“None of that.”
Bethesda’s voice cut through the room like the Fang she was now holding level in her hands. The Fang that controlled all the others. “I told you,” she growled, narrowing her eyes at Justin. “He gets no more help.”
“I’m not helping,” Justin snarled back at her. “I’m doing my job.”
“Yourjobis to do as I say.”
“It was,” Justin said, releasing his sword. “When you were the Heartstriker. Now, you’re just another dragon.” His eyes flicked back to Gregory. “So far as I’m concerned, you’re pretty close to treason yourself by helpinghimattack the rightful clan head. But it doesn’t matter.” He folded his fist into his palm, cracking his knuckles. “I don’t need my sword to beat a weakling like him. Armed or not, I do my job, and it will be my duty and my pleasure to turn this clan traitor into paste with my bare hands.”
By the time he finished, there was real fear in Gregory’s eyes. With good reason, too. Justin lookedterrifying. Fang or no Fang, he was a massive and intimidating dragon who, now that they were standing right next to each other, Julius saw had a good two inches and fifty pounds even on a monster like Gregory. Seeing him like this, it was all too easy to remember that Justin had held his own against Conrad—famously the best one-on-one fighter in the clan—only two days ago. He hadn’t won, of course, but against a G, that didn’t matter. As a dragon or a human, Justin was a savant of violence, which meant this was going to be over very quickly if Julius let it start.
Given the trouble Gregory had caused, Julius was sorely tempted. But satisfying as it would be to watch his brother beat Gregory into a pulp, he couldn’t. Resorting to violence, however satisfying, went counter to everything he’d said since this began. But as he was opening his mouth to order Justin to stand down, Bethesda beat him to it.
“Chelsie,” she said sweetly. “Shut him up.”
Julius barely had time to process the words before Chelsie vanished. A heartbeat later, she reappeared behind Justin, her sword already flying as she sliced through the back of both his knees in one smooth stroke.
“Justin!”
The warning was miles too late. Fast as his brother was, Justin never had a chance. Chelsie’s cut was brutal in its efficiency, taking him down before he even realized she was behind him. Not that that stopped him from fighting. He fell with a roar, forcing her to jump back as he grabbed for her. When he did it again, she sliced the inside of his arm, making him bellow in pain. She took out his other arm, too, just to be sure, and then stepped back, leaving him gasping in pain on the floor.
The whole thing couldn’t have taken more than five seconds, but it felt like forever before Julius recovered from his shock to race to his brother’s side. “What did you do?” he cried, dropping to his knees beside Justin, who was swearing loudly in the middle of a terrifyingly large pool of blood.
Chelsie said nothing. Bethesda, however, was grinning wider than ever. “What she always does,” she crowed victoriously. “She enforced my will. I already told you, it doesn’t matter what you do. So long as Chelsie is mine, her sword is at all of your throats, which means I am and shallalwaysbe the Heartstriker. And as the Heartstriker, I said you would have no help, so no help is exactly what you got.”
“But he’s yourson,” Julius said desperately, pressing his hands against Justin’s arm to try and stop the bleeding. “He was your favorite!”
“Yes, well, he should have remembered that before he disobeyed,” their mother said flippantly, waving her hand. “Gregory, finish him.”
The name had barely left her lips before a blinding flash of light blossomed at the edge of Julius’s vision. That was all the warning he got before a wave of white-hot dragon fire blindsided him, blasting him off his brother and throughthe treasury’s stone wall into the empty air beyond.
***
Julius had been human for far too long. Even hurtling through the air in free fall, it took nearly a thousand feet for his instincts to kick in. When they did, though, it was with a vengeance. The change roared over him like fire, burning away his human form in less than a second. His wings shot out like arrows, catching his fall just enough to let him flip over and grab the side of the mountain with his newly formed claws.
It was still a near thing. He slid down the stone, leaving deep grooves in the mountain’s weathered face before finally grinding to a halt barely five hundred feet from the ground. He clung there, panting, as he tried to tame the rush of vertigo that always accompanied the change from human sized to dragon. He was still adjusting when he heard the beat of dragon wings in the sky above him, and he raised his head just in time to see the shadow of a much larger, orange-and-blue feathered serpent right before it launched another fireball at his head.
This time, Julius managed to get out of the way. He’d never spent much time—or been very good at—actually being a dragon, but dodging was the one combat talent he’d never had trouble with. He didn’t even have to think before he scrambled up the rock face like a lizard, using his bright-blue wings and feathered tail for balance as he took shelter under one of the mountain’s many balconies. When he was safely clinging to the underside of the jutting stone, he extended his snaking neck and peeked over the balcony’s lip to check his opponent’s position.
If he’d been fighting Justin, his brother would already be attacking him from below. Fortunately for him, Gregory wasnotJustin, and the big dragon was still exactly where he’d left him: using the thermals that blew up the mountain to float in midair directly parallel to Julius’s position under the balcony. Now that he was no longer backlit by the sun, Julius was able to get his first good look at Gregory’s dragon. But while aggressive blue-and-orange coloration was classic G, Julius hadn’t counted on just how muchbiggerGregory would be. He was literally twice Julius’s size, and while that wasn’t surprising given the age difference, the mismatch became a much bigger deal when the bigger dragon in question was the one hunting you.
“Come away from the mountain, whelp!” Gregory bellowed, his deep voice echoing off the cliff face. “It’s over. There’s no one coming to save you this time. Stop cowering in shadows and come face your death like a dragon should!”
“Since when is placidly facing death a draconic trait?” Julius yelled back, curling tighter under his cover. “Why are you even doing this? It’s not like killing me will change anything.”
“Of course it will!” Gregory roared. “You’rethe reason everything went wrong! If you’d just kept your stupid head down, none of this would have happened!”
“If I’d kept my head down, Estella would have succeeded, and we’d all be dead,” Julius reminded him, crawling to the edge of the balcony so he’d be ready to jump if needed. “Why are you fighting this so hard? Do you really enjoy being Mother’s pawn that much?”
“Better hers than yours,” the bigger dragon growled, puffing black smoke from his nostrils. “The strong rule, the weak follow. That’s the natural order of things. That’s how it’salwaysbeen. A weakling like you has no right to be at the top of that mountain!”
“By that logic, Bethesda doesn’t either,” Julius said. “She lost. But you’re notlistening. Just because something’s always been one way isn’t a good reason to keep doing it.”
“And you think your way is better?” Gregory sneered, swooping down to try and get a shot at him from below. “You think we should all benicelike you?”
“No,” Julius said, darting around to the top side of the balcony so the wall of stone stayed between them. “But I do think not every dragon has to be the same. Have you ever imagined what our lives might be like if there was a route to power thatdidn’tinvolve murdering each other?”
“It’s called culling the weak,” his brother snapped, swiping at him. But Julius was used to Justin’s speed, which was far faster, and he easily hopped away, skittering up the wall to look down at his fuming brother with something dangerously close to pity.
