m going to be miserable, I’d rather be miserable with you. Just tell me what happened.”
“I can’t,” Chelsie said, her voice starting to shake. “And you don’t want me to. You’ve got this idea that things can be okay again, but even if I told you everything, it wouldn’t make a difference. We cannevergo back to how we were before, because I’m not…” Her words trailed off as she curled her bloody hands into fists. “I’m not the girl from your paintings anymore.”
“So what?” the Qilin said angrily, taking another step. “You think I’m the same? It’s been six hundred years. Of course we’ve changed.” Another step. “I want to know who you arenow,Chelsie. I want to talk to you again, see you again. I miss you. You can throw that back in my face if you want, but I’m done pretending that I don’t love you. That I don’t still think about you every single day. That’s why I’m not afraid, because there’snothingyou can say, no secret you can tell me that could hurt me more than all the years I spent thinking you didn’t care.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Try me,” he growled, closing the final distance. “Tell me the truth, Chelsie, and we’ll work from there, but don’t write me off before we even start. You owe me that much.” He smiled down at her. “And you never used to be a quitter.”
Chelsie cringed at that, but she didn’t back down. She was actually leaning toward the emperor now, her hands fisted hard at her sides as if she was struggling to keep them from reaching out for his. But then, just as she seemed to be losing the fight, a new voice cut through the dark.
“An emperor shouldn’t be so quick to promise pardon before he knows the crime.”
The Qilin’s head whipped around like a shot. Chelsie jumped, too, turning to look at something across the road. Fredrick and Bob were already looking, which meant Julius was the last one to turn and see the Empress Mother stepping out of a dark car hidden behind the Skyway support by the river.
“Mother,” the emperor said, clearly as surprised by this as the rest of them. “What are you doing…”
His words trailed off. The Empress Mother was carrying something in her arms. As she stepped into the light of the lone street lamp, Julius saw it was a child. A little girl, barely more than a toddler, with a head full of straight, fine, ink-black hair. She was dressed haphazardly in striped leggings and a purple sweatshirt with a pigeon embroidered on the front, but while the clothes were human, the child was obviously not. Julius had never seen a dragon that young in human form before, but there was nothing else the little girl could be, and she smelled of his clan. It wasn’t until the child raised her eyes, though—giant, beautiful eyes that flashed like golden coins in the orange glare of the streetlight—that he finally understood.
“No,” Chelsie whispered, her face pale as ashes when she whirled on Bob. “What did you do?”
“Seems to me that question should be turned around,” the Empress Mother said, thumping across the dirt with her cane in one gnarled hand and the little girl clutched tight against her hip with the other. “What didyoudo, daughter of the Heartstriker?”
Chelsie cringed, eyes flicking nervously to Xian, but he wasn’t looking at her anymore. He was staring at the baby dragon like he’d never seen one before.
“Who is that?”
“I see the shock of her betrayal has blinded you, my emperor,” the Empress Mother said sadly. “Allow me to make her crime clearer.”
She swept her gold-handled cane at Fredrick, who was also staring at the child in speechless wonder. Magic followed. Not much, not even enough to label a spell, but with Fredrick’s illusion already on the edge, a flick was all it took to shatter his false green eyes completely. He cursed as the magic snapped, which only made things worse, because it made the Qilin look, and there was no hiding the truth after that.
“You, too?” he whispered, staring into the mirror image of his own golden eyes before finally turning back to Chelsie. “What is this?”
There was no accusation in his voice, no anger. He just sounded lost. Lost and terrified and clearly counting on Chelsie to say something that would explain what he was seeing, but Chelsie couldn’t even look at him. A fact that did not escape the empress as she moved in for the kill.
“I warned you,” she said, clutching the little girl so tight she squirmed. “Itoldyou the Heartstriker was using us. Now, at last, we see how.” She bared her teeth. “Like mother, like daughter.”
