Last Dragon Standing (Heartstrikers #5)(29)
“Yeah!” Marci said, her face lighting up. “This is our world! We say who lives and dies around here. I’m not a fan of letting Bob put my future on rails, but I’m a big fan of avoiding the end of the world, and I think Julius makes a very good point. We’ll never get anywhere new if we keep playing by the same old rules.”
“Took the words right out of my mouth,” Amelia said with a grin. “These are crazy times, and crazy times call for crazy plans, not the same old hard line. Isn’t that right, Chelsie?”
Julius jumped. He hadn’t even realized she was there, but the moment Amelia said her name, Chelsie appeared beside them. She had a long piece of broken metal in her hands that she was holding like a sword, and her face was a sour scowl, as though she couldn’t believe it had come to this.
“Don’t take this the wrong way,” she said, shoving her way past Amelia to stand in front of Julius. “I’m not on Brohomir’s team, and I refuse to participate in the hell he calls a future, but I owe Julius more than can ever be repaid.” She pointed her makeshift sword at the Black Reach. “If you swing at him, I will swing first, assuming Fredrick doesn’t beat me to it.”
The words weren’t out of her mouth when a cut opened in the air directly behind Dragon Sees Eternity, and the familiar curved blade of a Fang of the Heartstriker slid through the hole to rest on the construct’s back. A heartbeat later, Fredrick followed, stepping through the portal he’d made with the confidence of someone who’d been doing this for decades rather than a day. It wasn’t until he slid the edge of his Defender’s Fang up to the construct’s neck, though, that Julius finally realized what was going on.
Dragon Sees Eternity was completely surrounded. Everyone facing him was doing so for their own reasons, but, like a triggered trap, the moment the Black Reach had turned his claw on Julius, all their disparate elements—dragons, humans, spirits, even the Qilin, who’d moved in to support Fredrick—had suddenly snapped together into one powerful whole. Even Svena and Katya had stepped forward, though Svena mostly seemed to be trying to keep her little sister in place. Ghost was there as well, his grave-cold magic filling the air to bursting as he prepared to fight at Marci’s command.
If it hadn’t been so terrifying, the joy of seeing everyone working together for his sake would have made Julius cry. But while he was fighting back emotions, the Black Reach didn’t seem bothered in the slightest. He wasn’t even looking at the deadly force surrounding him. He was just standing there, staring at Bob with a sad, sad look.
“Is there no depth you won’t stoop to, Consort of a Nameless End?” he asked bitterly. “You’ve built something truly amazing, a web of real connection built on trust and friendship instead of fear. You could change the world with power like this, and you’re throwing it away on a desperate, selfish bid to save your own skin.”
“Am I?” Bob said, letting go of Julius as he rose to his feet.
“That question insults us both,” the construct said irritably. “You know as well as I do that I can kill everyone here. Your forces are children, not even in their mid-thousands. I am a weapon forged from the combined magic of the greatest dragons of our old world. My fire could consume all of theirs without even noticing.”
That sounded suspiciously like bluffing to Julius. The Black Reach had the advantage in age and power, but there was only one of him versus a lot of them. To his surprise, though, Bob nodded rapidly.
“You are stupidly powerful,” Bob agreed. “No living dragon can challenge you, but that’s the most beautiful thing about this. We don’t have to beat you.”
The Black Reach arched an eyebrow. “How did you come to that conclusion?”
“From you,” Bob replied, leaning closer. “You were the one who taught me that the future is never set, old friend, but you wouldn’t know it from how you act. We seers get so focused on what’s ahead, we often forget that the most important decision is the one right in front of us. We forget that we make decisions too. We are part of the stream of time same as everyone else, and just as you told me only minutes ago that I could still choose to change my fate, you have a choice as well.”
“You’ve left me no choice!” the Black Reach roared, pointing his claw at the pigeon, who was still sitting placidly on Bob’s shoulder. “You deliberately sought out the force whose only purpose is to break the one rule I’ve ever given you! I am the guardian of the future she exists to destroy! What choice do I have?”
“A very simple one,” Bob said. “You can decide not to kill me.”
A visible wave of anger rolled through Dragon Sees Eternity, but Bob wasn’t finished.
“I’ve known you nearly all my life. In all those centuries, I’ve learned that the thing you hate the most isn’t seers who break your rule. It’s us.” Bob pressed his hands against his chest. “Dragons. You’ve been guarding us since we first fled to this plane ten thousand years ago, watching helplessly as we made the same mistakes over and over and over again. You used to complain to me about the endless clan wars filling the future with death everywhere you looked. It got so bad that you moved to China. China! With him!” He pointed at the Qilin, who looked insulted. “You loved to travel, but you sequestered yourself in rural China for centuries because the Qilin’s luck kept it relatively peaceful. That’s how much you hated dragons. You would rather constantly unpick the knots the Golden Wrecking Ball’s luck put in your plans than deal with the pointless violence of the normal clans anymore. But I’m changing that.”