Julius wasn’t sure. It’dlookedlike dragon fire, but there was only one dragon currently in the DFZ who could produce green fire, and she certainly wouldn’t do so now. But even as he told himself it was probably just a really desperate hobo throwing weird stuff into his campfire, the wind shifted, bringing him the scent of ash and blood.Veryfamiliar blood.
“Come on,” he said, stomach clenching as he ran back to the truck. “Let’s go look.”
Marci ran after him. “But didn’t you just say we had to get out of here?”
He nodded, tossing his recovered sword into the back of the truck cab before jumping in himself. “We’re just going to take a look,” he assured her as she got in.And make sure I’m wrong,he added to himself.
Any hope of that vanished as soon as they started driving. Even with the windows up, the smell of dragon smoke rapidly became overpowering as they drove less than a block to the place where they’d seen the light. Julius tried to hold on to a silver of optimism by telling himself that the smoke was probably just left over from the dragon’s escape, but even that hope went out the window when they rolled to a stop in front of a ruined convenience store that had been completely taken over by a tree.
“Holy—” Marci cried, leaning out the open window. “What isthat?”
Julius swallowed against the knot in his throat as he stared wide eyed at the dragon curled in a ball at the base of the tree. “That’s my sister.”
Until this moment, Julius had never actually seen Chelsie in her true shape. Even when she’d snatched Justin out of the sky in front of him last month, he hadn’t caught more than a glimpse of a long, snaking shadow in the dark. He’d always just assumed she had some kind of magic that let her be so sneaky, like a camouflage spell or something. Now, though, he saw that the truth was much, much simpler. He’d never seen Chelsie flying because the feathered serpent lying on the grass was black. Not shiny black, either, but matte black, the kind of color even dragon eyes passed right over.
“Are yousurethat’s your sister?” Marci whispered, pulling herself back inside the window. “I thought you guys were, you know, tropical colored?”
“We are,” Julius whispered back. “I think she dyes them, but that’sdefinitelyChelsie.” No other dragon in the world had that scent.
Marci grimaced. “What happened to her? Wasn’t she supposed to be leading the cops away?”
Julius had no idea, but with the sirens getting closer by the second, he knew what they had to do. “Come on,” he said, throwing open his door.
Marci scrambled out after him, and together they crept across what was left of the overgrown parking lot toward the sleeping dragon. The closer they got, the more worried Julius became. Given who they were approaching, he’d expected to be knocked on his back with a claw in his throat by now, but his sister hadn’t even cracked her eyes.
“Chelsie!” he called softly, reaching down to brush his fingers over her black feathers. “It’s me. Wake up.”
The dragon didn’t move. Worse, she didn’t even twitch, which made Julius’s blood run cold. Dragons were paranoid creatures by nature, but Chelsie was in a class by herself. If she wasn’t even demonstrating an involuntary threat response to another dragon touching her, something was seriously, seriously wrong. “Is she under a spell?”
“Nothing I can see,” Marci said, staring at the sleeping dragon in wonder. “You guys are seriously pretty in this form, though.”
Julius wasn’t sure if she meant magically or literally. Knowing Marci, probably both. Then again, weird as it felt to admit about his own sister, there was no denying that Chelsie—with her lithe snaking body, delicate eye-ridges, and elegantly tapered feathers—was a ridiculously beautiful dragoness. She was also a soon-to-be dead one if they didn’t get a move on.
“Chelsie!” he yelled, louder this time. “Chelsie!” Again, no response, and Julius stepped back with a curse, peering around the bushes at the flashing lights he could now see in the distance. “We have to get her out of here.”
“How?” Marci said, standing up from where she’d been cautiously petting Chelsie’s long feathers. “Look at her. Even curled into a ball, she’s the size of a tractor trailer. It’s not like we can just roll her into the back of the truck.” She bit her lip. “Isn’t there someone you can call for help with stuff like this? Like a Heartstriker hotline or something?”
“Sheisthe Heartstriker hotline,” Julius said, pulling out his phone, though to call whom, he had no idea. Amelia was down, Bob was who knew where, and he didn’t trust any of his other siblings not to seize the opportunity to take Chelsie out while she was defenseless. He supposed he could call Bethesda, but given how she’d treated Amelia, Julius didn’t know if that was a good idea or not. Also, hereallydidn’t want to call his Mother for help after their last conversation.
He had to do something, though. Already, the first wave of police cars were pulling into the field where they’d killed Vann Jeger. No one was looking their way yet, but it was only a matter of time before they started searching the area. He was about to say screw it and call Bethesda anyway when his ears caught the soft but unmistakable sound of a phone vibrating.
Since his phone was currently in his hand, Julius knew it wasn’t him, and Marci didn’t even have a phone right now. But while his ears had never been half as good as his nose, they were still sharper than a human’s. Sure enough, after with a little hunting, he found Chelsie’s vibrating phone lying under a half-burned clump of grass next to her left forefoot with the words UNKNOWN CALLER shining bright on the screen.
The answering wave of relief almost made Julius drop the phone. He caught it at once, accepting the call and jamming the speaker to his ear. “Bob!”
“What happened?”
It was on the tip of Julius’s tongue to say Bob was the one who should know, but he couldn’t say a word. He’d heard Bob sound uncharacteristically serious several times over the last two days. Now, though, the seer soundedterrifying.Julius had never heard anything like the quiet, killing rage in his brother’s question, and he decided then and there to stick purely to the facts.
“I don’t know,” he said honestly. “We just found Chelsie unconscious.” Images of Amelia’s bloody body flashed through his head, and he clutched the phone tighter. “Do you think Estella got her?”
“Given that her future just vanished, I’d say that’s a safe assumption,” Bob growled. “How badly is she hurt?”
“She isn’t, actually,” Julius said, looking his sister over. “Or at least no more than she was after our fight with Vann Jeger. But she’s in dragon form and unconscious, and Algonquin’s task force is almost here.”
There was a moment of silence, and then Bob said. “Oh.”
“Oh?” Julius cried. “That’s it?”
