Chelsie was off before she finished, forcing Julius to run after her as she strode out of the throne room, opening a wide path through the remaining clumps of watching, whispering Heartstrikers as she made her way toward the elevators.
Chapter 5
“Watch your step.”
Julius nodded silently, peering nervously into the dark as he followed Chelsie out of the elevator into what appeared to be a pitch-black stone hallway. He was fumbling in the ridiculous jaguar-fur breastplate to find where Fredrick had stashed his phone when warm light blossomed all around them, bouncing off the rough-hewn stone walls from the fire that was now burning merrily on Chelsie’s fingers.
“Nice trick.”
His sister shrugged. “No trick to it,” she said, resting her other, not-burning hand on the hilt of her Fang. “You just have to learn to master your fire.”
She shot him a look that made it clear what she thought of him for not learning to control his better, and Julius decided it was time to change the subject.
“Where are we?” he asked, looking up and down the dark hall, which looked more like an actual cave than any of the other passageways in Heartstriker Mountain. Even stranger, though, was the fact that Julius didn’t recognize it. He’d thought he’d seen every public hallway in this mountain, but he’d never seen this place. “I thought we were going to Amelia’s?”
“We are,” she said. “Though I’m not surprised you’ve never been here. This is the part of the mountain shared by Bob and Amelia, otherwise known as the crazy floor. No one comes here if they don’t have to.” She shook her head and got moving, walking at a brisk pace down the hall to the left. “This way. The other direction goes to Bob’s room, and trust me, you don’t want to go there.”
He was curious why she’d say that, but now didn’t seem like the time, so Julius just hurried after her, struggling to keep up with his sister’s long strides in his stiff ceremonial armor. He’d just found his pace when Chelsie stopped in her tracks.
“What?” he asked, hand falling to his own sword in alarm.
Rather than answer, Chelsie just lifted her burning hand, letting her dancing fire sparkle on the overlapping strands of nearly invisible magic that covered the hall in front of them like an orb weaver’s web.
“What isthat?”
“Wards,” Chelsie said coldly. “And traps.” She crouched down to shine her firelight on the glittering net of silk-fine magic closest to them. “Amelia doesn’t mess around. These are normally invisible, but I’ve learned a thing or two about dodging Amelia’s magic over the years, and I’ve found that naked dragon fire reflects off her spellwork better than anything else. Just stick with me, do what I do, and you should be fine.”
“Is it really that bad?” he asked, staring at the filled hallway. “I mean, I’m no expert, but even I can see there’s hundreds of spells in here. Surely that’s overkill.”
Chelsie shrugged. “Amelia’s lived with Bethesda trying to kill her for most of her life. I’d say she’s not being careful enough.” She turned sideways, stepping high over the webbed magic. “See? I can step right through. Then again, it’s not like she’s here much. This stuff is mostly just to keep out nosy siblings. The security on her island is another matter altogether.”
If this was Amelia’s version of light security, Julius didn’t even want to think about what it looked like when she got serious. Even so, it took him and Chelsie almost twenty minutes of slow-motion acrobatics to work their way past all the wards. By the time they made it to the heavy wooden door at the end, Julius was cursing himself for not taking the time to change into something more practical, but he was in too deep to do anything about it now. Chelsie was already picking the lock on the door, her fire flaring for a moment as she cracked the magical seal as well before shoving the heavy door open to reveal an enormous, dark, and (so far as Julius could tell) completely empty cave.
“Um, are you sure she’s here?” He glanced down at the centuries-old carpet of dust on the cave’s stone floor. “It looks a little…unused.”
“Trust me,” Chelsie said, striding into the room. “She’s here.”
The words were barely out of her mouth when a peal of laughter echoed through the emptiness. Shaking her head, Chelsie motioned for Julius to follow as she strode across the dusty floor—without, to Julius’s amazement, leaving a footprint—to what appeared to be an enormous, dusty wall hanging. He was wondering if she was about to reveal a secret door when she yanked the cloth aside, and he saw that the truth was far simpler. The hanging wasn’t a cover for a secret entry. It was a perfectly normal curtain hanging over the entrance to a balcony just as large as the one in Bethesda’s throne room covered in the remains of what must have been a truly epic party. He was gawking at the entire frat house’s worth of empty liquor bottles strewn across the stone floor when a wailing cry split the night.
“Juliusssssssssssss!”
Something soft and warm crashed into him a second later, and he looked down in surprise to see Marci wrapped around his chest.
A verydrunkMarci.
“I’m s’happy you’re alive!” she said, burying her head in the coarse jaguar fur covering his chest. The unfamiliar armor must have thrown her even through the haze of alcohol, though, because she backed off as fast as she’d rushed in, her dilated eyes going wide. “Oh my God, you lookamazing!”
It was all Julius could do not to grin like an idiot at that. “Thanks,” he said, face heating. “I—”
“Like, super hot,” Marci continued, still gawking at him. “Is this your dragon uniform or something? Causewhoa.” She turned to call over her shoulder. “Doesn’t he look good?!”
“Quite,” Amelia agreed, leaning over to look around her lounge chair and almost sliding off it in the process. “You clean up real nice, baby-J.”
“I know, right?!” Marci said, practically bouncing with excitement.
By this point, Julius was blushing so hard he was legitimately afraid he’d melt through the balcony floor and plummet to his death. But while everyone else was staring at him, Chelsie was looking at Marci. “Why does she smell like you?” she demanded, turning her glare on her eldest sister. “What did you do to her, Amelia?”
“Nothing she didn’t agree to,” Amelia said innocently. “Come on, Chelsie. We’re notallup to no good.”
