He sighed and shifted his fingers to peek at Marci, but she was still staring at him like her whole life hinged on his next words. His did too, he realized, because whether or not he managed to sort out his own mess, staying with Marci meant he was going to have to tell her the truth, and Julius wasn’t at all certain she’d feel the same way after she heard it.
“I’m not going to go,” he said, dropping his hands to face her at last. “And I’m not mad at you, either, just overwhelmed. I should have told you what I was before now, but I was afraid to, and not just for the reasons you think. ”
Marci frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Our two species don’t exactly have the best history together,” he said, trying his best not to fidget. “Most humans see dragons as either a threat to be eliminated or a power to be tamed and used, and with good reason. We deserve all the fear and mistrust aimed at us. Dragons see humans as pets at best, and you don’t want to know about the worst. ”
Marci arched an eyebrow, and Julius scrambled to add, “Not that I see you like that, of course, but I’m a little different from the rest of my family. I’m also in a lot of trouble with them right now, and I don’t know if I can protect you if they find out you’re with me. ”
“You don’t need to protect me,” Marci said, pulling herself straight. “I’m—”
“A very good mage,” Julius finished with a smile. “Believe me, I know. That’s not what I meant. ”
She still looked miffed, and he blew out a breath, trying to think how best to explain this. “Dragons think of things in terms of tools and ownership,” he said at last. “So long as you were just some random mage I hired, you were a tool, which is the safest thing to be. You don’t kill someone and then go break his hammer out of spite. Now that you know what I am, though, things are different. Even if I claim otherwise, my family will see you as my human from here out, which means when they target me, they’ll also target you. ”
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She nodded. “And since you’re in trouble, you think that’s going to happen. ”
It was practically guaranteed seeing how Justin had already told their mother that Marci was Julius’s. “That’s why I didn’t tell you. Just knowing that I’m a dragon is enough to make you a liability, and I’m not a big enough threat to keep others away if they decide not to tolerate it. It would have been a lot safer for you if we’d broken the contract as soon as I realized Katya wasn’t at that party, but I needed your help, and I—”
“And you didn’t want to leave me to face Bixby alone,” she finished, grinning.
He’d been about to say that he liked her, but if she wanted to see it that way, that was fine with him. “I’m afraid I’ve only made things worse now. You think Bixby’s bad? He doesn’t even touch the Heartstrikers. ”
Marci gasped. “You’re a Heartstriker?”
He blinked, confused. “You’ve heard of us?” Most humans didn’t know one clan from another.
“Of course I’ve heard of you!” she cried. “I was a little girl who grew up obsessed with magic and magical creatures in Nevada. The entire southwestern US is Heartstriker territory. You guys were my home team. Wait, so if you’re a Heartstriker, does that mean the Bethesda I talked to on your phone last night was the Heartstriker?”
When Julius nodded, she sucked in a breath so fast he worried she’d hyperventilate. “I talked to a great dragon!”
“You were almost killed by a great dragon,” Julius snapped, grabbing her hands. “This is what I’m trying to explain. Even among dragons, my mother is considered ruthless and prideful. She’s had humans killed for wearing the same dress as her to a party. If Justin hadn’t grabbed the phone last night, she probably would have ordered me to kill you just for daring to speak to her. I’d have had to do it, too. I can’t disobey a direct order from my mother. ”
Marci didn’t look cowed in the least, and Julius let out an enormous sigh.
“See? This is exactly what I’m talking about. Dragons and humans don’t mix. Dragons and dragons barely mix. ”
He glared hard as he said this, trying his best to frighten her into accepting just how dangerous this game was. Apparently, though, he was bad at this, too, because Marci’s face melted into a warm smile.
“It’s really sweet how you’re working so hard to scare me into backing off,” she said. “Pointless, but very sweet. You know, you’re nothing like how I imagined a dragon would be. I’d always heard you guys were cold and calculating, the sort who would stroke your hair while stabbing you in the back. ”
“Most dragons are. ”
“But not you. ”
She grinned wider as she said this, and Julius took a deep breath. “No, I’m not. And that’s why we’re both in trouble. ”
Marci’s smile faded, and Julius breathed deep again, building up his courage. Here went nothing.
“I’m a failure,” he confessed. “I’m not ruthless or cunning or any of the things dragons are supposed to be. That curse you saw on me? It was put there by my mother to seal my true form, sort of a combination test and punishment. That’s why I’m on this job, actually. I’m supposed to be proving myself as a dragon so I can earn my wings back, but seeing how I’m explaining all of this instead of just threatening to turn you over to Bixby unless you swear to serve me for eternity, I’m clearly messing it up. That’s okay, though, because I don’t want to be like that, but it’s important that you understand I’m a really, really bad dragon. The others aren’t like me at all, and when they come, I won’t be able to stop them. ”
His heart was pounding by the time he finished. It felt good to finally tell Marci the truth, but that didn’t make it hurt any less. He hadn’t realized just how much he cared about her good opinion until it was time to ruin it. But as he was bracing for her tell him she had no interest in risking her life to help such a miserable failure, Marci opened her mouth and turned his world on its ear.
“What are you talking about?” she said, utterly incredulous. “You’re a fantastic dragon. ”
Julius gaped at her, momentarily speechless. “No,” he said at last. “No, no, no. You don’t know what you’re saying. I don’t have any ambition or guile, and if someone gave me the world to rule, I’d probably try to give it back. I’ve spent my entire adult life hiding in my room playing video games and earning online degrees as an excuse to avoid my family, and if my mother hadn’t threatened to eat me, I’d still be there right now. Trust me, I am awful. ”
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Marci arched an eyebrow and lifted her hand, counting off on her fingers. “You came into town last night with nothing. Now, not twenty-four hours later, you’ve earned more money than I saw in the last six months, beaten up everything Bixby has thrown at us, and saved my life at least three times. Oh, and this was all while you were sealed, which I can only assume means you’re operating under a serious handicap, correct?”
When he nodded, she spread her arms wide. “There you go. I can’t claim to be a dragon expert, but in what world does that add up to awful?”
Julius was mortified to feel his cheeks heating. “That’s not really—”
“I mean, God, you’re a much better dragon than Justin,” she went on. “No offense to your brother, but he’s more charging bull than cunning lizard. Frankly, I’m amazed he’s still alive. ”
“Justin is very hard to kill,” Julius said, but he was only half paying attention. His mind was still reeling from the fact that someone thought he was a better dragon than Justin. Fish would start raining from the sky next. Not that Marci’s opinion would matter to a dragon, of course, but it mattered to him. An astonishing amount, actually. “You really don’t think I’m terrible?”
“Of course not,” Marci scoffed. “I mean, sure you’re a little shy, and you probably could stand to be more assertive so people don’t take advantage of your good nature, but you’re also clever and brave and pretty charming when you want to be. You don’t have to threaten to get wha
t you need. People want to help you because you’re a nice guy. I want to help you, which is why I’m not charging you another cent from here out. ”
Julius blinked in surprised, and Marci’s grin turned bashful. “I think the last day has made it pretty clear that we’re a lot more powerful together than we are apart, and I’m definitely not going to abandon you to your family just because things might get rough. I mean, you didn’t abandon me to Bixby’s men just now, and that was amazingly dangerous. You could have easily tossed me out the door and been on your way. ”
His eyes widened in horror. “I would never do that!”
“Exactly. So why should you expect less from me than you expect from yourself? You saved my life back there. The least you can do is let me try to return the favor. ”
“I told you,” Julius said, slightly frantic. “You don’t owe me for—”
“I’m not doing this because I owe you,” Marci said, sitting up straight. “I’m doing it because I want to. And because there is absolutely no way I’m letting the only dragon who’ll actually talk to me escape. ”
Julius didn’t know what to say. He’d never encountered anything like this before. Loyalty to the clan was expected, but this sort of loyalty, personal loyalty, was completely beyond his scope of experience. “You’re sure?” he said. “Absolutely sure? Because unless I pull off a miracle, I’m probably going to die tonight. ”
“Well, then I’m definitely not leaving,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest with an insulted huff. “Honestly, Julius, what kind of friend would I be if I left you to pull off a miracle on your own?”
Julius didn’t answer. He couldn’t. No thanks seemed big enough for the person who was offering to stand by his side against his family. He tried to tell himself that Marci couldn’t really know what she was getting into and he should send her away for her own good, but that argument never even had a chance, because she was right. They were much stronger together than he could ever be alone, and if he was going to have a prayer of surviving until tomorrow, he needed all the help he could get.
“Thank you,” he said at last.
“You’re welcome,” Marci replied. “And now that we’re officially partners in this, I think you should answer some questions. We have a much better chance of making it through whatever this is alive if one of us isn’t in the dark, don’t you think?”
Her transparent digging made him laugh out loud. “You never give up, do you?”
“When I’ve got a primary source trapped in the car with me?” she cried. “Never! Now, why are you in danger of dying tonight?”
Keeping family secrets was far too ingrained for Julius to risk revealing what he’d discovered about his mother’s plan to use him as the fall guy for a long shot gamble at mating her son into the Three Sisters, but he figured he could probably explain the basics. He was opening his mouth to do just that when his pocket began to buzz.
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The sound made him jump nearly out of his seat. The second he recovered, he was scrambling, digging out his phone so fast he almost dropped it. The AR came up as soon as his fingers touched the mana contacts, and his heart leaped into his throat.
It was a short, automated message. Just an address, a time stamp, and a picture snatched from a security camera of a beautiful blond woman sitting down at a booth in a diner. A woman whose face Julius now recognized almost as well as his own. “It’s her,” he whispered.
“Katya?” Marci asked, but Julius was already putting the address into the car’s GPS. The route popped up a few seconds later, and Marci’s expression grew skeptical. “Are you sure that’s right? I mean, I know she was shacking up with a shaman in the sewers, but he was still a trust fund kid. That’s not a part of town you go to if you have money. ”
“Probably why she’s there,” Julius said, breaking into a grin as the reality of what had just happened finally started to sink in. He had her. He’d found Katya, and it was only two in the afternoon. He had practically the whole day left, and while he wasn’t sure if that was enough time to pull off the plan that was beginning to piece itself together in his mind, it was way more than he’d hoped for.
He glanced over at Marci, who was busy redrawing their route manually to avoid as many of the really bad neighborhoods as possible, and his grin got wider. A lot of things were more than he’d hoped for. But thinking too much about his good fortune felt like tempting fate, so he forced himself to be serious, turning around to sit properly in his seat as he strapped himself in. “Let’s go before she changes her mind and leaves. ”
“Aye-aye, captain,” Marci said, tapping the autodrive to set the car in motion. “Now, you were telling me about dragons. ”
“I was?”
“That would be great,” she said innocently.
Serious as he’d tried to make himself, he couldn’t help chuckling. He knew better than to think Marci could be put off, though, so he gave in, sticking to the safe, practical matters—yes, he could fly, yes, dragons generated their own magic, no, he’d never eaten a person and never would, humans were horribly carcinogenic—and avoiding any of the family politics and clan secrets that could land her in real trouble. He basically pretended Chelsie was sitting in the back seat and answered every question accordingly.
Thankfully, the basics were more than enough to keep Marci interested. Good thing, too, because Julius was only half paying attention to what he was saying. His real focus was on the plan that was now taking final shape. Furtively, he slipped his hand into his pocket to check Svena’s silver chain. Even after all the rolling around during the fight, it was still there, the enchanted links as cold and magical as ever. He clutched it tight, letting out a long, steadying breath as they drove back toward the hulking shape of the double layered city and the dragon hiding somewhere beneath it.
***
Despite Marci’s warning, the neighborhood the address led them to caught Julius off guard. When she’d said it was a bad area, he’d imagined something like the housing blocks that surrounded the commuter deck Ross’s people lived under, only with more trash and drug dispensaries. This was like entering another world.
The first thing he noticed was the dark. Thanks to a quirk of skyways above, two enormous support pillars had been placed directly in the middle of the main road that ran through this part of the old city, cutting off all street traffic for eight blocks. Adding insult to injury, the two pillars had also been placed in the exact right position to block out the gaps in the Upper City that would have let sunlight down into this part of the Underground, leaving the eight-block span black as a cave even in the middle of the afternoon.
This combination of oppressive darkness and blocked streets had destroyed any chance the neighborhood had of rebuilding. Even though someone had carved out a driveable path around the north-most pillar, breaking through an abandoned garage in an effort to let in traffic, the alternate route clearly hadn’t caught on. There were no shops here, no flashing advertisements or vending machines or vibrant crowds, just a ghost town of boarded-up brick buildings that still bore the high water marks of Algonquin’s flood on their upper stories. The only building that bucked the trend was the one they were driving to.
Like everything else here, the one story diner was a relic of the days before the flood. Unlike the rest of the rotting city around it, though, this one was relatively kept up. It stood on the corner of what must once have been a busy intersection before the road had been cut off. But though its windows were clouded with dirt and the residue from decades of wax-based glass marker specials, the light that shone through them was yellow and cheerful, and more than enough for Julius to make out the slender blond woman sitting in the red vinyl booth in the corner, staring into her coffee mug like it held the mysteries of the universe.
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After searching so long, finally spotting their target felt a little like seeing a ghost. Julius had gotten so nervous during the drive over, he’d half convinced hims
elf that Katya would be long gone, yet there she was, sitting just as she’d been when the tracking program had yanked her picture off the diner’s security camera.
He held his breath as Marci parked the car on the curb right by the diner window, but Katya didn’t even look up. Tapping his pocket to make sure the silver chain was still there, Julius got out of the car and leaned down to speak through the shot-out passenger window. “Wait here. This shouldn’t take long. ”
“I hope not,” Marci said, eying the empty, pitch-black street. “Call me if you need me, and good luck. ”
He flashed her a tight smile and turned away, walking into the diner as casually as he could. An ancient string of bells on the door announced his arrival, and a voice from the kitchen yelled for him to sit wherever he wanted. Julius ignored them both, keeping his eyes locked on the diner’s only other customer.
From the moment he’d entered the building, the dragoness had given no sign she noticed his existence, but as he walked past the rows of empty booths, he could see the tension building in her shoulders. By the time he’d reached her table, she looked ready to bolt. She hadn’t done so yet, though, and Julius took his chance. “May I sit?”
She glanced up, looking at him head on for the first time, and Julius took an involuntary step back. In the pictures he’d seen, Katya’s kinship to Svena had been obvious—same white-blond hair, same snow-pale skin, same ice-blue eyes—but now that they were face to face, the differences were all he could see.
Where Svena had been perfect, poised, and deadly, everything he expected from a daughter of the Three Sisters, Katya looked awful. The pale skin beneath her eyes was marred by bruise-dark circles, and her long hair was a tangled, ratty mess pulled back in a sloppy pony tail. Sitting in the faded booth in a long sleeved t-shirt and sweat pants, clutching her coffee mug like a lifeline, she didn’t look dangerous or ancient or magical. She looked hunted and exhausted, and more than a little afraid. She was still a dragon, though, and she made him sweat through a long, weighing look before finally nodding at the booth across from her.