She finished with a snap of her teeth, but Bob just heaved a sad sigh. “Flattering as it is to be the target of such unwavering obsession, I’m afraid that won’t happen, Estella.”
He pushed himself up off his sword, walking toward the exhausted white dragon. “You’re right. My uncommonly kind brother did, in fact, buy back a portion of the future you squandered. In doing so, however, he actually bought far more than he knows. You see, by spending his own future to buy your survival, he created a paradox, a five-minute fragment within which you both cannot andmustexist. But in these five minutes which you were never supposed to have, your decisions have sparked a whole new spectrum of possibilities, creating new potential and possibility.” He spread his arms wide. “The river of your future is literally being reborn as I speak. That is amiracle, Estella, and the greatest tragedy of tonight is that you’ve already squandered it.”
“How?” Estella scoffed. “By refusing to abandon my fight and gracefully accept my decline?”
“No,” Bob said, shaking his head. “Though refusing to even acknowledge your second chance isverysad, the particular misstep I was referring to is tactical, not philosophical.”
Estella rolled her eyes. “This is why we could never get along. There’s nothing worse than acleverdragon who doesn’t know when to shut up.”
“You’re entitled to your opinion,” Bob said, his voice turning hard as he stepped sideways, motioning behind his back for Julius to move with him. “Personally, though, I think it’sfarworse to be an old dragon who lets someone else’s talking distract her while she’s sitting in enemy territory.”
The superior look fell off Estella’s face. She whirled around, her head snapping up to search the sky above the mountain, but before she could even finish turning, something large and white shot through the open balcony and crashed into her like a rocket. It moved so fast, Julius couldn’t make out more than a vaguely dragon-shaped streak before both it and Estella went flying, tumbling into the throne room in a ball of white fire and flashing claws that rolled right past where Bob and Julius had been standing.
In the chaos of the rolling fight, neither opponent seemed to have the advantage. When they crashed into the far wall, though, the new dragon ended up on top, and she used it to her full advantage, darting down to wrap her jaws around Estella’s neck before the seer could even lift her head.
Exhausted from the fire she’d used on Brohomir and taken completely by surprise, Estella never had a chance. It didn’t matter if you were older or stronger or even if you could see the future, when a dragon’s fangs closed around your exposed throat, there was nothing you could do. She didn’t even seem to have fully realized what was happening before the dragon bit down, snapping her jaws shut like a trap.
Thecrunchthat followed was a sound Julius knew he’d hear in his nightmares forever. Estella jerked in pain, her whole body spasming, but the white dragon on top of her just bit down harder, clamping down on the seer’s neck with her jaws until, at last, Estella fell still, her blue eyes fading. Only when it was obvious that the seer wasn’t ever getting up again did the dragon unlock her jaw and let Estella’s head fall to the ground.
Until this point, Julius had actually had a hard time figuring out who the new dragon was. She was obviously a daughter of the Three Sisters—no other dragon clan had those pure white scales—but figuring outwhichdaughter was impossible while she and Estella were tangled on the floor. Given the ferocity of the sneak attack, his money was on Svena. She certainly had every right to be murderously angry after what Estella had done. But when the dragoness finally untangled herself from the dead seer, the bloody face that turned toward the gaping Heartstrikerswasn’tSvena’s.
It was Katya’s.
“Hear me!” she roared, spreading her frosted wings wide. “To save our clan and to preserve what remains of our good relations with Heartstriker, I have killed Estella the Northern Star! Now, by right of combat, I claim her place as head of the Daughters of the Three Sisters.”
Her voice boomed through the stunned silence of the throne room. But while Julius was extremely impressed, he didn’t understand why Katya was saying all of this tothem.As the echo of her announcement faded, though, he became aware of a new sound behind him. It sounded like wings. Lots of them.
He turned around in a rush, eyes going wide. In the time between Katya’s sneak attack on Estella and now, an entire flight of snow-white dragons had appeared in the air outside his mother’s balcony. One of them landed as he watched, transforming instantly into a severe woman whose hair—which was an even paler blond than Svena’s—fell all the way to the floor, covering her naked body like a waterfall. From the way she held herself, though, she might as well have been wearing full armor as she marched stiffly across the throne room to Estella’s body, leaning down to close the seer’s dull eyes with a business-like brush of her fingers.
“It is over,” she announced, rising back to her feet. “I, Ysolde the Frost Caller, Fifth Born, stand as witness that Estella the Northern Star, Seer of the Three Sisters, First Born of us all, is dead. By right of combat, I now recognize Katya, Last Born, as head of the Daughters of the Three Sisters. Any who would challenge her, challenge me.”
Up until that last part, she spoke with the calm, formal cadence of ritual. By the end, though, Ysolde the Frost Caller was growling, her teeth bared in anticipation. But while she looked more than ready to make good on that threat, none of the other white dragons seemed to want to take her up on it. Every one of them instantly bowed their heads in submission, lowering their eyes before Katya, who looked prouder than Julius had ever seen.
“Hello again,” she said, flashing him a bloody grin as she looked him up and down. “Not quite the plan we discussed, I know, but how wasthatfor backup?”
“Amazing,” he got out at last. “You saved us.”
“Itoldyou I would repay you,” Katya said. “And now that we’re officially even, would you like me to ask my sister to look at your human? Ysolde’s cold even for us, but she’s a miracle worker when it comes to healing, and I know how much you value your mage.”
Julius’s stomach dropped. How could he have forgotten about Marci? He spun around, frantically scanning the room until he finally spotted her on the ground, lying on her back with Ghost pacing nervously next to her head. “Please,” he begged, not even caring how desperate he sounded. “I’ll pay anything if you help her.”
“No payment needed,” Katya replied with a warm smile. “We are friends, are we not?”
If Julius hadn’t been so worried about Marci, that would have made him feel warm all over. But it was hard to feel good when he couldn’t even see Marci breathing. As it was, he barely managed a thank you before he rushed to her side. “Marci!”
She twitched at his voice, and then her eyes fluttered open, staring up at him in wonder. “Hey,” she said softly, reaching up to touch his feathered nose. “You’re a dragon.”
“I think we’ve established this,” he replied, breathing deep. Now that he was unsealed, it was like a mask had been removed from his nose, giving him back his full range. But while he could definitely smell Marci’s pain, he didn’t smell her blood, which helped calm him down.
“So,” she said, tilting her head to look at Katya, who was still standing tall over her sister’s body. “I guess we won?”
“We did,” Julius said. “Katya came in with the cavalry and took out Estella. One of her sisters is on her way now to help take care of you.”
“You mean like dragon healing magic?” Marci asked excitedly. “Cool! How does that work?”
Julius couldn’t help but grin at that. Leave it to Marci to be more excited about the magical part of her magical first aid than the actual aid. “You’ll have to ask her,” he said, nodding at Ysolde, who’d gotten her orders from Katya and was now walking toward them at a stately pace.
It didn’t seem possible, but Marci looked even more excited than before. “Eeeee! Is that one of the Daughters of the Three Sisters?! She looks like a freaking Valkyrie! This wastotallyworth getting smacked into a wall for!”
