“Okay,” she blurted out, opening her eyes. “I give up. I’ll give you what you want, just get that thing away from me.”
Vann Jeger looked deeply skeptical, but he backed the sword up until it was no longer touching her skin. “You will tell me where to find the dragon?”
“I wasn’t lying before,” she reminded him. “I really don’t know where he is.” At least, not right now, anyway.
The spirit scowled. “But you know how to contact him?”
“I do,” she said reluctantly. “But it won’t work. Dragons like the one who burned up the Pit aren’t exactly the come-when-you-call type.”
Again, she held Justin’s face in her mind as she spoke. Thankfully, Vann Jeger seemed too happy to be finally getting some progress to notice her side-stepping.
“Dragons who keep mortals often prize them,” he said, eying her thoughtfully. “Doubly so for mages. What if we cut something off and let him hear your screams? Would that bring him running?”
Marci winced, curling her fingers protectively into fists. Screams of pain would get Julius for sure, but technically they were still talking about Justin here, and thinking back to some of the horrible things he’d said the last time they were together, it wasn’t too hard for Marci to think the worst of Mr. Angry Dragon.
“No,” she said. “If I called him in pain, he wouldn’t come. To him, I’m just a human, which ranks slightly below a dog. Plus, even if I could somehow convince him to walk into a trap, this dragon has the most amazing sense of smell you’ve ever encountered. He’ll pick up anything you lay down from a mile away and abandon me without a second look back, so if you were hoping to use me as bait, you’re in for a major let-down.”
Vann Jeger bared his yellow teeth in a snarl. “Do not presume to tell me how to conduct my hunt.”
“I’m sure you know all about how to hunt dragons,” Marci said quickly. “But I know best how to handlemydragon. I’m not saying I won’t help you nab him, I’m just saying we’re going to have to be really extra careful about it.”
The hunter sneered. “And why is that?”
“Because he’sbig,for one,” Marci said, remembering Justin’s forty-foot body lit up with green fire in the blackness above the Pit. “This isn’t some urbane, boardroom dragon we’re talking about. He’s huge, powerful, bad-tempered, and fast with his fire. You have no idea the collateral damage he could cause if you piss him off in the wrong setting. He wouldn’t think twice about bringing down a skyway or two if he thought it would help him win.”
All of these things were absolutely true about Justin, and they flowed easily past the truth teller, causing Vann Jeger to look at her with a new eye. “Very well,” he said grudgingly. “How would you suggest we trap the beast?”
Marci swallowed, heart hammering. Here went nothing.
“Let me go,” she said. “Give me a few weeks to wiggle back into the dragon’s good graces, and I’ll come up with a tale that will convince him to come with me to the location of your choice. All you have to do is give me a place and a time and I’ll get him there, and then you can hunt him to your heart’s content.”
“Absurd,” Vann Jeger growled. “You want weeks to lure a dragon I’m already closing in on?”
“But you’renot,” Marci said. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. You might have caught me, but my dragon’s dug in deep. I don’t even know if he’s in the DFZ anymore. But if you’ll just give me some time, I guarantee I can get you his head on a platter.”
“What assurance do I have that you will not warn the dragon and flee?” the spirit asked, his black eyes narrowing. “You are beholden to a dragon and bargaining for your life. Your word is worthless.”
“Not dying seems like a pretty strong incentive to me,” she said. “Though if you wanted something more concrete, I could—”
Her voice turned into a gasp as the spirit pressed his sword back into her neck. “What if I kill you now?” he asked, calm as ever. “He might not respond to your pain, but all dragons are possessive. If he’s as reckless as you claim, it shouldn’t be too hard to draw him into a confrontation by killing his property.”
“Maybe,” Marci croaked. “But there’s only one of me. Like you said before, if you kill me now, it’s over. Do you really want to cut off your options so early in the game?”
Vann Jeger shrugged. “It’s a calculated risk. You might be in earnest now, but human minds change with the wind. If I let you go, I might not get a chance like this again.”
Marci looked him straight in the eyes. “What if I made sure you did?”
The spirit arched a green eyebrow. “Explain.”
“Your mage,” she said, glancing pointedly at the human woman who’d activated the truth teller spell. “She’s police trained, right? That means she knows binding curses.”
The mage cast a worried glance at Vann Jeger. When he nodded, she said, “Yes.”
“Well, there you go,” Marci said, smiling wide. “If you’re so worried I’m going to double-cross you and run away with the dragon before you can catch him, then I invite you to curse me. A good binding curse will lock me inside the DFZ for a year at least. That way, if I don’t deliver, all you have to do is hunt me down again and we’ll be right back where we started.”
She had lots more things to add about how this was a no-lose scenario and he’d be a fool not to take it, but Marci forced herself to stop there. If she looked too eager to get cursed, she’d tip her hand, and that would ruin everything. Vann Jeger might have a formal file on her, but what he probably didn’t know was that before she’d come to the DFZ, Marci and her father had been professional cursebreakers. Even a police-grade binding curse was little more than the magical equivalent of a car boot for her. She’d have that sucker cracked in thirty minutes, tops, and then all she had to do was find Julius and get the two of them out of town.
Just the thought of her upcoming clean escape was enough to make Marci grin, but she didn’t dare crack even a hint of a smile. If Vann Jeger suspected anything, this whole plan could blow up in her face. Instead, she focused on looking nervous, not exactly a challenge in the current situation, and waited, staring at the dragon hunter until, at last, he nodded.
