“It’s called waste,” he said, shaking his head. “By your logic, anyone who loses is worthless, but losing is part of life. No one wins every single fight. Losing is the price for trying, and it’s nothing to be ashamed of. It definitely shouldn’t be punished with death.”
“So we should embrace the losers, then?” Gregory growled. “Exalt the weak?”
“Why does it have to be so black-and-white with you?” Julius huffed, frustrated beyond belief. “I’m not saying we should exalt the weak any more than I’m saying we should cull them. I’m saying that we’re all weak and strong in different ways, and that our clan as a whole is stronger when we work together to match those strengths and weaknesses in useful ways rather than throwing away any dragon who doesn’t fit our narrow definition of ‘strong’ at the time. It’s not that complicated.”
Gregory bared his teeth, but Julius just dug in deeper, sinking his claws into the stone as he leaned out to glare at his murderous brother head on. “We’re all on the same team!” he yelled. “Every dragon is a long-term investment, but Bethesda’s been throwing us away for short-term gain. Any investor will tell you that’s a stupid strategy. Just think how much stronger our clan would be if Mother hadn’t lostallof her first two clutches except for Bob and Amelia when she overthrew her father. Or for that matter, how much better positioned we would be if Amelia had stayed here and worked her magic forusinstead of having to constantly flee to other planes to avoid being murdered by her paranoid mother.” He shook his head. “We’ve wastedso muchfollowing your kind of strength, and for what? A giant clan that needs the constant threat of violence just to keep functioning. How is that strong?”
Gregory’s answer to that was to shoot another fireball at Julius’s face. This close, it was much harder to dodge. He still managed to scramble out of the way, but he lost his grip on the stone in the process, falling off the wall before he caught himself with his wings.
That must have been what Gregory was waiting for. The moment Julius was clear of the mountain, he filled the air with his fire, forcing Julius to flee farther and farther from the mountain’s shelter. But while Julius had never been the strongest or most graceful flier, he was still the second fastest in his clutch after Justin. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to keep him ahead of Gregory’s attacks. A fact that seemed to be driving his brother into a frenzy.
“Hold still!” he roared, clawing the air in a vain effort to grab Julius’s tail. “Don’t you get it? You’re alreadydead. A puny whelp from the bottom of a clutch of puny whelps. You have no chance of beating me, and no one is coming to save you.Look.” He jerked his head back at the mountain, which was now terrifyingly far behind them. “The whole clan has turned out to watch you die, and not a one of them is going to lift a claw to help. You’ve lost, Julius. Give up.”
Julius couldn’t actually see into the mountain’s dark windows with the sun glaring in his face, but he knew Gregory was telling the truth. As always, he couldfeelthe dragon eyes on him, watching his every move with that cold calculation every dragon except him seemed to master instinctively. But the realization that he was being watched didn’t have the effect Gregory intended.
Up until this point, Julius’s main concern had been not dying. Now that he had an audience, though, mere survival was no longer enough. This was the exact scenario he’d been desperately trying to convince all those watching dragons was wrong. If Gregory beat him, they would all see that mightdidmake right. If he lost now, the push for the Council would crumble, and all his work, all the pain and suffering he’d put everyone through, especially Marci, would be lost with him.
With that realization, Julius’s survival panic faded. The fight-or-flight urge was still there, still pounding in his chest, but it was no longer the dominant instinct, because for the first time in his life, Julius wanted towin. He wanted to show the world that he wasright, that everything he’d been saying wasn’t just platitudes and hot air. If he was going to prove that compromise and working together actually was superior to the usual dragon violence, then he had to step up and do it. Right here. Right now. And that couldn’t happen if he was fleeing for his life.
That truth hit him like a punch, and as it landed, Julius stopped running. He whirled in mid-air, checking his mad dash with a beat of his wings before turning around to calmly face his brother, who’d stopped as well.
“What are you doing?” Gregory growled suspiciously.
“What you asked,” Julius replied. “I’m holding still.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m done running,” Julius said, lifting his head proudly.
“So you’ll fight?” he asked, his green eyes lighting up eagerly.
Julius shook his head. “I’m not going to fight you.”
Gregory looked more suspicious than ever, not that Julius could blame him. If he’d been in Gregory’s position, he wouldn’t have believed him, either. But he was telling the truth, and if this was going to work, he had to make his angry brother believe it.
“I’m not trying to trick you,” he said solemnly, lifting his forefeet and retracting his front claws in a clear display of non-aggression. “But I won’t fight you, either. You’re my brother, and family shouldn’t have to kill each other. That’s the whole reason I set up the Council. Because situations like this are stupid, wasteful, and wrong, and we shouldn’t be forced into them.”
“I think you’re missing the point,” Gregory growled. “No one’s forcing me to kill you. Iwantto kill you.”
“Why?” Julius asked, looking at him green eye to green eye. “You didn’t even know my name two days ago. Now you’ve quit the clan just for a chance to murder me, and you honestly believe you did it because that’s what you want? That all of this”—he gestured down at the watching dragons, who were now clearly visible on the crowded balconies— “is a personal vendetta?”
“What do you know?” Gregory roared. “You ruined everything! We were strong until—”
“We weren’t strong,” Julius said. “We wereafraid. Of each other and Bethesda. But we don’t have to be that way anymore.”
“What do you know? You’re still a child,” Gregory snarled, snapping at Julius, who dodged out of the way. “I thought you weren’t fighting.”
“That doesn’t mean I’m going to stay still and let you bite me,” Julius said, righting himself.
“So what are you going to do?” Gregory sneered. “Dodge?”
“That’s one part,” Julius said. “But I’m also going to talk to you, because even though you’re not acting like it right now, I know you’re an intelligent dragon, and intelligent dragons don’t allow themselves to be used and manipulated for others’ power.”
That must have hit closer to home than Julius had intended, because the moment the words were out of his mouth, Gregory exploded. He opened his fanged mouth with a roar, blasting the sky in a wall of fire that blackened the tips of Julius’s feathers before he could dart away.
“You can’t dodge forever!” Gregory bellowed, diving after him with another ball of flame. When Julius avoided that one as well, his brother seemed to lose all patience. “This is disgraceful! Damn you,fight back!”
“No,” Julius said again. “I told you, I won’t—”
