“Of course I lied,” Chelsie said. “The moment I discovered I was pregnant, I ran as hard as I could, but you can’t get away from a luck dragon. Every escape I tried failed catastrophically. When they finally cornered me and dragged me back to the palace, I knew it was all over if the truth came out, so I did the only thing left that I could do: I lied my feathers off. I let him think the absolute worst of me, made sure he never wanted to see me again, and it worked. It hurt, but it worked. When he banished me, the only ones who knew the truth were Bethesda, Bob, and me. We’ve kept the secret ever since.”
Julius sighed. All of that made sense, he supposed, except, “Why did you tell Bethesda?”
“Because I had no one else,” Chelsie said with a helpless shrug. “Don’t forget, this was six centuries ago. I wasn’t Bethesda’s Shade back then. I was just a young dragon with no connections thousands of miles from home. If the Empress Mother decided to kill me, there was nothing I could do to stop her. But as terrible as she was, Bethesda was still the head of a major clan. Even in China, that was power, and I was alone and pregnant with eggs I couldn’t protect by myself.”
“So you just gave us to her?” Fredrick snarled. “Sold us into slavery to Bethesda?”
“I kept you safe,” Chelsie snapped.
“Safe?” he roared. “We’ve spent our entire lives locked in a mountain!”
“Exactly!” she yelled back. “I didn’t sacrifice to save your lives so you could be reckless with them! Why do you think I locked you up?”
Fredrick froze, shocked into silence, and Chelsie clenched her fists. “I’m happy to let you hate Bethesda,” she said, more calmly now. “She deserves it, but not for this. I was the one who asked her to seal you in the mountain. I didn’t want to, but I felt I had no choice.”
“Why?” Fredrick whispered.
Chelsie sighed. “Because Xian’s not stupid. I’d done my best to make him hate me, but if you were out there in the world being normal Heartstrikers, it’d only be a matter of time before he looked at the dates and started to wonder. Once that happened, his luck would inevitably drag everything out into the open. I couldn’t take that risk. I had to keep you secret, no matter the cost, but I swear on my fire, Fredrick, I did everything I could to make it easier on you. I served Bethesda like a dog to keep you all alive. Maybe not happy, maybe not free, but alive.”
Fredrick looked down with a curse. Julius couldn’t say anything, though at least now he understood how Bethesda had gotten such complete control over Chelsie. She’d had her children by the throat. But that was over now. Chelsie and F-clutch were free, and he saw no reason to let any of this continue.
“Is there anything else?” he asked. “Any other secrets about China we should know?”
“Nope,” Chelsie said, giving him a sour look. “Congratulations, Julius. You’ve finally ferreted out my entire sordid history.”
“So what do we do about it?” he asked, ignoring her sarcasm. “How do we fix this?”
“We don’t,” she growled. “Weren’t you listening? The only way to keep the Qilin from going nuclear on us is to make sure he never learns the truth.”
“But that’s ridiculous,” Julius argued. “No one keeps a secret forever.”
Chelsie set her jaw stubbornly. “I’ve kept this one for six centuries.”
“By keeping your children locked in a mountain!” he cried. “But there’s no putting this dragon back in the bag. The Qilin is here, and if we don’t find a safe way to deal with this, being conquered is going to be the least of our problems.”
“And whose fault is that?” she said, baring her teeth. “If you weren’t constantly prying into other dragons’ business, none of this would have happened!”
“If Julius hadn’t pried, we’d still be slaves,” Fredrick said coldly. “But he didn’t bring the Qilin here. The Golden Emperor came to save you from Algonquin, so unless you want to lay the death of the Three Sisters at Julius’s feet, you can’t blame this situation on him. Quite the opposite. If not for Julius’s efforts, all of us would have still been enslaved to Bethesda when the Qilin arrived, and you know she would have sold us out in a heartbeat. You’d have been delivered to Qilin on a silver platter the moment he landed, and how long would your secret have lasted then?” He placed his hand on Julius’s shoulder. “It’s because of your brother that you have a chance to keep this secret at all. You should be thanking him, as I do, not trying to pin blame.”
Julius looked down, face burning. He hadn’t expected Fredrick to say all that. But while Chelsie looked chastised, she didn’t look defeated. “I don’t think you appreciate just how bad this is about to get. When the Qilin finds out—”
“How will he?” Fredrick asked. “He’s already seen me. I was there in his room with Julius for an entire conversation, and he never suspected a thing. Amelia showed me how to cast the illusion that makes my eyes look green before she died. All I have to do is put that back on, and no one will be the wiser.”
“That won’t work much longer,” Chelsie warned. “It doesn’t matter how much magic you paint over it, the more you draw the Qilin’s interest, the better his luck works against you. If he suspects anything, whatever you’re using to hide the truth from him is going to break at the worst time, and then everything will come out.”
“So I’ll find another way,” Fredrick said angrily. “I can keep a secret, Chelsie. I’ve kept yours for years. Why are you treating me like I’m incompetent now?”
“I’ve never thought you were incompetent,” Chelsie said quickly. “But even with the illusion, have you looked in a mirror? For the love of fire, Fredrick, you look just like him.”
It was true. Julius hadn’t realized it until she pointed it out, but Fredrick really did look just like the Qilin. He had the same thin mouth and sharp nose, the same straight eyebrows. Add in the golden eyes and he was the spitting image of his father. Even after he returned the illusion, popping the magic back into his eyes, Julius couldn’t unsee it, and that worried him. Everything about this did.
Keeping secrets from the Qilin while he was on the other side of the world was one thing, but trying to do it when he was right on top of them felt like a losing game no matter how well they played. Even if Julius put his head down and surrendered Heartstriker tomorrow without a fight, they’d still be part of the Golden Empire. The whole point was to wrap Heartstriker in the Qilin’s luck, and once that happened, it wouldn’t matter if the Qilin went home to China or to the moon. Chelsie’s secret was bound to come out, and the more Julius thought about that, the more this whole thing felt like a fool’s errand.
“Maybe we should try something else.”
“There is nothing else,” Chelsie snapped. “How many ways do I have to explain this before you understand? The Qilin can’t learn that he has children. Ever. And the only way that happens is if those of us who do know keep our mouths shut.”
She looked pleadingly at Julius. “I’ve learned the hard way not to underestimate your ability to think outside the box, but there is no box this time. No matter how clever you get, there’s no win-win solution to a binary problem. If the Qilin finds out we’re the death of his line, we die. End of story.”
“But what if it’s not?” he said desperately. “You’re assuming the Qilin will be terminally upset when he finds out his line is broken.”
“I assume nothing,” she growled. “It’s fact. I know him.”
“You knew him,” Julius corrected gently. “But the last time the two of you talked was six hundred years ago. That’s a long time, even for dragons. I, on the other hand, just spent half an hour listening to him talk about you. I’d never claim to know Xian as well as you do. I didn’t even know that was his name until a few minutes ago. But none of that changes the fact that the dragon I met up there dragged his entire clan across the ocean against their will and his own better judgment to save you, the one he believes betrayed him the most. Any normal dragon would have broken out the popcorn an
d enjoyed Heartstriker’s fall, but not him. He knows coming here makes him look like an idiot. He feels like an idiot, but he put you ahead of his pride because he loves you and he wants you to be safe, even if it’s not with him. Those are the facts I’ve observed, and they’re why I think you’re selling him short in this. I have no doubt that he will be very upset when he learns the two of you accidentally destroyed his magical line, but you’re forgetting that the primary goal of the Qilin’s luck is to make him happy, and for Xian, happiness is you.”
He finished with a hopeful smile, but Chelsie had already closed her eyes. “Stop it, Julius.”
“Stop what?” he asked. “Trying to see his side?”
“Stop getting my hopes up,” she said, her green eyes popping back open with a resentful glare. “Maybe you don’t realize what you’re doing, but I do. You’re not ‘seeing his side’ or ‘stating facts.’ You’re spinning the truth into wild shapes with your ridiculous optimism just like you always do. You’ve gotten away with it up till now because you had a seer in your corner, but Bob’s not here anymore. This isn’t some misunderstanding you can nice your way out of. This is my life. His life.” She pointed at Fredrick. “I didn’t do Bethesda’s dirty work for six centuries to let you play dice with the children I gave everything to protect!”
“I’m not playing dice,” Julius said, truly insulted. “And I’m not spinning the truth into anything. I really do think you’ve got this all wrong because you’re making assumptions based on old information.”
“Better than speculating wildly off a thirty-minute conversation!”
Julius’s jaw clenched, and his sister looked away with a huff of smoke. “Look,” she said, gently now. “I understand you want to fix the problem. You always try to fix things. Normally, I like that about you, but there’s no fixing this. Xian’s held on to me this long because he’s a romantic, but there’s nothing stopping him from finding another dragoness and being happy. He can let go of the past anytime he wants, but even if he lives in perfect happiness for the next ten thousand years, he can never fix what we broke. Nothing can. That’s the cold, hard truth, and no amount of talking is going to change that.”
“I’m not claiming it will,” Julius said. “I’m just saying maybe that doesn’t matter as much as you think. All your doom and gloom is based on the assumption that Qilin will be so upset when he learns the truth, his luck will wipe you all out before he realizes what he’s done. But that claim doesn’t match his actions. If the Qilin really valued his line and his duty above everything else, then he would have stayed safe in China and let Algonquin eat us, but he didn’t. He came here, bending all of his luck and power and resources to the point of conquering our clan against the will of his own people, so he could protect you.”
He held out his hands to Chelsie. “If actions speak louder than words, then his are screaming from the rooftops that you are what’s really important to him. That’s why I can’t believe you when you say we can’t fix this. Because if you’re really as vital as his behavior shows you to be, then there’s no way his luck—the same luck that got you pregnant despite physical impossibility because he wanted a family with you—would let you die.”
Chelsie dropped her eyes. He could still feel her anger radiating through the room like a physical force, but something he’d said must have gotten through, because she didn’t keep arguing. Fredrick, on the other hand, was watching Julius with intense excitement. “You have a plan, don’t you?”
“I do,” Julius said with a deep breath. “A simple one. We tell him the truth.”
“I knew it,” Chelsie snarled, head snapping back up to glare at him. “You can’t leave well enough alone, can you?”
“No,” he said firmly. “Because leaving this alone will only make it worse. The truth is going to come out one way or another, but if we tell him ourselves instead of letting him discover it on his own, we have a much better chance of controlling the impact.”
Fredrick nodded. “We can break it to him gently. Soften the blow.”
“I don’t think this blow can be softened,” Julius said sadly. “If Chelsie’s right, and the Qilin’s line is truly lost forever, that’s a huge loss no matter how we spin it. But it’s not all bad.” He smiled at his sister. “You did say he always wanted children. Now he’s got twenty. That gives him something to hold on to and protect.”
“Or a list of targets,” Chelsie grumbled.
Julius slumped. “Why are you always so negative?”
“Because someone has to be,” she snapped. “Everything you’re saying sounds good in theory, but if you tell him the truth, and you’re wrong, then we’re dead. Sorry if that makes me a killjoy, but the potentially horrible demise of everyone I love puts a bit of a damper on my enthusiasm for experimentation.”
“It is a risk,” Julius admitted. “But no more of one than trying to keep this secret. We’re up against the wall either way, so why not go for the solution that would actually make things better? All we get in return for successfully keeping the secret is the chance to go through all of this again. But if we tell the Qilin the truth, and he gets past it, then everything changes. I think that’s worth the risk.”
“Easy for you to say. You’re not risking anything.” She jerked her head at Fredrick. “Ask him. It’s his life you’re gambling.”
That was a fair point, but when Julius turned to look at his brother—nephew, he realized belatedly—Fredrick looked more resolute than ever. “I believe in Julius.”
Chelsie gaped at him. “You told me last week you thought he was delusional!”
“I did,” Fredrick said. “But that was last week. Since then, I’ve seen him do the impossible. He overthrew Bethesda. He set us free. He set you free. He’s changed our clan with nothing but his will and his words. If he says the Qilin’s luck won’t kill us, I believe him.”
“You ready to bet your life on that?”
“Yes,” Fredrick said without missing a beat. “Because according to you, my only other option is to stay a secret forever. I think I speak for my entire clutch when I say that I’d rather gamble on Julius than live out the rest of our lives as Bethesda’s shame.”
Chelsie gritted her teeth. Fredrick glared right back at her, daring her to argue again. When she didn’t, Julius took his chance.
“We have to try, Chelsie,” he said gently. “And not just because we can’t keep this secret anymore. Even if it will hurt him, telling Xian the truth is the right thing to do.” He smiled at Fredrick. “They’re his children, too. He deserves to know them.”
Fredrick smiled back at him, but Chelsie just turned away, reaching up to dig the heels of her palms into her eyes. “How do you always do this?” she muttered. “How do you always convince me to go along with things I know are suicidally stupid?”
“Because you’re secretly an optimist,” Julius said confidently. “Does this mean you’re on board?”
She dropped her arms with a sigh. “What do I have to do?”
“Nothing much,” Julius assured her. “Just talk to him.”
“‘Nothing much,’ he says,” Chelsie grumbled, giving him a sideways glare. “You know, for a dragon who claims not to be greedy, you sure do have a habit of asking for the moon.”
Julius could only shrug at that, and she rolled her eyes. “Fine,” she groaned. “Fine, fine, fine. You win. I’ll talk to him. But not right now.”
Julius—who’d already started walking to the door to go back upstairs—whirled around. “Why not?”
“Because this is a delicate operation, and he’s already caused two quakes today,” Chelsie said in a practical voice. “This is going to be hard enough without him being upset before we even start. Also, I’d like some rest. I haven’t slept for more than four hours at a time since we overthrew Bethesda, and I’d rather not walk into a conversation with the dragon I’ve spent the last six hundred years avoiding when I’m too tired to string together a proper sentence.”
Conside
ring she had no problem stringing together arguments against them, that sounded like an excuse to Julius, but he didn’t call her on it. He’d already pushed Chelsie a lot today. It’d do no good to push her over the edge just when he’d gotten her to agree with him. Unfortunately, they didn’t exactly have the luxury of time. Between the Golden Empire’s takeover of the mountain and everything that had come after, the twenty-four-hour reprieve he’d won was almost gone.
“Don’t worry,” Chelsie said before he could mention it. “I’ve been stalking you, remember? I know the schedule. I promise I’ll talk to Xian well before tomorrow’s surrender.”
Julius breathed a sigh of relief. “Thanks.”
She shrugged. “I don’t want Heartstriker to be part of the Golden Empire any more than you do. Sordid history notwithstanding, I like Xian, and I wouldn’t wish Bethesda on my worst enemy.”
That sounded more like the sister he knew. “Thank you, Chelsie.”
“Don’t thank me,” she said with a wince. “This whole thing is my fault. If I’d had an ounce of sense when I was your age, none of this would have happened.”
She said that flippantly, but the moment it was out of her mouth, Julius felt Fredrick stiffen. “I’m glad it did,” the F said quietly. “Or my siblings and I wouldn’t have been born.”
“At least some good came out of it,” Chelsie said, walking toward the door. “I’m going downstairs to sleep. Call me if you hear anything from Bob, and keep an eye on—”
“Do you regret us?”
The question came out of nowhere, making Chelsie freeze. Julius didn’t dare move, either. There didn’t even seem to be a safe place to put his eyes as Fredrick stepped forward, his normally blank face so full of emotion, Julius hardly recognized him.
“You’ve always said what happened in China was a mistake,” he said, voice shaking. “We knew Bethesda didn’t want us, but I thought that you…”
He trailed off, the words crumbling, and Chelsie sighed. “You were always the sharpest one, Fredrick,” she said as she turned back around. “So I won’t insult you by lying. The day I found out I was pregnant was the worst day of my life. I thought I’d ruined everything: my future, Xian’s future, a hundred thousand years of carefully cultivated magic. Everything. That’s why I ran to Bethesda. I didn’t just need a bigger dragon to hide behind. I needed a fix for what I’d broken, and horrible as she is, my mother’s the greatest expert on dragon eggs alive. I thought if she could teach me how to change the eggs before I laid them, I could still salvage the situation. But new dragon fire catches hot and fast, and even with Bethesda’s help, I was decades too young to control it. I couldn’t even condense your fires into fewer eggs, much less the single male egg needed for a Qilin. I couldn’t do anything.”