He stopped in his tracks. Like any Heartstriker with ears, Julius had heard rumors about Chelsie’s room. Some were obviously false, like the story about how she lived in a secret torture dungeon where she punished Heartstrikers who broke the rules. Others—like the one claiming she slept inside Bethesda’s secret armory, or that she didn’t live in the mountain at all—were slightly more believable. Whatever the truth actually was, though, there were enough stories to make even Julius, who ignored gossip as a rule, excessively curious as he followed his sister down the crack in the mountain’s roots until, at last, they reached what looked like a dead end.
“It goes without saying that you will never speak of what you’re about to see,” Chelsie said, turning to face him. “Enforcing Bethesda’s will earns me a lot of enemies, plenty of whom would give their left wing to know where I sleep.”
“Of course I won’t tell anyone,” Julius said quickly. “I—”
“I also expect you to keep any nosy questions to yourself,” she went on, her green eyes narrowing menacingly. “This is my private life. If you can’t respect that, you can sleep in the hall.”
“I’ll absolutely respect your privacy,” he said, slightly insulted. “Who do you think I am?”
“You,” Chelsie growled, glaring like she was trying to burn a hole right through him. “I know exactly how meddlesome you can be, Julius Heartstriker. You’ve kept my secrets so far, which is the only reason I’m trusting you with this one, but the moment you start trying to benice, I will kick you out so fast your head will spin. Understood?”
Julius nodded, but even though his sister looked one step away from murdering him where he stood, he couldn’t stop himself from smiling. She was trying her best to be scary, but the idea that Chelsie—who trusted no one—trustedhimenough to bring him into her private life made Julius feel unexpectedly warm and fuzzy inside.
“I won’t say a word,” he promised solemnly. “And I’ll make sure Marci doesn’t either. It’s the least we can do since we both owe you our lives.”
An odd look passed over Chelsie’s face. “You don’t owe me anything,” she said stiffly. “Everything I’ve done has been for me as much as you. I don’t like seeing whelps put through the wringers you’ve been through. And anyway, I don’t do debts.”
“You don’t?”
The question popped out of him before Julius could think better of it. The moment he asked, though, he realized he’d never seen or heard Chelsie demand a debt from anyone. Not even from Justin. Considering how many dragons she must threaten every day, that struck him as extraordinary. She could have easily gotten the entire clan under her talon at this point, so why hadn’t she?
“I know what you’re thinking,” she grumbled, looking away. “And you’re right. Icouldhave every Heartstriker on the hook to me, some multiple times over. I don’t, though, because I’ve been on that hook myself. I know what it’s like to owe your life to someone who lords it over you, and I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.”
“That’s how I feel, too!” Julius cried. “I—”
“I know,” she growled, rolling her eyes as she turned back to the hall’s dead end. “Congratulations, we share a weakness. No need to celebrate it. Now stand back.”
Julius did as he was told, shuffling a few steps back as his sister placed her hand on the seemingly blank stone wall in front of them. The moment her fingers brushed the rock, the hallway filled with the bite of her magic. It was just a small snap, but when she let her arm drop, the wall was no longer a wall. It was a door. A huge, round, foot-thick metal door of the type you’d find on a bank vault.
“Nice,” Julius said appreciatively.
“Don’t let this trick you into feeling safe,” Chelsie warned, punching a long series of numbers into the multiple electronic locks. “No door is impregnable. Thinking otherwise is how you get caught with your pants down.”
That was a very paranoid way to live your life, but he supposed Chelsie had good reason for it. He was certainly happy she took security so seriously right now, especially when the door proved to be even thicker than he’d originally guessed as it rolled open, revealing not a secret torture dungeon or even a secure bunker, but a long hallway lined with doors that looked so much like his own, Julius was wondering if he was hallucinating.
“What…”
He hadn’t even finished the word when a dragon stuck his head out of the nearest door, looking at Chelsie with guarded green eyes.
“It’s okay, Felix,” she said quickly, reaching back to grab Julius and drag him inside. “He’s with me.”
The dragon, Felix, nodded cautiously and stepped back through his door, which, now that he was inside the vault, Julius could see was labeled with his name.Allthe doors had names, actually, and every one of them started with an F.
“F-clutch lives with you?”
“More like I live with them,” Chelsie said. “And what did I just say about questions?”
“I know, but…why do they live downhere? Is someone trying to kill them, too?”
Chelsie sighed, clearly debating whether or not to come down on him. In the end, though, it must have been easier to explain than to pummel, because while she had every right to snap his nose off for it, she just shook her head and answered the question instead.
“Not that I should have to explain this to you, but it’s dangerous living at the bottom of the ladder,” she said as she heaved the vault door shut. “Bethesda has forbidden the Fs from fighting the other clutches even if they’re the ones being attacked, and too many dragons see that as an excuse to take whatever they want.”
Fredrick had said something similar. “I see,” he said, smiling at her. “So you let them live with you. To protect them.”
“Don’t say it like I’m some kind of idiot nice dragon,” Chelsie snapped. “It’s a matter of practicality. It was too much work protecting the Fs when they lived up top where anyone could find them, so I moved their clutch down here with me, and you areneverto say a word about it.”
“I won’t,” he promised, smiling as they passed Fredrick’s door. Not that he would ever tell her, but he thought it was incredibly kind of Chelsie to watch over the Fs, especially after what Fredrick had told him about how their clutch was treated. His sister could be as prickly as she was terrifying, but no matter how she tried to hide it, Julius knew Chelsie had a good heart. He was feeling smug about being one of the only dragons in the mountain who got to see that when she stopped in front of a door at the hall’s end.
