That was a far more sensible plan than Julius had expected from his mother, but there was still one problem. “You can’t just tell everyone about the open Council seat and then have the vote immediately,” he said. “What if someone wants to run against David?”
Bethesda shrugged. “Not my problem.”
“Yes, your problem,” Julius snapped. “The entire point of this Council is to let Heartstrikers choose who we want to lead us. That can’t happen if you’re just appointing people.”
“Oh, Julius,” Bethesda drawled. “You say that like I should care. But this is your dream, not mine. The only reason I’m playing along at all is because I’d rather have a little power than none. If you wanted all these lofty ideals, you should have been here fighting for them, not gallivanting around with your little mortal girlfriend. Butno.You were off playing whileIwas runningmyclan.”
“I wasn’t here because we had a meeting this morning,” he growled, trying his best to stay calm. “And you shouldn’t have been doing anything withourclan to begin with. Not without informing me first.”
“Like you know anything about what it means to be the Heartstriker,” his mother scoffed. “I bet you don’t even know how many dragons we have.”
He couldn’t answer that, and Bethesda smiled cruelly. “Thought so.”
Julius clenched his fists. Ten minutes into their first meeting, and things were already spinning out of his control. But it was always this way. Even now that they were technically equals, talking to his mother still made him feel like a hunted animal. But while Julius wanted nothing more than to turn around and walk out, he didn’t have the luxury of running this time. This Council was the culmination of everything he’d fought for. It was the chance at a better future he’d made everyone suffer to create, especially Marci, and Julius would keep his mother from riding roughshod over it if it was the very last thing he did. He was about to tell her as much when David cleared his throat.
“Though she’s wrong in her motives, Mother does have a point,” he said in a politic voice. “I would love nothing more than to give all of Heartstriker a chance to properly consider their options, but we simply don’t have the time. By her contract of surrender, Bethesda’s power as the Heartstriker is now divided evenly among the three Council members. Unfortunately, this means that, until that final seat is filled and the Heartstriker Council is complete, we can’t make any clan decisions. That’s a dangerous liability on a good day, but with Algonquin’s declaration of war last night, it could be a catastrophic one.”
David leaned forward in his chair, looking at Julius with an earnestness that was almost sincere. “As the dragons of the Americas, the Heartstriker clan is Algonquin’s closest target. We are also, thanks to you, in complete disarray. That’s a deadly combination, Julius. Now more than ever, we can not afford to appear weak or indecisive. Wemustfill the final seat as soon as possible, before Algonquin realizes just how wounded we are.”
He finished with a winning smile, and for a treacherous second, Julius was almost swayed. The only thing that saved him was the fact that he’d been hiding from dragons like David his whole life, which meant he’d seen this game enough to know when it was being played on him. “I see,” he said. “So it’s just convenient that, since you’re the only one who knows there will be elections, you just happen to be the only one prepared to win them.”
“Any good statesman protects to his advantage,” David said with a shrug. “But just because it benefits me doesn’t mean a quick election isn’t also what’s best for the clan. With my connections in the American government, our newly formed Council will be a strong wall against Algonquin’s inevitable encroachment. Honestly, I really don’t see how we could do better, unless you have another Heartstriker in mind?”
“I don’t,” Julius admitted. “Honestly, you probably would be very good for the job, but that’s not the point. This is supposed to be a fair election, and that implies having more than one candidate. I understand that Algonquin is a serious threat, but I didn’t do this so dragons like you could crowbar your way into power.”
“Then perhaps you don’t understand just howserious a threat Algonquin is,” David said, his voice growing cold. “Mother?”
Bethesda snapped her fingers, and Chelsie stepped out of the shadows, making Julius jump.
In hindsight, he supposed he should have expected it. Chelsie was never far when Bethesda was involved, and she never entered a room normally. But while the clan enforcer’s presence should have been a given, the bloody bandages covering her left arm and torso were not.
“What happened?” he cried, looking her up and down. “You weren’t hurt last night!”
“Of course not,” Bethesda said. “She was fighting you, and all you do is run. These are from the job I sent her on this morning.”
“And why was she on ajob?” Julius demanded. Last he’d heard, Chelsie had been sleeping off the effects of Estella’s chains.
“Because I sent her on one,” Bethesda said, flashing him a smile so sweet, it made his stomach curdle. “Really, Julius, I’d think you’d be happy. Thanks to my quick thinking, Chelsie was able to get a look around inside the DFZ before Algonquin’s defenses went up.”
“You sent her to theDFZ?” he said, unable to believe his ears. “But she just got out from under the chains.” He squinted at the bandages again. “Are those bullet wounds?”
“Anti-dragon rounds,” Chelsie said, nodding. “Algonquin was prepared.”
By this point, Julius was so angry he didn’t know what to do with it all. His mother, on the other hand, looked smugger than ever. “Just because you coerced me into this Council nonsense doesn’t mean you geteverything,” she said, reaching up to pet Chelsie’s short-cropped black hair. “The clan might be yours, but Chelsie is mine. Myshade, my spy, mine to do with as I please, always and forever.”
Chelsie dropped her eyes as she said this, staring at the floor. Julius did as well, but for a completely different reason. How could he have been so stupid? He’d assumed they’d taken everything from Bethesda when they’d removed her as clan head, but he’d completely forgotten about Chelsie. Given how no one seemed to want to talk about why Bethesda’s control over Chelsie was special, the oversight might have been excusable until you remembered that Chelsie herself had said she couldn’t take the Fang’s seat on the Council because she’d just be giving their mother another vote. He should have realized the truth then and made Bob rewrite the contract to remove Bethesda’s control from Chelsie as well, but he hadn’t even thought about it.Stupid.
Before he could think of how to even start making this right, though, his sister shook her head. “Your face always was transparent,” she said grimly, meeting his eyes at last. “I know what you’re thinking, Julius, but it doesn’t matter. My duty to Bethesda is a private matter. It’s not something you can sign away with a contract.”
He shook his head. “But—”
“Let it go,” she growled. “Now do you want to hear what’s going on inside the DFZ or not?”
Julius didn’t know what else to say, so he shut his mouth and nodded. Once Bethesda had nodded as well, Chelsie began her report.
“Algonquin’s got her city locked up tight. Her mages were out all night putting up wards on the borders while her anti-dragon task force did sweeps inside the city itself.”
The way she said that made Julius’s blood run cold. “How bad was it?”
