She must have hit the nail on the head, because Amelia swore in several languages before hanging up the phone and tossing it back at Bob, who caught it without looking. Julius was opening his mouth to ask what was going on when his sister suddenly turned to him. “Do you know what a hype man is?”
Julius stared at her in bewilderment. “You mean the guys who whip up crowds at concerts? Yeah, but what does that have to do with—”
“Great,” Amelia said, reaching up to tie back her thick, wavy black hair. “Get in there and start hyping.”
“Hyping what?” he said. “What’s going to—”
“Not going,” she said, pushing curious dragons out of the way as she cleared a large spot on the gravel drive. “Coming, and in hot.” Amelia spread her hands. “You’ll see in a second. Just go tell the other big shots that Heartstriker is here.”
That was going to be a hard sell considering Heartstriker was most definitelynothere. But if this whatever-it-was was big enough to convince Amelia to work with Bethesda, it was too big for Julius to fight, so he threw up his hands and did as she asked, jogging over to the circle of fed-up looking clan heads.
“What is taking so long?” Svena snapped when he got close. “What’s the Heartstriker doing? Taking a nap?”
“They’re on their way right now,” Julius said, hoping that was true. “My whole clan should be here in just a—”
A surge of power cut him off. Behind him, Amelia’s magic clenched like a snapping jaw. This was followed by a giantwhooshof air as the Planeswalker threw up her hands to tear a gaping hole in the air directly above her head.
The portal was enormous, a perfect rectangle that spanned the entire width of the shelter created by the spiraling on-ramps. It happened so fast, Julius didn’t even get a look at what was on the other side before a feathered dragoness in golden armor swept through.
She was unspeakably beautiful. As large as Conrad with rainbow-colored plumage brighter than a bird of paradise’s, Bethesda the Heartstriker was famous for a reason. Her colors were so vibrant, she seemed to glow in the dim light of the cavern, an illusion that was flawlessly enhanced by the gleaming golden battle armor covering her chest, claws, and neck. Armor that was clearly mostly for show since her glorious, long-feathered tail had been left completely exposed, but at least her head was protected by the diadem of her transformed Fang.
Unlike Julius’s sword, which formed a bone-colored crown at the front of his head when he was a dragon, Bethesda’s encircled the back, catching the enormous crest of feathers that fell like a waterfall down her neck. The result looked a bit like a hairpiece, or an evil queen’s high collar. Either way, between the plumage, the gold, the crown, and her own impressive size, his mother looked every inch the feathered goddess she’d once been worshiped as. Even Julius, who’d seen her like this before, had his breath stolen as she folded her huge wings to land in the wreckage of his house, crushing the last standing pieces of his home flat as she wrapped her tail around her feet like a colorful, smug cat.
“You can all stop worrying,” Bethesda announced in the shocked silence. “The Heartstriker has arrived!”
“After everyone else,” Svena snapped, glaring up at the dazzling dragoness. “Is this why you’re late? Needed time to fluff your plumage?”
“My plumage doesn’t require fluffing,” Bethesda said, running her claws over her glossy rainbow feathers. “Unlike you sad snowflakes, Ialwayslook this good. But that’s not the tone you should be taking with your savior, White Witch.”
“Mother,” Julius hissed, “stop it.”
“Why should I stop telling the truth?” Bethesda asked innocently. “Heartstriker is now officially the greatest clan in the world! No other family has ever united the clans as Julius has, and no dragon has ever produced agod.” She nodded pointedly at Amelia, who shrugged as if she couldn’t argue with that. “Add in the fact that we now control two of the world’s three seers, and there’s no denying that Heartstriker is on top in every way.” Her brilliant green eyes slid over to the Qilin. “What was that your mother said? ‘Breeding will tell?’”
“Mother!” Julius snarled, but as usual, Bethesda ignored him, turning her triangular head to gaze out at the crowd of dragons watching her like she was the center act of a three-ring circus.
“Who’s the broodmare now?” she crowed triumphantly. “You’ve all looked down on me and my children, but we’ll see how your tune changes whenmyclan—the largest dragon army ever assembled—swoops in to save all of your scales.” She lifted her head to the portal. “Justin!”
The moment she bellowed her second knight’s name, Amelia’s portal flickered like a slide projector flipping images, and Justin hopped down in human form with his Fang in his hands. He’d scarcely landed before all of Heartstriker came through after him. Unlike Bethesda, they were all human—the space couldn’t possibly have held them otherwise—but it was still an incredible sight. Even Julius, who’d seen his whole family gathered just a few days ago, had never witnessed them like this. Every Heartstriker was armed and ready to fight, their faces grim as they moved to stand in formation around Bethesda. Fredrick led his siblings out last, hopping down with his hand on the hilt of his sword as he led the Fs to Julius’s side.
Conrad came out last, and then the portal flipped again to Ian, who jumped down from the ruins of Heartstriker’s throne room without a word. Conrad met him at the bottom, eying the assembled dragons warily as he escorted the final Council member to Bethesda’s side. When everyone was through, Amelia closed her portal with a flourish and returned to her place in the leader’s circle. When Ian motioned for Julius to come join him in their mother’s shadow, though, the youngest Heartstriker missed the signal due to the palm he’d pressed over his face.
It wasn’t that he begrudged his mother her gloating. Bethesda had been the butt of the dragon world’s bawdy jokes for centuries. As horrible as she was, Julius couldn’t say his mother didn’t deserve a moment of glory now that the clan she’d taken so much heat for breeding was one-fourth of the world’s entire dragon population. He did, however, wish she’d been more tactful about it. Lording victories over your enemies was one thing, but they were supposed to be coming together as allies, and the looks the other dragons were shooting her definitely didn’t trend in that direction. Even the Qilin looked pissed, a very bad turn since Julius had been secretly counting on his continued good luck to help them do the impossible. He was trying to think of a way to stop his mother before she blew everything up in his face when she hopped off the house, transforming in midair to land beside him in a puff of bitter smoke and clattering of gold.
“There,” she said, casting off her now comically oversized armor to reveal the equally glittery, human-sized gold mesh dress hidden beneath. “Nowwe can begin.” She stuck her now sword-shaped Fang of the Heartstriker into the gold chain at her waist and turned to Julius. “What’s the plan?”
“Why are you asking me?”
The question popped out before Julius realized how silly it was. He’d been at the center of this thing from the start, of course he’d be the logical person to question. But as much sense as it made… his motherneverasked him for advice or input. She hardly spoke to him unless it was an order or an insult. To have her staring at him now like she expected competence threw Julius seriously off his game. Fortunately—or perhaps unfortunately—Amelia was there to back him up.
“Because you’re the poor chump in the middle, Baby-J,” the Planeswalker said, wrapping her arm around his shoulders. “I tie the dragons together, but you’re the one with his claws in everything. The Merlins, the UN, the spirits, us—we’re all here because of you. Also, your human’s the one who came up with this plan, so unless you want to cede Marci to me—which I’d betotallycool with, by the way—that makes all of this your responsibility.”
The gathered dragons nodded as though that were the only logical explanation, and Julius slumped in defeat. He didn’t even bother trying to explain that Marci wasn’t his human, because that never worked, and he didn’t feel like wasting his breath again. Time and dragon attention spans were too short as it was, so since everyone was looking at him now anyway, Julius launched into a carefully pared-down explanation of their situation and the plan to fix it that he’d been rehearsing in his head since Marci left. He thought he had a pretty good wrap-up of everything, but by the time he was through, the dragons looked angrier than ever.
“Let me make sure I’ve got this straight,” said Arkniss, who looked even more treacherous in his human form than his black-scaled dragon had been. “Algonquin got duped into screwing us all over, and now you want us to clean up her mess?”
“Yes,” Julius said, nodding. “Because we’ll all die if we don’t.”
“How like a spirit,” the old dragon muttered, blowing out a line of acrid smoke. “And we’re going to be working together with the Phoenix?” When Julius nodded again, Arkniss glanced over at General Jackson, who’d set up camp in the corner by Myron’s unconscious body. “Strange bedfellows, indeed. But then, you Heartstrikers never were discriminating.”
