That was all Julius had time to take in before the magic bit down.
Chapter 20
Dragon magic surged down his arm and into his body. It was a bit like what he’d felt when he’d pulled out Justin’s sword, only multiplied by millions. But while the sensation was overwhelming and uncomfortable, it didn’t actually hurt until the magic hit his seal.
NowJulius doubled over, crying out in pain. It was similar to when the giant lamprey had spit a blue fireball at him a month ago, but while that magic had simply hammered his mother’s magic, this cut straight through it like teeth through fresh meat. He could actually feel the sword’s edge slicing Bethesda’s magic to ribbons until, at last, there was nothing left to cut. In a matter of seconds, the seal his mother had placed at the root of his magic had been sundered completely, and as the shredded remains fell away, everything Julius had lost came rushing back in.
It was like gaining an entirely new body. He felt stronger, faster, more in touch with the magic around him. He could see better, smell better, hear better. He hadn’t even realized how much he’d lost until it all slammed back into place. He could actually feel his wings again, itching under the skin of his back, but what Julius felt most of all was the fire in his throat.
He’d never liked his fire. He’d never been particularly good at controlling it, and even when he did manage a decent blast, the inherent risks of having something so dangerous that near to his body kept him from enjoying it. Now, though, the heat in his belly felt good. Natural.Powerful. Most important of all, though, it felt under his control, and he blew out a line of smoke just for the joy of feeling it curl through his teeth.
His no longer human teeth.
Julius blinked in alarm. He didn’t remember making the decision to change, he couldn’t even remember hitting the ground, but when he opened his eyes, he was standing on the floor lookingdownon his mother’s throne room for the first time in…ever, actually. He was still small compared to the huge space, but apparently being sealed had actually been good for him, because he was definitely bigger than he’d been when his mother had kicked him out. His claws, tail, and wings were all larger than he remembered, though that might have just been because Julius was stretching them to their limit in an effort to work out all the kinks after being transformed for so long. Even his feathers looked bigger and brighter, shifting from their usual dark blue across the tips of his wings to an electric bright cobalt across his chest and torso. The real kicker, though, was the weight on his head.
When his brother Justin transformed, his Fang went to the front of his mouth, covering his teeth with a second, larger set of jaws. Up until now, Julius had thought that’s how all the Fangs worked, but the sword he’d pulled must have been even more different than he’d thought, because this Fang—hisFang, he realized with a start—didn’t do that at all. It didn’t lock into his mouth or his claws or anything that you’d expect from a weapon meant for dragons. Instead, it sat on Julius’s head like a crown, pushing back the mane of longer feathers that grew from the top of his head until they felt more like a headdress than things that were actually attached to him. It was a singularly odd feeling, and Julius was trying to get used to it when he realized just how still the room had gotten.
In the confusion of falling and apparently pulling out the one Fang no one else in his family had ever managed to work free, Julius had completely forgotten about the fights. When he looked up now, though, every Heartstriker in the room was frozen in place like someone had hit a universal pause button. Justin and Conrad were actually stopped with their swords locked together mid-clash, and Chelsie looked like she’d been paused mid-leap, clinging to the skull only by her fingertips. Even Bethesda was still, frozen on her knees beneath her throne. The only ones who didn’t seem affected by the strange stillness were Marci, who was gawking like a young dragon seeing her first pile of gold, and Estella, who was staring at him with a hate deeper and older than anything Julius had ever known.
“It’s not possible,” she growled, her pale face going even paler in her fury as she dropped her sword and shoved the immobile Bethesda out of her way. “It doesn’t happen this way!” She stomped down the stairs from the throne dais, freezing smoke pouring from her lips. “I knew it could happen. The moment you vanished through that portal, I knew there was a chance you’d find the chains, but it shouldn’t have mattered. It isnot possiblethat you—you, the failure of Heartstriker, the slacker with no potential at all—could buy a future stronger than mine!”
She was screaming by the time she finished, reaching out to grab a handful of the cobalt blue feathers that covered Julius’s chest. “How much did you pay, whelp? What did it cost you to buy a future that would trump mine?!”
“Not as much as it cost you,” Julius said calmly, looking down at her without blinking until she finally released his feathers. “I know what you did, Estella. I even think I can understand why, but it doesn’t have to be this way.”
“Doesn’t have to—” The seer’s face transformed into a mask pure, murderous rage. “I paid for your deaths with mine! This ismyvictory, bought and paid for!You will not take it from me!”
She was still screaming when her human body burst into freezing white flames. The change was over in a heartbeat, but Julius couldn’t catch more than a fleeting glimpse of massive size and snow-white scales before Estella attacked.
“You will not steal what I have worked for!” she roared, slamming him to the ground with a single beat of her much larger wings. Another swipe had him on his back, and then she leaped on him like a tiger with her curving claws at his throat and her blue eyes staring down at him with blind hatred.
But though it was hard to do anything but panic when a dragon five times your size had you pinned to the floor, the next few minutes were too precious to waste on fear. Outside the balcony, the sun was already touching the horizon. Soon, it would vanish altogether. Julius just had to make it until then, and so he took a deep breath and lay back, exposing his throat in surrender.
“I’m not trying to take your victory,” he said softly. “I know you’re angry and cornered. There’s no other reason you’d trade your entire future just to beat my clan. But what good is victory that you won’t be around to enjoy and that doesn’t make life better for those who will?”
“What would you know of that?” Estella growled, pressing her superior weight down on him until he could barely breathe. “You’re just a failure whose only skill in life is convincing better dragons that you deserve to keep living. But I’m not a sentimental fool like Katya, and I have no patience fornice. The only reason I haven’t sliced you open yet is because you’re Brohomir’s little puppet. Iknowhe put you up to this. Now,” her claws dug into his feathered throat, “tell me what your chain does, or I’ll pop your head off and we’ll see what happens from there.”
“If I tell you,” Julius choked out. “Will you not kill me?”
Estella growled deep in her throat. Not the answer Julius was hoping for, but his chain had kept him alive against all odds this far. There was no reason not to think it wouldn’t last a little longer.
“Fine,” he said, lifting his head to look at her. “I bought you a future.”
Estella’s sea-ice blue eyes narrowed in confusion. “What?”
“I bought you a future,” Julius said again. “I met Dragon Sees the Beginning. I know you paid everything you had to buy what happened tonight. I also know that all of that was only enough to buy you control until sunset tonight, after which all your futures will run out, and you will cease to exist.”
“I know what I paid,” the dragon growled. “But what does that matter toyou?”
“Because I wanted to stop you,” Julius said. “But buying a future that could counteract yours would have cost me far too much. So, instead, I bought the five minutes that comes after your sunset deadline. In those five minutes, you and me and Marci and Bethesda and all the rest of my family are allstill alive. So you see, I didn’t have to buy a future stronger than yours. I just had to look further ahead.”
By the time he finished, Estella was staring at him like the world had just stopped making sense, and then she turned away with a sneer. “I don’t believe you.”
“It’s true,” Julius said. “How else do you think I could have survived this long against Chelsie? I mean—”
“I don’t care about your personal problems,” she snapped. “And I don’t believe that’s the future you bought because it makes no sense. Your own survival I could see, but why would you buymine? My fate is already fixed. If you know enough to buy the future in the first place, why not just let me die?”
“Because I don’t do that,” Julius said.
