Fredrick’s face went pale. “When did this happen?”
“Just a few hours ago,” Julius said. “I only found out because Ian came home, but the whole world’s going nuts about it. That’s why this is all so suspicious. Bob’s been avoiding Chelsie since I freed her. Now he pops up just in time to lure her into the heart of the biggest magical upheaval since the night it first returned? There’s nowaythat’s coincidence.”
“Nothing with seers is coincidence,” Fredrick agreed. “But what’s he trying to do?”
“I don’t know,” Julius said angrily. “But I’m pissed he used me to do it.” He scowled at the terrifying headlines calling for people all over North America to seek shelter. “We have to stop him. This is too dangerous. I don’t care if he can see the future. If he plays chicken with whatever Algonquin’s doing, he’s going to get someone killed.”
“He already got someone killed,” Fredrick reminded him.
“That’s why I need to go,” Julius said, whirling toward the door. “I already lost Amelia to this. I’m not losing anyone else.”
He was halfway down the hall before Fredrick grabbed his sleeve. “Maybe that’s why you shouldn’t.”
“What?”
“The Black Reach said the best way to foil Bob’s plans was not to do what he asked,” Fredrick explained. “He may not be directly giving you orders, but Bob sent that picture toyourphone, not Chelsie’s. He has all of her numbers, even the secret ones. He could have easily sent that picture to her directly. The fact that he didn’t means he must have wantedbothof you to know that he was in the DFZ.”
Julius stared at him in confusion. “How do you know what the Black Reach told me?”
“The door was very thin,” Fredrick said with a shrug.
“Youeavesdroppedon me?”
“How am I supposed to serve you if I don’t know what’s going on?” Fredrick snapped. “Of course I listened. Better than you did, apparently, because I remember that the last thing the Black Reach said was ‘See you in Detroit.’ He knew Bob would lure you there, which tells me that youshouldn’t go.”
That was a good point. Still. “I can’t let Chelsie go into that alone,” Julius said. “The DFZ’s more dangerous than ever, and she’s too angry to make good decisions. She needs our help, and if Bob really is headed down some kind of dark path, then so does he. We can’t just sit here and do nothing!”
“I’m not saying we should,” Fredrick said. “But you should have more faith in Chelsie’s ability to take care of herself. Brohomir is older and a seer, but he’s never been a fighter,andhe stole her egg. Chelsie is Heartstriker’s most deadly dragon, and I’ve never seen her as angry about anything as she’s been over this. If Bob gets in her way, she’ll gut him like a fish, and why would he risk that?”
“Why would he doanyof this?”
“To lureyou!” Fredrick yelled, grabbing Julius by the shoulders. “Haven’t you been listening? You’re his focus. Whatever power play Bob’s making, you are undoubtedly at the heart of it, which is exactly why you need to stay away from this. He’s not luring Chelsie. He’s using her to lureyou, and if you believe the Black Reach, then the only way to stop this is not to go.”
That argument made a tremendous amount of sense, but Julius couldn’t follow it. The image of Amelia’s ashes piled on her divan was burned into his brain, and she was the one Bob had loved most. If he was willing to kill the sister who’d been a mother to him for his plots, what would he do to Chelsie? He’d known everything, and he’d been perfectly fine with leaving Chelsie and her children in slavery for six hundred years. Surely he wouldn’t stop at killing her now if that was what it took, and as good as Chelsie was, no one could beat a seer.
“I have to go.”
Fredrick bared his teeth. “Why?”
“Because I’m not losing anyone else!” Julius cried, yanking out of his grip. “It doesn’t matter who wins. If Chelsie fights Bob, we lose.” And he was sosickof losing. He had no idea what choice was right, what he should do. It was all just plots inside of plots, spiraling down forever. Bob was obviously pulling his strings, but Julius was too angry to fight it. He was sick of death, sick of tragedy. If Bob was counting on him to try and save Chelsie, then Julius was going to play right into his hands. He’d lost too much to do anything else.
“We’re going to the DFZ.”
Fredrick growled deep in his throat, but Julius didn’t give him a chance. “My mind’s made up,” he said as he marched out of Chelsie’s bunker. “I know this is a seer plot, I know I’m falling for it, and I don’t care. I won’t sit here and play the long game while my family kills each other.”
“But what are you going to do?” Fredrick asked, running after him. “Chelsie can teleport. We can’t. Even if Ian’s brought the suborbital jet back, flying to the DFZ will take—”
“I know,” Julius said, picking up speed as he ran down the Fs’ hall and into the stone tunnel that led to the stairs. “But I’m not going to fly.”
“Then whereareyou going?”
Julius flashed his nephew a grim smile over his shoulder. “To see if I can’t get lucky.”
Fredrick’s face paled, but if he had more to say, Julius didn’t hear it. He was already bounding up the spiral service stairs toward the top of the mountain.
***
Though knowingly walking into a seer’s trap might suggest otherwise, Julius wasn’t stupid. He knew exactly how big a bullet he’d dodged when Chelsie had saved him and Fredrick in the hallway. So, since it wasn’t likely the Empress Mother had changed her mind about killing him in the last hour, Julius decided to try the diplomatic approach: grabbing one of the emperor’s human servants off the stairwell and calmly but firmly refusing to let the man go until he called Lao.
