Her scream was music to Estella’s ears. “I told you the sword wouldn’t do any good,” she said, turning to Conrad, who’d just climbed up the short set of stairs that surrounded the throne’s raised dais to join them. “Restrain her.”
“No!” Bethesda cried, fighting like a wildcat as her massive son grabbed her. “I am your clan head! Yourmother!You can’t do this!”
Again, magic pounded through the orders, and again, her children ignored her completely. Not that it stopped Bethesda from trying. She screamed the whole way down, fighting like a wild animal, but it did no good. Now that Amelia had sealed her dragon, she was little stronger than the human she appeared to be. Conrad handled her with ease, dragging her back down the steps and forcing her onto her knees on the ground at Estella’s feet.
“Nowthisis a sight I’ve always wanted to see,” Estella said, yanking Bethesda’s head up by her long, perfect, ink-black hair. “I was contemplating plucking out those famous eyes, but after seeing your collection in the hall, I think I’ll leave them in. They’ll be so striking when I turnyourhead into a taxidermy trophy.”
“Try it and see,” Bethesda snarled. “I won’t go down like this. You can’t kill me so easily.”
“Please,” Estella scoffed, letting her go. “If I’d just wanted tokillyou, I could have done that at any time. But I didn’t trade my future for something as cheap and tawdry as your life. Even now, killing you is just a means to an end. One more step in a long plan. Though, of course,” her lips curled in a bloodthirsty grin, “that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy it.”
The Heartstriker began to shake, though to her credit, it was with fury, not fear. “Do it, then,” she snarled, baring her white teeth. “Ifyou can. I have a seer, too, remember.”
“I never forget my true audience,” Estella replied, stepping back. “That’s why I’ve arranged for your death to have a little pageantry.” She clapped her hands, and a new figure appeared on the other side of Amelia’s portal. A tall, angry dragon with eyes like green embers and a sword made of ice. He didn’t say a word as he stepped into his mother’s throne room, but by the time he reached Estella’s side, Bethesda looked truly afraid for the first time.
“Justin?” she said, her voice wavering. “Darling? What are you doing?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Estella said, draping her arms over Justin’s shoulders. “Brohomir doessolove his ironic twists, and what could be more ironic than the great Bethesda struck down by her most loyal son? Not that anyone could blame him. Being left to die at the hands of your greatest enemy because your mother is too proud and spiteful to say the one word that would spare your lifedoestend to shift your world view.” She glanced at Justin. “Don’t you agree?”
The young dragon said nothing. He just stood there, gripping his new sword in his white-knuckled hands and glaring down at his mother with such focused fury that even the shameless Bethesda cringed.
“I had to do it, sweetheart,” she said, her voice all innocence. “It cut me to the core to leave you there. I cried all night, but I had no choice.”
“It was one word,” Justin growled. “You didn’t even have to mean it.”
“It was lowering myself!” Bethesda growled back, dropping the hurt mother act as easily as she’d dropped him. “You don’t know what Algonquin’s like. If I’d given her an inch, she’d have taken the whole clan. I did what I had to do to keep us out of the messyoumade, and you have the gall to be angry?”
“Typical narcissistic personality,” Estella murmured in Justin’s ear. “Trying to make her failings sound like your fault. This is exactly the sort of faulty reasoning you’d expect from someone who’d rather throw away their greatest weapon than even lie about sayingplease.”
“Don’t listen to her!” Bethesda cried, lifting her head as high as she could while still on her knees. “Justin Heartstriker, you are my son, a knight of the mountain! Don’t you dare fall for her lies.”
“But she’s not lying, is she?” Justin said, lifting his sword as he moved in to loom over her. “You’re right. Iama knight of the mountain, a guardian of what’s best for our clan, and that’s what I’m going to do.”
Bethesda’s eyes went wide. “Justin, love, don’t do this,” she warned, her eyes on the icy blade as he lined the razor sharp edge up with her neck. “Not to me. Not to your mother.”
“Don’t worry,” Justin said, bracing for the strike. “I won’t.”
He stabbed as he finished, plunging the icy sword, not into his mother, but backwards at the seer behind him.
The seer who was no longer there.
Justin stumbled as his attack found nothing. He rebalanced at once, spinning around to try again, but he hadn’t even made it halfway before Chelsie tackled him to the ground. She had him disarmed a second later, sitting on his back with her knee stabbed into his neck as Estella stepped back into range.
“I wish I could say I didn’t see that coming,” she said, reaching down to retrieve the ice sword from the ground. “But we all know that would be a lie. Still, I have to admit I’m disappointed in you, Justin. The only reason I went through the bother of saving you was to give Brohomir a piece on the board through which to watch my inevitable victory. You were here to give him the chance at a final move, andthatis all you can manage?”
Justin glowered, and she shook her head. “So disappointing. Where’s the grandeur? Where’s the drama? I even gave you my best sword in the hopes I’d see something worthy of the dragon whoclaimsto be the best seer ever born, but alas. All I get is a sneak attack, and not even a clever one.”
“You think I care,” Justin growled, fighting ineffectually against Chelsie’s hold with everything he had. “The fact that you knew I’d turn on you even after you saved me from Algonquin just proves what I’ve been saying all along. I am Justin Heartstriker, Knight of the Mountain, the Fifth Blade of Bethesda, and I would rather die with my fangs in your foot than ever betray my clan.”
“Is that so?” Estella said, her voice bored. “Then by all means, let’s get it over with. Conrad?”
With no more emotion than he’d show a weighted training dummy, Conrad grabbed Justin out from under their sister and threw him clear across the throne room into the wall on the other side. The dragon hit the inlaid stone like a cannonball, cracking the gold and ceramic mosaic depicting Bethesda in all her glory from floor to ceiling. Before he could fall to the ground, Conrad was on top of him, punching him back into the stone wall so hard, his ribs cracked. Justin screamed in pain, but Conrad just kept going, pummeling the younger dragon like he was working a punching bag until Estella said, “Stop.”
Conrad stopped instantly, and Justin collapsed on the floor. When it was obvious he wasn’t going to be getting up again, the seer turned back to Bethesda, whose face was now as pale as the granite dust hanging in the air.
“There it is,” she whispered, reaching down to grab Bethesda’s head between her hands. “There’s the comprehension.” The dragon tried to turn away, but Estella wrenched her right back. “Look at him,” she ordered. “That is your most loyal dragon. That is your hope lying beaten on the ground, Heartstriker. That was your final chance.Thatis the difference between your power and mine.”
She released the dragon’s head, and Bethesda jerked away, her chest heaving like a frightened animal as Estella raised the icy sword she’d taken from Justin.
