By this point, smoke was pouring out of Justin’s mouth. Amelia ignored it completely, turning instead to beckon Marci over.
“You stay here with your adorable brother and think about your poor life choices,” she said as the mage hurried to her side. “Meanwhile, Marci and I are going to go discuss my price for dispatching Vann Jeger in private. We should be back with your salvation in an hour or so.” She lifted her arm and smiled at Marci. “Shall we?”
If Marci had beamed at Amelia before, she was now looking at the dragon like Amelia was her own personal hero. She grabbed her offered arm, hefting the bag containing the still sleeping Ghost onto her shoulder as she waved goodbye to Julius and, more pointedly, to Justin. That only made the trapped dragon puff smoke harder, but it was all for nothing. Amelia and Marci were out the door, their footsteps hurrying down the stairs. But then, when they reached the first floor, the footfalls vanished. Marci’s scent vanished as well, leaving the house unmistakably empty. A few seconds later, the magic holding Justin vanished as well, dropping the dragon on the floor in a furious heap.
“Where is she?”
“I think they’re gone,” Julius said, already worried. He had no idea how a dragon and a mage could vanish instantly like that, but it couldn’t be good. But as much as he wanted to run down and check, he had to deal with his brother first, because Justin looked ready to burn the house to the ground. “Would you calm down?”
“Calm down?” Justin yelled. “Calm down?What is wrong with you?”
“What’s wrong withyou?” Julius cried. “Barging in here and threatening our sister when she’s just trying to—”
“If you say ‘help,’ I’m going to throw you out that window,” his brother snarled. “Amelia doesn’t help anyone but herself.”
“How is that different from every dragon?” Julius asked, shaking his head. “What’s your grudge against her, anyway? She’s been off this plane since before we were born.”
Justin drew himself to his full height. “Unlike you, I’m not ignored by everyone important. I’ve heard plenty about the Planeswalker. She’s a high-functioning alcoholic who’d sell out her own mother for an inch up the magical ladder.”
“Again,” Julius said. “How is that different from every dragon? Mother tried to sell me out just last month, in case you forgot.”
“Would you stop being bitter and listen?” Justin snapped. “Amelia isn’t like the rest of us. Even before she started spending all her time on the outer planes, she was weird. Plenty of dragons like having humans around, but Amelia’s a crazy cat lady, except replace ‘cats’ with ‘humans.’ Conrad told me once that she had a whole village of the bastards back in the old days, and now you’re trusting her with yours?”
“That’s just gossip,” Julius said, trying not to sound alarmed. “And anyway, this is Marci’s decision. She’s not an idiot, and her life’s the one on the line here. I trust her to take care of herself and make her own decisions.”
“Are you stupid?” Justin shouted, getting in his face. “She’syourhuman! If she’s making any decisions, it should be how best to serveyou!”
Julius stepped back. “What the—You’rethe one who told me I had to choose if she was my human or my friend!”
“I didn’t think you’d pickfriend!” Justin roared. “Seriously, who does that?” He looked away with a growl. “I swear, Julius, if I hadn’t hatched next to you, I wouldn’t believe we were the same species.”
Julius looked away as well. He was so tired of constantly coming up short in his brother’s estimation, especially when Justin was being such a stubborn, pig-headedidiot. “Well, it doesn’t matter now, anyway,” he said. “Marci will bring Amelia around because she’s brilliant like that, and then this’ll all be over.”
“Not happening,” Justin said. “Vann Jeger ismykill!”
“You mean your death,” Julius snapped, turning to face him head on. “I know you think you can beat everything, but it’s time to face the truth, Justin, and the truth is that if you go up against Vann Jeger, you willdie. Marci and I will probably die, too, and Algonquin will get a nice new set of dragon heads for her collection. Amelia might well be everything you say, but she’s also the only one of us who has a real chance against that monster. I understand you’re desperate to prove you’re hot stuff and get your sword back, but you’re going to have to find somewhere else to show off. I’m not letting you gamble all our lives for your stupid pride!”
He was yelling by the time he finished, and Justin’s eyes narrowed. “Big words from a whelp who can’t even swing a sword properly,” he growled. “But I don’t take orders from the Failure of the Heartstrikers. Iwillhave my fight, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me.”
He stalked closer with every word, his eyes gleaming a menacing green. Normally, that kind of pressure would have sent Julius scrambling back, but not today. There was too much at stake to back down now, and Julius was so, sosickof being pushed around.
“I don’t have to stop you,” he said, glaring up at the towering dragon. “Because you don’t know where it is.”
His brother arched a skeptical eyebrow, and Julius reached up to tap the side of his neck. “The fight location is marked on Marci’s tattoo, and since she’s not here, that means you have no idea where to go. I’m not telling you, either, because I don’t want you to die.”
Justin bared his teeth. “You can’t be—”
“I am,” Julius snarled. “I am deadly serious. You arenotgoing to the fight tonight, and if you try to crash it, the Planeswalker will just lock you down again. Either way, your life’s going to be saved whether you want it to be or not, so you might as well accept it.”
Justin’s answer to that was to blow a long, hot plume of smoke through his teeth, and for several terrified heartbeats, Julius was sure this was it. He’d finally pushed his brother too far, and now he was going to be burned to death. But just as he was preparing for the end, Justin turned away.
“You always were the master of hiding behind bigger dragons,” he said, resting Tyrfing on his bare shoulder. “But one day, Julius, you’re going to wake up and realize that there’s more to life than merely staying alive. I just hope, for your sake, that there’s something left worth conquering.”
“Not all of us want to conquer everything in our path,” Julius reminded him, but his brother was already stomping down the stairs. Seconds later, Julius’s bedroom door slammed so hard, several of Marci’s empty chalk boxes fell off the shelves. Julius picked them up again with a sigh, fighting the urge to go down and apologize. So what if Justin was mad? He had nothing to say sorry for. His brother would just have to deal with not committing suicide by Vann Jeger tonight.
But even as he told himself that he was right and Justin was being a stubborn idiot, the knotted feeling in his chest only got tighter. He wrote it off as being exhausted, starved, and magically drained. He just needed rest and food and maybe a do-over button for this whole horrible twenty-four hours. Since that last one was out of the question, he settled for going downstairs to raid the fridge, emptying the contents of every takeout box onto a single plate. He didn’t even bother warming it up, just shoveled the whole thing into his mouth as fast as possible before collapsing on the living room couch. Upstairs, he could hear his brother stomping around in his room, but Julius couldn’t deal with Justin anymore right now. He couldn’t deal with anything, so he turned over, shutting his eyes against the world as he willed himself into instant, exhausted, dreamless sleep.
Chapter 9
