He lay in the dark with his eyes open, trying not to listen for Marci moving on the other side of the wall, trying not to think about the possibilities that kiss opened, or how badly he’d bungled them, trying not to think at all. Unfortunately, his brain refused to shut up. Two hours later, he was still wide awake and buzzing with nervous energy. So, since sleep was clearly impossible, Julius got up, stripped off his new shirt and jeans, and dropped to floor in a plank position to set about trying to recover the ground he’d lost during seven years of hiding.
Thirty minutes later, he was panting like he’d never done a day’s work in his life. If Justin had been there, the I-told-you-so’s would have gone on for a month, but at least the lack of oxygen stopped his brain’s constant obsessing over kissing Marci.
Mostly, anyway.
One of the nice things about being a dragon was that, with a little food and effort, you could recover just about any amount of lost ground. It would take a lot more than one morning’s work to get his speed and endurance back to where it had been when Justin had moved out, taking all of Julius’s motivation to stay fit with him, but six hours, multiple exercises, three more calls to room service, and one power nap later, Julius was showing marked improvement.
By the time noon rolled around, he’d actually managed to get back enough speed to pull off his favorite trick of alclass="underline" pouring out a full cup of water and then dropping down fast enough to catch it in the cup again before the stream hit the floor. Of course, back when he and Justin were in their prime, they’d done two cups at a time. Justin could probably do three by now, but one definitely wasn’t bad, especially considering where Julius had started, and he felt quite accomplished as he grabbed an armful of towels from the closet and set to work mopping up all the spilled water from the practice runs off the bathroom floor.
He’d started exercising as a way to get his mind off Marci. Now, though, Julius was genuinely glad he’d done it. He hadn’t thought about it in years, but for a while there, he’d actually been the fastest dragon of his age group. Even faster than Justin, who’d been the undisputed king of J clutch from the moment he’d hatched. Back then, he’d actually wondered if his speed was a sign of true talent. His mother, however, had been quick to knock him back down, pointing out (correctly) that the only reason Julius had gotten so fast was because he spent so much time running away. By that point, all of his siblings had discovered other, more subtle ways to torment him anyway, so he’d traded running for hiding, and his speed had correspondingly fallen off.
Julius didn’t feel much like hiding now. For the first time in his life, things actually seemed to be going his way. Not only had he gotten his reflexes back to a respectable level, but he was closing in on Katya. True, the trace he’d bought from his old guildmate hadn’t turned up anything yet, but it was still early for a dragon who’d gone on the run late last night. She was probably still asleep wherever she’d gone to hide. Eventually, though, she’d wake up, and the moment she used her phone to buy anything, he’d be able to find and talk to her at last. He still wasn’t sure what he was going to say, but he was absolutely certain he wouldn’t use Svena’s chain on her, and reckless as it was, that made him happier than he’d been in a long, long time. And then, of course, there was Marci.
His eyes flicked yet again to the door connecting their rooms. He’d practically memorized the woodgrain by this point, but while Julius knew for certain he’d made a mess of things earlier, he was just as sure now that he could fix it. After all, Marci was a reasonable, clever, practical human. Surely once Julius explained that he hadn’t been rejecting her when he broke their kiss, she would understand. She might even kiss him again, which was definitely something to look forward to.
That happy thought was enough to send his already soaring optimism through the roof. He actually started whistling as he mopped the last of the water off the tile. When he was done, he tossed his sopping towel into the bathtub and grabbed a fresh one to dry himself. He was still toweling off his hair when his phone began to ring.
It was a sign of how crazy his good mood had made him that his first guess was that it was the tracker calling in at last with Svena’s location. A hope that fizzled when he walked over to the bed where he’d tossed his phone to see Bethesda’s name shining up at him from the screen.
Fast as it had risen, his optimism took a nose drive straight through to his feet. It was such an intense reversal that, for a moment, Julius seriously considered not answering. But ignoring Bethesda was practically begging for disaster, and so, wrapping the tattered remains of his good mood around him like a blanket, he grabbed his phone and lifted it to his ear with a deep breath.
“Good morning, Mother.”
“Try afternoon,” she said, the disdain in her voice so ingrained it was almost lazy, like this was her default setting and she just couldn’t be bothered to put in the energy for anything more. “Really, Julius. Sleeping in is a luxury reserved for those of us who’ve done something with our lives.”
“Actually, I wasn’t sleeping,” he said, draping the towel over his bare shoulders. “I was working on the water glass trick. You know, the one Justin used to make me do? He reminded me last night that I’ve been slacking, and since I’m out of the mountain now, I figured I’d better get back in shape.”
There was a moment of stunned silence. “Julius,” his mother said at last, drawing his name out into something between a growl and purr. “Is this some kind of shock left over from your little adventure last night, or have you finally learned how to lie?”
“Neither, I hope,” he replied. “I just thought it was time I started taking more responsibility for myself.”
“Really?” Bethesda said, her tone loading the word with so much skepticism he was surprised it didn’t collapse. “You’ll forgive me if I have trouble believing that after the hissy-fit you threw last night, begging Ian for money and generally making a spectacle of yourself.”
Julius winced. Of course his mother had heard about that. Bethesda heard everything. “Yes, well.” He stopped to clear his throat. “I followed Ian’s advice and took initiative. Justin came to help, too, and together we turned things around. Now I’m just waiting for my lead to come in and, barring disaster, this Three Sisters business should be finished on time.”
He paused, holding his breath as he waited for—not a compliment, of course, since it wasn’t the end of the world—but some sort of acknowledgment of his lack of failure. He might as well have been waiting for his mother to announce she was starting a charitable institution, because all Bethesda said was, “Oh, so you’ll have everything tied up by tonight, then?”
Julius started to sweat. Like the rest of his family, he’d learned never to give his mother a deadline. The moment Bethesda had a date, it became an iron-clad requirement you were expected to meet, preferably beat, at all costs. But then, Ian had already demanded Julius find Katya today, a fact that his mother almost certainly knew, which meant this whole line of questioning was nothing but a tactic to intimidate him. It was a classic Bethesda maneuver, and the fact that he’d actually seen through it ahead of time for once made Julius feel almost confident.
“I told Ian tonight,” he said. “Therefore, I’ll have it done tonight.”
His mother chuckled, a cold, light sound. “My, my, so self-assured. Did I call the right son?”