The blue eyes smiled at her from the empty helmet, and the wind died as fast as it had risen, taking him with it. Seconds later, the terrifying ghostly soldier had collapsed back into a ghostly, fluffy white cat.Tired,he said, yawning.
“Poor baby,” Marci cooed, leaning down to scoop him up. “Thank you for helping. You did good.”
I will always help you,the cat whispered in her mind, his eyes closing.You are mine and I am yours. When all others have forgotten, I will remember. Always.
Yet again, the promise struck her as equal parts sweet and creepy. She knew it came from a good place, though, and Marci hugged her spirit tight, kissing him on the cold, soft patch of fur between his ears just as Julius burst through the door a few floors above them.
***
In another part of the mountain as far away from the stairwell as possible, a newly human and very naked Gregory burst into the large storage closet where he’d intended to stash Julius’s mortal. He stood there panting for a moment, and then he threw himself at the supply bag he’d left in the corner. He was still rummaging through it for something to wear when a disappointed voice spoke from the doorway behind him.
“Never send a G to do a dragon’s job.”
“Shut up,” Gregory growled, grabbing a pair of pants and shoving his legs into them as fast as he could. “You didn’t tell me she had a spirit.”
“It shouldn’t have mattered,” David replied, closing the door. “Aren’t you the Terror of the Amazon?”
Gregory sneered and kept dressing, and the older dragon’s eyes narrowed. “You had one job. You owe me much, Gregory. I’ve covered up your failures in Brazil for a century now, and all I asked in return was that you keep this vote from moving forward and Julius under control.”
“It’s not that simple,” Gregory snapped, finally turning to face him. “You told me to go for his human so we wouldn’t have to worry about his Fang, but you didn’t say anything about that…thatthing.” Just the memory of the cold shadows made him shudder, and Gregory shook his head. “We miscalculated. That girl isn’t Julius’s weak spot. If anything, it’s the other way around. I don’t even know what a mage like that is doing with a whelp like him. She’s got Amelia’s smell all over her.”
“The Planeswalker is famous for her humans,” David said with a shrug. “She probably loaned her to Julius to help him, becauseeverybodyhelps the Nice Dragon.” He bared his teeth. “I swear, the universe itself bends over to protect his delusions.”
“Maybe it does,” Gregory said. “HeisBob’s pet project.”
“Brohomir is insane,” David replied dismissively. “Has been for centuries. Don’t waste your time worrying about him. If the human girl won’t work, we’ll just have to find a new way.”
“Why?” Gregory demanded, turning on his brother. “Why are you even doing this? Just have the stupid vote. I still don’t understand why you told me to stall it in the first place. Even with Ian’s new support, he doesn’t have enough votes to beat you. Just call it and let this be done.”
“And that’s exactly why I’m not calling it,” David said, looking down his nose at his overgrown brother. Quite the feat considering how tall Gregory was. “I can win this silly little popularity contest any time I choose, but that’s not the point. Thepointis that this Council shouldn’t be happening in the first place. If Julius’s vote goes smoothly, even if it goes tome, the clan’s going to start thinking the new system works. They’re going to accept this as the new way, which means I won’t have to beat Ian and his J brigade once. I’ll have to do it every five years for the rest of our lives. That’s a lot of work, Gregory, and worse, it gives the ambitious ones ideas. If they start listening to Ian and thinking this Council is their ticket to power, they’ll never go back into their rightful place on the bottom.”
“So just dissolve it,” Gregory said, frustrated. “Win the vote, get on the Council, and—”
“Of course I’m going to dissolve it,” David snapped. “That’s always been the plan. But I’m not wrecking things until I’m sure I can do better. Bethesda’s already offered me Amelia’s position as heir, but only if I make sure this Council dies and stays dead. That’s a tall order with Ian and Julius filling the lower-alphabet’s heads with dreams of power. If I’m going to stomp this foolishness down for good, it’s not enough to win a vote by a landslide. I have to prove that the entire concept of voting in a dragon clan leads to nothing but chaos and disaster.”
“That shouldn’t be hard,” Gregory said. “We’re already boxed up in this mountain like starving lions. A few more days, and there won’t be a Heartstriker left who isn’t at someone else’s throat.”
“Exactly,” David said with a smile. “For all her other flaws, Bethesda understands her children very well. She knew we’d fall on each other like dogs, and the longer we stay like this—trapped together, unable to move forward, leaderless—the lower everyone’s opinion of Julius and his ill-advised changes will sink. Even the Js will start to lose faith as they get picked off by larger dragons, because good as she is, Chelsie can’t stop everything.” He grinned wide. “By the time I actually allow the vote to take place, our family will be so desperate to go back to how things were, they won’t make a peep. They’ll welcome the dissolution of the Council and Bethesda’s return to power with open arms, and Mother will owe it all to me.”
“And you’ll oweme,” Gregory reminded him with a greedy grin. “I’m the one who stopped the vote.”
“And failed at everything else,” David growled, rolling his eyes. “But I suppose you can take comfort from the fact that you’re not the only one. The last twenty-four hours have been a carnival of failure. You’d think killing the smallest dragon in the mountain would be easy, but between Chelsie and that surprisingly observant idiot Justin, we haven’t managed to take so much as a feather off Julius’s obnoxious snout. Now you’ve let his human—”
“I already told you that was not my fault!” Gregory roared. “That girl has a monster with her! You weren’t there. You didn’tsee—”
“Make excuses all you like, it’s still failure,” David said. “Fortunately for you, I’m still on the ball.”
Gregory’s scowl turned into a grin. “You have a plan?”
“I’m a politician,” David said. “Ialwayshave a plan. You won’t like it, but there’s no way you can fail this time.” A smile spread over his face as well as he reached for his phone. “It’s time to call in the big guns and permanently solve our—”
He froze, his hand stopping midway into his pocket. A second later, Gregory felt it, too: a cold stab of cringing, instinctive fear that cut right to his gut moments before Chelsie stepped out of the shadows between them.
She didn’t say anything. Didn’tdoanything except stand there staring at them with her killer’s eyes. Then—slowly, languidly—she lifted her black-gloved hand and extended one finger, wagging it back and forth.
That was it. Just the silentno, no, noof her moving finger, and then she was gone, vanishing back into the deep shadows of the windowless room like smoke on the wind. When the last of her faint scent was gone, Gregory’s legs gave out, and he collapsed to the ground like a dropped puppet.
“That’s it, then,” he said quietly, reaching up to wipe the fear sweat from his forehead. “If she knows, it’s over.”
