“That won’t work much longer,” Chelsie warned. “It doesn’t matter how much magic you paint over it, the more you draw the Qilin’s interest, the better his luck works against you. If he suspects anything, whatever you’re using to hide the truth from him is going to break at the worst time, and then everything will come out.”
“So I’ll find another way,” Fredrick said angrily. “I can keep a secret, Chelsie. I’ve kept yours for years. Why are you treating me like I’m incompetent now?”
“I’ve never thought you were incompetent,” Chelsie said quickly. “But even with the illusion, have you looked in a mirror? For the love of fire, Fredrick, you look just like him.”
It was true. Julius hadn’t realized it until she pointed it out, but Fredrick really did look just like the Qilin. He had the same thin mouth and sharp nose, the same straight eyebrows. Add in the golden eyes and he was the spitting image of his father. Even after he returned the illusion, popping the magic back into his eyes, Julius couldn’t unsee it, and that worried him.Everythingabout this did.
Keeping secrets from the Qilin while he was on the other side of the world was one thing, but trying to do it when he was right on top of them felt like a losing game no matter how well they played.Even if Julius put his head down and surrendered Heartstriker tomorrow without a fight, they’d still be part of the Golden Empire. The whole point was to wrap Heartstriker in the Qilin’s luck, and once that happened, it wouldn’t matter if the Qilin went home to China or to the moon. Chelsie’s secret wasboundto come out, and the more Julius thought about that, the more this whole thing felt like a fool’s errand.
“Maybe we should try something else.”
“There is nothing else,” Chelsie snapped. “How many ways do I have to explain this before you understand? The Qilin can’t learn that he has children.Ever.And the only way that happens is if those of us whodoknow keep our mouths shut.”
She looked pleadingly at Julius. “I’ve learned the hard way not to underestimate your ability to think outside the box, but thereisno box this time. No matter how clever you get, there’s no win-win solution to a binary problem. If the Qilin finds out we’re the death of his line, we die. End of story.”
“But what if it’s not?” he said desperately. “You’reassumingthe Qilin will be terminally upset when he finds out his line is broken.”
“I assume nothing,” she growled. “It’sfact. I know him.”
“Youknewhim,” Julius corrected gently. “But the last time the two of you talked was six hundred years ago. That’s alongtime, even for dragons. I, on the other hand, just spent half an hour listening to him talk about you. I’d never claim to know Xian as well as you do. I didn’t even know that was his name until a few minutes ago. But none of that changes the fact that the dragon I met up there dragged his entire clan across the ocean against their will and his own better judgment to saveyou,the one he believes betrayed him the most. Any normal dragon would have broken out the popcorn and enjoyed Heartstriker’s fall, but not him. He knows coming here makes him look like an idiot. Hefeelslike an idiot, but he put you ahead of his pride because he loves you and he wants you to be safe, even if it’s not with him.Thoseare the facts I’ve observed, and they’re why I think you’re selling him short in this. I have no doubt that he will beveryupset when he learns the two of you accidentally destroyed his magical line, but you’re forgetting that the primary goal of the Qilin’s luck is to make himhappy, and for Xian, happiness is you.”
He finished with a hopeful smile, but Chelsie had already closed her eyes. “Stop it, Julius.”
“Stop what?” he asked. “Trying to see his side?”
“Stop getting my hopes up,” she said, her green eyes popping back open with a resentful glare. “Maybe you don’t realize what you’re doing, but I do. You’re not ‘seeing his side’ or ‘stating facts.’ You’re spinning the truth into wild shapes with your ridiculous optimism just like youalwaysdo. You’ve gotten away with it up till now because you had a seer in your corner, but Bob’s not here anymore. This isn’t some misunderstanding you can nice your way out of. This is my life.Hislife.” She pointed at Fredrick. “I didn’t do Bethesda’s dirty work for six centuries to let you play dice with the children I gave everything to protect!”
“I’m not playing dice,” Julius said, truly insulted. “And I’m not spinning the truth into anything. I really do think you’ve got this all wrong because you’re making assumptions based on old information.”
“Better than speculating wildly off a thirty-minute conversation!”
Julius’s jaw clenched, and his sister looked away with a huff of smoke. “Look,” she said, gently now. “I understand you want to fix the problem. Youalwaystry to fix things. Normally, I like that about you, but there’s no fixing this. Xian’s held on to me this long because he’s a romantic, but there’s nothing stopping him from finding another dragoness and being happy. He can let go of the past anytime he wants, but even if he lives in perfect happiness for the next ten thousand years, he can never fix what we broke.Nothing can. That’s the cold, hard truth, and no amount of talking is going to change that.”
“I’m not claiming it will,” Julius said. “I’m just saying maybe that doesn’t matter as much as you think. All your doom and gloom is based on the assumption that Qilin will be so upset when he learns the truth, his luck will wipe you all out before he realizes what he’s done. But that claim doesn’t match his actions. If the Qilinreallyvalued his line and his duty above everything else, then he would have stayed safe in China and let Algonquin eat us, but he didn’t. He came here, bending all of his luck and power and resources to the point of conquering our clan against the will of his own people, so he could protect you.”
He held out his hands to Chelsie. “If actions speak louder than words, then his are screaming from the rooftops thatyouare what’s really important to him. That’s why I can’t believe you when you say we can’t fix this. Because if you’re really as vital as his behavior shows you to be, then there’s no way his luck—the same luck that got you pregnant despitephysical impossibilitybecause he wanted a family with you—would let you die.”
Chelsie dropped her eyes. He could still feel her anger radiating through the room like a physical force, but something he’d said must have gotten through, because she didn’t keep arguing. Fredrick, on the other hand, was watching Julius with intense excitement. “You have a plan, don’t you?”
“I do,” Julius said with a deep breath. “A simple one. We tell him the truth.”
“Iknewit,” Chelsie snarled, head snapping back up to glare at him. “You can’t leave well enough alone, can you?”
“No,” he said firmly. “Because leaving this alone will only make it worse. The truth is going to come out one way or another, but if we tell him ourselves instead of letting him discover it on his own, we have a much better chance of controlling the impact.”
Fredrick nodded. “We can break it to him gently. Soften the blow.”
“I don’t think this blow can be softened,” Julius said sadly. “If Chelsie’s right, and the Qilin’s line is truly lost forever, that’s a huge loss no matter how we spin it. But it’s notallbad.” He smiled at his sister. “You did say he always wanted children. Now he’s got twenty. That gives him something to hold on to and protect.”
“Or a list of targets,” Chelsie grumbled.
Julius slumped. “Why are you always so negative?”
“Because someone has to be,” she snapped. “Everything you’re saying sounds good in theory, but if you tell him the truth, and you’re wrong, then we’redead. Sorry if that makes me a killjoy, but the potentially horrible demise of everyone I love puts a bit of a damper on my enthusiasm for experimentation.”
“Itisa risk,” Julius admitted. “But no more of one than trying to keep this secret. We’re up against the wall either way, so why not go for the solution that would actually make things better? All we get in return for successfully keeping the secret is the chance to go through all of this again. But if we tell the Qilin the truth, and he gets past it, then everything changes. I think that’s worth the risk.”
“Easy for you to say.You’renot risking anything.” She jerked her head at Fredrick. “Ask him. It’s his life you’re gambling.”
