That was a fair point, but when Julius turned to look at his brother—nephew, he realized belatedly—Fredrick looked more resolute than ever. “I believe in Julius.”
Chelsie gaped at him. “You told me last week you thought he was delusional!”
“I did,” Fredrick said. “But that was last week. Since then, I’ve seen him do the impossible. He overthrew Bethesda. He set us free. He setyoufree. He’s changed our clan with nothing but his will and his words. If he says the Qilin’s luck won’t kill us, I believe him.”
“You ready to bet your life on that?”
“Yes,” Fredrick said without missing a beat. “Because according to you, my only other option is to stay a secret forever. I think I speak for my entire clutch when I say that I’d rather gamble on Julius than live out the rest of our lives as Bethesda’s shame.”
Chelsie gritted her teeth. Fredrick glared right back at her, daring her to argue again. When she didn’t, Julius took his chance.
“We have to try, Chelsie,” he said gently. “And not just because we can’t keep this secret anymore. Even if it will hurt him, telling Xian the truth is the right thing to do.” He smiled at Fredrick. “They’re his children, too. He deserves to know them.”
Fredrick smiled back at him, but Chelsie just turned away, reaching up to dig the heels of her palms into her eyes. “How do you always do this?” she muttered. “How do youalwaysconvince me to go along with things Iknoware suicidally stupid?”
“Because you’re secretly an optimist,” Julius said confidently. “Does this mean you’re on board?”
She dropped her arms with a sigh. “What do I have to do?”
“Nothing much,” Julius assured her. “Just talk to him.”
“‘Nothing much,’ he says,” Chelsie grumbled, giving him a sideways glare. “You know, for a dragon who claims not to be greedy, you sure do have a habit of asking for the moon.”
Julius could only shrug at that, and she rolled her eyes. “Fine,” she groaned. “Fine, fine,fine. You win. I’ll talk to him. But not right now.”
Julius—who’d already started walking to the door to go back upstairs—whirled around. “Why not?”
“Because this is a delicate operation, and he’s already caused two quakes today,” Chelsie said in a practical voice. “This is going to be hard enough without him being upset before we even start. Also, I’d like some rest. I haven’t slept for more than four hours at a time since we overthrew Bethesda, and I’d rather not walk into a conversation with the dragon I’ve spent the last six hundred years avoiding when I’m too tired to string together a proper sentence.”
Considering she had no problem stringing together arguments against them, that sounded like an excuse to Julius, but he didn’t call her on it. He’d already pushed Chelsie a lot today. It’d do no good to push her over the edge just when he’d gotten her to agree with him. Unfortunately, they didn’t exactly have the luxury of time. Between the Golden Empire’s takeover of the mountain and everything that had come after, the twenty-four-hour reprieve he’d won was almost gone.
“Don’t worry,” Chelsie said before he could mention it. “I’ve been stalking you, remember? I know the schedule. I promise I’ll talk to Xian well before tomorrow’s surrender.”
Julius breathed a sigh of relief. “Thanks.”
She shrugged. “I don’t want Heartstriker to be part of the Golden Empire any more than you do. Sordid history notwithstanding, IlikeXian, and I wouldn’t wish Bethesda on my worst enemy.”
That sounded more like the sister he knew. “Thank you, Chelsie.”
“Don’t thank me,” she said with a wince. “This whole thing is my fault. If I’d had an ounce of sense when I was your age, none of this would have happened.”
She said that flippantly, but the moment it was out of her mouth, Julius felt Fredrick stiffen. “I’m glad it did,” the F said quietly. “Or my siblings and I wouldn’t have been born.”
“At least some good came out of it,” Chelsie said, walking toward the door. “I’m going downstairs to sleep. Call me if you hear anything from Bob, and keep an eye on—”
“Do you regret us?”
The question came out of nowhere, making Chelsie freeze. Julius didn’t dare move, either. There didn’t even seem to be a safe place to put his eyes as Fredrick stepped forward, his normally blank face so full of emotion, Julius hardly recognized him.
“You’ve always said what happened in China was a mistake,” he said, voice shaking. “We knew Bethesda didn’t want us, but I thought that you…”
He trailed off, the words crumbling, and Chelsie sighed. “You were always the sharpest one, Fredrick,” she said as she turned back around. “So I won’t insult you by lying. The day I found out I was pregnant was the worst day of my life. I thought I’d ruined everything: my future, Xian’s future, a hundred thousand years of carefully cultivated magic. Everything. That’s why I ran to Bethesda. I didn’t just need a bigger dragon to hide behind. I needed a fix for what I’d broken, and horrible as she is, my mother’s the greatest expert on dragon eggs alive. I thought if she could teach me how to change the eggs before I laid them, I could still salvage the situation. But new dragon fire catches hot and fast, and even with Bethesda’s help, I was decades too young to control it. I couldn’t even condense your fires into fewer eggs, much less the single male egg needed for a Qilin. I couldn’t doanything.”
“I see,” Fredrick said, his eyes sinking to the floor. “So you didn’t want us.”
“That’s not what I said,” Chelsie said sternly. “I was in a panic trying to fix what I’d broken. When I realized I couldn’t, I decided then and there to spend the rest of my life making sure you suffered as little as possible for my stupidity. I swore to keep you secret so the Qilin’s curse could never touch you. I would have saved you from Bethesda, too, if I could, but it was already too late on that score. The moment she learned the truth, you became the rope she wrapped around my neck. There’s no force in the world that could’ve stopped her from abusing that, but I did everything I could to lessen your suffering. I know the last six hundred years have been miserable, but I’ve kept every single one of you alive. I didn’t get to choose how you began, but you’re still my son, and I love you.”
A strange expression came over her face as she said that, and Julius realized with a start that that was probably the first time Chelsie had ever spoken the truth out loud.
