“Leaving?” Julius choked out. “But what about Amelia?”
“I’ll find somewhere else for her,” his sister snapped. “Butyouare going back to the mountain. Right now.”
“What?” he cried. “No!I can’t go home. Weren’t you listening? If I don’t show up, Marci willdie.”
“All mortals die,” Chelsie said. “It’s time you accepted that.”
Behind them, Julius was aware of Marci going very still. She didn’t make a sound, but it didn’t matter. He could smell her fear like acid in the air, and it sent his fists clenching as he said, “No.”
Chelsie froze. “Excuse me?”
“No,” he said again, forcing himself to stand straight and meet her glare. “It’s my fault Vann Jeger put that mark on her neck, and I’m not leaving her to deal with it alone. I’m not leaving her to die.”
“You say that like you have a choice,” Chelsie sneered. “But you havenothing. No chance, no hope. What do you think is going to happen when you face Vann Jeger?”
It took Julius several seconds to realize that question wasn’t rhetorical. “I know the odds aren’t good, but—”
“Aren’t good? Vann Jeger is the Death of Dragons. Hunting and slaughtering our kind is his crusade. A monster like him would be a tough fight even for Amelia. You don’t have a prayer.”
“But we don’thaveto beat him,” Julius explained. “The curse just requires her to show up with a dragon.”
Chelsie rolled her eyes. “And what? You think you’ll just waltz in, punch your ticket, and go?”
Julius fought the urge to growl. In the end, though, Chelsie didn’t even give him a chance.
“If you get within striking distance of Vann Jeger, you will die,” she said sternly. “Both of you. But while you seem to be content to let your mortal do whatever she likes,yourlife belongs to Heartstriker. As clan enforcer, that makes it my responsibility, and I’m not about to let you throw it away on doomed, childish heroics.”
He grit his teeth in frustration. “It’s not like that. I—”
Chelsie drew her sword faster than he could blink. One moment, the Fang was sheathed on her hip, the next, the bone-colored blade was pressing against the soft skin of his throat. “Pack,” she ordered. “Now.”
And just like that, something in Julius snapped. He hadn’t even known he was so close to the edge until the whisper of a blade at his neck pushed him right over. “Or what?” he growled.
“I think that’s pretty obvious,” Chelsie growled back, nudging the blade a little closer.
“Then do it,” Julius said, lifting his chin to give her a better opening. “Cut my head off.”
Chelsie’s eyes narrowed. “You can’t bluff me, so don’t even try. This is not open to debate. You’re going back to the mountain. The only choice you have left is whether you do it intact or in pieces.”
“Are you even listening to yourself?” Julius cried. “You’re threatening tokill meif I don’t let you save my life. Do you have any idea how ridiculous that is?”
“Maybe,” Chelsie snarled. “But I wouldn’thaveto do it if you weren’t determined to be such a suicidalidiot.”
He’d said almost the exact same thing to Justin not an hour ago. Now though, Julius was finally beginning to understand his brother a little. There was no question that Chelsie was right. Hewasutterly outclassed, and he was being suicidally stupid to keep resisting her attempts to save his life. Even now, every survival instinct he had was screaming at him to stop being a moron and just do what she said, but Julius didn’t move. He couldn’t, because after a lifetime spent running from the terrifying monsters he called family, Julius had finally found something bigger than fear. He was still terrified, probably always would be, but it didn’t matter anymore. Even death paled in comparison to the thought of an immortality spent knowing that he was the reason Marci had died, and that he’d left her to do it alone.
“I’m not going,” he said again, fisting his hands at his sides to keep them from trembling. “I know you’re strong enough to make me, but I’ll fight you every step of the way. That’s my choice, but you still have yours. You can take me back to the mountain in pieces, or let me stay here and guard Amelia for you as long as I can.”
His whole body was pounding in time with his heart by the time he finished, but Chelsie didn’t even blink. She just stood there with her weapon pressed against his neck, and the longer she waited, the more Julius was convinced that this was it. He’d called Chelsie out, and now she was going to kill him. But just as he was making his final peace with death, Chelsie lowered her sword with a curse.
“Of all the times for you to grow a spine,” she grumbled, shoving the blade back into its sheath. “Fine. I’m only doing this because I care more about Amelia than I do about you. Stay here and die if that’s what you want, but from this point on, everything that happens is on your head. No more last second saves. Understood?”
Julius nodded.
She nodded back. “Now, where’s your idiot brother?”
He blinked. “Sorry?”
“Where’s Justin?” she growled. “I let you go after him at the party because I thought you were the sensible one, but apparently suicidal tendencies are a trait of J clutch. You’ve already gotten away with it, but I’m not about to let Justin run around loose in Algonquin’s city with all of this going on. I’m taking him home immediately, so where is he?”
