“You mean the dragon who rules China?” When he nodded, Marci gasped. “What’shedoing here?”
“I’ll have to tell you later,” Julius said with a tired smile. “You aren’t the only one who’s had a lot going on.”
Clearly. Before she could say anything else, though, Julius turned to the golden dragon and lowered his head. “Thank you for saving us.”
“That wasn’t me,” the emperor said. “It was my son.”
He pointed down with a perfectly curved claw, and Marci and Julius both looked to see athirddragon hovering below them.
He was just as big as the Golden Emperor, but like Chelsie and Julius, he had wings and feathers. Glossy, true-black ones that set off his self-satisfied golden eyes beautifully as he shook the bits of building from his claws, which he’d clearly dug into the building before he’d pushed it away. But even that wasn’t the most impressive part. Whatreallymade Marci gasp were the bone-white sheaths covering each curving talon, augments she’d learned to recognize as the telltale sign of a transformed Fang of the Heartstriker.
“Who isthat?”
“It’s Fredrick,” Julius said, eyes wide in amazement. “He’shuge.”
The Qilin smiled proudly. “He is my eldest son.”
“Fredrick’syour son?” Marci said incredulously. “The stuffy butler dragon?” When the Qilin nodded, she turned back to Julius in bafflement. “You’ve gotta tell me what happened while I was gone.”
“As soon as we get time,” Julius promised, glancing nervously toward the lake. “Right now, we have bigger problems.”
That was putting it mildly. Despite hurling what had to be an entire Great Lake’s worth of water at the city, Algonquin’s torrent was bigger than ever. She was now as tall as the Leviathan behind her, and she showed no sign of stopping.
Neither did the city. Down below, the flooded DFZ was rumbling like a drum. On the heavily built-up lakefront, the few buildings that hadn’t been flattened were shifting, curling over like fingers into a fist before crashing into the water below. One by one, the Lakefront developments punched into Algonquin’s water, forming a stone barricade against any new waves.
It was the same in the Underground. Old buildings, parked cars, even collapsed pieces of the Skyways rolled into position, stacking themselves like bricks to form a makeshift wall across the places where the lower city was open to the water.
Once the barriers were in place, the pounding magic in the air tightened like a pulled knot, closing so fast it made Marci gasp. Even the dragons winced, ducking for cover instinctively as the city roared and launched a new volley into the air.
This one was even bigger. The first attack had thrown a building into Algonquin’s Tower. This time, whole blocks went into the air, hurtling over the barriers at Algonquin herself. The buildings slammed into her water, breaking her apart and sending sprays of water flying so high into the air, they came down on the Canadian shore like rain. When she tried to re-form, the city hit her again, screaming with a triumphant wail of twisting metal as it continued to hurl buses, buildings, even whole hunks of overpass into the lake.
“That’s it,” Chelsie said as a car hurtled past her. “Time to go. Fredrick, take Julius and his mortal first. Xian and I can dodge until you—”
“I’m staying,” Julius said.
“Are you crazy?” Chelsie yelled, ducking the bus that flew by next. “I don’t know what’s going on here, but it looks like the city’s gone to war with Algonquin!”
“Actually, that’sexactlywhat’s happening,” Marci said. “The DFZ—”
“This isn’t something we want to be in the middle of,” Chelsie said over her, swooping down to grab her brother. “Come on.”
“No,” Julius said stubbornly, dodging her. “I’m not leaving until I’ve helped her!”
There was only one person he could be talking about. Sure enough, all the dragons looked at Marci. But while the urge to cringe under the eyes of so many giant, magical predators was pretty intense, Marci was no longer just a mortal. She was a Merlin, and while she wasn’t as versed in the history of that title as Myron, she was pretty sure Merlins didn’t cower.
“I have to stop this,” she said, proud that her voice only shook a little. “Everything you see is happening because Algonquin is fighting the Mortal Spirit of the DFZ, and it’s going to get a lot worse. But despite what’s going on, the DFZ isn’t actually a violent spirit. If I can just get to her, I’m pretty sure I can talk her down.”
Chelsie looked unconvinced. “And you need Julius for this because…?”
“Because I’m not leaving her,” Julius growled. “Ever.”
His sister blew out a frustrated huff of smoke. “What is it with you? Why do you neverrunfrom danger like a sensible dragon?”
Julius clenched his jaw. “Because I—”
“That was rhetorical,” she snapped, turning around to face Algonquin’s pillar of water, which was now nearly to the sky. “You want to stay? Fine, but let’s not be stupid about it. You go with your human. I’ll head down there and find a way to keep the waterspout distracted. Fredrick, you get the emperor and your sister back to the mountain.”
Julius blinked at her. “What?”
