“Iwassleeping well,” Julius grumbled, rubbing his eyes. “What time is it?”
“Eight a.m.”
Julius rubbed his hands over his face with a groan. He wasn’t sure when he’d actually gone to bed, but eight in the morning wasdefinitelytoo early to get out of it. He was sliding back down into the warm blanket when Fredrick yanked it off him completely.
“Hey!”
Fredrick ignored his desperate cry, folding Chelsie’s blanket neatly over one arm instead while handing Julius a small duffel with the other. “I took the liberty of procuring you clean clothes.”
With a final, mournful look at his confiscated blanket, Julius gave up, holding up his hand for the clothes with a resigned sigh. “How did you even get in here?” he asked as he unzipped the bag. “I thought Chelsie’s room was a secret vault.”
“It is,” Fredrick said. “But Chelsie had to leave a few hours ago, so she let me in specifically to assist you. She has always been our protector. All of F-clutch owes her their lives, me especially. She knows none of us would ever betray that trust by digging into her secrets, though it seems she doesn’t feel quite the same way about you yet.”
Given how nosy he’d been last night, Julius couldn’t blame her. “Why did she have to leave?”
“I believe there was an incident between two Es.”
Julius pulled his undershirt over his head. “What kind of incident?”
“I’m not sure,” Fredrick said, taking the old shirt from him before handing him a clean one. “But it must have been quite violent for Chelsie to get involved. She generally doesn’t care about scuffles, but killing or maiming a Heartstriker is strictly forbidden for anyone save for Bethesda or her Shade. Or, at least, it is until the Council changes the rules.”
“‘Don’t kill your siblings’ isnota rule I’m planning on changing,” Julius said grimly. Still, he hated the idea of Chelsie, who’d been just as tired as he was, having to get up out of her warm bed to go police two dragons who couldn’t go one night without trying to murder each other. “Does this kind of thing happen often?”
“I’m not sure,” the dragon said. “Chelsie doesn’t talk about her work, but I don’t think it’s quite this bad normally. There’s a reason Bethesda hasn’t gathered all of her children together in one place for centuries. Dragon egos need room, and with all of Heartstriker crammed into the same mountain, tempers are running short. There’s also the chaos factor. With the clan in turmoil, there are those who see the opportunity to try and get away with schemes they wouldn’t risk otherwise.” He shrugged. “It’s a perfect storm, really, and it’s only going to get worse. I imagine we’ll be seeing a great many more incidents like this as the day goes on.”
And Chelsie will have to deal with them, Julius finished silently, standing up and making his way to the tiny bathroom to wash his face. On the one hand, he was happy that someone as responsible as Chelsie was in charge of stopping the violence. On the other, though, it was impossible to ignore how grossly unfair her situation was. Given what he knew of his sister both in general and from last night, he was positive she hadn’t volunteered to be the clan enforcer, despite how good she was at it. Even if she had asked for the job, it was way too much to ask of any one dragon to police all of Heartstriker by herself. The whole thing was a mess, yet another reason to set her free and get a new system in place as soon as the Council was up and running. And speaking of.
“Why did you wake me up?” he asked, shaking the water off his face. “Because I doubt it was to talk about Chelsie.”
“We have a situation,” Fredrick said, handing him a towel. “A special envoy from the United Nations arrived early this morning and requested an audience with the Heartstriker. Normally, we’d just tell them to make an appointment like everyone else, but one of the visitors is the undersecretary of magic, and considering the current situation with Algonquin, Frieda and I concluded it would be unwise to put him off.”
“Probably a smart decision,” Julius agreed, drying his face. “But why come getme? I’m not the Heartstriker, I suck at magic, and I don’t know anything about our relations with the UN.”
“Technically, as part of the Council, you are one third of the Heartstriker,” Fredrick reminded him. “And the Great Bethesda doesn’t rise before noon.”
Julius stared at him. “So you wokemeup on my second day as a Council member to go to a meeting I know nothing about just so Mother couldsleep in?”
“Yes,” Fredrick said without missing a beat. “The Great Bethesda is…difficult in the mornings. And your inexperience actually works in our favor. Heartstriker relations with the UN have been strained since the incident with the last envoy. A fresh face might be just what we need to defuse any lingering tension.”
His stomach sank. “What happened to the last envoy?”
“There was a disagreement over terms, and the Great Bethesda was already in a bad mood, so, well…she ate him.”
“Sheatethe envoy from the UN?”
Fredrick nodded. “He arrived early, too.”
“I don’t believe this,” Julius muttered, running his fingers through his tangled hair before Fredrick smacked them away, stepping in with a comb instead.
“I’m sure you will do just fine, sir,” he said as he began ruthlessly combing Julius’s hair. “You have a reputation for being good with humans, and until the Council vote is concluded, the clan can’t make any formal alliances anyway, so you won’t even have to cut a deal. Just find out what the undersecretary wants and delay him.”
That was easy for Fredrick to say. He wasn’t the one going to a formal meeting with the human who set the international magical policy for most of the world. Julius didn’t know how to begin to talk to someone like that. He wasn’t even certain which famous mage was undersecretary at the moment, but he knew whowouldknow.
“Hang on,” he said as Fredrick finished his hair. “I’m going to call in some backup.”
Fredrick stared after him in confusion, but when he saw Julius moving down the hall toward the room where Marci was sleeping, his green eyes went wide. “Stop!” he hissed, lurching forward to grab Julius’s arm. “You can’t bring yourhumanto an official clan function!”
“Why not?” Julius asked. “They’re human, too.” And unlike him, Marci might actually have a clue as to what was going on.
