Her lips curved in the hint of a smile. “I thought it was sweet. When I told him I wanted children too, though, he freaked out. He told me never to say that, to never give him hope. At the time, I thought it was a lot of trouble for nothing, but that was before I understood just how little control Xian had over his luck. If he wants something—even subconsciously, even if heknowsit’s a bad idea—the Qilin’s magic works to make it happen. So when he said he wanted a family…”
“He got one,” Julius finished with a sigh.
Chelsie nodded, lowering her head to stare shamefaced at the floor. “I should have realized it sooner. I shouldneverhave encouraged him, but I didn’t understand. I thought so long as we were together, we could take on anything, but we couldn’t. Because of our selfishness, the Qilin’s line is broken forever. Even if Xian finds a perfect mate with perfect bloodlines and perfect control, there willneverbe another golden dragon.”
“That’s terrible for them, I’m sure,” Fredrick growled. “But what does that have to do with us? The damage was already done. Why did we have to suffer for it?”
“Because the damage isn’t over,” Chelsie said, her head shooting up. “Don’t you get it? The Qilindoes not controlhis luck. That’s how I got pregnant even though it should have been impossible. Because Xian secretly wanted a family, so his magic gave it to him. Now, what do you think that magic is going to do when the Qilin realizes that he’s failed his most sacred duty?”
Julius bit his lip. “It’s going to lash out.”
“Exactly,” Chelsie said. “The Qilin’s luck exists to make him happy. That includes removing any causes ofunhappiness. Xian was raised his whole life to believe he’s the custodian of a priceless gift. When he realizes that’s gone, it won’t matter that killing you won’t actually change a thing. So long as you and your siblings are the living incarnation of his failure, his luck will seek to remove you, and the only reason—theonlyreason—it hasn’t done so already is becausehe doesn’t know.”
The whole time she was talking, Julius’s stomach had been sinking lower and lower. “That’s why you ran,” he said softly. “Why he thinks you betrayed him. You lied.”
“Of course I lied,” Chelsie said. “The moment I discovered I was pregnant, I ran as hard as I could, but you can’t get away from a luck dragon. Every escape I tried failed catastrophically. When they finally cornered me and dragged me back to the palace, I knew it was all over if the truth came out, so I did the only thing left that I could do: I lied my feathers off. I let him think the absolute worst of me, made sure he never wanted to see me again, and it worked. Ithurt, but it worked. When he banished me, the only ones who knew the truth were Bethesda, Bob, and me. We’ve kept the secret ever since.”
Julius sighed. All of that made sense, he supposed, except, “Why did you tellBethesda?”
“Because I had no one else,” Chelsie said with a helpless shrug. “Don’t forget, this was six centuries ago. I wasn’t Bethesda’s Shade back then. I was just a young dragon with no connections thousands of miles from home. If the Empress Mother decided to kill me, there was nothing I could do to stop her. But as terrible as she was, Bethesda was still the head of a major clan. Even in China, that was power, and I was alone and pregnant with eggs I couldn’t protect by myself.”
“So you just gave us to her?” Fredrick snarled. “Sold us into slavery to Bethesda?”
“I kept you safe,” Chelsie snapped.
“Safe?” he roared. “We’ve spent our entire lives locked in a mountain!”
“Exactly!” she yelled back. “I didn’t sacrifice to save your lives so you could be reckless with them! Why do you think I locked you up?”
Fredrick froze, shocked into silence, and Chelsie clenched her fists. “I’m happy to let you hate Bethesda,” she said, more calmly now. “She deserves it, but not for this. I was the one who asked her to seal you in the mountain. I didn’t want to, but I felt I had no choice.”
“Why?” Fredrick whispered.
Chelsie sighed. “Because Xian’s not stupid. I’d done my best to make him hate me, but if you were out there in the world being normal Heartstrikers, it’d only be a matter of time before he looked at the dates and started to wonder. Once that happened, his luck would inevitably drag everything out into the open. I couldn’t take that risk. Ihadto keep you secret, no matter the cost, but I swear on my fire, Fredrick, I did everything I could to make it easier on you. I served Bethesda like a dog to keep you all alive. Maybe not happy, maybe not free, butalive.”
Fredrick looked down with a curse. Julius couldn’t say anything, though at least now he understood how Bethesda had gotten such complete control over Chelsie. She’d had her children by the throat. But that was over now. Chelsie and F-clutch were free, and he saw no reason to let any of this continue.
“Is there anything else?” he asked. “Any other secrets about China we should know?”
“Nope,” Chelsie said, giving him a sour look. “Congratulations, Julius. You’ve finally ferreted out my entire sordid history.”
“So what do we do about it?” he asked, ignoring her sarcasm. “How do we fix this?”
“Wedon’t,” she growled. “Weren’t you listening? The only way to keep the Qilin from going nuclear on us is to make sure he never learns the truth.”
“But that’s ridiculous,” Julius argued. “No one keeps a secret forever.”
Chelsie set her jaw stubbornly. “I’ve kept this one for six centuries.”
“By keeping your children locked in a mountain!” he cried. “But there’s no putting this dragon back in the bag. The Qilin ishere,and if we don’t find a safe way to deal with this, being conquered is going to be the least of our problems.”
“And whose fault is that?” she said, baring her teeth. “If you weren’t constantly prying into other dragons’ business, none of this would have happened!”
“If Julius hadn’t pried, we’d still be slaves,” Fredrick said coldly. “But he didn’t bring the Qilin here. The Golden Emperor came to saveyoufrom Algonquin, so unless you want to lay the death of the Three Sisters at Julius’s feet, you can’t blame this situation on him. Quite the opposite. If not for Julius’s efforts, all of us would have still been enslaved to Bethesda when the Qilin arrived, and youknowshe would have sold us out in a heartbeat. You’d have been delivered to Qilin on a silver platter the moment he landed, and how long would your secret have lasted then?” He placed his hand on Julius’s shoulder. “It’s because of your brother that you have a chance to keep this secret at all. You should be thanking him, as I do, not trying to pin blame.”
Julius looked down, face burning. He hadn’t expected Fredrick to say all that. But while Chelsie looked chastised, she didn’t look defeated. “I don’t think you appreciate just how bad this is about to get. When the Qilin finds out—”
“How will he?” Fredrick asked. “He’s already seen me. I was there in his room with Julius for an entire conversation, and he never suspected a thing. Amelia showed me how to cast the illusion that makes my eyes look green before she died. All I have to do is put that back on, and no one will be the wiser.”
