One Good Dragon Deserves Another (Heartstrikers, #2)

by Rachel Aaron

“It’s not my fault,” she growled, scowling into the glowing spellwork circles she’d drawn all over the cheap parquet floor. “This should have taken ten minutes, but this stupid curse is so buggy and poorly made, it’s actually almost impossible to remove. It’s like whoever did it went all the way around the circle of incompetence and ended up at accidental brilliance.”

This was his other giant problem. He’d always thought Marci was cute, but since they’d started living together, the attraction had gone from exciting to downright debilitating. He could keep a lid on it when they were working and there were plenty of distractions, but at times like this, when they were sitting close together in the car or on the couch at home, his awareness of her went from constant to hyper. Even a tiny touch like the one just now was enough to unsettle him for hours, and given how much they were together, this meant Julius was unsettled pretty much all the time.

“You’ve been out in other planes since before the meteor hit and brought back magic?” Amelia nodded. “I actually wasn’t planning on coming home for another half-century, but Brohomir’s pigeon said it was dreadfully important, so here I am.” Well, Julius thought, at least that explained why he’d never seen Amelia before. She’d been outside this realm of existence since before he was born. He was still trying to wrap his brain around that when he realized what else she’d said. “Wait, Bob’s pigeon can talk?” “Of course she can talk,” Amelia said, glancing over her shoulder at the glow of the throne room behind them. “Though she didn’t say anything about how boring it would be. From what I can tell, this whole party’s nothing but an elaborate mouse trap for the White Witch.” She snorted. “Talk about a waste of time. Why anyone would want to do anything with Ice Queen Svena is beyond me. She’s obnoxious.”

Svena and I have a special bond, though. We’ve been the only two dragon mages worth the title since Imotella the Undying made her name hilariously ironic in the 1400s.” “But,” Julius said, confused. “I thought the Three Sisters had been our enemies forever?” “Oh, we try to kill each other whenever we can,” Amelia said. “But that doesn’t mean we’re uncivil about it. Sometimes it’s fun to call a temporary truce and go out drinking. We’re the only two dragons left who know enough to actually appreciate each other’s work. Besides, when you’ve kicked around as long as we have, the difference between an ancient enemy and an old friend is just a matter of perspective.”

Schemes to foil, plots to thwart, naps to resume, you know how it is.

It said something about your state of mind when discovering a ghost cat sleeping on your couch was the high point of your evening.

dragon. His pride was a small, flexible thing, easily pushed aside for better causes, like getting his stupid brother off this roof.

“I was pretty mean to her tonight, and now that she’s missing, I can’t help wondering if maybe it’s on purpose?” “That’s stupid,” Justin scoffed. “We’re dragons. Whether they love or fear us, humans can’t stay away. Even you can’t mess that up. She’s probably just off sulking somewhere. Though I suppose she could be dead. Mortals kick over at the drop of a hat, after all.” Julius buried his head in his hands. “Not helping, Justin.” “Can I help it if you make everything complicated?” his brother snapped. “You’re the one who always insists on treating your humans like they’re equals. If you want her to act like a pet, then slap a collar on her neck and be done with it, but you can’t give her freedom and then freak out when she uses it.”

“I really am a bumbling, foolish human, aren’t I?” “Absolutely not,” Julius said, squatting down as well so he could look her in the face. “Listen to me, Marci. You are the cleverest person I know. What my mother said was wrong then and it’s wrong now. You’re not my human or my pet or anything like that. You’re my best friend and ally who tried everything she could think of to save me from a dragon hunter. That’s huge. Thanks to your quick thinking, we have time to plan. Now we just have to use it to figure out a way to break your curse.”

“My sedan was too compromised,” she explained quickly. “Same for my phone and bag and everything else. If I didn’t want to lead Vann Jeger right back here, my only option was to dump everything. I couldn’t replace my phone, obviously, but I stole a new ride—” He gasped. “You stole a car?” “That’s what you’re upset about?” she cried. “Like Grand Theft Auto matters next to the freaking murder charge!” “Sorry,” he said with a wince. “You’re right. I was just surprised.”

“This is what you made me wait for?” “Justin!” Julius shouted, his face burning. “What are you doing?” “You said five minutes,” Justin growled. “I normally give people in closets seven, but I’m not in a giving mood tonight.

“I can’t believe you did that.” Julius sighed. “Did what?” he asked, turning to face his brother, who was waiting on the porch. “Any of it,” Justin said, arms crossed over his chest. “You told her Bethesda’s plan, gave her advice on how to tear down our negotiating position for a treaty, and then you financed her escape.” He bared his teeth. “You’ve betrayed the clan so many times tonight, I don’t even know where I’m going to start when I call Mother.” “Tell her whatever you want,” Julius said. “Just don’t forget to mention that Bob was the one who sent Katya here in the first place.”

“That’s your spirit?” “Yes,” Marci said, crossing her arms over her chest. “Now, would you please—” Amelia stepped in before she could finish, stopping right in front of Marci with a smile so genuine and friendly, she didn’t even look like a dragon anymore. “I think we got off on the wrong foot,” she said brightly. “Let’s try this again. Hello, I’m Amelia the Planeswalker, and I am absolutely delighted to meet you, …?” “Marci,” Marci prompted. “Marci,” Amelia said, eyes sparkling. “May I pet your cat?”

Julius swallowed. “I know you’re strong, but—” “Strong?” Amelia scoffed. “You’re not old enough to comprehend the word.” She set down her drink, and the room seemed to grow heavy. He actually thought she’d cast a spell until he realized he didn’t smell any power but Marci’s. The pressure he felt wasn’t magic. It was Amelia herself as she turned the full weight of her predatory attention on him. “Do not confuse me with the rest of our scrabbling clan,” she said quietly. “While those snakes coiled and plotted in Bethesda’s shadow, hoping to catch a scrap of her power, I left and found my own. I am the Planeswalker, the last great dragon mage, unequaled in this world or any other.

“What are you doing?” he whispered, putting his back to Amelia, who wasn’t even pretending not to listen. “You can’t trust her. She’s a dragon.” “You’re a dragon,” Marci pointed out. “That’s different,” Julius hissed, growing more afraid by the second. “We’re talking about a serious power, here.” “But that’s exactly what we need!” she whispered excitedly. “If breaking the curse is off the table, then our only other option is to find someone big enough to take on Vann Jeger. Plus, she’s a dragon mage!” Her voice squeaked. “A dragon mage, Julius! One who worked with humans before the magic vanished!” “I think you mean owned humans,” he growled, but Marci wasn’t listening.

watching and not telling us anything!” “Why should they?” Amelia said, popping the cork on her new bottle. “Human mages used to be at the top of the food chain, killing dragons and banishing spirits. The only thing that kept you in check was the fact that most of you died of preventable causes before you could become really dangerous. With the modern explosion in the human population, though, there are more mages alive right now than have ever existed in all the previous history of mankind combined. Your astounding ignorance is the only thing that keeps you from ruling the world on all levels. Frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were hidden dragons embedded in academic magic circles purely for the purpose of feeding you false information to keep it that way.”

“It’s very tempting,” she admitted. “But…you make it sound like I’d be your slave.” “Treasure,” Amelia corrected. “You’d be my treasure. Big difference.” “But still a possession.” “Well, what else could you be?” the dragon said, scowling. “I take care of you. That makes you mine. But I’m not a harsh master. Cruelty is a waste of time and resources. I want you happy, eager, and productive. I would, of course, require you to breed once in a while to help me rebuild my population, but I’d only pick the strongest, most handsome specimens for you to partner with, so it’s not like it’d be a hardship. Plus, you’d be my first, which means you and your children would have rank over all the other mages I’ll be bringing in. You’d pretty much be a queen, answerable only to me. Tell me that’s not a great deal.”

And, as Julius had learned as a teenager trying to argue on the internet, if you wanted to get a proud person talking, all you had to do was ask them to explain why they thought they were right.

The future, however, belongs to my brother, Dragon Sees Eternity, but he left here long ago to live with the dragons who survived the collapse in their new home.”

“You mean, if two seers are fighting over two possible futures, the one who has the timeline with the highest potential will win?” Marci asked. “Precisely,” the dragon said, nodding happily. “But—and here’s the trick—that seer with the winning timeline doesn’t actually have to cash all that potential on that specific future. Strictly speaking, when it comes to seer magic, the magical weight of any given future is interchangeable. It can be applied anywhere, any when.

“Look at you!” he cried. “All grown up! You actually look like a dragon now. If I didn’t know better, I might be afraid.” He paused there, obviously waiting for an answer, but Julius didn’t know what to say. “How rude of me,” Bob said, turning to the strange dragon beside him, the one who had yet to look away from Estella. “Allow me to introduce the Black Reach. Estella already knows him, of course since he was…how did she phrase it? Oh yes, ‘orchestrating the downfall of empires before her mothers were even born.’” He finished with a wide smile, but it wasn’t a pleasant one when he finally turned to face Estella. “See? I warned you that gloating only leads to ironic quotation.”

“Hey,” she said softly, reaching up to touch his feathered nose. “You’re a dragon.” “I think we’ve established this,” he replied, breathing deep. Now that he was unsealed, it was like a mask had been removed from his nose, giving him back his full range.

“You mean like dragon healing magic?” Marci asked excitedly. “Cool! How does that work?” Julius couldn’t help but grin at that. Leave it to Marci to be more excited about the magical part of her magical first aid than the actual aid. “You’ll have to ask her,” he said, nodding at Ysolde, who’d gotten her orders from Katya and was now walking toward them at a stately pace. It didn’t seem possible, but Marci looked even more excited than before. “Eeeee! Is that one of the Daughters of the Three Sisters?! She looks like a freaking Valkyrie! This was totally worth getting smacked into a wall for!”

“I didn’t want you to get hurt.” “Hey, you run with dragons, you’ve got to be willing to take your lumps,” she said, reaching up to touch his feathers again. “I’m not upset at all. I’m mostly happy that I finally get to see what you really look like.” Julius froze, instantly bashful. “Do I live up to the hype?” he asked at last. “Way better,” she assured him. “Blue’s my favorite color, you know.” He gave her a skeptical look. “I thought your favorite color was purple?” Marci grinned. “Not anymore.”

“Are you stupid?” Chelsie snarled, stabbing her finger at their mother. “She’s ordered your death twice, used you countless times, demanded you sell out Amelia to save Justin, and that’s just this month. We’re not even counting the last eleven hundred years. Every one of us would be better off without her, and you know it. Kill her.” “No,” Julius said again. “Why not?” Chelsie demanded. “Because I’m not like her!” he yelled, clutching his sword tight. “I don’t care how awful they are, I don’t kill my family! I don’t kill anyone, period, and I will never throw someone away just to make my life easier!”

“Wait,” Julius said, almost too shocked to speak. “How is that even possible? I only came up with the idea a few minutes ago. We haven’t even discussed what a Heartstriker Council would look like yet. How can you possibly have paperwork already?” “Because I am the handsome, powerful, charismatic, and all-knowing seer of the Heartstrikers,” Bob reminded him with curt look. “Honestly, Julius, you act like Estella was the only one with an end game on the board. As you just pointed out, this entire thing was your idea, and have I not continually said that your future was the only one I could always see?”

Bob arched an eyebrow. “Because I’m the Great Seer of the Heartstrikers. I’ve already seen how I’d do on the council, and, trust me, it’s a hot mess. Everyone will be constantly accusing me of manipulating the votes—which of course I will be whether I’m on the council or not—but that’s a kettle of seers we do not want to open. No, I’ve seen how this shakes out, and we’re all far better off when I stay behind the curtain. Plus, Justin’s right. Meetings are boring.”