“That’smyquestion,” Fredrick growled, flying up to join them. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Nothing I want to,” Chelsie growled back. “But Julius isn’t going to leave his mortal, and since I owe him pretty much everything at this point, that means I don’t get to leave her, either.”
“I never said you had to stay!” Julius cried.
“I’m not leaving you to fight alone,” Fredrick said at the same time. “You’re good, Chelsie, but even you can’t beat Algonquin.”
“If a single dragon could beat Algonquin, we would have fixed this problem years ago,” she said. “But I’m not going to fight her. I’m just going to buy Julius time so his mortal can do whatever she’s here to do and we canleave.”
“For the last time,” Julius growled. “You don’t have to—”
“Then I’m going with you,” Fredrick said, ignoring him. “I also owe Julius, and I’m not letting you do this alone.”
“Neither am I,” the Qilin said, moving closer to Chelsie. “I didn’t go through all of this to leave your side now. Besides, if you want your distraction to last longer than sixty seconds, you’re going to need my help.”
“Luckwouldhelp,” Chelsie admitted, though she didn’t look pleased. “But we do this my way. No heroics, nice and clean.”
“NO!” Julius yelled, shoving his way between the other dragons. “Do none of you have ears? I said no! N-O.No.You arenotfighting Algonquin.”
“Now who doesn’t have ears?” Chelsie snapped. “We’re not fighting her. We’re occupying her attention.”
“Same difference,” Julius snapped back, his breaths coming fast and panicked. “I won’t let you do this.”
“That’s not your choice to make,” Fredrick said calmly, glaring at Julius in a way that did not fit the subservient F Marci remembered at all. “This debt is ours to pay. If you want to stay with your mortal, we’ll keep the lake spirit off you as long as we can. At the very least, she’ll be shooting at us instead of the city.”
“That would bereallyuseful, actually,” Marci put in. “It’ll be a lot easier to talk the DFZ down if she’s not being actively punched in the face by Algonquin.”
“So she should punch my family instead?” Julius cried.
Chelsie sneered in disgust. “Like we’d let her get so close.” She started flying toward the lake. “Decision’s already been made, Julius. Take it and go, because we won’t be able to get you much.”
With a bob of his head, the Qilin took off after her, snaking through the night like a golden ribbon.
“Looks like that settles it,” Fredrick said, smiling at Julius as he turned to follow the others. “Good luck, sir.”
“Wait!” Julius yelled. “This isn’t how it’s supposed to…”
But the three dragons were already gone, shooting through the night toward Algonquin.
“Go,” Julius finished, head sagging.
Marci bit her lip. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for—”
“It’s okay,” he said quickly. “Not your fault. It’s just…” He blew out an angry huff of smoke. “Dragons are very stubborn.”
Marci was tempted to tell him to look in the mirror on that one, but there wasn’t time. She wasn’t entirely sure about the dynamics of the dragon debts at play here, but if Chelsie, Fredrick, and the Qilin were determined to use this as an excuse to pay Julius back, she wasn’t going to waste it. Especially since Ghost was tugging on their connection.
Found anything?she thought at him.
There was a long pause, and then an image slipped into her mind. A dark, man-made cavern filled with water and debris and the lingering reek of death.
“Gotcha,” Marci said, looking down at Julius. “She’s in the Pit.”
He shuddered, his feathered body shaking under hers. “Of course she’d be there. Why would we ever go somewhere nice?”
He heaved another smoky sigh and cast one last look at the dragons flying toward Algonquin. Then, like he’d come to a decision, he dove down, flying toward the cluster of miraculously still-standing Financial District superscrapers and the polluted Pit that was hidden beneath them.
***
