Julius wasn’t sure how to answer that one.Channel Ian.“The Heartstriker knows better than to let spirits know her real intentions,” he said haughtily, lifting his chin so high he got a crick in his neck. “And beyond idle curiosity, Idon’tcare. I’m only here because you inconvenienced my human.”
The spirit laughed, making the ground tremble. “Your human? A pathetic baby mage who let herself get caught.”
“A brilliant mage who is very precious to me,” Julius said, not even needing the illusion to make him sound cold this time. “Normally, I would make you pay for what you did to her, but that’s what you want, isn’t it?”
That question was his best chance for a stall. Even when it was obvious what they wanted, no dragon would ever just admit their true goal. He’d hoped to trick Vann Jeger into going around in coy circles for at least another few minutes. But, sadly, this was where Julius’s vast experience failed him, because Vann Jegerwasn’ta dragon, and he didn’t take the bait.
“It is,” the spirit thundered, his face splitting into a terrifying grin. “I’d thought she’d led me false when she claimed you were powerful, but it seems your human was telling the truth after all. I do not know what son of the Heartstriker you are, serpent, but you are clearly worth my time, and that pleases me greatly.” He waved his hand sharply through the air. “The Sword of Damocles is lifted,” he announced. “Your human may live.”
The words were barely out of the spirit’s mouth when Julius heard Marci’s delighted gasp. Before he could even feel happy about it, though, the spirit added, “You, on the other hand, will have to fight for your head.”
Julius jumped back. All around them, the ankle-deep, freezing water covering the ground was now flowing away. It was like watching the tide go out, only instead of racing out to sea, Vann Jeger’s water began to churn around them in a circle, spinning up until they were surrounded by a whirlpool of water as tall as a five-story building.
Until this point, Julius hadn’t even realized therewasthat much water on the ground, and for a horrible moment, he was sure the whole thing was about to crash down and drown him. Bad as that would be, though, the truth was actually worse, because the wave didn’t crash down at all. It wentup, shooting into the evening sky before curving over on itself to create a domed cage of surging, spinning, obviously magical water cutting them off from the rest of the world.
By the time he realized he was trapped, Julius’s panic was almost enough to break the illusion. He couldn’t even see Marci through Vann Jeger’s wall of water. For all he knew, he was cut off from Chelsie as well, which meant he was alone, trapped in a watery arena with the Death of Dragons. About the only thing that had gone right was that they were still inside Marci’s giant circle, not that that was much comfort when Vann Jeger planted his spear on the ground and used it like a pole vault, leaping off his horse to land in front of Julius with a crash.
“Since the challenge was mine, I shall allow you the first move,” the spirit said, banishing the horse back to water with a wave of his spear. “You may attack when ready.”
That offer struck Julius as oddly fair. It also gave him an idea. The wall of water had been a surprise, but otherwise, Vann Jeger was behaving exactly like the archaic warrior Amelia had described him as earlier. With that in mind, Julius switched gears completely, keeping his hands at his sides as he asked, “Why?”
Vann Jeger scowled. “Why what?”
“Why do we have to fight?” Julius clarified. “You’ve gone out of your way to provoke me, harassing my human and forcing me into the open, yet I’ve done nothing to harm you or Algonquin or this city. There are plenty of arrogant, destructive dragons in the DFZ for you to fight. Why waste your time hunting those of us who just want to be left alone?”
A dragon would have seen through that question before it got out of Julius’s mouth, but as he’d just seen, Vann Jegerwasn’ta dragon. He was a spirit, a proud soul who clearly got his values from a very different time. And, as Julius had learned as a teenager trying to argue on the internet, if you wanted to get a proud person talking, all you had to do was ask them to explain why they thought they were right. It didn’t hurt that he was also legitimately curious, which made his attention all the more believable when Vann Jeger snapped up the bait.
“I hunt you because you are what you are,” the spirit thundered. “You say you’ve done us no harm, but that is impossible when your very existence harms those around you. Consumption and destruction are a dragon’s nature. It’s why you came to our world in the first place, because you’d already destroyed your own with your never-ending greed.” He bared his teeth. “You are all parasites feeding off a world that does not belong to you, and it is my pleasure as well as my duty as a soul of this land to make you bleed.”
That was much more of an answer than Julius had been expecting, and one that sadly made a lot of sense. But even so, “We’re not all like that,” he said earnestly, forgetting his role as a ruthless, terrible dragon for a moment. “Some dragons are what you describe, but there are plenty who just want to live in peace. Surely this world is big enough for both of us?”
“No world is big enough for your greed,” the spirit said bitterly. “Enough of this. I didn’t come here to explain what you should already know.”
“But I still don’t understand,” Julius said quickly. “Dragons didn’t destroy the world in the thousand years you were sleeping, why would we do it now? We just want to live here, too.”
“But none of us want to live withyou,” Vann Jeger snarled, stabbing his spear through the air at Julius. “Understandthat, wyrm. This is our world, not yours, and we will not share it with the likes of you. Now.” He bared his yellow teeth. “Change and fight, or I will go back on my offer and strike you down like the mortal you pretend to be.”
Julius took a step back. He’d been doing surprisingly well up until now, but apparently he’d trodden on sacred ground with that last question. He was scrambling to think of a way to sidetrack the spirit onto another topic when Vann Jeger charged straight at him.
It happened so quickly, even Julius’s speed wasn’t enough. Despite his bulk, Vann Jeger moved faster than Julius’s eyes could track. One second he was standing several feet away, the next, all ten feet of homicidal, dragon-hating spirit was right in front of him with his giant spear already crashing into Julius’s chest.
If not for Marci, that would have been the end. Forget dodging, Julius hadn’t evenseenthe attack until it was way too late. But in addition to her fantastic illusion work, Marci had also given him some insurance in the form of a ward against blades similar to the one she’d used on herself to stop bullets when she’d confronted Bixby. But while the magical barrier did indeed stop the point of the spear from actually stabbing through his chest, it couldn’t do anything to stop the force, which was still enough to send Julius flying across the soggy field and into the spinning wall of water.
He bounced off it like a rubber ball, thrown face first back into the field by the magic current. But this, too, was a stroke of luck, because the muddy dirt actually absorbed most of the impact. It still hurt like crazy, but at least he didn’t break anything. Unless, of course, you counted Vann Jeger’s willingness to believe that Julius was actually an ancient and powerful dragon.
“That’s it?” the spirit roared, stomping over to grab Julius out of the dirt. “Where is your fire? Where is yourstrength?”
He shook Julius violently with each word, making it impossible to answer, not that Julius could have given him one. His power was entirely on the surface, and by the time Vann Jeger let him go, it was obvious the spirit knew it.
“Is this what Heartstriker has come to?” he growled, throwing Julius back into the mud. “I came here because I was promised a true fight, but you’re even weaker than the whelp this afternoon! At least he had fire.”
Julius tried to come up with something disdainful and witty to say to that, but between the shaking and his second impact with the ground, he could barely form words. Everything in his head was ringing and shaking. He was still working on pushing back up to his knees when he saw the spirit raise his spear.
“Pathetic,” Vann Jeger growled, lining up his spear to skewer Julius’s heart. But as he pulled back his arm for the killing blow, a whistling noise sliced through the air, followed by Vann Jeger’s roar of pain.
Julius gasped in surprise, yanking his still-ringing head up just in time to see Vann Jeger drop his spear and reach around with both hands to grab at something on his back. The spirit was so large though, Julius couldn’t actually see what he was trying to catch hold of until Chelsie jumped down, her sword glinting wetly in the light of the setting sun.
Not counting the few seconds after she’d first fallen into his living room, Julius had never actually seen Chelsie’s Fang out of its sheath. Not surprisingly, the bone-colored, curving blade looked very much like Justin’s. But where his brother’s sword was clearly designed for power, Chelsie’s was narrow and sharp as a surgeon’s scalpel. It was also dripping with a black liquid Julius could only assume was Vann Jeger’s blood.Literallydripping, as in Julius couldn’t understand how she’d gotten that much blood out of a single attack. When Vann Jeger whirled around to face her, though, he understood.
