“Enough,” Julius growled, crouching down in front of the defeated spirit. “Where’s my brother? You said he was alive?”
“Very,” Vann Jeger said with a toxic grin. “It barely took a scratch before he sold you out.”
Julius opened his mouth, but Chelsie beat him to it. “Impossible. Justin’s a thick-headed idiot, but he’d die before he betrayed the clan.”
“Think that all you like,” the spirit said. “But my Lady set up the deal herself. Your whelp of a brother sold you out to the Northern Star for a sword and a chance at revenge. Not that it’s surprising. Your kindwasborn to betray.”
“Shutup,” Chelsie growled, reaching down to dig her nails into the spirit’s neck until he gasped in pain. “How is Estella involved in this?”
“How should I know?” Vann Jeger choked out. “You snakes are the ones who’re always meddling with the future. Algonquin merely played you against each other, and your brother was more than happy to play along.”
Chelsie let his neck go with a muttered curse, sliding down to press her palm against his chest. A moment later, Julius felt the bite of her magic, and Vann Jeger went stiff with a cry, his head jerking back in pain as Chelsie’s stolen Fang ripped its way out of his chest and returned to her hand.
She clutched her blade with a smile, shaking off the black blood as Vann Jeger fell gasping to the ground. When she’d cleaned the blade to her satisfaction, Chelsie turned to position it over the prone spirit.
“What are you doing?” Julius asked as she took aim.
“Finishing this,” Chelsie said, swinging down.
“Wait!” he cried, but it was too late. Chelsie’s Fang was already slicing through Vann Jeger’s neck. Still weakened from having his final stolen sword ripped out, the spirit didn’t even try to dodge. He just lay there, grinning at them as his head rolled off his shrunken body, and then the corpse collapsed back into water.
“Why did you do that?” Julius cried, staring in horror as the puddle that had once been Algonquin’s greatest dragon hunter seeped back into the ground. “What happened to ransoming him to Algonquin for Justin?”
“You heard what he said,” Chelsie said, cleaning her Fang once more before returning it to its sheath. “Estella’s involved.”
Julius couldn’t believe this. “And you took him at his word?”
She nodded. “On that, yes.”
“What about Justin?”
Chelsie’s eyes narrowed. “The situation’s changed. I don’t want to believe Justin would sell us out, but seer plots are never straightforward, and we’re neck deep in one designed to bring us all down. If Algonquin’s working with Estella, then keeping Vann Jeger alive only complicates matters. Better to remove him from the situation entirely than risk having him come back and bite us later.”
“And what if she’snotworking with Estella?” Julius said. “I’ve never heard of Algonquin working with a dragon.”
“Then we’ve just proven we’re a force to be reckoned with and given the Lady of the Lakes even more reason to keep him alive for bargaining,” Chelsie said, glaring at him. “Use your head, Julius. What makes more sense? That Vann Jeger would lie for Estella, or that he’d try and rub it in our faces? Considering every disaster over the last two days has led straight back to the Northern Starandthe fact that she’s been specifically targeting high-ranking Heartstrikers, we’d be stupid not to suspect her now.”
He shook his head. “But—”
“The last thing we need on top of a seer is a vengeful, dragon-hunting spirit with a chip on his shoulder coming back to screw things up,” his sister snapped. “Especially if Algonquin really did give Justin to Estella and thuscan’ttrade him back to us.”
Julius didn’t want to believe it, but his sister’s argument made a cynical sort of sense. “So this was all for nothing, then?”
Chelsie scoffed. “You call saving your human and bringing about the death of one of our greatest enemies nothing?” She nudged the mud where Vann Jeger had dissolved with her boot. “This was a great victory, and since your human was the one who actually took him down, I won’t even be lying when I tell Mother you were at the heart of it. It doesn’t matter what you said before, Bethesda would never kill the dragon who slew Algonquin’s dragon slayer. She’ll have no choice but to welcome you back to the clan, which meansIwon’t have to come home with your head.” She shrugged. “It might not be what we planned, but I’m prepared to call that a win.”
It didn’t feel like a win to Julius. “And what if I don’t want to go back?”
Chelsie’s head whipped around. “What?”
Julius pulled himself straight. “It’s not that I don’t appreciate your efforts to save me, but I meant what I said on the phone. Idon’twant to be a part of a family that makes you sell out your sister to save your brother, and Idon’twant to get back into mother’s favor. I don’t want any part of this.”
“Too bad,” Chelsie growled. “Youarepart of it. There is no out, Julius. You were born a Heartstriker, and you’ll die a Heartstriker. There’s no escaping that, but you’ve got a second chance right now to make something for yourself in this clan. Don’t waste it.”
He shook his head. “But I don’t want—”
“Then act like a real dragon and change the situation!” she yelled. “Do whatever you have to do. Take over the clan and rebuild it from scratch if that’s what it takes. Just findsome wayyou can live with being a Heartstriker, because so long as Bethesda rules this family, the only way out is at the tip of this sword.” She reached down to clutch the Fang at her side. “Don’t make me kill you just when I’ve started to like you.”
Julius’s shoulders slumped. The last thing he wanted to do was fight the sister who’d just saved his life, but now that he’d finally stood up to his mother and told her how he felt, just going back to the clan, even as a hero, felt more like failure than lying down and dying to Vann Jeger. It must have shown on his face, too, because Chelsie sighed.
