Marci sighed. “Then I can’t do it.”
Amelia’s smile faded. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I couldn’t have heard that right. There is no way a smart woman like yourself would possibly turn down infinite power for aboy.”
“That’s because I’m not turning it down for a boy,” Marci said, glaring. “I’m turning it down for a friend. You claim you’re offering me power, but not being allowed to stand by a friend when he needs you sounds a lot like being powerless to me, and I don’t do that.”
As she spoke, Amelia’s friendly expression fell away until, by the end, she looked every bit as haughty and dreadful as her mother. “Aren’t you forgetting something, mortal?” she growled. “I am youronlyhope. If I don’t defeat Vann Jeger, you and yourfriendwill die. Is that how you show your loyalty to your dragon? Condemning him to death?”
“Julius isn’t my dragon,” Marci said, pulling herself straight. “He’s my partner, and he would never want me to be become a slave for his sake.”
“I keep telling you,” Amelia snapped. “You’re not a slave. You’re a treasure.”
“Same difference,” Marci said proudly. “But I’m not any of those things. I’m a person. Just because mortal lives are short doesn’t mean they’re cheap, or that they aren’t our own. If you can’t see that, then you’re no better than Bethesda.”
That insult must have hit harder than she’d intended, because Amelia recoiled like she’d been struck. “I amnothinglike her!”
“Then prove it,” Marci said, seizing the opportunity with both hands. “Kill Vann Jeger and save us anyway. Once I’m free, I’ll come work for you of my own accord. I’ll gladly share everything I learn, anything you want, but I willnotbe a possession, treasured or otherwise, and I willnotturn my back on the one dragon who actually treats me like an equal.”
“Arrogant mortal,” Amelia snarled. “Normally, I like that, but you go too far. You claim friendship with a dragon, but when you go back to your precious Julius empty-handed, you’ll see he’s no different than the rest of us. He can’t save you. He can’t even save himself. I am holding every card. You have nothing to bargain with.”
“And I respect you for that,” Marci said, lifting her chin high. “I’m a firm believer that when you do the work to get someone over a barrel, it’s your right to shake them as hard as possible, but that’s not what’s happening here. In a negotiation, the person who can walk away is the one with the power, and that’s me.”
“You mean walk to your death,” Amelia scoffed. “You know as well as I do that it’s impossible for you and that whelp to defeat Algonquin’s Hunter on your own.”
“I’m a mage,” Marci said haughtily, clinging to her pride like a shipwrecked sailor would cling to a rock in a stormy sea. “Doing the impossible is my vocation. But you’re the one who messed up, Amelia.”
“Really?” the dragon drawled, her brown eyes narrowing to slits. “And how do you figure that?”
Marci breathed deep. Here went nothing. “Because you let me know how badly you want Ghost. That meansI’mholding the cards, and if you don’t want the human attached to the world’s first Mortal Spirit to end up as a notch on Vann Jeger’s spear, you’d better come up with a new offer.”
Amelia’s jaw dropped. “Damn,” she whispered, shaking her head. “That wasgood. You turned my own threats back on me. I’m… actually very impressed.”
“I’ve had a bit of experience with dragons,” Marci said smugly. “So if you’re looking for a pushover slave, I suggest you find another human.”
“You are utterlywastedon Julius,” Amelia said, breaking into a grin. “Fine, you win. I can’t let a chance like you die. I’ll kill Vann Jeger, and then we’ll renegotiate, because I amnotgiving—”
She froze mid-word, her whole body going still. If she’d been a cat, her ears would have been swiveling. Marci was about to ask what was wrong when Amelia suddenly leapt at her, tackling her to the ground just in time as a spear of ice blasted through the storage unit’s flimsy door.
Chapter 10
Marci didn’t even get a chance to scream. She was too busy protecting her face, hiding behind the shelter of Amelia’s arms as the hail of metal scraps and broken ice landed around them. As soon as she was sure she wasn’t going to lose anything vital, she wiggled out of the dragon’s grasp and scrambled to her feet, sucking magic out of the air and into her bracelets as she turned to help Amelia face… whatever it was that had just happened. When she saw what was waiting, though, Marci’s hopes of being useful vanished like frost in the sun.
Two tall, blond women were standing in the blasted-out shell of what had once been the storage unit’s metal door. Marci recognized the one on the left immediately, but the one on the right was new, though she didn’t doubt for a second that they were both dragons. Nothing human could be that beautiful, or that scary. Unfortunately, Svena didn’t seem to recognize her at all. Her pale blue eyes were locked on Amelia, who’d already rolled back up to her feet. But even though the blast of ice had clearly been Svena’s doing, she didn’t attack again. Instead, she moved back, clearing the path for the unknown dragoness, the one with hair like snow and a smile like a razor, to step forward.
“Estella.”
Marci flinched. In hindsight, she supposed it should have been obvious. But scary as it was to be within reach of the seer whose plans she, Julius, and Justin had ruined just last month, Amelia’s reaction was what really petrified her. Even when Justin had been roaring and breathing fire, Marci had never heard anything as predatory or draconic as that growled name.
“Let me guess,” Amelia said, moving to stand between the new dragons and Marci. “You foresaw your own death today, so you came here to make sure it was quick. That’s the only logical reason I can think of for why you’d approach me.”
“I did, in fact, foresee a death today,” Estella replied with a coy smile. “But it wasn’t mine.” She tilted her head toward Svena behind her. “It seems you and my sister have unfinished business, Planeswalker.”
“Really?” Amelia drawled. “That’s funny, because I thought our business wasquitefinished. As I recall, the last time we met, the White Witch ended up swimming for her life because I burned off both her wings.”
She glared at Svena as she said this, clearly daring her to reply, but the dragoness said nothing. She just stood there, staring at Amelia with oddly detached hatred, like her face had been frozen that way. If her silence was supposed to be a scare tactic, though, it was working. Even Amelia looked taken aback before she turned away with a huff.
“I don’t have time for this,” she grumbled, stepping back through her portal to the beach. “If you want a beating so badly, follow me and let’s get it over with. I have bigger fish to fry today.”
Still silent, Svena stalked after her. Marci, however, could not believe what she was seeing. “You’re going to fight themnow?” she cried, running as close as she dared to the portal’s edge. “But—”
