“Is light a wave or a particle?” Bob replied with an elegant shrug. “Really, Miss Mage, you need to keep a more open mind to the inherent dualities of nature if you ever want to understand the higher workings of magic.”
That was clearly not an answer that held water with Marci. Before she could object, though, Bob turned around to look at Julius. “Where to?”
Julius blinked. “You’re asking me?”
“It’s your future,” Bob reminded him. “And in case you missed the point of that impromptu lecture, your decisions are kind of a vital element in all this. Now, where do we go?”
Julius bit his lip. He hated making snap decisions. He especially hated making them when Bob was looking at him instead of the road while operating a manually driven car. He especially especially hated making decisions under the implication that whatever choice he made would influence his entire future. “Can I think about it?”
Bob rolled his eyes. “See, this is exactly why I don’t normally tell people how the game works. You start overthinking and double-guessing and everything gets tangled in knots. Just pretend I’m not here and do whatever you think is best.”
That was kind of hard to pull off with Bob staring straight at him, so Julius turned to the window and set about working things through logically. “The last time Bixby attacked, he went big. I doubt he’ll do any less this time, especially if he thinks Marci might bring help even after he told her not to, which I’m sure he does.” He glanced back at Marci. “Do you think he could put together another army like the one at the house?”
She pursed her lips, thinking. “Not of his own men, but he’s rich and apparently dead set on making this happen. And he knows he’s dealing with dragons now, so yeah, he’s probably going to roll something pretty big.”
“Which means we’re going to need help,” Julius finished, because there was no way he could play magic battery again today. When he looked hopefully at Bob, though, the seer shook his head.
“I’m here on a strictly observational basis. Pick again.”
Julius blew out a long breath. He hadn’t been too keen on the idea of relying on Bob, but without him, their options were limited. Singular, really, but as much as he hated the idea, he couldn’t think of anyone else, and he dropped his head with a sigh. “I’m going to have to ask Justin.”
“Excellent choice,” Bob said, turning back to the road at last. “And where is Justin at the moment?”
Julius snapped his head up again. “You mean you don’t know?”
“I’m a seer, not a directory,” Bob replied testily. “Though if I had to guess, I’d say the family safe house.”
“We have a safe house in the DFZ?”
“Of course we have a safe house here,” Bob said, smiling in the rear view mirror. “Mother keeps safe houses in all the major cities as protection for those she feels deserve protecting.”
Which would explain why Julius had never heard of it. “That’s probably where he is, then. Unless he got a hotel?”
Bob shook his head. “Justin’s not allowed in hotels anymore. Too many incidents.”
Marci snorted. “I can totally see that.”
Both dragons looked at her, but she just looked back totally unrepentant, and Julius sighed. “Fine,” he said, dragging his hands through his hair, which was already standing on end after a full day of such abuse. “Safe house it is.”
“Heartstriker Safe House, coming up,” Bob said cheerfully. “Hold on.”
Before Julius could ask why, or to what, his brother floored the gas, sending the car shooting forward. Marci grabbed Julius with a yelp as the momentum launched Ghost, who’d spent the impromptu car trip hiding in Marci’s bag, straight through her chest and into the trunk. But if Bob noticed the chaos in his back seat, he paid it no mind. He just leaned over the wheel, dodging the late afternoon traffic like he was playing a racing game while his pigeon clung to his shoulder, flapping her wings for balance whenever he took a particularly sharp turn.
Svena stood in front of the mirrored vanity in the white dressing room of the penthouse suite she’d secured for her stay in the DFZ, ignoring her sister as she put on the diamond earrings Ian had sent over this morning. As bribes went, jewelry was unsubtle and a clear sign of his youth, which might have been why Svena found it thrilling. Estella, on the other hand, thought it was tacky, and she said so. Repeatedly.
“He treats you like a human,” Estella spat, not even looking up from her phone, which she’d been typing on frantically all afternoon. “Like some mortal paramour. It’s insulting and vulgar, but what more could you expect from the children of Bethesda the Broodmare? She is trash, and trash breeds true.”
“So you keep saying,” Svena replied, turning her head side to side to set the strings of diamonds glittering in the brightly lit mirror. “But if you would look beyond your superiority for a moment, you might notice that the world has changed. The Heartstrikers are no longer a minor power we can ignore. And besides”—she smiled at her reflection—“I am the elder dragon. That means Ian is my paramour, and if he wishes to shower me with gifts, who am I to stop him?”
“Your paramour,” Estella scoffed, glaring at her phone as she slid deeper into the cushions of the dressing room’s silk sofa. “The whelp son of an upstart whore whose only talents are luring more powerful dragons into her bed and breeding like a barnyard animal.”
“And yet with those two talents, Bethesda the Heartstriker has made herself the undisputed matriarch of the largest dragon clan on Earth,” Svena said, calmly adjusting the bust of her strapless dress before turning to face her sister at last. “You are a fool if you ignore that simply because you don’t approve of her lifestyle.”
“It is you who is being a fool!” Estella shouted, dropping her phone at last as she shot up from the couch. “Defending our enemies and primping in the mirror like an idiot girl for a dragon so far beneath you, I cannot even acknowledge his presence without debasing myself!”
“Who else could I choose?” Svena said, staring her sister down. “To hear you tell it, everyone is beneath the daughters of the Three Sisters. Has it never occurred to you that I might be tired of being all-powerful, dreadful, and alone?”
“Better alone than to roll about in the mud with pigs!” Estella snarled, drawing herself up to her full height. “At least I remember the fear and respect our bloodline demands. Our mothers were worshiped as gods!”
Svena turned away with a growl, snatching her hairbrush off the marble counter. This was an old argument, and it was no more likely to be settled tonight than the hundreds of other times they’d clashed over the years. “You’re overreacting,” she said, dragging the brush through her already perfect hair. “Ian is nothing but an amusement. Something to pass the time while I wait for his idiot brother to find Katya, which, I might remind you, was your idea to begin with.”
“Yes,” Estella said. “To set up the Heartstrikers! If I’d foreseen you behaving like such a tasteless harlot, I would have scrapped the entire venture and returned Katya to the mountain myself.”
“Then I guess you don’t see as much as you claim,” Svena said, slamming the brush down again. “Enough. I’ve got better things to do than stand here and listen to this. I’m going out. Don’t wait up.”
“Svena.”
Svena had already decided to ignore her, but there was an edge on Estella’s voice that made her look back. When she did, her sister was standing in front of the dressing room door, imperious as a queen. “You will not go.”