Everyone turned and looked at Julius, who swallowed. “Why do you think I know?”
“Because you’re his chosen one,” Chelsie said sarcastically.
“And because you know where the Kosmolabe is,” Amelia added, eyes bright. “Is it here? Can I see it?”
“I’m pretty sure it’s not here,” Marci said, glancing at Julius. “Is it?”
“I don’t know!” he cried. “I haven’t seen the thing since right after Bixby died. For all I know, Estella grabbed it off the ground in the Pit and—”
He stopped short when he realized what he’d said. “I think I just figured out what Bob meant.”
“What?” Chelsie demanded, but Julius was already fumbling for his phone.
“Give me a second,” he said, walking over to the corner to give himself the semblance of privacy as he pressed the number near the top of his contacts. It was a long shot, but Julius was desperate enough to try anything at this point. If nothing else, at least he’d get to talk to a friend.
All of this was still swirling through his head as the phone began to ring, and then, almost immediately, the call picked up, and Katya’s voice cried, “Julius!”
“Hey,” he said, feeling suddenly awkward. “Are you okay? Did you make it safely?”
“Well, I’m not captured yet, so yes. I—” She was interrupted by harsh female voice rapidly speaking Russian in the background. Katya answered in kind, her voice tense before she came back to Julius. “Sorry, I’m kind of in the middle of something. I heard my sisters were in the DFZ. Are they still there, or have they already left for the mating flight?”
Julius winced. In all the confusion, he’d completely forgotten that the mating flight between Svena and Ian was scheduled for tomorrow evening. “I haven’t seen Svena since yesterday,” he said. “But I know Estella was here less than an hour ago. That’s why I’m calling, actually. I need to know if you’ve seen the Kosmolabe.”
“The what?”
That was right. Katya had been unconscious through the whole Kosmolabe fiasco last month. “Magical object that lets you find things in planes,” he explained. “It looks kind of like a golden ball?”
“Oh!” Katya said. “I might know where that is, yes.”
Julius’s heart began to pound. “Not with Estella, I hope?”
“No,” she said, her voice growing smug. “My sister left a golden ball on the seat when she was dealing with your brother. Since I wasn’t feeling particularly charitable toward her at the time, I took it. I thought it might be good leverage for when Estella cornered me. I’ll gladly give it to you if you need it, though. It’s the least I can do to repay your kindness.”
“That would beamazing, thank you,” he said, turning around to give the others a thumbs-up. “Where are you? Can I come get it?”
“Oh, I don’t have it on me,” Katya said. “What do you think I am, crazy? I left it in the DFZ.”
“That’s even better,” Julius said. “Where?”
There was a long, sheepish pause.
“About that…”
***
“I can’t believe she did this,” Marci growled, hovering over Julius as he carefully pried the mirror off the wall above her bathroom sink. “I thought she was yourfriend.”
“She is,” Julius said, giving the fixture a stubborn yank. “But she was also under a lot of pressure, and this is actually a huge stroke of luck for us. I’d have thought you’d be happy.”
“It’s the principle of the thing,” she said as the mirror finally popped free. “She hidmyKosmolabe inmybathroom, and I didn’t even know!” She crossed her arms. “Seriously, she got herenaked. Where was she even hiding it?”
Julius shook his head and set the mirror aside. He didn’t know enough to explain the specifics to Marci, but it wouldn’t have been hard for a dragon as crafty at Katya to smuggle the Kosmolabe under their noses. Personally, he thought the whole thing was a pretty savvy move on her part. Hiding the Kosmolabe in their house let her put it under Bob’s protection without actually giving it to him, which would have been seen as an unforgivable betrayal of her clan. But this situation was the sort of delicate, clan politics tip-toeing that was generally lost on humans, so he let Marci’s anger slide, focusing instead on working his arm through the hole in the plaster that the mirror had hidden, groping blindly in the space between the struts until, at last, his fingers closed over something cold, round, and delicate.
He pulled his hand out with a flourish, and then was promptly tackled as Marci rushed to grab the Kosmolabe.
“My beautiful darling!” she cooed, clutching the softball sized, golden orb to her chest. “Mommy missed you so much!”
“Did you find it?”
