Last Dragon Standing (Heartstrikers #5)(115)
“Actually, yes. Myron and I need to get serious about recruiting more Merlins to handle the flood of spirits, so we decided to go ahead and open up a formal headquarters in the DFZ.”
His heart began to pound. “Here?”
“We can’t exactly be anywhere else given Myron’s spirit,” Marci said with a shrug. “Personally, though, I think it’s very fitting. The DFZ always was the city of mages. Now it can be that for real. We’re actually meeting with what’s left of Algonquin’s city council tomorrow to discuss making the new Merlin Council a permanent part of the city’s governing structure. The spirit of the DFZ isn’t actually interested in running herself on a municipal level, but she doesn’t want to cede power to humans she doesn’t know, so we’re trying to compromise with a joint government between the city’s spirit and the elected officials. That way, we’ve got proper civil servants running all the normal stuff people need—trash, power grid, police, economic policies, and so forth—but the DFZ still has a say in how she’s run without having to do something crazy like swallow up city hall, which she has threatened to do.”
“I think that’s a great idea,” Julius said. “Anything will be an improvement over being left to fend for ourselves by Algonquin. Maybe we’ll actually get laws this time.”
“Don’t count on too much order,” Marci warned. “This is still the DFZ, and she values her freedoms. But I think we can strike a good balance between freedom of choice and cruel neglect.” Her face darkened. “There are parts of the DFZ none of us want to see come back.”
That was certainly true. “At least I won’t have to worry about being hunted anymore,” Julius said cheerfully. “The city can be my home for real now, and speaking of homes…” He turned to look at her. “If we’re both going to be staying here for the long term, I’m thinking we should move in together.”
Marci laughed. “But we’ve always lived together.”
“I meant for real this time.”
Her cheeks flushed as she realized what he was implying. “Oh,” she said, reaching up to fiddle with her short brown hair. “Sure. I’d love to shack up with you.”
“Actually,” Julius said, moving closer. “I was hoping for something a bit more permanent.”
He hadn’t meant to say this so soon. He couldn’t even kneel due to the stupid weakness in his legs. But Julius had learned his lesson many times now about putting things off, and it wasn’t as if he would ever change his mind about Marci.
“I was hoping you would live with me forever.”
By the time he finished, Marci’s eyes were so wide, he could see the whites all the way around. “Wait,” she said, voice shaking. “Is this what it sounds like?”
“I certainly hope so,” Julius replied, leaning his cane against the elevator wall so he could wrap his arms around her. “Because I’d very much like you to marry me. If you can find the time.”
“I have time right now,” Marci said, whipping out her phone. “There’s gotta be a twenty-four-hour license office somewhere in this city. I’ll get us an appointment tonight and—”
Julius cut her off with a kiss, holding her tight until her body relaxed into his. “It can wait until tomorrow,” he said when he finally pulled back. “I’m not going anywhere, and I’m not letting you go, either.”
“Like I’d leave before I got you on lockdown,” Marci said breathlessly, looking up at him with a lovingly dazed expression before she suddenly stopped. “Wait, is this all right? I’ve never heard of a dragon getting married. Do you guys even do that?”
“I have no idea,” Julius confessed as the elevator stopped at their floor. “And I don’t care. I’ve never been a proper dragon. Why start now? All I know is that I want to marry you, so that’s what I’m going to do.”
“Works for me,” Marci said, dragging him off the elevator and down the hall, laughing the entire way.
Epilogue
20 years later.
Alicia Williams sat on the edge of her chair in the opulent golden lobby of Merlin Tower, nervously sorting through the notes the Merlin Council had posted for mages interested in internship positions. The other half of her AR interface was covered in her credentials: her honors certification from the University of Georgia School of Thaumaturgy, a list of her extracurricular activities and personal accomplishments, including the ward against mice she’d perfected for her local food bank and the results from the one MSAT where she’d gotten a perfect score on the spellwork portion of the test. Everything was strategically arranged to make her look like the best possible candidate. The trouble was, everyone here was already the best.
Merlin Tower in the DFZ was the home of the Merlin Council and the heart of everything magically important in the world. No one got here on anything less than their A-plus game, and while Alicia had been the best back in Atlanta, she was on the world stage now. She wasn’t even sure which Merlin she was applying to intern under, but it didn’t matter. Just working in this building would be enough to get her a full ride to any grad school she wanted. She’d already passed the weed-out test and the first-round interview. All she had to do now was ace this final meeting today, and the future was hers.