As a small and unimportant cog in the Heartstriker machine, Julius had heard of his mother’s legendary ability to multitask, but this was the first time he’d witnessed it himself. At least now he understood how one dragon managed to keep a hold on so many plots, though it did make him wonder just how many other family members she’d had on hold all the times she’d called to threaten him.
Since Bethesda seemed to have temporarily forgotten he existed, Julius took the opportunity to message Marci, both to let her know he’d be gone for a while and to apologize for what had happened earlier. Seconds after he hit send, though, the text bounced back with an error message that the number he was trying to reach was not receiving calls. He tried again, just in case, but again, the text bounced back, making it clear this was not a technical failure. Marci’s phone was getting his messages just fine. She just didn’t want to talk. At least, not to him.
This realization sent Julius slumping down into the overstuffed leather sofa that passed for a rear seat on Bethesda’s mansion of a plane. Really, though, he had no one to blame for this situation but himself. He should have seen this coming, should have been prepared, butno. He’d stupidly let himself believe he was free, that a few weeks of no dragons somehow meant he’d escaped them forever. What a joke. His mother had swept into his house in the DFZ just as easily as she used to barge into his room back at Heartstriker Mountain. His victories last month might have won him a bit of leeway, but when push came to shove, nothing had really changed. He was still a pawn, a tool, and unless he was willing to stand up to Bethesda and challenge that (and accept the swift death that would follow), he might as well get used to it.
It shouldn’t have been hard. After all, until last month, his whole life had revolved around keeping his mouth shut, his head down, and his opinions to himself. But for a failure who’d had a sweet taste of freedom, going back was proving to be a surprisingly bitter pill to swallow. Fortunately for him, his survival instincts were picking up the slack, burying his simmering anger under a self-protective mask of meek submission as the plane began its final descent into the arid wastes of the New Mexico desert.
In hindsight, their destination should have been obvious. There was only one place in the world a dragon with as many enemies as Bethesda could safely attend a party, and that was in her own territory. But knowing they were going home only made Julius’s sense of impending doom worse, especially when Heartstriker Mountain itself came into view on the horizon.
Tall enough to blot out the setting sun, Bethesda’s fortress rose from the flat desert like a dragon fang. Once a petrified seabed, most of the natural rock had been dug out ages ago to make way for the numerous expansions needed to house a clan as large as Heartstriker. But while the base of the mountain looked like a military base with its air strip, helipad, and human town crouching in its shadow like a feudal village around a castle, the thorn-like peak was every inch the classic dragon mount with a rugged, natural surface and numerous dragon-sized caves open to the night air for easy landings. At the moment, it even had a full flight of rainbow-feathered serpents circling in the sky above it, their green eyes keeping constant watch on the surrounding desert. Julius was pressing his face against the window to try and see who was on patrol when his mother abruptly hung up all her calls and turned her own green gaze on him.
“I expect you to be on your absolute best behavior,” she said, tapping her nails on the leather arm of her massive, throne-like chair. “It’s not often a dragon like you gets to mix with a crowd like this. Fortunately, tonight should be a very simple visit for you. Just keep your mouth shut and try not to look so nice.”
Julius glanced down at the shabby clothes she hadn’t given him a chance to change out of. “But you said—
“Notthat,” Bethesda snapped irritably. “This.” She smiled wide, her eyes growing distant and happy in a way that made her look totally different, almost kind, before her face went back to its usual cruel, dangerous beauty. “Nice.”
“Got it,” Julius said with a sigh.
“Good,” she said, pulling a compact mirror out of her gold-beaded clutch purse to check her still flawless makeup. “If things go the way I expect, I won’t even need you, but you can still mess things up if you act too Julius-y, so don’t.”
“I’ll do my best,” he promised. “Though it’d probably be easier if you just told me what I’m not supposed to act like myselffor.”
His mother flashed him a knife-sharp glare. “Don’t get cute. You might have wiggled your way off my To Kill list for the time being, but that can change at a moment’s notice.”
He dropped his head at once. “Yes, Mother.”
“That’s better,” Bethesda said, closing her mirror with a snap. “And, as you’d already know if you paidanyattention to current events, tonight’s the night we cement our new friendly relations with the Daughters of the Three Sisters.”
Julius nearly choked. He managed to hide it under a cough at his mother’s dirty look, but still…friendly relations? With theDaughters of the Three Sisters?
That couldn’t be right. The Three Sisters had been their clan’s greatest enemies since forever. Estella had been openly trying to murder them all just last month. He’d heard from Katya that Ian and Svena were doing well, but there was no way a few weeks of progress could overturn centuries of hatred.
“I can hear you thinking,” his mother said, her voice a teasing sing-song. “Have you finally figured out why you’re here, then?”
He flinched at being put on the spot, and Bethesda rolled her eyes. “Comeon, Julius,” she said, snapping her fingers impatiently in front of his face. “For all your other failings, you’ve never been stupid. Do you think I brought you along tonight for the pleasure of your company?”
“No,” he started. “But—”
“Then use your brain,” she growled. “Why would I burden myself with you? What is theone thingyou have that I could possibly want?”
By the time she finished, Julius was sweating bullets. Fortunately, when she put it like that, the answer was pretty obvious. “Katya of the Three Sisters owes me a life debt?”
Bethesda smiled, making his chest heave in relief. “See?” she said. “Was that so hard?” She leaned back in her throne-like lounge, smiling out the port-hole window at the setting sun. “This is the night of our victory, Julius. With the Northern Star run off to lick her wounds in another plane of existence and the Three Old Hags still asleep, we’ve never had a better chance to bring the remaining ice snakes to heel. Svena and her baby sister have already been invited. All you have to do is stand around and be a reminder of what they owe us.”
She said this like she was doing him a favor, but his mother’s words left a sinking feeling in Julius’s stomach. He had no idea how she was actually planning to leverage Katya’s life debt, but he didn’t like the idea one bit. He doubted Katya would return the sentiment, but in his mind at least, she was his friend, and friends didn’t use each other. Not that Bethesda would care. She’d just ripped Julius out of his home and walked all over his mage just so he could serve as a sign post. Fortunately for him, his mother seemed to be overlooking a vital point.
“You’ve invited them,” he said nervously. “But will they accept? The Three Sisters have hated us since before the Heartstrikers were a clan. I know we’ve got a life debt now, and I’m sure Ian’s been working on her, but I can’t imagine Svena would be trusting enough to accept a party invitation from her ancient enemy at our home fortress?”
“Of course she’s not,” Bethesda said sweetly. “That’s why I made sure the invitations she and Katya received came fromyou.”
Julius blinked. “Me?”
His mother grinned wide, showing a line of sharp, blindingly white teeth. “Brilliant, isn’t it? The White Witch has always been a suspicious snake. She’d never accept an invitation from me, but who could suspect our very own Nice Dragon of laying traps?” She chuckled. “Of course, once they accepted, I had to go out of my way to make sure you’d actuallybehere, but that’s a minor inconvenience. Putting up with you for a few hours is a small price to pay for such a victory, don’t you think?”
The plane touched down as she finished, letting Julius hide his horror under the guise of bracing against the landing bump. If he hadn’t been so terrified for them, he would have been flattered that Svena and Katya trusted him enough to be lured into something like this. But while part of him couldn’t believe his mother would use his good name like that, the rest of him wondered why he was surprised by anything his mother did anymore. Bethesda had never met a circumstance she couldn’t exploit to her advantage, and now she’d pulled him into it, too.
Just the thought made him sick. He spent the rest of the landing desperately trying to think of some way he could warn Katya and her sister without it being blatant treason against his clan. He was still working on it when the plane finally rolled to a stop, and his mother rose gracefully to her feet.
