“I’m sure you can,” the dragon said, taking a deep breath. For some reason, this simple action left him looking confused. Confused and angry, which Marci had the feeling was a pretty common combination for him.
“You certainly do get around, don’t you?” he growled.
She arched an eyebrow. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means you smell of both JuliusandAmelia,” he said, obviously disgusted. “I’ve never met a human who belonged to two dragons at once, but Julius isn’t much of a dragon. He already shares his power with a Council. Why not his human as well?”
Marci’s fingers tightened on the railing. Normally, she found it was good procedure to be polite to everyone she met. This went double for immortals, who tended to be prickly. But between her still-lingering hangover and the indignity of getting lost on a stairwell that only wenttwo directions, her worn-down patience was already on the edge, and this rude dragon had just crossed the last line.
“First,” she growled, “I’m no one’s human. Second, I don’t know who you think you are, but—”
“The name’s Gregory Heartstriker,” the dragon interrupted, pulling himself to his full height, which, when you added in the fact that he was standing two stairs up from her, put him at over double Marci’s own. “Terror of the Amazon. Maybe you’ve heard of—”
“Nope,” she interrupted right back. “Don’t know, don’t care. You have zero right to talk about Julius. He saved all of Heartstriker’s bacon the night before last, which includes yours. By dragon rules, I’m pretty sure that means you owe him your life. Fortunately for you, Julius doesn’t buy into your creepy debt system, so why don’t you do us both a favor and go count your blessingssomewhere else.”
That was supposed to be the end of it. Julius’s honor had been defended, and she had places to be. But as Marci turned to stomp away, the dragon grabbed her shoulder.
“Mortals don’t turn their backs on me.”
“And you do not touchme,” she snarled, bracelets flaring as she grabbed the magic from Amelia’s fire and shoved it through the bracelet containing her variation on the Force Choke, folding and bending the magic into a giant invisible hand that grabbed the dragon around the throat and slammed him into the stairwell’s stone wall.
The sudden attack surprised Marci as much as it did her victim. She hadn’t intended to fight, but dragons weren’t the only ones with instincts, and the moment she’d felt Gregory’s fingers clamp down, something inside her had bitten right back. In hindsight, attacking a magical creature that was probably ten times her size at least was probably a critically stupid idea, but it was done now. Any hesitation at this point would be seen as a weakness to be exploited. Fortunately for her, Marci didn’t feel like hesitating. She was sick of dragons looking down on her and beyond sick of hearing them badmouth Julius, who’d done nothing but try to help these losers since he’d gotten power. With the exception of Amelia and Julius, she was sick of Heartstrikers period, and after the things this one had said, she was perfectly happy to keep grinding him into the wall until he turned into paste.
Unfortunately, Gregory didn’t seem to be down with that plan. He was fighting her hold tooth and claw, shoving back on her magic with his own as hard as he could, which wouldn’t do at all. Amazing as Amelia’s magic was, it wasn’t infinite, and thanks to Ghost’s earlier gorging, her supplies were rapidly running out. If he kept fighting her like this, she’d burn through all her juice in no time, and then she’dreallybe up the creek.
The easiest thing to do would be to crush him into unconsciousness, but Julius had worked so hard on this nonviolence thing. He hadn’t even hurt Bethesda, and she’d done much worse than make insulting insinuations. Marci wasn’t about to ruin his track record now just because a dragon was being a jerk. Also, she wasn’t sure if shecouldknock him out sufficiently with the magic she had left. What really she needed was a diversion, something to make Gregory stop struggling long enough for her to make her point. So, with that, Marci flicked her hand, snatching Gregory off the wall to the empty space in the middle of the spiraling stairwell.
She still wasn’t sure where they were in the mountain, but it was quite a drop. Thirty stories at least, more than enough to seriously injure even a dragon if she kept him trapped the whole way down. Gregory must have realized this, too, because he stopped struggling. Marci smiled coldly, counting down silently in her head to the sixty seconds she thought would be sufficient to make it clear that she was a mortal to be feared before she tied the spell off and left him here.
That was the plan, at least. But she’d barely made it to twenty when an icy voice commanded,Drop him.
Marci’s eyes flicked to Ghost, who was now perched on the railing beside her, his glowing eyes locked on the floating dragon with a look of cold disdain.Do it,he ordered.He will not let us be if you spare him.
That was probably true, but Marci shook her head. Putting stuffed-shirt dragons in their place was one thing, but no matter how rude they were, she drew the line at straight-up murder. Also, she wasn’t even sure shecouldkill him anymore.
Once he’d gotten over the initial shock of being dangled helpless in midair, Gregory had started fighting harder than ever, burning through the last of her magic in the process. At this rate, Marci wasn’t sure she’d be able to keep him trapped long enough to escape, never mind holding the spell long distance all the way down. If they’d been in the DFZ, she could have grabbed a refill from the ambient magic, but the power here was so thin it was practically worthless. She was about to just release him and run while he was trying not to go splat when Ghost’s voice purred in her mind.
I have power.
Marci sighed. “Not this again.”
Why not?he asked, his glowing eyes innocent.Let me take over.I have everything we need to make sure this one never bothers us again.
She was shaking her head before he even finished. She’d heard these devil’s deals from him before, and they always turned out to be more than she wanted to pay, especially for something as stupid as this. She was out of time anyway, so Marci pulled her hand back, releasing Gregory moments before the last of her magic ran out.
“I think I’ve made my point,” she said, looking down on him with her best imitation of Amelia at her scariest while he flailed and caught the railing. “Run away, little Heartstriker, before I do wors—oof!”
Gregory leaped before she could finish, swinging himself one-armed over the railing to body-slam her into the stone stairs. For a terrifying second, Marci was crushed beneath his weight, and then his hand closed around her throat as he lifted her off the ground to pin her against the wall.
“Not so haughty now, are we?” he growled, baring his teeth as Marci beat futilely at his grip on her throat. “Your parlor tricks might keep a whelp like Julius in line, but I’m notstupid, mortal. I know how your magic works, and I can smell when you’re out, and we both know you’re very much out.”
A chill of panic shot through her, driving Marci to fight even harder, but it was hopeless. He was so much bigger than she was, and so, so much stronger. He didn’t even seem to feel her kicks. He just squeezed, cutting off her air as his fingers crushed into her throat.
“I could kill you right now,” he said calmly. “One twist, and your neck would snap like a chicken’s. The only reason I haven’t is because doing so would defeat the purpose of bothering with you in the first place.” He leaned down to grin in her face. “It’s your lucky day, mortal. In yet another example of his extreme incompetence as the head of a dragon clan, Julius has let his attachment to you become well known. Very stupid of him, but what else can you expect from a failure?” He reached down with his free hand to grab her wrist. “Let’s see how determined he is to have his vote after I send him one of your fingers, shall we?”
He bent her hand back painfully, but Marci was too preoccupied with trying to breathe to feel it. Between her panic and the dragon’s grip on her neck, the world was already starting to go dark, and to make things even worse, Gregory wasn’t the only one Marci was fighting.
Let me go!Ghost roared in her mind.I’ll bury him for daring to touch us!
