Last Dragon Standing (Heartstrikers #5)(83)

“Julius!”

The yell came through his com, but it wasn’t General Jackson. It wasn’t even human. It was Bob, and he sounded frantic. Frantic good or frantic bad, though, Julius didn’t know yet.

“Get back to Amelia,” the seer said, raising his voice over General Jackson, who was screaming at him to give her back her com in the background. “Tell her to get everyone out of the sky.”

“Why?” Julius asked, pushing off the ground as fast as he could. “What’s going to happen?”

His oldest brother’s face popped into his augmented vision just in time for Julius to see him grin. “Looks like your human came through.”

That was all he had time to say before Emily Jackson wrestled her com out of his hands, but Julius wasn’t watching his AR anymore. He was flying as hard as he could back to Amelia, whose fire was suddenly looking dimmer.

“Where did you go?” she panted, grabbing on to him as her body flickered. “I need your help. Something’s happening to the magic. I can’t—”

“It’ll be okay,” Julius said frantically. “Marci did it! Bob just called to say she’s on her way. You need to tell everyone to get out of the sky now.”

The radio in his ear was already full of chatter as Emily ordered all human troops to the ground, but Amelia was shaking her head. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. I’m not sure if I can tell everyone. The magic just suddenly started dropping like a stone. It feels like the drought all over again, except way worse because I’m the one drying up this time!”

It was true. Her flaming body was shrinking in front of his eyes. By the time she finished talking, she wasn’t much bigger than he was, and her eyes were terrified. “Help me, Julius!”

“I’ve got you,” he assured her, blowing a lick of flame. “You can shelter in my fire. I’ll give you whatever you need, but you have to tell the others to get down. You’re the only one who can talk to every dragon, and I don’t think Bob would have warned me if it wasn’t going to be bad.”

Amelia nodded and vanished, her orange flames snuffing out only to reappear inside Julius’s, making him gasp as a new power entered the fire that was the center of everything that made him a dragon.

Sorry, Amelia whispered in his mind. You might want to go ahead and land, because this is going to hurt.

Julius nodded and dove for a bit of open roadway below, but he’d barely made it ten feet before a wave of weakness knocked him out of the sky. There’d been no attack, no injury. Every muscle in his body had simply given up, leaving him limp as a ribbon as he plummeted through the air. He was trying to roll over so he’d at least land on his feet when a shout shook the sky above him.

“Julius!”

The roar was so loud it made his ears throb. Then giant sharp claws stabbed into his back as Justin snatched him out of the sky.

“Ow,” Julius groaned.

“Better than hitting the ground,” Justin snarled, the transformed Fang of the Heartstriker on his jaw punctuating each word with a plume of green fire. “What is wrong with you? I didn’t see you get hit!”

Julius couldn’t begin to explain what had happened with Amelia, mostly because he didn’t fully understand it himself. Fortunately, Justin’s questions seemed to be perfunctory, because he didn’t even wait for Julius to answer before dropping him on the ground so he could take off again.

“Wait!” Julius cried after him. “Justin, come back! We need to stay on the ground!”

“But we’re not done!” Justin yelled, blasting another tentacle out of the sky before swiveling his massive head to glare down at his little brother. “Just stay there. I’ll be right—”

GET DOWN!

Justin jerked as the command hit him, his whole body seizing as if he’d been electrocuted. Julius wasn’t much better. He was already on the ground, so there was no danger of falling, but the pain was still excruciating as Amelia grabbed his fire and twisted, forcing her will into the flames.

Everyone on the ground NOW, she roared, her voice shaking with effort before cutting out as fast as it had come up. Her presence vanished from Julius’s fire at the same time, making him gasp in relief as the unnatural weakness faded, leaving only good old-fashioned normal pain behind. He was still trying to breathe through it when a tiny voice spoke beside him.

“Whew,” it said. “Sorry about that. Dragons lost in battle lust are notoriously bad listeners, so I had to pull hard to make sure I had enough oomph to get through.”

Julius blinked in confusion. The voice sounded like Amelia’s, but it was so soft he could barely hear it. He couldn’t see her either when he opened his eyes, then something poked his forefoot, and Julius looked down to see a tiny dragon made of fire standing on the ground beside him.

“Hi,” it said. “Thanks for the boost.”

He blinked at the little creature in wonder. “Amelia?”

The dragon was no larger than a kitten, but the annoyed look on her face was definitely his sister’s.

“What is going on?” Justin demanded, setting down beside them. Then he spotted the little dragon. “What the—is that the Planeswalker?”

“Laugh at me and die,” Amelia growled, giving the knight a killing look before scampering up Julius’s leg to perch in the spot between his wing and his neck. “This isn’t a form I wanted to revisit, but I didn’t have much of a choice. Something’s gone seriously haywire in the Sea of Magic. I don’t know what Marci’s doing over there, but it’s big.” She cowered in Julius’s feathers. “You might want to duck.”