Last Dragon Standing (Heartstrikers #5)(41)
With that, she walked over to join Svena, who was already staking out a large section of dirt in what would have been Marci and Julius’s front yard if they’d had a yard. Or a house anymore.
“I guess that takes care of that,” Julius said nervously as he turned to Marci. “We’ll get everyone together and stall the Leviathan for as long as we can. How long do you think it will take you to line up what you need for the banishment?”
“That depends on how quickly Myron can work and how much help I can wrangle,” Marci said, glancing at General Jackson, who was already back on the phone as Myron whispered frantically into her free ear. “But I promise we’ll go as fast as we can.”
“I know you will,” he said. “You always do your best.” He looked down at her for a long moment after that, his inhumanly green eyes nervous, like he wanted to say something else but couldn’t. She was about to tell him to just spit it out when Julius swooped down and kissed her.
Even after last night, the move took her by surprise. She was so used to walking a narrow line on her feelings for Julius, she didn’t know what to do with herself now that it was all out in the open. But Marci had always been a quick study, and she got with the program in a heartbeat, wrapping her arms around his neck as she kissed him back. She was getting even closer when a cleared throat made them both jump, and Marci whipped her head around to see Myron waiting a few feet away.
“If you don’t mind,” he said, tapping the cracked face of his wristwatch.
Marci felt her face turn beet red, but she didn’t apologize. Instead, she kissed Julius again, holding him close one last time before she reluctantly stepped away. “Good luck.”
“You too,” he said, giving her the thousand-watt smile that only came out when he was really happy. “We can do this.”
“We can do this,” Marci agreed as Myron pulled her away. She was still staring at him wistfully when the UN mage grabbed her shoulder and yanked her around.
“Ow!” she said, smacking his hand away. “What gives?”
“Everything’s going to give if you don’t pay attention,” he said angrily. “This is the end of the world, not romance time with other species.”
“If I waited until the world wasn’t ending, I’d never see Julius at all,” Marci snapped. Still, Myron had a point. “Okay,” she said, sneaking one last look at Julius before she put on her serious face. “What are we doing?”
“You tell me,” he said. “You’re the one with the plan.”
Again, fair point. “Right,” she said, scrambling to regather the thoughts Julius had just scattered. “The first thing we need to do is get back to the Heart of the World.” She paused, frowning. “Um, how do we get back to the Heart of the World?”
“I usually just follow my spirit,” Myron said with a shrug. “The DFZ seems to be able to travel freely between both sides. For you, though, I have no idea.”
That made two of them. “Stay right here,” Marci said, backing up toward the house. “I have to have a quick meeting.”
“Make sure it’s very quick,” Myron said, raising his voice in warning. “You put yourself at the center of this, Novalli. If you can’t pull it off, we’re in trouble.”
They were in a lot more than that if she couldn’t figure this out, but Marci wasn’t afraid. She wasn’t entirely sure of the details yet, but after everything else she’d been through, Marci was positive she could pull this off too. She didn’t have a choice. Failure was not an option, so she shoved the nagging doubts out of her mind and ran up the broken porch steps toward her spirit, who was still valiantly holding up the barrier that kept the rampant magic from cooking them all.
Chapter 6
Chelsie stood at the edge of the wreckage that had been Julius’s front porch, holding her daughter close as the two of them observed the chaos. Fredrick had already left, cutting his way to DC, where Justin, Conrad, and most of the other Heartstrikers were gathered. She’d offered to go with him as backup, but Fredrick had refused. This was his job now, not hers, and he wasn’t going to make her do it even one more time.
If it hadn’t been such a sweet sentiment, she would have told him what a stupid idea it was to go alone into a bunch of nervous, prideful dragons who still thought he was a servant and rally them for war. But while he’d framed it as something he was doing for her sake, Chelsie knew her eldest son, and the hard set of his jaw had told her the refusal wasn’t actually about her at all. Showing up with a Fang and a declaration of war was Fredrick’s first big chance to prove himself among the Heartstrikers as a dragon, not a servant. That wasn’t something she dared to mess with, so she’d just let him go, staying by the Qilin’s side as everyone else scrambled to do their part. She was about to suggest they move closer to Amelia and Svena in case a fight broke out—with those two, it was always a possibility—when she spotted Bob walking toward them
As always, seeing her eldest brother put her on high alert. Even when they’d worked together under Bethesda, she’d long considered the Seer of the Heartstrikers to be her most dangerous enemy. For all Julius’s assurances, Chelsie still wasn’t sure that was no longer the case as Brohomir stopped in front of her.