Marci’s eyes went wide, and she turned back to Julius with a questioning look. He didn’t have time to answer, though. He was too busy forgiving Justin for every childhood insult and thoughtless word. That idiot dragon had just saved Marci’s life, and he was probably the only one who could have. MotheradoredJustin. Things that would have gotten another Heartstriker gutted were deemed “cute” when he said them. Normally, the double standard annoyed Julius. Right now, though, Justin was his favorite sibling.
“Here.”
He jerked as Justin’s voice sounded suddenly right beside him, and then again when his phone appeared in the air above his face. “She wants to talk to you.”
Julius raised a shaking hand and took the phone, pressing it against his ear, which he’d just realized was bleeding. He moved the phone back a bit with a grimace and tried again. “Hello?”
“Julius Heartstriker,” Bethesda roared. “What are you doing?”
“Currently? Lying on my back.”
“Don’t get smart with me,” his mother snarled. “What has gotten into you?”
Way too much magic, Julius thought, but even that had an odd detachment. Normally, the sound of his mother’s angry voice was enough to send him into instant cowering obedience. After the giant lamprey, though, Bethesda’s rage didn’t seem so bad. Clearly, he must be in shock.
“I’m sorry,” he said, more out of habit than any real sincerity since he still didn’t know why she was angry.
“You should be,” Bethesda said. “What were you thinking, using my magic like that? I felt that blast all the way down here. If I wasn’t so shocked to discover you possessed the presence of mind to come up with such a clever trick, I’d fly to the DFZ and skin you for your presumption.”
Julius closed his eyes with a trembling sigh. Sothatwas what had happened. The lamprey’s attack hadn’t bounced off something unknown inside ofhim—it had bounced off Bethesda’sseal.His mother’s punishment had just saved his life and Marci’s, and the irony was so beautiful it actually struck him dumb for several seconds. Fortunately, his mother was too busy chewing him out to notice.
“Well,” she said when she’d finished, her voice scalding. “What do you have to say for yourself?”
Historically, those words were the cue for him to clam up in terror. Woozy as he was from the blast and everything else, though, Julius rolled with the first thing that came to him. “Only that I’m very sorry. I never dreamed you’d be able to feel such weak magic from so far away, but I should have known better than to underestimate your incredible powers of perception. I’m grateful for your mercy in allowing me to survive and learn from the experience so that I may never make such a stupid mistake ever again.”
That was the biggest line he’d ever fed his mother. Even Justin looked taken aback. Bethesda’s voice, on the other hand, sweetened noticeably.
“My my,” she said. “It seems this fiasco has finally taught you how to grovel. That’s a step forward, but don’t youeverdo anything of this sort to me again. Children exist to help their parents, not hinder them. And if you must keep a human, teach it some manners before it gets itself killed. Now put Justin back on.”
Julius dutifully handed his phone back to his brother before reaching his hands out for Marci to help sit him up. She did so without looking, eyes glued to Justin’s back as he walked away.
“What was that about?” she whispered. “And what did you do earlier? What’s going on?”
Julius didn’t know how to answer any of that safely. He didn’t know much of anything, actually. The world had started spinning as soon as Marci had pulled him up, and as he tried and failed to focus on a single point, he wondered vaguely if this was what being drunk felt like. Dragon metabolism was so fast that actually getting sloshed took way more effort than he was willing to invest, but he’d always been curious. If this was what it was like, though, Julius was glad he’d never bothered. Not knowing whether you were going to hurl or pass out was hardly his idea of fun.
In the end, passing out won. He dropped Marci’s hands and fell straight back, mercifully blacking out before his skull hit the concrete.
***
When Julius woke up again, his head was much clearer. It also hurt like hell. Groaning deep in his throat, he opened his eyes to see he was still on the platform by the lake, though he was no longer lying directly on the floor. Someone had put a folded sweater down to cushion his head, and since he was pretty sure Justin didn’t wear bright purple, he could only assume it was Marci’s.
“Hey, you’re up!”
He looked over just in time to see her boots come to a stop right beside his head before her face filled his vision. “How are you feeling?”
He considered the question for a moment. “I’ve been better,” he said at last. “How long was I out?”
“About ten minutes. I’m actually amazed you’re conscious. That was the nastiest case of backlash I’ve ever seen, especially in someone who isn’t supposed to be a mage.”
“For thelast time,” Justin’s voice echoed from somewhere beyond Julius’s feet. “He’s not a mage! Julius is terrible at magic.”
“If you can use magic, you’re a mage,” Marci called back with the sullen tone of someone who’s already said this numerous times, though she didn’t take her eyes off Julius. “I’ve never seen someone just shove magic out of themselves like that. How did you do it? Can you show me? Your brother won’t tell me anything.”
“Because he asked me not to,” Justin growled, finally stepping into Julius’s line of sight. “So stop asking questions already.”
Marci shot his brother a deadly glare, and Julius closed his eyes with a sigh. Not that he didn’t appreciate Justin actually keeping his mouth shut for once, but would it be too much to ask that he do it in a way that didn’t make it sound like Julius was hiding things?
“It’s complicated,” he said at last, pulling Marci’s attention back to him. “I’ll be happy to explain everything later”—never—“but this isn’t really a good place or time. We’re still on a deadline, and we need to find those mages.”
