Last Dragon Standing (Heartstrikers #5)(57)
“There’s nothing for your humans to miss, you vain idiot,” Svena snapped, stabbing her finger up at the towering, shadowy form of Ghost, who was still holding the barrier for them even though Marci was gone. “No one can fly right now, thanks to this mess. If it doesn’t clear soon, we’ll still be down here clicking our scales when Algonquin’s End kills us all!”
“It’d better hurry up,” Bethesda said irritably. “What’s the good of gathering everyone together if we can’t set a claw outside this dirt pit without getting crushed?” She looked down at the half-frozen mud coating her golden boots before turning her sneer on Julius. “Why did you live here again?”
Because she’d made him, and because it kept him away from her. “It was a good base,” he said instead. “It still is.” He nodded at the crowd of dragons surrounding them, none of whom were even pretending not to be listening. “We have every dragon in the world here now, and the Leviathan still hasn’t noticed us. I think that’s pretty impressive.”
“Or telling,” said She Who Sees, the dark-skinned dragoness whose extended family claimed most of the African continent. “He could be ignoring us because he knows we’re not a threat.” Her sharp black eyes flicked to Julius. “You said that thing was from beyond our plane. Are you sure we can fight it?”
“Actually, the bigger it gets, the more effective we become,” Amelia said authoritatively. “Normally, the Leviathan would be outside of our ability to hurt physically. We’ve all tangled with it before in various scuffles over the DFZ, so I’m sure we all remember just how impossible those shadow tentacles were to fight. Now, though, it’s using Algonquin’s magic to shove itself into our plane. That means the Leviathan is covered in spirit magic, and we all know how well spirits burn.”
The other dragons smirked appreciatively at that, and Julius let out a breath in silent thanks that Marci wasn’t here. “The point is, we can damage it,” he said. “Maybe not enough to defeat it, but that’s not our job. All we have to do is keep the Nameless End from sucking up the last of Algonquin’s water for the few hours it will take Marci to prepare her banishment.”
“A few hours is a long time to fight something we cannot defeat,” the Qilin said warily. “Especially when we cannot even take off yet.” He lifted his golden head to the hole in the roof where the black tentacles were moving faster than ever. “It’s gorging itself on her magic as we speak. By the time we can fly, it might already be too late.”
“We can make it,” Julius said forcefully. “All the spirits and mages have assured me that the magical fallout is dropping, and there’s a lot of Algonquin left to drink. It doesn’t matter if we only stop him from getting one bucket’s worth of her water. So long as we keep that last gallon safe, the Nameless End can’t fully take over Algonquin, and we still have a shot.”
He hoped, anyway. This was Marci’s plan, and he trusted her with his life, but even as he sold her strategy to the others, something about it still didn’t sit right with Julius. No matter which way you cut the problem, Algonquin was always the one at the heart of it, and yet she was the one factor everyone seemed happy to ignore. Even Marci’s solution was only to banish her magic. It didn’t touch on the spirit herself. Considering Algonquin’s despair was the cause of this entire crisis, that felt like a mistake. But while Julius was torn, none of the other dragons suffered his misgivings.
“Well, I’m looking forward to it,” Svena said with a proud lift of her chin. “Algonquin shot my mothers out of the sky. Vengeance is overdue.”
“Please,” Bethesda said, rolling her green eyes. “You’ve been praying for your mothers to die for centuries so you could take over.”
“That doesn’t mean I can leave their deaths unanswered,” Svena snapped. “Some of us still have honor.”
Bethesda rolled her eyes again, and Julius reached up to rub his temples. “Whatever our reasons, the goal is clear. If Leviathan gets full control of the Great Lakes, everything is done for. We must protect Algonquin’s remaining water at any cost, but the area we have to cover is huge, so communication will be key. We don’t want to accidentally hit any of the UN forces that will be coming to help us.”
“I think you mean getting hit by the UN,” Arkniss said. “I’ve tangled with Emily Jackson before. The UN’s Phoenix is a dragon slayer to her core. How can we be sure she won’t shoot us down the moment our backs are turned?”
Considering that was exactly what she’d done to Marci, Julius had a hard time answering. But if he’d learned anything about Raven’s construct, it was her steadfast dedication to results over personal feelings. She’d happily kill every dragon in the world to save one human life, but she’d just as happily work with them if that was what was needed to secure humanity’s survival.
“So long as we’re fighting together, I don’t think we have to worry about betrayal from the UN side,” he said. “General Jackson doesn’t like or trust us, but she knows we’re necessary to achieving her goal of protecting humanity. So long as that’s true, I think she’ll be a good ally.”
“What about after?” the black dragon pressed. “The Phoenix can overlook, but she does not forget, nor forgive. She will tolerate our help while she needs us, but the moment the operation is done, those jets she’s sending will turn on us, mark my words.”