Last Dragon Standing (Heartstrikers #5)(16)
Such a simple ruse should never have worked on a dragon as old and ruthless as Svena, but it did remarkably well, likely because no dragon of any experience would expect to see a whelp that young in human shape. She’d probably assumed the little girl was just a snack for later, if she’d cared enough to notice her at all. A macabre thought that Julius was surprisingly willing to roll with if it kept Svena from blowing up on them again. There’d be time to tell her the truth of what Bob had done later, assuming they survived. To make that happen, though, Julius was going to need all the friends he could get.
“If it makes you feel better, Amelia didn’t let any of us in on her plans, either,” he said, stepping out of the hall to keep Svena from looking down it. “We thought she was dead too. I’m just glad we’re all happy to have her back.”
“I don’t know why you’d think it would make me feel better to know I was treated like a common fool,” Svena said with a huff. “But I suppose this does remove the cause for friction between our clans.”
Julius perked up at once. “Does that mean our alliance is back on?”
Svena considered that for a moment. “I don’t see any point in continuing my hostilities toward Heartstriker. This was entirely the Planeswalker’s fault, and she’s already sworn to pay.”
She finished with a snap of her teeth at Amelia, who rolled her eyes. “Don’t let her fool you into thinking she’s doing you a favor, Julius. Svena’s the one who freaked out and broke her oaths.”
“I did not ‘freak out’,” Svena said angrily. “I did what I thought was best for my clan given the information I had available. Now, of course, I realize I might have been overly hasty, but the laying of eggs is extremely taxing on the body. Add in the trauma of seeing my best enemy murdered in front of my eyes, and I may have… overreacted in certain decisions. But that’s all behind us. Amelia has begged and been granted my forgiveness, and now I feel it is in the best interest of both our clans to normalize relations again.”
“We’d like nothing better,” Julius assured her. “The world is going a bit crazy, and we all need our alliances now more than ever.”
“You certainly do need me,” Svena said, petting the fluffy white dragon in her arms absently. “I suppose I should call Ian.”
“He’d love to hear from you,” Julius said, smiling at Katya in relief. The youngest Daughter of the Three Sisters currently had her hands full with Svena’s other children, all of whom were fighting each other in their rush to get back to their mother, but she managed to give him a thumbs-up. He was returning the gesture when a knock sounded on the front door.
Everyone jumped. Even Raven looked perplexed, shifting his talons on the wooden banister. When Julius crept over to look through the peephole, though, the tall, black-haired figure standing on the other side was one he probably should have been expecting.
“Good evening,” the Black Reach said in a soft voice from outside. “May I come in?”
Julius had no idea. “Can we open the door?” he whispered to Marci.
“I can nudge the ward aside for a sec to let him in,” Marci whispered back, rising up on her tiptoes to look through the peephole as well. “But should we? That’s the dragon from the throne-room fight, the one you told me is actually… um…” She glanced over her shoulder at the others, who were watching the two of them curiously. “I give up. Is this still a secret?”
Julius wasn’t sure if it ever had been. He didn’t know how many dragons knew the Black Reach was actually Dragon Sees Eternity, Construct of the Future, or if it even mattered. All he cared about was that the dragon outside was Bob’s death unless he did something, which he was pretty sure he hadn’t. Other than figuring out that Bob had brought them all here together, Julius hadn’t spotted—or foiled—a single one of his brother’s plans. He didn’t want to, either. He thought getting everyone on the same page in one place was a very good idea. Certainly not something he wanted to disrupt, but he couldn’t just leave the Black Reach standing outside in the magical fallout forever.
“Open it,” he whispered.
Marci frowned. “You sure?”
“No,” Julius said. “But it’s not as if he couldn’t bust his way inside if he wanted to. At least this way we keep our ward intact and stay in control.” As much as anyone could be said to be in control when seers were involved.
That thought caused a sour feeling in his stomach, but Marci had already pulled a marker out of her pocket and started rewriting the spellwork she and Myron had scribbled all over the inside of the newly repaired front door. Half a minute later, she grabbed the deadbolt and flipped it, cracking the door open just enough to let the Black Reach into the house.
He came in silent as a shadow, brushing the glowing magic off the black silk sleeves of his ancient Chinese tunic as Marci slammed the door shut behind him. “Thank you,” he said politely.
“Who’s that?” Svena said, glancing at the Qilin. “One of yours?”
The Golden Emperor shook his head, which was a shock. As ruler of all Chinese dragons, Julius had assumed the Qilin had some sort of claim over the Black Reach as well. But Xian looked as confused by this as Svena, which, now that Julius thought about it, was the biggest surprise of all. Svena had been Estella’s closest sister. If anyone here should have known the Black Reach on sight, it was her, but she didn’t seem to recognize him at all.