“I don’t think you’re giving your sister enough credit,” he said. “It’s true I don’t know Svena nearly as well as you do, but everything I’ve seen of her tells me she’s not the sort of dragon who wants to waste her time incarcerating an otherwise fully functional sister if there’s a better option on the table. All we have to do is convince her that the DFZ is that better option, and I don’t think it’ll be a hard sell. First, we’re on Algonquin’s turf, which negates Estella’s primary complaint that your lack of magic is an embarrassment to the clan since you can’t do big dragon magic here anyway. Second, you actuallywantto stay in the city, which means Svena won’t have to worry about you running away. And if those reasons aren’t enough to sway her, I’m sure Ian will think of twenty more. He’s good at that sort of thing.”
Katya scowled. “You seem very sure your brother will help us. I thought you were considered a failure in your family?”
“Ah, but he won’t be doing it to help us,” Julius said. “He’ll be doing it to helphimself. That’s why we’re specifying Svena as your guardian here in the DFZ. If we make keeping you in the city synonymous with keeping Svena inside his reach, my brother will probably take care of the rest all on his own.”
“And he’ll know he owes that to you,” Katya finished. “Since this was all your idea.”
“Exactly,” Julius said, breaking into a grin. “Everyonewins! I come off looking like the miracle matchmaker who found a way to keep Ian and Svena together against all odds. You don’t have to go back to Siberia or spend your days hiding in dives like this. Svena doesn’t have to worry about you running away anymore, and Ian gets a long and lengthy courtship to try and convince your sister to throw in with him. And if he fails after all that, there’ll be no way my mother can possibly say it was my fault. It’sperfect.”
Katya drummed her nails on the table, brows knit as she thought it over. “I thought you were pulling my tail at first, but now I’m starting to think this might actually work. I still can’t believe Svena would go for a Heartstriker, but I know she hates the glacier as much as I do. She’d love any excuse to stay away for a while, especially if she’ll have your brother to play with. Heartstriker wiles are not to be underestimated.”
Julius cleared his throat. “Heartstriker wiles?”
“Oh come on. You can’t be ignorant of your family’s reputation.”
“Believe me, I’m not,” he said, blushing. “But ‘wiles’ is a much nicer word for it than I usually hear.”
“It’s a much nicer word than I usually use,” Katya said with a coy smile, brushing her fingertips lightly over his folded hands. “Perhaps you are rubbing off on me, Julius the Nice Dragon?”
He must have looked like a deer in the headlights, because Katya erupted into a peal of laughter. “Relax, I’m only teasing,” she said, still giggling. “You are so ridiculous. I can’t figure out if you’re just too young to be jaded or if you’re actually shy.”
Julius decided it was time to change the subject. “Are there any remaining issues you’d like to discuss?”
She thought for a moment. “No,” she said. “No, I like this very much. It’s a cunning plan that ties our victory to our enemies’, making them fight for us instead of against. Quite an impressive bit of draconic guile from someone who claims to be a terrible dragon.”
He couldn’t tell if Katya was being sincere or not, but that didn’t stop her praise from lighting him up from the inside. After years of feeling like a fish out of water, a failure in his own skin, he’d finally done something right. And though he still couldn’t fly or eat properly or breath so much as a lick of flame, at that moment, Julius felt more like a real dragon than at any other point in his life, and it feltgood.
“Thank you,” he said, standing up.
Katya stared at him like she’d never heard those words before. Of course, considering her family, maybe she hadn’t. “Thankyou,” she replied, drawing out the phrase like she was testing it in her mouth. She must have liked the way it sounded, because she finished with a smile, reaching down with a napkin to pick up the spelled silver chain and drop it in her purse. “There,” she said, snapping the red clutch closed. “That’s done. Let’s go.”
Her eagerness made him chuckle. “Ready to get back to your shaman?”
“I am at no man’s beck and call,” Katya said with a toss of her hair. “Though I will admit I have become rather fond of him. Humans in love can be so adorably earnest, and he’s a mage as well.”
She said that last part with such a breathy sigh, Julius couldn’t help himself. “What’s so special about mages?”
Katya stared at him in wonder before breaking into a wicked grin. “You are so innocent I cannot believe you are real. Where have you spent your twenty-four years? In a monastery?”
Julius’s answer was to shove his hands in his pockets with a sullen glower, which only made Katya’s grin wider.
“Do yourself a favor, little Heartstriker,” she said as they walked together to the door. “Don’t rebel too hard against your family’s nature. Some parts of being a traditional dragon are very nice indeed, especially when it comes to humans.”
She gave him a wicked smile, and Julius looked away, cheeks flaming. Not because he was embarrassed by her words—or, at least, not only because of that—but because as soon as she put the idea in his head, his mind had gone straight to Marci. Lovely, talented, magical Marci, who knew he was a dragon and didn’t mind. Marci, who’d stood by him more in one day than anyone else had in his entire life, and whose soft lips he could still recall in perfect detail…
But these were thoughts he had no business having, and he put them firmly out of his mind. Life was hard enough without tempting himself with what he couldn’t have. He was too entangled with Marci as it was, but at least he could still claim their relationship was strictly business. If he took things further, she’d end up a weakness other dragons would exploit just because they could, and that wasn’t a fate he’d wish on anyone, much less someone he liked as much as her.
But all of this perfectly sensible reasoning couldn’t quite squash the surge of delighted happiness he felt when he opened the diner door to find Marci waiting for him. Katya, however, didn’t spare her a look.
“I can drive,” the dragoness said, pulling a cheap, disposable phone, the kind they sold at airport vending machines, out of her pocket. “My rental still has fifty miles before it locks down, and I don’t want to leave it in a place like this. Just tell your servant to follow.”
Marci’s eyes went wide, and Julius leapt to her defense. “She’s not my servant,” he said quickly. “This is Marci Novalli, my business partner, and I’ll ride with her if you don’t mind.” He needed to bring Marci up to speed before they got to Ian’s.
Katya looked her up and down before turning back to Julius. “Seems I’m not the only one with plans to stay in the DFZ,” she said, her singsong voice laden with innuendo.
“We’ll lead the way,” he said quickly before she could make Marci any more uncomfortable. “Just follow us. I’ll call Ian right now and let him know we’re coming.”
Katya shrugged and started down the street toward a dirty but otherwise quite nice baby blue luxury sports car parked around the corner. Julius waited until he saw her open the door and get in before pulling out his phone to look up Ian’s number. He was about to hit the call button when Marci tapped him on the shoulder.
