“It’s a much nicer word than I usually use,” Katya said with a coy smile, brushing her fingertips lightly over his folded hands. “Perhaps you are rubbing off on me, Julius the Nice Dragon?”
He must have looked like a deer in the headlights, because Katya erupted into a peal of laughter. “Relax, I’m only teasing,” she said, still giggling. “You are so ridiculous. I can’t figure out if you’re just too young to be jaded or if you’re actually shy.”
Julius decided it was time to change the subject. “Are there any remaining issues you’d like to discuss?”
She thought for a moment. “No,” she said. “No, I like this very much. It’s a cunning plan that ties our victory to our enemies’, making them fight for us instead of against. Quite an impressive bit of draconic guile from someone who claims to be a terrible dragon.”
He couldn’t tell if Katya was being sincere or not, but that didn’t stop her praise from lighting him up from the inside. After years of feeling like a fish out of water, a failure in his own skin, he’d finally done something right. And though he still couldn’t fly or eat properly or breath so much as a lick of flame, at that moment, Julius felt more like a real dragon than at any other point in his life, and it felt good.
“Thank you,” he said, standing up.
Katya stared at him like she’d never heard those words before. Of course, considering her family, maybe she hadn’t. “Thank you,” she replied, drawing out the phrase like she was testing it in her mouth. She must have liked the way it sounded, because she finished with a smile, reaching down with a napkin to pick up the spelled silver chain and drop it in her purse. “There,” she said, snapping the red clutch closed. “That’s done. Let’s go.”
Her eagerness made him chuckle. “Ready to get back to your shaman?”
“I am at no man’s beck and call,” Katya said with a toss of her hair. “Though I will admit I have become rather fond of him. Humans in love can be so adorably earnest, and he’s a mage as well.”
She said that last part with such a breathy sigh, Julius couldn’t help himself. “What’s so special about mages?”
Katya stared at him in wonder before breaking into a wicked grin. “You are so innocent I cannot believe you are real. Where have you spent your twenty-four years? In a monastery?”
Julius’s answer was to shove his hands in his pockets with a sullen glower, which only made Katya’s grin wider.
“Do yourself a favor, little Heartstriker,” she said as they walked together to the door. “Don’t rebel too hard against your family’s nature. Some parts of being a traditional dragon are very nice indeed, especially when it comes to humans.”
She gave him a wicked smile, and Julius looked away, cheeks flaming. Not because he was embarrassed by her words—or, at least, not only because of that—but because as soon as she put the idea in his head, his mind had gone straight to Marci. Lovely, talented, magical Marci, who knew he was a dragon and didn’t mind. Marci, who’d stood by him more in one day than anyone else had in his entire life, and whose soft lips he could still recall in perfect detail…
But these were thoughts he had no business having, and he put them firmly out of his mind. Life was hard enough without tempting himself with what he couldn’t have. He was too entangled with Marci as it was, but at least he could still claim their relationship was strictly business. If he took things further, she’d end up a weakness other dragons would exploit just because they could, and that wasn’t a fate he’d wish on anyone, much less someone he liked as much as her.
But all of this perfectly sensible reasoning couldn’t quite squash the surge of delighted happiness he felt when he opened the diner door to find Marci waiting for him. Katya, however, didn’t spare her a look.
“I can drive,” the dragoness said, pulling a cheap, disposable phone, the kind they sold at airport vending machines, out of her pocket. “My rental still has fifty miles before it locks down, and I don’t want to leave it in a place like this. Just tell your servant to follow.”
Marci’s eyes went wide, and Julius leapt to her defense. “She’s not my servant,” he said quickly. “This is Marci Novalli, my business partner, and I’ll ride with her if you don’t mind.” He needed to bring Marci up to speed before they got to Ian’s.
Katya looked her up and down before turning back to Julius. “Seems I’m not the only one with plans to stay in the DFZ,” she said, her singsong voice laden with innuendo.
“We’ll lead the way,” he said quickly before she could make Marci any more uncomfortable. “Just follow us. I’ll call Ian right now and let him know we’re coming.”
Katya shrugged and started down the street toward a dirty but otherwise quite nice baby blue luxury sports car parked around the corner. Julius waited until he saw her open the door and get in before pulling out his phone to look up Ian’s number. He was about to hit the call button when Marci tapped him on the shoulder.
He turned to find her bouncing nervously on her toes. “I need to talk to you.”
“Can it wait a moment? We’re heading to my brother’s, and if I don’t give him advanced warning, he’s going to skin me alive.”
He’d opened the passenger door of her car without looking as he said this, and as a result, he nearly sat on Ghost. He jumped out again when the cat hissed, glancing down just in time to see the death spirit vanish through the seats into the trunk. “Was that what you wanted to talk to me about?” he asked, settling into the now empty seat.
“No,” said Marci as she hurried around the car. “Your brother was just here.”
“You mean Justin?”
Marci shook her head, dropping into her own seat. “It was—”
A horn cut her off as Katya’s coupe pulled up beside them. “Where are we going?” the dragoness called through her open window.
Julius sent her phone the address for Ian’s penthouse. He sent it to Marci’s ancient GPS as well. The route took them straight down the dark, blocked off street Marci had directed them around on the way here, but she didn’t bother correcting the map this time. She just sat in her seat, biting her nails, and Julius decided Ian could wait a few more minutes.
“Okay,” he said, putting his phone down. “What happened?”
“I told you,” she said, her voice tense and angry as the car pulled itself out onto the dark, crumbling road. “Your brother showed up.”
“Which one?”
Marci sighed. “He didn’t give me his name, but he was tall with long black hair.”
That described most of his brothers. “Anything else?”
“He was very weird,” she said. “He just appeared on the hood of my car like he’d fallen out of the sky, and he didn’t even try to hide that he was a dragon. He also had a pigeon on his shoulder, like a pet or something.”
Julius’s stomach sank so fast, he thought it would fall right through the seat. Bob. The Great Seer of the Heartstrikers had been here, talking to Marci. “What did he say?”
“Oh, a whole bunch of nonsense about tests and crucibles and how it was too late to start over. He also told me to tell you that you should buckle up, because people die in traffic accidents.”
The words were barely out of her mouth before Julius was fumbling for his seatbelt, snapping it into place so fast he pinched his fingers.
Marci watched him warily. “Is that significant or something?”
“I have no idea,” he admitted. “But when Bob tells you to do something, you should always do it, no matter how stupid it sounds.” He glanced pointedly at Marci’s seatbelt, and she grabbed it with a sigh. “Did he happen to say what he was testing me for?”