“Don’t be stupid,” David said, pulling himself straight, though no amount of good posture could hide his too-pale face. “Of course she followed you. You flewdown here as a dragon. But Bethesda’s Shade is not a problem. Leave her to me.”
“You?” Gregory snorted. “What canyoudo against Chelsie? She’s the clan enforcer, and Julius is her favorite right now. We can’t beat that.”
“But that’s the trick,” David said as he lifted his phone to his ear. “Wedon’t have to. Chelsie was already beaten long ago, and believe it or not, this actually plays into my new plan perfectly.”
Gregory didn’t see how Chelsie’s presence could benefit anyone. But before he could ask what his brother was planning to do, David’s call picked up, and the politician’s scowling face transformed back into his usual charismatic smile.
“Hello, Mother.”
Chapter 9
Julius had never run down stairs so fast in his life. At one point he was certain it was less running and more controlled falling, but anything that got him to Marci faster was fine with him, especially now that he could scent Gregory in the stairwell as well.
That pushed his panic even higher, and he finished the final flight in a single jump, ignoring the icy brush of Ghost against his chest as he pulled Marci into a frantic hug. “Are you okay?! Did he hurt you?”
“Hetried,” Marci said cockily. “But I’m fine. Ghost and I sent him packing.” She grinned at him. “Let’s just say he won’t be messing with me again anytime soon.”
Given that he’d seen the shadows all the way up at Amelia’s, Julius had no doubt of that. The whole upper half of the mountain was probably traumatized by whatever Ghost had done to make Gregory run. As a responsible Council member, he probably should have been worried about the implications of that, but he was too relieved to care. So long as Marci was okay, all was right with Julius’s world, and the fact that she hadn’t made him stop hugging her yet only made things better. He didn’t even mind that her undead cat was still stuck between them like an angry, icy lump. So long as she was with him, he could have stayed like this forever. He was about to lean down and bury his nose in her short brown hair when he heard his brother’s heavy footsteps stop directly behind them.
“So let me get this straight,” Justin said as Julius reluctantly turned away from Marci to face him. “You”—he pointed at Marci—“and your cat”—he pointed at Ghost, who’d poked his head out right through Julius’s back like a freezing spike—“defeated Gregory,the G who made a giant show of himself yesterday by claiming that Julius wasn’t hardcore enough to run a dragon clan?ThatGregory?”
“I guess?” Marci said with a shrug. “I mean, I’d never met him before, but unless there’s another dragon named—”
Justin’s whoop of laughter cut her off. The Knight of the Heartstrikers doubled over, laughing so hard tears ran down his face. “Gregory,” he gasped. “Mr. ‘Terror of the Amazon,’ defeated by a little…a littlegirl…and her petcat.”
“Who are you calling ‘little girl?’” Marci demanded. “I’m a year older than you are! And Ghost isnotjust a cat. He’s a fearsome and powerful spirit.”
“He’sfluffy.” Justin cackled. “And Gregory’s such a pompous—” He was laughing so hard he couldn’t even finish. He did, however, manage to get his phone out of the pocket of his dark jeans, his large fingers clumsily gesturing through the floating AR display between fits of laughter.
“What are you doing?” Julius asked after Justin’s third failed attempt at…whatever he was trying to do.
“What do you think?” Justin gasped, finally getting enough of a hold on himself to actually type. “I’m tellingeveryone. I don’t care how they feel about the vote, this is too good not to share.”
“Justin!” Julius hissed, letting Marci go in a desperate attempt to snatch his brother’s phone away. “You can’t do that!” If the mountain found out about this, Gregory would be a public laughingstock, and any hope of bringing him around peacefully would vanish forever.
But even crippled by laughter, Justin was way too fast. He easily defended his phone from Julius’s attack, holding it high above his head, a good foot out of his shorter brother’s reach. “What’s he going to do? Try again?” he asked as he watched Julius jump. “Maybe Marci could defeat him with a pony next time.” He started snickering again. “A little white pony, with a pretty pink bow in its mane.”
“Now you’re insulting everyone,” Marci said, placing Ghost, who seemed to be falling asleep in her arms, into her shoulder bag. “Just let him send the message, Julius. Gregory’s a jerk who was trying to kidnap me to get leverage on you. He deserves what he gets.”
“He’ll hold a grudge,” Julius warned. “If we humiliate him, he will never let it go.”
“I think that’s going to be the case no matter what we do,” she said with a shrug. “He doesn’t strike me as the forgive-and-forget type. But so what? If he’s stupid enough to come back, Ghost and I will just scare the feathers off him again, easy peasy.”
That was probably true, but “I don’t want there tobean again. You shouldn’t be getting attacked in the first place.” And that was all his fault. Marci would never have been in this position if he’d hadn’t dragged her—
“Would you quit it?” she said, rolling her eyes. “Honestly, Julius. I canfeelyou blaming yourself.”
“Because it’s my fault!” he cried. “You just said Gregory attacked you because of me!”
“Gregory attacked me because he’s a dick,” Marci said flatly. “That’s his fault, not yours.”
Julius didn’t see how that made a bit of difference. He was so tired of Marci getting hurt because of his stupid family. He never should have brought her—
“Ow!” He jumped in the air, grabbing his upper arm where Marci had just punched it. “What was that for?”
“To make you listen,” she said, glaring at him. “You keep saying this is your fault, but you’re completely forgetting the part where Iwantedto come here. You think I don’t understand how dangerous this mountain is? Believe me, I get it, but what you don’t seem to realize is thatwe’re dangerous too. Maybe you were a weak dragon at the bottom of your clan before, but that’s not the case anymore. You don’t have to cower, Julius, and you don’t have to take responsibility for every single thing. I volunteered for this, and I think I just proved that I’m not some weak human who’s going to bring you down. Even Justin gets that. Why can’t you?”
“Hey!” Justin yelled. “What do you mean ‘even Justin?’”
