When he’d heard he’d be meeting the undersecretary of magic, Julius hadn’t known what to expect, but the man who turned to greet him most definitely wasn’t it. Up until this point, every magical human Julius had met had looked the part: the mages at Lark’s party, Ross and his crazy alligator-themed everything, even Marci with her wild colors and giant, spellworked plastic bracelets. This man, on the other hand, looked like a banker. An extremely conservative one, with his somber suit, dark-gray gloves, and polished leather shoes. He also lookedold. Remarkably so for a mage. Like most dragons, Julius was terrible at guessing human ages, but going by the gray in his neatly trimmed beard, he put the man in his fifties, which, given that magic had only been back for sixty years, made him a first-generation mage.
Even Julius, who knew embarrassingly little about human magic, knew that was impressive. Unlike Marci’s generation, who’d grown up with magical schooling all the way to the university level, first-generation mages had had to figure out everything on their own. They also had a very low survival rate since all the magical practices that were now banned as too dangerous had gotten that way from first-gen mage accidents. These two factors combined meant you almost never saw a mage over forty in a position of power, but despite his dull clothes, this man radiated power like heat. Everything about him—from the way he stood perfectly at ease despite being one of only two mortals in a room full of magical predators, to the measuring look in his gray eyes as he examined Julius from head to toe—projected the sort of absolute confidence Julius normally saw only in other dragons. But while all of that was definitely noteworthy, what really threw Julius for a loop was the woman standing at his side.
Julius had never seen two humans who looked more opposite. Where the mage was old, graying, and pale, the woman standing next to him was stocky, dark-skinned, and seemingly ageless. She also dressed in a somber, expensive suit, but unlike the banker mage beside her, the woman wore hers like armor, an illusion that was only enhanced by the obvious outline of muscles beneath her tailored sleeves. Even her hair, which was thick and jet black, had been braided away from her face in narrow, military-precise rows, while her dark eyes dug into Julius like claws, assessing and weighing his prowess and threat as efficiently as any dragon. Neither human looked or smelled the least bit afraid, and Julius had to quickly remind himself that he was the apex predator here as he stepped forward to greet his guests.
“Welcome to Heartstriker Mountain,” he said, holding out his hand. “I’m Julius Heartstriker.”
The woman’s sharp gray eyes grew sharper. “Julius Heartstriker?”
As always, the emphasis on the J at the start of his name made Julius sweat, but Justin was already on it. “One of the three members of the new Heartstriker Ruling Council,” he said sternly, standing beside Julius like an attack dog. “Usurper of Bethesda.”
Thatgot the humans’ attention. “We’d heard there’d been a coup, but we didn’t know the details,” the woman murmured, looking Julius over with a new eye. “I suppose that makes you the dragon to talk to, then?”
Before Julius could explain it wasn’t quite that simple, she grabbed his still offered hand in a crushing grip. “I’d hoped to talk to Bethesda herself, but if you can make decisions, that’s good enough. I’m General Emily Jackson, head of the United Nations Magical Disaster Response Force. I’m sure you already know my associate.”
She glanced at the mage, who didnotoffer Julius either of his gloved hands as he introduced himself. “Sir Myron Rollins,” he said in a genteel voice that sounded straight out of a BBC period drama. “Royal sorcerer of Great Britain, chair of Tectonic Magic at Cambridge University, Master of Labyrinths, and undersecretary of magic for the United Nations.”
That wasquitethe list of titles, but Julius had grown up surrounded by dragons who collected epitaphs like baseball cards, and he knew from experience that anyone who greeted you with their full list was someone with a dangerously high opinion of themselves. This, in turn, gave him a much lower opinion of the mage. He was far more interested to find out the seemingly young-looking woman beside him was actually a general. Given her bodybuilder’s physique and aggressive stance, he’d assumed she was a bodyguard. Clearly, however, she was no such thing, which meant they hadtwohigh-ranking UN officials and zero staff in the room, a fact that made Julius more nervous than anything else yet. He might not know much about human politics, but anything that got multiple bigwigs to visit you unannounced, in person, and without their entourages was probablyveryserious business.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you both,” he lied, turning to Katya, the only one in the room he was actually happy to see. “What did I miss?”
“Nothing much,” she replied, eyeing the humans. “I hope you don’t mind my butting into your meeting, Heartstriker, but when I heard the Phoenix was in the mountain, I couldn’t go before I’d seen her for myself.”
He blinked in confusion. “Phoenix?”
“Didn’t you know?” Katya said, eyeing the general coldly. “General Jackson is quite famous. She’s the head of the UN’s anti-dragon unit, among other things.”
That explained a lot. “So why are you called the Phoenix?” he asked, turning back to the general.
The human started to answer, but Katya beat her to it. “Because no matter how many times you kill her, she always comes back,” the dragoness snarled, baring her teeth in an uncharacteristic show of aggression. “You were the one who killed Illiria, Dragon of the Dalmatian Coast.”
“My team did take down a dragon with that name,” General Jackson replied without blinking an eye. “She was terrorizing towns all over the Eastern Mediterranean and demanding tribute. That sort of behavior might have flown a thousand years ago, but these days, we call it extortion. Illiria was warned multiple times, and when she refused to correct her behavior, we had no choice but to take action.”
“No choice,” Katya repeated, turning to Julius. “Illiria was a dear friend of mine. Old fashioned, perhaps, but very loyal. She hid me from Estella several times. I was most upset to hear of her death.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” the general said, not sounding sorry at all. “But even dragons are not above the law. My organization does not discriminate amongst threats. Our mandate is to protect the basic human right to a peaceful existence without being threatened or, in this particular case, burned alive by a rogue dragon. If you have an issue with that, you may file a formal complaint with the UN general council.” Her lips curled into an odd smile. “You wouldn’t be the first.”
Katya stiffened, and Julius decided he’d better cut in before the whole “burned alive” thing happened again. “You didn’t come to Heartstriker Mountain to kill any of us, I hope?”
“No,” the general assured him. “Quite the opposite. Our mission today is one of peace and, hopefully, successful alliance against our mutual enemy.”
Julius could think of only one enemy big enough for that broad a categorization. “You mean Algonquin.”
The general nodded. “As I said, we do not discriminate between threats. My division was created to protect human populations fromanysupernatural threat, and as the only spirit to ever destroy and then take over an entire city, Algonquin has been on our radar for a long time. Until recently, though, the situation was deemed stable, but now that she’s executed the three most powerful living dragons and declared war on the species, things are different.”
“I’m surprised you care,” Katya said, crossing her arms over her chest. “Last I heard, you were the human assigned to take down my mothers when they rose. Not that I would have stopped you, of course, but for you to claim their deaths are what spurred you to action smacks of insincerity. You’re just a human. Wouldn’t your life be easier if spirits and dragons took each other out?”
“It would,” the general said. “But it’s not that simple.” She turned back to Julius. “When elephants fight, the grass gets trampled. As the clan controlling all of the territory surrounding Algonquin’s land, the Heartstrikers are her obvious next target. If the two of you were to go to war, all of North America would be in danger of being dragged into the conflict. As someone whose job is specifically to defend the common people from magical threats, that’s not an outcome I can tolerate.”
“And so you’ve come to make an alliance with us against her,” Julius said. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
The general smiled. “My thoughts exactly.”
That actually made a great deal of sense, but there was something about all of this that didn’t sit right. “So why the rush?” he asked. “I’m new to this, but I’m pretty sure generals and undersecretaries don’t rush off to make treaties in person at eight thirty in the morning unless it’s an emergency.”
“Then we clearly have different definitions of the term,” Sir Myron said, speaking up for the first time. “Because I would count Algonquin’s simultaneous slaughter of the three most magical dragons in the world using a previously unknown magical weapon of mass destruction asquitean emergency. But you are correct, Heartstriker. There is another reason we came here in person, and I’m guessing it’s why she”—he nodded at Katya—“is here as well.”
Katya stiffened, and the mage smiled, pulling off his glove to reveal an entire handful of thick, steel rings engraved with intricate, maze-like patterns that positively reeked of magic. “I am not like other human mages,” he said, spreading his fingers. “Being self-taught, I have none of the usual limitations of spellwork or circles. I have learned to feel and use magic according to its natural shape, and the shape of your magic, Katya of the Three Sisters, is missing a very large piece.”
