Julius slumped into her, happily pressing his body into hers. He was so relieved he could have laughed, but doing so would have meant stopping his kiss with Marci, and now that he knew she was okay with it, he wasn’t doing that again for anything. Just like the night in the hotel, she was warm and soft in his arms, only now it was even better, because she wasn’t kissing him out of obligation or gratitude. She was kissing him because she wanted to. Because she wantedhim.
Just thinking about that made him feel like he was flying. The fear, the heavy magic, the constant sense of impending doom, it was all gone. It was like he’d closed a door on everything that wasn’t Marci in his arms right now, which was why he didn’t notice his sister standing directly beside them until she cleared her throat.
It was a sign of just how giddy he was that Julius actually considered ignoring her. Fortunately for everyone, Marci’s survival instincts were still functioning. It only took her a handful of seconds before she untangled herself, her face flushed but completely unrepentant as she turned to look at Chelsie, who was watching the two of them with a thoroughly unamused expression.
“Ifyou’re finished,” she said, looking pointedly at the setting sun. “It’s time.”
Julius was not finished. He didn’t think he’deverbe finished, but Chelsie was right. The edge of the sun was now undeniably touching the horizon, which meant Vann Jeger was due to arrive any second. But even with the Death of Dragons incoming, Julius couldn’t let Marci go before he explained himself.
“Listen,” he said, turning his back to Chelsie so he could pretend he wasn’t saying this in front of his sister. “I—”
The word was barely out of his mouth when something icy touched his foot. He looked down in surprise, expecting Ghost, but it wasn’t the spirit. Or, at least, it wasn’t Marci’s spirit.
Water was rising from the grass at their feet. It seeped up through the dirt like a welling spring, rapidly turning the hard, dry ground to sludge. Unlike a natural spring, though, this water reeked of salt and dragon blood, pushing back even the oppressive, wild stench of the Reclamation Land magic as it rushed over the empty roads and fields of the DFZ side of the border.
“Crap,” Marci whispered, her face turning serious as she splashed back to her thankfully—and, in hindsight,brilliantly—waterproofed spellwork. “Battle stations.”
“No, wait,” Julius said, running after her. “I might not get another chance to—”
“You will,” she said, whirling back around to face him. “Because we’re going to win this. After that, we’ll pick up where we left off, but right now you have to stop being sweet and go be a terrible and ruthless dragon or the whole gig is up.”
She was right. Heknewshe was right, but—
“Listen to me, Julius,” Marci said fiercely, cutting him off before he could say another word. “Do you have any idea how long I’ve wanted you to kiss me? There is no way on Earth I am dying after that, so go do your part.” She broke into a giddy grin. “The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can get back to what we were doing.”
That was the best motivation for survival Julius could imagine, but he couldn’t stop himself from darting in to press a quick, final kiss against Marci’s cheek. He held on for as long as he could, savoring the smooth, soft feel of her skin until the very last second before turning away and striding out to the center of the circle where the rising water was deepest.
By the time he reached the assigned meeting place, the freezing water was up to his knees. As promised, Chelsie had already vanished, and with Marci hanging back to keep a hold on her hidden circle, that meant Julius was taking his stand alone. He was trying not to be intimidated at the prospect when his ears caught the distant thunder of horse hooves.
Julius had never been a particularly good student during his strategic combat lessons—partially because he didn’t like violence, but mostly he’d been too busy defending himself from his siblings to worry about outside threats—but even he knew what that sound meant. But knowing what was coming didn’t make it any less scary when a giant warhorse made of crashing waves burst through the center of the mini-ocean Vann Jeger’s magic had created in the fields surrounding 8 Mile Road.
It exploded up like a torpedo, rocketing out of the water only to come crashing down again seconds later, its dinner-plate-sized hooves splashing water all over Julius’s front as it landed in front of him, bringing its massive rider face to face at last with the dragon he’d come to fight.
Oddly enough, Julius’s first thought was that pictures he’d seen didn’t do Vann Jeger justice. The spirit in the old news footage they’d studied at the mountain merely looked like a large, oddly-colored human with an impressive weapons collection. In reality, standing in front of Vann Jeger felt like standing in front of a hurricane. Flat pictures, even video, simply could not capture the force-of-nature menace that poured off him like water down a hill. A sensation that only got worse when the spirit set his enormous wooden spear on his shoulder and scanned the ruined landscape with his black eyes before finally resting them on his enemy.
“Well, well,” Vann Jeger said, the words crunching like cracking sea ice as he looked Julius over. “That’s more like it. I’d hoped for a Fang, of course, but you are not as great a disappointment as the whelp I faced earlier.”
The mention of Justin made Julius flinch. A detail that did not escape Vann Jeger.
“Concerned about your brother?” The spirit taunted with a grin. “Don’t worry. Algonquin saved his head for herself, but yours is another matter.” He leaned forward on his horse, eyes gleaming. “What do they call you, wyrm?”
Julius clamped his jaw tight as he let the illusion Marci and Amelia had put together do the work of maintaining proper draconic disdain. Good thing, too, because inside, he was nearing full panic. The others had tried to warn him, but knowing that Vann Jeger was a big spirit and experiencing it firsthand were two very different things. Nothing could have prepared him for the reality of the murderous intent that emanated from the spirit like cold from an iceberg. And he was supposed to stallthisfor half an hour?
Oddly enough, that thought was his salvation. Though his body was screaming at him to escape as fast as he could, there was nowhere to go. Vann Jeger was here—huge and implacable and right in front of him—and the only chance Julius had of surviving was to follow the plan as closely and calmly as possible. Any panic, even the normal, healthy kind, would only guarantee defeat, which was intolerable. He’d only just gotten up the guts to kiss Marci. He couldn’t fail now. Forward was the only option, so Julius embraced it, shoving his fear aside as he threw himself into the role he’d agreed to play.
This was actually a lot easier than he’d expected. He’d never considered himself any sort of actor, but in this case, the sheer quantity of examples he had to pull from made up for his lack of natural talent. He didn’t even have to think about it too hard. All he had to do was think of Ian and Svena and Bethesda and Chelsie and pretty much every dragon who’d ever looked down on him, and the words just came rolling out.
“My name is not for the likes of you.”
If things had been less dire, Julius would have cheered. That cold, haughty voice didn’t sound anything like him. Vann Jeger, however, looked more dreadful than ever.
“Then you are unique among your kind,” the spirit sneered. “Most dragons are all too eager to recite their ridiculous titles. But I suppose it matters not.” His sneer turned back into a smirk. “I don’t need your name to kill you.”
“And I didn’t come here to listen to uninspired threats,” Julius said, looking at Vann Jeger with the bored, I-have-nothing-better-to-do-so-I’m-deigning-to-interact-with-you expression that Ian used in all their conversations. “You said Algonquin saved my brother’s head for herself. Does that mean he’s already mounted on her wall?”
Please say no. Please say no.
“He lives for now,” the spirit said with a shrug, almost making Julius sigh in relief. “But why do you care? Your mother didn’t seem to.”
