“I’m afraid only Chelsie knows that,” Julius said. “But that story would definitely fit her better. My sister would never betray anyone, but she has a bad habit of running from her problems. Particularly the emotional ones, which definitely includes you. That’s how I knew what you were telling me couldn’t be the whole truth. You claimed Chelsie didn’t care, but I know for a fact that she did. She still does.”
The Qilin flinched. “That’s not true.”
“It is,” Julius said stubbornly. “And I can prove it.” He pointed at the painting between them. “She still has the watercolor you painted of her when she was asleep hanging on the door of her bedroom.”
The emperor’s golden eyes went wide. “She kept it?”
“Treasures it,” Julius said with a smile. “She wouldn’t tell me who painted it, but you don’t keep paintings like that hidden in your room where you can stare at them from dragons you’ve betrayed.”
For a moment, the Qilin stood in spellbound wonder. Then, like a door closing, the amazed expression vanished. “It’s probably a trophy,” he said bitterly. “My paintings are highly prized. Her hoarding one is not proof of lingering feelings.”
“No,” Julius said stubbornly. “I gotthatfrom her face. I saw the way she looked at your picture, and I’d have had to have been blind not to notice how much she still cared. She looked just as miserable as you do right now when I dragged her side of the China story out of her. That’s what makes all of this so intolerable. Everything you’ve said since you got here has been based on the assumption that Chelsie betrayed you, but the sister I know? The one who treasures your painting in secret and threatens to bite the head off of anyone who so much as mentions China? That’s not a dragon who’s gotten away with something. That’s a dragon who’s been suffering for a long, long time, and if you really did love her once, you owe it to both of you to find out why.”
The Qilin closed his eyes with a long sigh. “You make a good argument,” he said at last. “But I can’t accept what you’re saying.”
“Why not?”
“Because I can’t,” he said, turning his back to Julius. “You should go now.”
“No,” Julius said, darting around the painting so that he was standing in front of the emperor again. “If you’d justtalkto my sister, I’m sure we could get to the bottom of—”
“This audience isover, Heartstriker,” the emperor said firmly, pressing a tired hand over his eyes. “I’ve already made my decision. Our conquest of your clan will proceed as planned. I suggest you go back downstairs and make the most of your final day.”
“But this is ridiculous!” Julius cried. “Don’t you at least want to hear Chelsie’s explanation? She’s free of Bethesda now. If she was ever going to tell you the truth, this would be the—”
“Why do you think I’m telling you togo?” the Qilin cried, yanking his hand back down. It wasn’t until his eyes came into view, though, that Julius realized how angry the emperor was.
“Do you know how badly I want you to be right?” he said, voice cracking. “I’ve clung to the fact that Chelsie betrayed me for centuries because it hurt less than knowing she just didn’t care. Now here you come, saying they’re both wrong. That she still loves me, and this could all be a misunderstanding, and I want to believe you so badly it hurts.”
“Then do it,” Julius said. “Chelsie’s here in the mountain right now. We can go talk to her and resolve all of this.”
“I can’t,” the Qilin said. “Don’t you see? I—”
His words cut off as the mountain began to shake. All around them, the stacked paintings tumbled from their piles. Rather than simply falling on the ground, though, each one seemed to go out of its way to fall directly into the others, the wooden frames slamming into the canvases at the perfect angle to leave huge, ugly scratch marks all across the painted images. One large oil painting of a tree actually slid all the way across the floor to the easel holding the painting of Chelsie. It was barely moving by the time it got there, but just the tap of its corner against the easel’s wooden leg was enough to tip the whole thing over.
Julius tried to catch it but overshot his grab, missing completely as the painting crashed down on the art table beside it, scattering the Qilin’s neatly stacked brushes and splattering the cup of rinse water in every direction. A few drops actually flew straight into Julius’s eyes, but most of the diluted paint water ended up on the Qilin’s golden robes, leaving ugly gray-green splatters across the meticulously embroidered dragons that covered his chest.
It was all just coincidence. Pure bad luck. But by the time Julius had rubbed the paint out of his eyes, the Qilin’s face was as pale as someone who’d just witnessed a murder.
“And now you see why,” he said, his voice weak and shaking as he leaned down to rescue the fallen painting. “I’ve been down this path before. When I lost Chelsie the first time, I did unspeakable damage to my empire. Even if you’re right, and this was all a misunderstanding, I can’t risk putting my subjects through that ever again.”
“But you also can’t keep pushing it down,” Julius argued. “I’m not saying it won’t hurt, but if you haven’t stopped loving her in six centuries, it’s not going to happen. Putting all of Heartstriker under your luck might save Chelsie from Algonquin, but it solves nothing. All you’re doing is kicking the can down the road. You’ll have no real peace until you deal with this.”
“I know,” the emperor said. “But I can’t right now.” He covered his face with his hands again. “Just go.”
“But—”
“Go,” he snarled as Lao burst through the doors.
“Xian!”
That must have been the emperor’s name. Julius had never heard any of the Chinese dragons use it before, but Lao was clearly calling to his cousin as he charged into the room. He took one look at the Qilin’s paint-splattered robe, and then he whirled on Julius. “What did you do?”
“Nothing,” the emperor said, dropping his hands with a deep, calming breath. “It’s nothing. The young Heartstriker was just leaving.”
That was clearly meant to be Julius’s out, but he couldn’t take it. Not yet. Not like this.
“You can’t keep pretending nothing’s wrong forever,” he told the emperor. “When you’re ready to know the truth, come and find me. I’ll take you to Chelsie, no questions asked.”
