Fredrick’s face grew horrified as he realized what Julius meant. “No.”
“Fredrick—”
“No,” he said again, throwing the sword to the floor at his feet. “Absolutely not. I amnota Fang of the Heartstriker. I refuse.”
“But it’s already done,” Julius pointed out. “The Quetzalcoatl’s Fangs bite every hand except the one meant to hold them. If Chelsie’s Fang hasn’t bitten you, that means her sword’s already accepted you.”
“Well, it can find someone else,” Fredrick growled, carefully avoiding eye contact with the Qilin, who was watching the whole thing with rapt interest. “I thought I’d made it clear I want nothing more to do with this family.”
“But it’s your family, too,” Julius said. “Like it or not, Heartstriker blood runs in your veins, and that sword was made to protect it.” He pointed at Chelsie’s Fang. “That’s the Defender’s Fang, the blade that guards the clan. Bethesda made Chelsie use it in all the wrong ways for centuries. Even so, it never bit her hand, because no matter what horrors our mother made her do, Chelsie’s goal was always to protect us. That must be why it’s never bitten you either, because deep down, you and Chelsie are the same.”
“But I’m not like her,” Fredrick said frantically. “She’s the deadliest dragon in the clan. I don’t even know how to hold a sword properly. Until you unsealed us, I was forbidden from touching a weapon unless I was carrying it for someone else.”
“That doesn’t matter,” Julius said. “As I learned from my own sword, Fangs don’t care about your experience. They care about your intent. Your character, not your skills, and in that, you’re Chelsie’s logical successor. Just like her, you’ve always done whatever it took to keep your family safe, even when the only way you could do that was by helping me. You’re both protectors, and the Fang respects that, because it never belonged to Bethesda. It’s a product of the Quetzalcoatl’s magic, just like mine. That’s why she could never give Fangs out to her favorites, because they weren’t hers to give. The swords choose the hand that holds them, and that one’s chosen you.”
“But I can’t use it!” Fredrick cried. “I…I might have tried once, and nothing happened.”
“Because it was still serving Chelsie,” Julius said confidently, nodding at the weapon on the floor. “Try it again. I bet you’ll be surprised.”
Fredrick blew out an angry plume of smoke. But though he clearly wanted nothing more to do with anything Heartstriker, his eyes kept going back to his mother’s sword.
“What does it do?” the Qilin asked curiously, crouching down to peer at the bone-colored sword that curved like a tooth. “I’d heard Bethesda’s Shade had a special weapon, but I never found out what it did.”
“Normal sword stuff, mostly,” Julius said with a shrug. “But it can also teleport the wielder plus anyone they touch to any Heartstriker in the clan, no matter where they are.”
“Then why aren’t we using it?” the emperor said, shooting back to his feet. “That’s our answer.”
“Because if I accept it, I’ll be tied to this clan forever,” Fredrick growled. “And I don’t want that.”
“But you’realreadytied to us,” Julius said gently. “I know Heartstriker hasn’t been kind to you, and you have every right to hate us, but this is more than just our way to Chelsie. I think that you getting this sword is a stroke of good fortune for everyone. Wielding a Fang of the Heartstriker automatically makes you one of the most influential dragons in our clan. It gives you a vote on the Fang’s seat of the Council, and when I step down in five years, you’ll have my vote to replace me, and probably all the other Fangs’ as well. If you take them, that would make you, an F, one of the three members of the Heartstriker Council.”
“That won’t happen,” Fredrick said.
“It absolutely will,” Julius said, smiling wider. “Think of it, Fredrick. You’d be a clan head! I know that doesn’t make up for the last six hundred years, but as part of the Council, you’ll have the power to change everything. You can help make a clan where what happened to you and your siblings can never,everhappen again. At the very least, that Fang gives you the power to help Chelsie, who never hesitated to help you.”
Fredrick growled low in his throat. “For a dragon who claims not to like debts, you certainly know how to leverage them,” he said bitterly. But angry as he clearly was, he still reached down, wrapping his hand around the Fang’s hilt.
Julius didn’t bother hiding his relieved breath as the F picked it up. “Thank you.”
“I didn’t do it for you,” Fredrick growled, hefting the sword distastefully. “I owe you our freedom, but even that debt doesn’t go this far. I thought nothing did, but apparently I meant it when I said I’d do anything for Chelsie.” He shook his head again before turning back to Julius. “You’d better grab your own sword.”
Julius nodded and ran to the door to what had been his mother’s rooms, startling several servants as he raced down the hallway, grabbed his Fang, which was still right where he’d left it leaning against the wall by the sitting room door, and raced back. By the time he got back to the throne room, Fredrick was looking grimmer than ever.
“I hope your luck is running hot,” the F said as he held out his arm to the emperor.
“I’m still not sure what just happened,” the Qilin replied, shooting a questioning glance at Julius, who motioned for him to grab onto Fredrick. “But my luck appears to be going fine, so far as I can tell.”
“Good,” Fredrick said, waiting for Julius to latch on as well before he raised the sword over their heads. “Because I’ve never done this before.”
The emperor’s golden eyes went wide, but whatever he was about to say was lost in the sharp bite of dragon magic—Fredrick’s, not Chelsie’s—as the Fang came down, slicing cleanly through the air in front of them. That was all Julius had time to see before Fredrick dragged them through the hole, following Chelsie’s scent into an empty city on the edge of bursting.
Chapter 12
“What do you mean I can’t go back?”
“I am sorry,” Shiro said. “But I do not control these things. As Merlin, the Heart of the World is yours to use and command. In this place, you are aware and stable, possibly for a very long time. But while you are safe in this sanctuary, traversing the Sea of Magic and the barrier that divides it from the physical world has always been the sole realm of the spirits. That is the practical side of why a partnership between human and Mortal Spirit is required of every Merlin. They control the roads.”
“I know that,” Marci snapped. “How do you think I got here? But if Ghost can fly me around, why can’t he fly me back out?”
