“I would at this point if I thought it’d do any good,” Julius said. “But this is no longer something we can solve with broad strokes. My sister’s gone to the DFZ, and I’m afraid—”
“The DFZ?” The emperor’s head shot up. “But terrible things are happening there.”
“I know,” Julius said, frustrated. “Why do you think I’m here?”
“Why did you let hergo?” the Qilin snapped back.
“I don’tletChelsie go anywhere,” Julius reminded him. “She’s free to do what she wants now, and she never listened to me even when she wasn’t. Anyway, she’s not there because she likes it. She was lured by Bob.”
The emperor tilted his head in confusion. “Bob?”
“He means Brohomir, Great Seer of the Heartstrikers,” Fredrick explained quickly. “Bob is his family name.”
The golden dragon seemed baffled. “Why would one of the three seers want to be called—” He shook his head. “You know, never mind. It’s not important. Why is Chelsie chasing your seer?”
Julius bit his lip. That was as good an opening as he was ever likely to get to tell the Qilin that Chelsie was chasing down the last remaining egg of the clutch she’d made with him, but the timing couldn’t be more wrong. The Qilin was already extremely upset, and while the truth would certainly get him moving, telling him the real reason Chelsie had run all those centuries ago now might be the straw that broke the dragon’s back. It certainly didn’t play to Julius’s plan to break things gently, so he settled for a half-truth instead.
“Bob stole something very precious to her,” he said, keeping his voice earnest and even. “He knows she’ll stop at nothing to get it back, and he used that to get her to chase him into the DFZ. Why or for what purpose, I don’t know, but the DFZ is the last place any dragon should be right now.”
“I don’t disagree,” the Golden Emperor said. “But what you’re saying makes no sense. Brohomir is the Great Seer of theHeartstrikers. Why would he work against you?”
“Again, I don’t know,” Julius said honestly. “There’s a good chance this is all part of his master plan for our clan, but that’s actually what scares me the most. He might be our seer, but I’ve seen Bob in action enough now to know that his idea of acceptable sacrifices doesn’t match mine. He’s already killed one of my sisters for his plots. I’m worried Chelsie is next.”
Saying those words out loud felt like betrayal. No one was more aware of just how much he owed to Bob than Julius was. The changes he’d made in his family, the battles he’d won, the fact that he was still alive to keep pushing—it was all thanks to his brother. That constant support had earned the seer Julius’s blind faith in a lot of things, but when Bob had asked him not to free Chelsie, Julius had finally seen the line that divided them. That hadalwaysdivided them. The same line Bob himself had warned him about every time he’d reminded Julius that he wasn’t nice.
“When I overthrew my mother, I swore I’d never let anyone in my family be thrown away ever again. That applies to Bob, too. Even if this is all part of a plot to make a better future, what’s the point if we have to throw away our family to get there? Even if I’m wrong about Bob, Chelsie’s mad enough to kill him right now, and I can’t let that happen. I don’t wantanyoneto die, especially not to another Heartstriker, so please.Please.”
He clasped his hands in front of him. “You already came all this way for Chelsie’s sake. Help me save her now. Lend me your luck, your magic, your fastest jet—anything.Just help me dosomethingbefore it’s too late.”
He was begging by the time he finished, pleading so shamelessly, any proper dragon would have been appalled. But Julius had never been a proper dragon, and he’d never had much use for pride. If it would have gotten him to the DFZ faster, he would have crawled on his belly. He was about to try it when the Emperor heaved a long sigh, reaching up to remove the golden veil from his face so he could look Julius eye to golden eye. “I can’t.”
“Why not?” Julius demanded.
“Because it’s not my problem,” the Qilin said calmly, rising from his throne. “If you want to surrender, then we can—”
“How is this not your problem?” Julius cried over him. “Chelsie’s the entire reason you came here! How can you abandon her?”
“Because I swore I wouldn’t do this again!”
The emperor’s shout was still echoing when the mountain began to shake again. Unlike before, though, this was no tremor. The throne room rocked under Julius’s feet, splitting open the patched cracks left in the floor from the battle with Estella. Cracks spread through the ceiling as well, setting the empty chains that had once held the Quetzalcoatl’s skull swinging wildly. One actually snapped, crashing to the floor directly behind Julius. If he hadn’t been so quick on his feet, the giant metal chain would have landed on top of him. He was on the watch for more projectiles when the shaking stopped as suddenly as it had begun, and he looked up to see the Qilin hunched over on his throne with his head clutched in his hands.
He was so still, he looked even more like a statue than the golden dragon he was sitting on. He didn’t even seem to be breathing when the emperor suddenly slumped over the arm of his throne, his whole body shaking.
“You should leave,” he panted, his perfect face pale and beaded with sweat. “I’m not…I am not calm right now.”
“That’s okay,” Julius said. “I’m not calm, either.”
“So I’ve noticed,” the emperor said. “But when you get upset, you don’t dothis.” He waved his hand angrily at the broken floor, but Julius just kept shaking his head.
“I don’t care if you wreck the throne room. I just want your help.”
“How do you not understand yet?” the emperor cried, shooting to his feet. “Iwantto help you. If I were anyone else, we would already be on the way, but I’mnot. I’m the Qilin, the good fortune that upholds the Golden Empire and thebadfortune that will destroy it if I fail in my duty. I learned that the hard way because of your sister once before. I will not put my empire through it a second time.”
“Then why are you here?” Julius demanded. “Why are you bothering us at all if you won’t help Chelsie when she needs it?”
“Because I can’t!” Xian shouted, his golden eyes flashing with a terrible light. “I came here because I thought that I’d found a way to cheat the system. I thought if I conquered Heartstriker and put Chelsie under my luck, I could keep her safe without having to…without being weak. But obviously I can’t.” His eyes flicked to the damaged floor again, and he sank back down to his throne in defeat. “I should never have come.”
“But youdid,” Julius growled, glaring at him. “You came here. You conquered our clan. You put this pressure on us. You did all of that because you didn’t want Chelsie to die. Now she’s in real trouble, and you’re going to turn your back on her because you’re afraid?”
