He continued faking heart-attack levels of shock for several seconds before Julius shook his head. “I’m not in the mood, Bob.”
“Neither am I,” his brother said, dropping the act. “Let’s be serious, then. I have something very important to tell you.” His green eyes went pointedly to Chelsie. “Alone.”
Julius winced. Good news never followed statements like that. Fortunately, Chelsie didn’t seem insulted, just annoyed. “Fine,” she snapped. “But don’t take too long. We had to twist Mother’s arm just to get her to agree to this much. If he’s late again, this whole thing could blow up.”
“I ammostaware of the future implications of my actions,” Bob assured her. “It’ll be fine. Go on in. We’ll be right behind you.”
Chelsie didn’t look convinced, but she did as he asked, marching into the throne room ahead of them. When she’d vanished through the newly replaced wooden doors—much cheaper than the gilded ones Bob had broken through during the fight with Estella—the seer grabbed Julius and pulled him back into the elevator.
“Where are we going?” Julius asked while his brother mashed buttons seemingly at random.
“Nowhere,” Bob said as they began to move. “But Chelsie’s ears are the best in the mountain, and I’ve learned to respect them. Still, even she shouldn’t be able to hear us in here.”
“And what don’t you want her to hear?” Julius asked, suspicious and impatient in equal measure. “I’m not—”
“In the mood for games, I know,” his brother said, leaning against the elevator’s button panel. “But I already told you we’re being serious, so listen carefully, because this isveryimportant.”
“I’m listening,” Julius assured him, leaning closer. “What?”
Bob took a deep breath, preparing himself, and then he looked his brother straight in the eye. “You can’t free Chelsie.”
“What?”
“You. Can’t. Free. Chelsie,” the seer said again, slowly this time. “Not yet. F-clutch, maybe. It’s murky. But definitely not her.”
Julius still couldn’t believe it. “Why not?” he demanded. “Is it because of the secret?”
“That old thing?” Bob scoffed. “No, no. I’d actually be delighted if that got out. Make my lifemuchless complicated. But I’m afraid this is a far more practical concern. You can’t free Chelsie because this clan can’t function without her.”
That didn’t make any sense at all. “What do you mean can’t function?”
Bob sighed. “Julius, you’re twenty-four. You know what ‘function’ means, and it’s exactly what we’renotgoing to do if you let Chelsie off the hook for her job. You were a meek little failure for most of your life, which means you didn’t get many visits, but for the vast majority of Heartstriker, Bethesda’s Shade is the one line you never cross. Fear of her and Mother is the only thing everyone in this family has in common, but now that you’ve defanged the Heartstriker, so to speak, Chelsie’s all we’ve got left. She’s the last monster in the dark, the lone remaining iron rivet that keeps this family stuck together. Without the knowledge that we’re all only ever one turned back away from being stabbed into submission, Heartstriker will fall apart. You think the split between David and Ian was bad? Imagine if those two factions had nothing to actually keep them from killing each other. That was Chelsie. She’s the force that keeps us all in line and together. If you free her, that last threat will vanish, and this whole family could fall apart just as we’re beginning to change it.”
That was the most straightforward bit of politicking he’d ever heard from his oldest brother, but Julius still didn’t understand how Bob could say such a thing. “I understand her job is important, but do you have any idea how much all of this is hurting Chelsie? How much shehatesdoing what she does?”
“Of course I do,” Bob said. “I’m her brother.”
“That makes it even worse!” he cried. “What kind of brother sits back and lets his sister suffer just to keep around a few dragons who have to be frightened into behaving in the first place? If fear of Chelsie is the only thing keeping this family together, then we’ve got bigger problems than she does.”
“Spoken like a true reformer,” Bob said with a smile. “But I’m not telling you all of this because I have vested political interests. I’m telling you this becauseI see the future. This isn’t speculation for me, Julius. I already know how everything plays out, and I’m telling you that the road you plan to take us down today doesn’t end well for anyone.”
Julius stared at him in disbelief. “So you’re saying if I free Chelsie from her slavery, the clan is what? Doomed?”
“I wouldn’t go that far, but it’s definitely not the path I’d pick,” the seer said. “And I’m not saying she has to stay a slave forever, just that you can’t free her right now.”
“Or what?” Julius demanded. “What future is so horrible that letting Chelsie remain under Bethesda’s boot is the better option?”
“You know I can’t tell you that,” Bob said irritably. “I’ve already explainedmany timeswhy giving out knowledge of the future to non-seers is a terrible, no good, very bad idea. If I tell you what’s going to happen, you’re just going to argue and come up with a thousand reasons for why I’m wrong and whatever doom I’ve predicted can’t possibly come true, which is exactly why I don’t normally deal in absolute proclamations. I vastly prefer nudging you along with coincidences until you come to the conclusion I wanted from the start of your own accord, but I’m running out of time. I wouldn’t be telling you this at all if it wasn’t vastly important, so you’re just going to have to trust me.Don’tset Chelsie free tonight.”
Julius took a deep breath. “I do trust you,” he said at last. “If you say something bad is going to come of this, I believe it, but that doesn’t change what I intend to do.”
Bob fell utterly silent, his green eyes growing cold. “That is a very stupid decision,” he said at last.
“I’m sure it is,” Julius agreed. “But I don’t care. Whatever is coming, we’ll deal with it, but I refuse to let Chelsie pay for our comfort and security with her suffering one moment longer.”
“But I already said you could free her later,” Bob reminded him. “That’s a compromise! Don’t you love those?”
“Not on this,” he said, clenching his fists. “Another time, maybe, I might have agreed, but I’ve just had the world’s hardest lesson in the dangers of putting things off. You say she’d go free later, but later is never guaranteed for any of us, is it? Chelsie’s already lost six hundred years to this nonsense. I won’t make her give up another minute.”
