He walked to the edge of the roof, green eyes gleaming as he stared at the floodlit fence in the distance. “I’ve been watching that border for three days now, tracking patrols and getting an idea of their security.” He reached into his pocket, pulling out a grubby piece of paper covered in numbers and notes. “I’ve almost got their whole system cracked. Once I know what to expect, I’m going in there to dig out whatever it is Algonquin’s hiding, and when I get it, I’m taking it straight back to Mother.”
He glanced back at Julius, his face flushed with anticipation. “Can you imagine a better prize? Thanks to me, Heartstriker will have information no other dragon in the world has access to. Even if we don’t use it ourselves, there are other clans with interests in the DFZ who’ll pay through the nose for even a hint at Algonquin’s long-term plans. That’spower, Julius, and once I present it to Mother, it won’t matter how much Chelsie gripes. She’llhaveto give me my sword back.” He smirked. “What do you think? Brilliant, huh?”
Julius could only stare in amazement. Honestly, it was a much better plan than he’d expected from Justin, who, though an excellently ruthless and aggressive dragon, had never been what you’d call tactical. He was on the nose about their mother’s reaction, too. Bethesda would go absolutelynutsif she got her hands on Algonquin’s secrets. But while Julius was quite impressed with his brother’s plan, there was one vitally important element Justin was overlooking.
“It’s a daring strategy,” he admitted. “But how are you going to do it? Even if you can sneak your way into Reclamation Land, it’s not like Algonquin’s going to let you have a look around and walk back out.”
“You’re assuming she’ll be able to catch me,” Justin said, lifting his chin. “I’m not exactly a soft target. Even if she did manage to corner me, I’m not afraid of Algonquin.”
Julius gaped at his brother in horror. “Are you out of yourmind?” he cried. “This isn’t some low-ranking dragon we’re talking about. This isAlgonquin, theLady of the Lakes! Spirits who used to be worshiped as gods come to the DFZ to work forher. And let’s not forget her private army that she uses to kill dragons, or the fact that she keeps a sea monster the size of a cruise ship for apet.Everyoneis afraid of Algonquin!”
“Exactly,” Justin growled. “And that’s the problem. Algonquin comes in, takes a city, declares her hatred for dragonkind, and every clan in the world freaks out, even ours. Why else do you think Chelsie was able to get away with taking my sword? It’s because they’re all scared witless of a stupid lake spirit, even Mother. But I’m different. I’m not afraid, because unlike the rest of you, I actually remember what it means to be a dragon. We’re the top of the pyramid, the biggest monsters on the board. We run from nothing.”
“You should run from this,” Julius cried, frustrated. “This isn’t some chest pounding competition, Justin! You could actually die here.”
“You say that like it’s a reason to quit,” his brother said with a sneer. “But that sort of defeatist attitude is exactly why you’re a failure, Julius.” He turned to glare at the fence again. “I’m actually hoping Algonquin sends her anti-dragon team after me, because then I’ll get to burn them all alive and prove that Chelsie was wrong when she snatched me out of the sky ‘for my safety.’ I’m going to show them all that I don’t need Bethesda’s Shade following me around like a nanny. I don’t need help from anyone, and when this is over, the whole clan will know it.”
He bared his teeth as he finished, but Julius just turned away, defeated. He’d rushed out here to stop his brother from doing something crazy in his despair over the loss of his sword. Now, he was wondering why he’d even thought that was an option. His insane brother wasn’t depressed without his sword. He was more reckless, pig-headed, and Justin-y than ever. Julius had a better chance of stopping a speeding freight train with his hands than of convincing his brother not to charge face-first into Algonquin, but that still didn’t mean he could leave Justin to his fate. No matter how crazy or aggressive he got, Julius owed Justin his life multiple times over, including for the incident last month that had started all of this in the first place. He had to do something, protect his brother somehow, and so, with all sensible paths blocked, Julius did what he always did when Justin needed to be corralled for his own good.
He changed the subject.
“I see you’ve really thought this through,” he said, lowering his eyes in a show of submission. “Unfortunately, we’ve got more immediate problems than Algonquin. Remember how I said I was at that party? Well, it didn’t go as planned. That’s why I came to find you, actually, because just a few hours ago, Estella of the Three Sisters declared war on our clan.”
Justin’s eyes went wide. “What?”
“Well, technically she offered us a mating flight,” Julius explained. “But everyone can see it’s a trap. Mother’s already preparing the others, but since I’m holding the life debt between our clans, and I obviously can’t protect myself against other dragons, she sent me to find you in the hopes you could watch over me.”
That was a whopper of a lie wrapped in several mostly truths, but it was also what Justin most wanted to hear. Julius had learned years ago that nothing got his brother moving like a mission that made him feel singled out and important, and it worked like a charm now. He could actually see Justin fighting to keep the smile off his face while he pretended to think it over.
“I’m not inclined to take a job without my sword,” he said at last. “But youarepretty pathetic when it comes to combat, so I guess I’ll do you a favor and keep you alive.”
A prouder, better dragon would have been insulted by that, but Julius had never been that dragon. His pride was a small, flexible thing, easily pushed aside for better causes, like getting his stupid brother off this roof.
“I’m happy you’ll be watching out for me,” he replied, shaking Justin’s hand. “For now, though, let’s go back to my house. It’s in the DFZ, but it’s pretty defensible, and we can order something that’s not pizza.”
Justin’s eyes lit up at the word defensible, and even more at the mention of food. “Let’s go then,” he said, hopping off the roof like the two-story drop was nothing.
Julius happily climbed down after him. Just getting his brother away from Algonquin’s fence helped assuage any lingering guilt Julius felt about his lie, and who knew? He might actually need Justin’s help before this Estella business was over. For now, though, he just wanted to get them both back to the house where, hopefully, Marci would be waiting for them.
That was a happy thought indeed, and Julius hopped the final few feet down to the ground, motioning for Justin to follow him back to the cab.
***
There must have been something in that bag.
Marci opened her eyes with a groan, followed by a self-recriminating curse. The last thing she remembered was getting caught off-guard in the parking deck like anidiot. But though she’d have sworn she’d only been out for a few seconds, it must have been much longer, because she was now in a completely new building, strapped to a metal chair in the center of a dirty cinderblock room with a reinforced door, a single bulb on a string above her head, and a metal drain set into the floor at her feet.
Bile rose in her throat. She’d seen these kinds of movies. Nothing good ever happened when you woke up in a room with a drain. Worse still, her bracelets were gone, as was her bag, the chalk in her jacket pocket, and the backup casting marker she kept inside her left boot. She couldn’t even reach Ghost, though whether that was because she was being blocked or he was just too sound asleep to answer, Marci had no idea.
Well, she thought bitterly, wiggling against her restraints, at least whoever had brought her here was taking her seriously. That was a small comfort after what’d happened with Bethesda, but Marci was still in a real bind. Now that her eyes were adjusting to the glare, she could see that the cinderblock walls of her cell weren’t actually dirty like she’d first assumed. They were written on.
Someone had covered the inside of the cell from floor to ceiling with line after line of spellwork. The painstaking black markings were clearly the work of a Thaumaturge—no Shaman would be so precise—but of a type Marci didn’t recognize. Her best guess was that it was one of the proprietary languages corp mages used to keep people from hacking their spells. Given how much spellwork was going on here, though, whatever this thing did had to be crazy complicated. She was trying to figure out which of the symbols were the variables when the door to her cell cracked open, and a small, middle-aged woman wearing the navy uniform of the Algonquin Corporate Security Forces slipped inside.
“What’s going on?” Marci demanded, sitting up as straight as she could. “This might be the DFZ, but I still have rights. This is an unwarranted arrest.”
She hadn’t really expected that to go anywhere. Sure enough, the other mage ignored her, pulling a penlight out her pocket, which she used to check Marci’s eyes.
Marci glared into the light. “I want a lawyer.”
