“I’ll do much worse than that,” their mother said. “When I get free—”
“Shut up!” Chelsie snarled, turning back to Julius. “If you won’t kill her, I will.”
“You can’t,” Conrad said calmly. “You are bound.”
Chelsie clutched her sword. “I can stilltry.”
“No,” Julius said, grabbing his sister’s arm. “No one is killing her, because no matter how horrible she’s been or what she’s done, she’sstill our mother,and if you keep going, you’re acting just like her.”
Thatgot Chelsie’s attention. She stopped cold, and Julius saw his chance. “Don’t you see what’s happening here?” he said, letting her go. “We’re just repeating the same mistakes over and over again. We act like violence and ruthlessness are the only tools we have, but that’s just not true.”
He pointed down the stairs where the white dragons were waiting silently, not even pretending like they weren’t listening. “Look at me and Katya. She, a daughter of our oldest enemies, came to help us tonight because she loved her sister and because she was my friend. If you listen toher,” he pointed back at Bethesda, “she’d call that weakness, but anyone with eyes can see it’s not weakness at all. All you need are muscles to swing a sword, but it takesactualcourage to lower your weapon and hold out your hand in friendship.”
His sister rolled her eyes. “So we should forgive and forget? Cuddle up to Mommy until she stabs us in the back again?”
Julius shook his head. “Just because I don’t want to kill her doesn’t mean I want to keep her as my clan head.”
“So you’re saying we should dethrone her and make Amelia the Heartstriker?” Conrad said. “Sounds good to me. I’ve been saying as much for years.”
“And you can keep saying it,” Amelia said, crossing her arms over her chest. “I refuse. I’m not touching this crazy bin with a ten-foot pole. Go find another chump.”
Conrad opened his mouth to argue, but Julius beat him to it. “That’s not what I’m saying at all.”
All the dragons looked at him, and he bit his lip, trying to think of how best to explain this. “The Heartstrikers are one of the most hated clans in the world,” he said at last. “Mother claims that’s because we’re strong and the other clans envy us, but she’s wrong. We have enemies becauseshemade them, and ifwe’re strong, it’s in spite of that. But has it ever occurred to any of you how much stronger we could be if we stopped making enemies and started making alliances?”
“Impossible,” Chelsie scoffed. “No one would respect a clan head who did nothing but roll over.”
“Working together isn’t the same as rolling over,” Julius reminded her. “But you’re partially right. The other clanswouldn’trespect a dragon who didn’t follow the apex predator script. But if we changed the game on them entirely? What if we didn’t have a clan head at all?”
Now the others just looked confused. “How wouldthatwork?” Justin growled.
“Pretty well, I bet,” Julius said. “Think about it. What if, instead of a single-dragon dictatorship, we actually talked about whatwewant this clan to be and thenworked togetherto get there?”
He finished with a hopeful smile, but his siblings were staring at him like he’d just suggested they adopt the tutu as their clan uniform.
“Julius,” Amelia said at last. “Have youmetour siblings? ‘Working together’ isn’t part of their vocabulary.”
“Amelia’s right,” Chelsie said. “Without a bigger dragon keeping them in line, Heartstriker would tear itself apart.”
“Maybe as we are,” Julius said firmly. “But that’s because, as things stand now, the only way up the ladder is through another dragon. That kind of violence and infighting is inherently wasteful, and if there’s anything ambitious dragons love, it’s a better way to get to the top. I’m not saying it would be easy, but if we came up with a new clan structure, something that let all of us pool our efforts and resources together instead of wasting them on cutting each other down, I think you’d be surprised how fast Heartstriker would come around. I mean, we’re already the biggest dragon clan in recorded history. If we stopped fighting for a clan head’s favor and put all that energy toward actually getting what we want instead, we could rule the world.”
Julius wasn’t actually terribly interested in ruling the world, but he knew the idea would appeal to everyone else. And so far, it seemed to be working. Justin certainly seemed to like the idea of Heartstriker ruling the world, and even Chelsie didn’t look as blatantly skeptical anymore. “Ifwe agreed to this nonsense,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest. “How would it work? If a clan doesn’t have a head, how does it even run?”
“We could form a council,” Julius said. “Humans do it all the time. It might not be as efficient as a clan head, but if we had a group that we could elect and replace, we’d at least guarantee that Heartstriker is run according to whatweactually want instead of according to the whims of a single dragon.”
“How very egalitarian of you,” Amelia said. “But seriously, have you ever tried to get a group of dragons to come to a consensus? I’d call it herding cats, but cats usually don’t try to kill you when they don’t get their way.”
“It can’t be any worse than being used as pawns by our mother,” Julius countered. “At least with a council, if someone wants to throw one of us away for power, there’ll have to be a discussion about it, first. That’s miles better than what we’ve got now, so why not try? Unlessyouwant to be Heartstriker.”
Amelia grimaced. “Point taken.”
“Well, I think it’s a stupid idea,” Justin said, crossing his arms over his chest. “We’d be the only clan in the world without a clan head. Any proper dragon family would see us as a bunch of leaderless animals wasting time before we collapse into anarchy. We’d never be taken seriously again. Why, without Bethesda, we wouldn’t even be Heartstrikers.”
Bethesda flashed her favorite son a warm smile, but Julius refused to back down. “So long as this is our clan, we’ll always be Heartstrikers,” he said. “And if the others don’t take us seriously at first, they’ll learn to when they realize that we’renotleaderless. We’re an entire clan acting together as one. That’s way more powerful than any single dragon could ever be, and if there’s anything the dragon clans respect, it’s power. That said, though, I actually think that Bethesda should be the first member of our council.”
“Doesn’t that defeat the purpose?” Chelsie growled.
“Just the opposite,” Julius said. “Having a powerful, established dragon like her on board would give our new council legitimacy. Besides, Justin’s right. Sheisthe Heartstriker, and while I don’t want her ruling me with an iron claw anymore, I do think she deserves a seat at the table in deciding the fate of her own clan.”
