Or, at least, that was what Julius assumed. From where they were on the river’s southern bend with all of downtown between them and Algonquin’s lake, he couldn’t see a thing. A few seconds later, though, he realized he didn’t need to. The explosion of water when the attack landed was so big, he could see it over the tops of the superscrapers. And that—watching the white water shoot up so high it cleared the skyline—was how he saw the two figures standing on top of one of the Financial District’s tallest buildings.
They were so far away, a human wouldn’t have seen them as more than specks in the night. Now that he was unsealed, though, Julius’s eyes were back to their usual dragon sharpness, which meant he could clearly make out the woman standing nonchalantly on the superscraper’s peak.
A young woman with short dark hair, standing beside a tall man wearing a Roman centurion’s helmet.
“Julius?”
Chelsie’s voice was sharp in his ear, but Julius barely heard it. He was too busy rubbing his eyes, grinding his palms into them until he saw spots. When he looked again, though, the woman was still there. She’d actually turned toward him now, her face tilted down to look at the city below. The beloved face he’d know anywhere, but never dreamed he’d see again.
Marci.
“Julius!” Chelsie yelled, grabbing his shoulder. “What are you—”
He tore out of her grasp, throwing his Fang away to ditch the extra weight as he charged forward. He ran so fast, his feet barely touched the ground, and then they didn’t touch at all. He didn’t even realize he’d changed shape until he was in the air, flying through the broken Skyways faster than he’d known he could go.
But still not fast enough.
Like the world had gone crazy in slow motion, he saw the building Marci was standing on rise up just as the skyway had done earlier, as though it were being picked up by an invisible hand. A hand that then tossed the entire hundred-floor building like a spear straight at Algonquin’s tower, and sent Marci flying off in the other direction.
She sailed through the empty air, helicoptering her arms as she tried desperately to slow her fall, and Julius’s heart clenched in the terrible realization that he wasn’t going to make it. No matter how fast he flew, there was no way he could get to her in time before she hit the ground. He was desperately trying anyway when the Qilin’s magic rang through him like a golden bell.
When the emperor had thanked him, his luck had been a hammer, a blunt, overwhelming presence that had no aim except to bring happiness. This was different. This time the luck was as sharp as his own claws, eager to slice the world to ribbons to give Julius what he wanted. What he desired most.
Marci,Julius thought frantically.Marci. Marci. Marci.
He was still repeating her name when a violent wave of magic—the same magic that had tossed the buildings around—shot up from below. Julius folded his wings instinctively, letting the explosive force slam into him.
In any reasonable universe, that should have smashed him flat. But the Qilin’s golden luck was singing in him now, twisting his body in just the right way that the magic threw him instead, launching him faster than he could ever have gone on his own. Faster than Marci could fall. Fast enough that, when she hurtled through the broken hole in the Skyways toward the ground beneath, Julius was already there, his wings spread to catch them both as she slammed into him.
Chapter 15
Marci was falling through the night sky.
It had happened so quickly. One second she was clinging to the building, watching the city come alive. The next she’d been flung into the chaos, her body spinning wildly. Then she’d started to drop, plummeting toward the ground faster and faster and faster. And then, just as the wordsterminal velocitywere repeating like a chant in her mind, she crashed into a yielding mass of soft, royal-blue feathers.
“Marci!”
The familiar voice was frantic in her ears. Bigger and deeper than she remembered, but no less recognizable as she looked around in shock to see she was clinging to a dragon’s back. A blue-feathered dragon with wide wings and beautiful, frantic green eyes.
“Julius.”
The name slipped out of her, which was a miracle in itself, because the rest of Marci seemed to be shutting down. After everything that had happened—of which falling off a superscraper had been just another turn in the road—to have him suddenlythere,right here under her fingers…It was too much. She’d fought her way back to life for a lot of reasons, including saving the world, but her deepest, most selfish desire had always been to get back to him. To her dragon.
And he wasright here.
There was no playing it cool after that. Marci grabbed Julius with all her strength, hugging him so hard she almost spoiled their landing as he set them down on the broken street. The moment he touched down, Julius grabbed her back, coiling his long body around hers like a snake as he hugged her with everything he had.
“It’s really you,” he whispered, squeezing her tight. “You’re alive.” He pressed his broad forehead against hers with the happiest gleam in his green eyes she’d ever seen. “Marci,you’re alive!”
Marci nodded against him, too happy to speak. Too happy to think. Too happy to do anything except cling to him for dear life, which was fitting since he had, in fact, just saved hers.
I would have caught you,Ghost grumbled.
“Don’t ruin this for me,” Marci hissed, shooting a warning look at her spirit over Julius’s wings. When she turned back to her dragon, though, his giddy happiness was quickly giving way to confusion.
“I can’t believe it,” he said, pulling back a fraction to look her up and down. “I’m so happy, but how…How is this possible?”
Marci bit her lip. “It’s kind of complicated.”
