“I won’t,” Julius promised. Then, before he could chicken out, he stepped forward and gave his brother a hug. “Thank you, Justin.”
“Get off me,” Justin growled, but it still took him a suspiciously long time to wiggle out of his brother’s grasp. “Just make sure you don’t screw up, okay? And don’t let Fredrick save you. If I get shown up by an F, my reputation’s over.”
Julius nodded. “I owe you.”
“Big time,” Justin agreed, giving him a final scowl before he walked out the door. When it swung shut behind him, Julius turned to find his mother watching.
“That was smoothly played,” she said, twisting her glossy black hair thoughtfully between her fingers. “I always forget how manipulative you can be for a supposedly nice dragon. All it took was a few well-chosen words, and the loose cannon was neatly packed up and sent off toward something actually useful. If you weren’t so disgustingly emotional about it, I’dalmostbe proud.”
Julius decided to ignore that, glancing at the monitors instead for a final check on the enemy’s position. Sure enough, the knot of dragons was starting to separate, with some peeling off to keep watch from the sky while the rest came in for a landing. When he was certain none of the watchers were headed for the tunnel Justin was taking, Julius turned and walked toward the door. Bethesda followed him a second later. It wasn’t until they were in the hallway, though, that Julius realized someone was missing.
“Fredrick?” he called, sticking his head back through the heavy door to look for the F, who was still staring spellbound at the landing Chinese dragons. “Are you coming, or do you want to stay down here? Because I don’t blame you at all if—”
“No,” Fredrick said, tearing himself away from the screen. “I’ll stay with you, of course. Forgive me.”
Julius didn’t see how there was anything to forgive. He actually thought the F would fare much better down here. If nothing else, he could let the rest of the clan know if this turned out to be a terrible idea. But Fredrick was already glued back at his side, and Julius had no time to argue. The elevator Justin had taken up to the standard emergency bunkers flew back down moments after he pushed the button, ready to whisk them up to the surface for their first—and perhaps last—meeting with the Golden Emperor.
***
By the time they made it all the way back up to the ground floor, the desert was full of dragons.
The Chinese dragons had completely surrounded Heartstriker Mountain. Julius could actually hear claws digging into the stone over their heads as the three of them hurried through the elegant marble lobby. Thankfully, though, none of the invaders seemed to be actually trying to getin. They were just sitting on top of the exits, biding their time until the Heartstrikers emerged.
“Like wolves watching a rabbit den,” Bethesda muttered, picking nervously at the lace of her crimson negligee-dress.
“I just hope they’re only watching the obvious doors,” Julius whispered back. “If they catch Justin—”
“Anyone who catches Justin deserves what they get,” Bethesda said, lifting her chin. “Let’s get this over with.”
Julius nodded, but their mother was already gone, marching through the double row of tinted, climate-controlled glass doors and out of the fortress entirely. Motioning frantically for Fredrick to stay in the lobby, Julius ran after her, matching his mother’s long stride as the two of them left the shelter of the roofed, hotel-style driveway and started down the road toward the jewel-colored dragons waiting for them where the white pavement of the mountain’s stately private drive met the blacktop of the ruler-straight desert highway.
It was a lot farther than it looked. Despite living here nearly all his life, Julius had never actually gone out the front of Heartstriker Mountain on foot. Pretty as the desert could be, there was simply no point inwalkinginto hundreds of miles of flat dirt and broken rocks when you could drive or fly, and his sense of distance was further skewed by the dragons they were walking toward.
He’d known the Chinese dragons were big when they’d flown in, but seeing the giant shapes on camera and approaching them on foot were two entirely different experiences. Even Bethesda was starting to look intimidated as they closed the final distance, stepping off the driveway into the shadow of two enormous crimson dragons that were both easily as long as Conrad was in his armor. They weren’t quite as bulky thanks to the lack of wings, but it was still a terrifying thing to walk between. Julius was focusing on just getting through without cowering when the dragon on the right twitched his tail, and a giant wall of gleaming crimson scales landed on the road in front of them.
Both Heartstrikers stopped, then Bethesda crossed her arms over her chest and yelled something at the dragons in what Julius assumed must be very bad Chinese. Whatever she said, it made the dragon on the left scowl before replying in much more beautiful tones, his deep voice ringing through the sunny desert morning like music.
“Fantastic,” his mother growled.
“What?” Julius asked breathlessly. “What did he say?”
“Nothing important. Just that the Golden Emperor hasn’t landed yet.” Her lips curled in a sneer. “It seems we are expected towaitfor our own conquest.”
That didn’t make sense to Julius. He’d seen all the dragons fly in together. Why would the emperor suddenly not be here? “Where did he go?”
“How should I know?” Bethesda snapped. “He’s probably taking a turn around the desert. You know, admiring his new property. Or he could just be making us wait to show us he’s the one with the power. Either way, I donotappreciate it. This situation is degrading enough without being forced to stand around like peasants awaiting an audience.”
Both of those were perfectly plausible explanations, though personally, Julius hoped the emperor was wasting their time as a power move. It was a jerk thing to do but still completely within the bounds of normal dragon behavior, and far preferable to the alternative. If the Golden Emperor already saw the Heartstriker lands as his, then they were wasting their time. He was turning to ask his mother if she could press the red dragons for more information when he heard a strange sound on the wind.
Far above them, something was jingling musically in the sky. It sounded like coins falling onto stone from a great height, but bigger.Richer, and it was getting closer by the second. When he looked up to see where the impossibly beautiful sound was coming from, though, all he got was a blinding flash of sunlight. He was still blinking the spots out of his eyes when the giant golden dragon landed almost on top of them.
Despite seeing the flashes on the cameras, it hadn’t occurred to Julius until this moment that the Golden Emperor wouldactuallybe golden. Even now, with the truth standing directly in front of him, he knew he couldn’t actually be seeing what he thought he saw. There was just no way a dragon could be made of metal and still be alive. But no matter how impossible the sight seemed, Julius had no other explanation for the unmistakable metallic gleam of pure, soft, yellow gold that shone from every overlapping scale. If it weren't for the curl of smoke drifting between his sharp white teeth, Julius would have sworn he was staring at a statue instead of an actual living dragon.
It wasn’t just the gold that made him look that way, either. Every inch of the dragon’s body was perfectly proportioned, making him look more like the golden ideal of a dragon than something that could actually occur in real life. Even when the Golden Emperor lowered his elegant horned head to allow his passenger—an elderly Chinese woman smothered from head to toe in brocaded black silk—to step down, the motion looked too ethereally graceful to be true. Julius was still staring at it in stunned wonder when the magnificent golden dragon vanished in a puff of smoke.
Eventhatwas like watching poetry. The smoke shone white as new snow in the morning sunlight, floating over the rocky sand in perfect, billowing clouds that smelled of incense and dragon magic so strong, it burned Julius’s nose. Bethesda actually took a step back when it hit her, her green eyes widening in fear as the smoke blew away to reveal the man who was now standing in the dragon’s place.
He was beautiful, of course. This was nothing new since all dragons were pleasing to look at in their human guise, but what struck Julius was thewayin which he was beautiful.
