Julius had thought he was past the point of being shocked by anything his mother said, but the casual malice in that statement was more than he’d been prepared for. “I’mnotgoing to die,” he bit out at last. “And if you want to be unsealed sometime this decade, you might as well accept that and work with me. Because I’m not going away.”
His mother’s gold-dusted lips compressed into a thin, angry line, and it was all Julius could do not to grin. Turning that threat back around on her had feltwaybetter than he liked to admit, but he didn’t have time to enjoy it. Now that Gregory and his sympathizers had walked out without repercussions, the remaining Heartstrikers were starting to get antsy.
“Julius,” Chelsie whispered.
“I know,” he whispered back. This was a critical moment. If he didn’t want this whole thing to fall apart, he had to say something. Before he could open his mouth, though, Bethesda beat him to it.
“Two days,” she growled softly. “I’ll give you two days, counting this one. After that, we’re voting. I don’t care if only three dragons show up, I am getting my wings back.”
She glared at him until Julius nodded, and then Bethesda turned back to the crowd. “It seems that someone’s a sore loser,” she said flippantly, rolling her eyes to show just how little she cared about Gregory’s antics. “But while I believe idiots who turn their backs on their clan shouldn’t get a say in how it’s run, Julius has decreed that we can’t hold the vote withoutallof you present. Unfortunately, since there are only two of us, that puts our nascent Council at a standstill. Until you lot vote in our third member, we can’t complete the Council, which means we can’t make the sort of sweeping, clan-wide decisionIused to make every day to keep us safe. So”—her eyes flicked between Ian and David, who were standing on opposite sides of the throne room at the center of their respective factions—“if you don’t all want to die to Algonquin, I suggest you talk some sense into those foolish enough to follow Gregory’s example. This meeting will reconvene on the morning of the day after tomorrow, when we should have enough dragons to actuallydosomething. Until then, I’m extremely disappointed in you all.”
She turned away with a flounce, stepping off the makeshift stage and striding back to her rooms before Julius could recover enough to interject. Not that he would have had anything to say. By his own argument, there was nothing to do but wait, and while he didn’t care for the way she’d phrased it, Bethesda’s maneuver to get the rest of the clan to put pressure on Gregory to come back to the fold was actually pretty brilliant. David and Ian especially had huge personal stakes in making sure this vote went ahead as planned. The only challenge now was to keep that pressure from turning into violence, but Julius wasn’t too worried. Ian and David were both smooth operators. They could handle a thug like Gregory. In the meanwhile, Julius would work on his own issues, starting with a certain seer.
“You know,” he said, turning to Bob, who’d flopped down to sit on the edge of the makeshift stage. “I really could have used your help up there.”
“Really?” Bob said. “Because I thought you did perfectly well. It’s not as though my endorsement would have done you any favors, anyway. Most Heartstrikers think I’m crazy.”
That was true. Julius had certainly had his doubts about the seer in the beginning. Even so. “You still could have backed me up.”
“And risked showing my hand?” Bob scoffed. “Julius, Julius,Julius.You might be setting up a new game with this Council, but that doesn’t mean the old rules don’t apply. If I support you, then everyone will know I’m backing you. At best, they’ll think you’re as crazy as I am. At worst, they’ll assume you’re my puppet. Neither of those outcomes works in our favor. In fact, we should stop talking immediately. You never know who might be watching.”
Glancing at the crowd, the answer seemed to be several dragons, but when Julius turned back to his brother to say he didn’t care, the seer was already gone. He was looking all around to see where he’d vanished to when Justin grabbed his arm.
“Justin,” Julius said, wincing at his brother’s angry look. “What—”
“You froze me,” the dragon said, his voice murderous.
“I know,” Julius said, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’m sorry. It was the only way to keep the situation from coming to blows.”
“You say that like it’s bad,” Justin snapped. “But blows are the only way to get through to dragons like him. What do you think he’s going to do when I have to stop him from killing you next time, huh? Apologize and see the error of his ways?”
“It’s always a possibility,” Julius said, but the words rang hollow even to him. “Look, this isn’t about beating Gregory. I don’t care if he hates me, I just want to show everyone he’s wrong. You can’t change a mind that doesn’t want to change, but youcanshift groups by showing them the truth, and the truth is dragons aren’t born to be violent, selfish, arrogant manipulators. That’s what we were raised to be, but we can change. We don’t have to be self-destructive monsters. I’m walking proof of that, as are Katya and Amelia and you.”
Justin looked terminally insulted. “Are you calling menice?”
“I would never,” Julius assured him, putting up his hands. “But if you really were a cold, ruthless, calculating dragon, you never would have gone through so much trouble for me all those times.”
His brother hunched his shoulders defensively. “Don’t get any weird ideas. I only saved you all those times to get you in my debt.”
A debt from a dragon as lowly as Julius didn’t account for a tenth of the effort Justin had put in to help him when they were kids or more recently in the DFZ. But Justin’s ego was a fragile snowflake, so Julius let it slide. “It’s still true for the others I named,” he said. “And if those inarguably powerful dragons aren’t what Gregory says, that proves he’s not just wrong. He’sutterlywrong. All we have to do is stay alive, and reality will make our point for us.”
Justin arched an eyebrow. “You seem pretty confident.”
“What, that dragons aren’t all monsters?” Julius smiled tiredly. “Of course I’m confident. I’ve bet my life on it multiple times now, and I’ve always come through. Not to mention I just had the whole thing independently confirmed by an ancient dragon construct from another plane. Hard to get more proof than that.”
Now Justin just looked confused. “You’re going to have to tell me what happened inside that portal,” he said, shaking his head. “How about during dinner? I don’t know about you, but I’m hungry enough to eat a football team.”
“You go ahead and eat without me,” Julius said quickly. “I don’t have time. I’m seven hours late to pick up Marci.”
“I can’t go without you,” Justin said, appalled. “What part ofbodyguarddon’t you understand? You don’t leave my sight. Besides, if she’s waited this long, what’s another hour?” He grabbed Julius’s arm. “We’ll eat first then grab your mortal.”
“Justin, no!” Julius cried, yanking his arm back. “I’ve abandoned her all day!”
“So?” Justin said. “She’s a human, not a dog.”
“I know, but…” He trailed off, defeated. There was simply no way to explain this to Justin without also explaining how he felt about Marci, which Julius absolutely wasn’t about to do. Especially since he hadn’t even explained it to her yet. “I just have to get her first, okay?”
Justin stared at him for a moment, and then he rolled his eyes. “Fine,” he growled. “Mortal first, then food. But I get to—”
