Magic Triumphs

CHAPTER 16

I SAT ON the back porch in my chair, drinking a glass of iced tea. Curran crouched in the backyard. His gray eyes tracked the faint hint of movement through the raspberry bushes at the edge of the lawn. Elara had walked out into our woods for a bit after the Razer incident. I wasn’t sure if she needed to cool off or compose herself, but she was back now, sitting on the lower branch of a large oak and watching Curran.

The door swung open and Hugh shouldered his way out and dropped into a chair next to me.

“Did Dali leave finally?”

“Still on the phone,” he said.

Once Razer’s corpse was removed and everything went back to normal, Dali decided to have an important conversation with Jim about having Hugh perform the surgery. Unfortunately, she refused to leave because, according to her, I could murder Hugh while she was away. Instead she chose to have this conversation via our kitchen phone. Things weren’t going well because Jim, understandably, wasn’t enthusiastic about having Hugh d’Ambray cutting his wife open and removing parts of her. She had hung up on Jim twice and he had hung up on her once. Last I heard, they’d gone from wild accusations to cold logic. Given that they were two of the smartest people I knew, they would be at it awhile.

“She’s slipping,” I said. “I could kill you right now, while you’re out on the porch with me.”

“If I didn’t fight back.”

“Would you fight back?”

“I’m thinking about it.” He was watching Elara. She sat on the branch, swinging her feet. His expression was still hard, but there was something softer in his eyes. Something warm.

Curran pivoted toward us, away from the bushes.

“You should fight back,” I told Hugh. “Nobody likes a quitter.”

Conlan exploded out of the bushes and pounced on his father’s back. Curran roared dramatically and collapsed in the grass.

“Is this what you wanted?” Hugh asked.

I knew what he meant. He was asking about Curran, and Conlan, about the house with the woods out back, friends, and a house that never stayed quiet for too long.

“Yes.”

“You know Nimrod would give you all the power in the world. If you told him that you accepted him, he would turn himself inside out to please you. He would build a palace for your son.” A note of bitterness slipped into his voice. He killed it quickly, but I’d still heard it.

I understood. No matter what Hugh did, no matter how hard he tried or how good he was at doing it, my father would never value him as much as he valued me. I was blood and Hugh wasn’t. The kicker was, he didn’t value me all that much either.

“But all his gifts would come with a collar around my neck.”

“True.”

“That’s not how Roland sees me anyway. He doesn’t see me as a daughter whom he can teach. He sees me as a sword he can use. Once in a while he rubs me the wrong way and I cut him, and he’s surprised and pleased the sword is sharp, but it never goes past that.”

“You have no idea,” Hugh said.

“I do. He tried living next to my territory. He would bait me every few days. He couldn’t help himself. That’s why the castle he started is now a burned-out ruin. You and I have that in common—neither of us will ever get what we want out of a relationship with him. He mostly wants me to be your replacement. He hasn’t realized yet that I don’t have your training or your mind. If he gave me an army, I would have no idea what to do with it.”

“Your aunt did well enough,” Hugh said.

“My aunt studied strategy and tactics since she was old enough to read. I’m a lone killer. That’s what I do best.”

“Whatever you did worked well enough when you fought him, from what I hear.”

“He formed his troops in two rectangles and marched them on the Keep. I couldn’t believe it.”

Hugh grimaced. “Did he ride a chariot?”

“Mm-hm. It was gold.”

Hugh shut his eyes for a second.

“It was slow as hell.”

“Well, of course it’s slow. It’s gold. Did you know he wanted to put a figurehead on it?”

I blinked. “What, like on a ship?”

“Yeah.” Hugh looked like he’d just bitten a rotten lemon. “Your mother’s face with diamond eyes and wings made of electrum. Spread wings.” He held his hands up, the tips of his fingers angled back.

“How aerodynamic.” I grinned.

“I told him he’d need a damn elephant to draw it forward.”

“Did he give up?”

“No,” Hugh said. “Last I know of it, he was building a pair of mechanical magic-powered horses to draw the chariot.”

“Let me guess, platinum? With gold manes?”

“What do you think?”

We laughed.

“What about you?”

He raised his eyebrows. “What about me?”

“What happens when all is forgiven, and he needs you again?”

Hugh glanced at Elara again. “It already happened.”

He’d said no.

Huh. That must’ve cost him. My father was everything to Hugh: surrogate father, commander, god . . . And Hugh had walked away from it. He could be lying, but it felt like the truth. It was in his eyes, the way they turned a touch sad and resigned.

“All of his children turn on him eventually,” I said.

“I was never his child.”

I rolled my eyes. “He raised you, he taught you, he encouraged you.”

“He fucked with my head.”

“He fucks with everyone’s head. Yours more than most. For all it matters, you’re his son. You’re fucked up enough to be.”

He barked a short laugh.

“Face it,” I told him. “We are damaged siblings.”

We watched Curran chase Conlan around.

“What was it like?” I asked.

Hugh’s face fell. I didn’t need to elaborate. He knew exactly what I was asking.

“It was like having the sun ripped away,” he said. “I’d reach for the connection out of habit, and there would be a raw wound there, filled with all the shit I did.”

“Sorry,” I told him.

“Don’t be. I’m me now. Still a bastard, but I’m my own bastard now. Nobody tells me what to do.” He glanced at Elara and smiled. “Well, she does once in a while, but it’s worth it.”

“He would give you the world if you came crawling back,” I told him, mimicking his voice.

“I have her. I have our soldiers and our people to protect. I have a castle to run. I don’t want the world. I just want that small corner of it to be safe.”

“Going to war against a dragon isn’t exactly going to keep your Iron Dogs safe.”

He looked at me. “No, but it will help you.”

“You don’t have to pay your old debts, Hugh. Not with me.”

“Just accept the help,” he growled. “You need it.”

“Oh, I’ll take it. Three hundred Iron Dogs and Hugh d’Ambray. I’d be crazy to turn it down.”

“Smart girl.”

“But you and I are fine, Hugh. I mean it.”

“Just like that,” he said.

“No, I thought about it. I let it go for me more than for you. You’re not the only one with corpses in your memories. I killed on command. I didn’t ask why. Voron would point and I would murder.”

“You were a kid,” he said.

“And you had your emotions readjusted. I believe that’s what they call extenuating circumstances. Having them doesn’t help as much as it should, does it? I can’t change what I did. I can only go forward and try to do better. I’ll always be a killer. I like it. You’ll always be a bastard. There is a part of you that enjoys kicking the door in and throwing a severed head on the table.”

“N’importe quoi.”

I made a mental note to ask Christopher to translate. He spoke fluent French.

“Some pair we are,” Hugh said.

“Mm-hm. Sitting here all sad on the porch, while a dragon is invading and our dad is having a midlife crisis with golden chariots . . .”

Hugh grinned, and then his face turned dark.

“Do one thing for me,” he said.

“Mm?”

“Don’t do to the girl what was done to me.”

“Julie’s will is her own. I’ve never forced her to do anything, and I don’t plan on it.”

Elara slid off the branch and jumped into the grass.

“It’s not all bad.” Hugh rose and walked toward her.

I finished my tea.

“Do you trust him?” my aunt asked by my ear.

“I trust the look in his eyes when he speaks about my father. Like he’s torn between loving him and wanting to strangle him.”

“It may prove foolish.”

“If it does, I’ll deal with it,” I told her.

“Spoken like a queen.” My aunt ran her ghostly fingers through my hair. “I finally made you into one.”

“Too bad I’ve run out of time.”

“Is that defeat I hear?” Erra raised her eyebrows.

“No, it’s reality. We may not have the troops to fight Neig, and we definitely can’t face him and my father at the same time. The dragon hates us, but he especially hates him.”

“Are you asking me to persuade your father into an alliance?”

“If the opportunity presents itself.”

My aunt became still. Facing my father would cost her a great deal.

“You ask much, child.”

“Is that defeat I hear?”

She snorted.

“How is it you plan to convince him?” she asked. “Shame? Threats?”

What was it Roman had said? Parents love to play saviors. “No. I’m going to let you use those. If I do it, Dad will just see it as a personal attack and go on the offensive. He wants to be a hero. He wants to come in and save the day and be admired and loved for it. So I plan on being resigned to my fate. Grim, grieving, and in a dark pit of despair.”

“So your father can be your lone ray of hope in the darkness?”

“Yep.”

She studied me. “You’ve grown manipulative.”

“You disapprove?”

“No. I’m surprised.”

“Good. Dad will be surprised, too. I’ve spent a long time convincing him that I don’t do subtle. He doesn’t think I have the brains to manipulate him, so he won’t expect it.”

“You don’t do subtle. Your subtle is pulling a kick so you don’t kill a man with it, just break his bones.”

“I’ve learned.”

She waited, wanting something more from me.

“The word of Sharratum is binding,” I murmured. That was what Erra had said to me when she’d demanded I swear to never rule the land I claimed. “I don’t rule, but I am a queen. I claimed the city. They all need my protection. They don’t even know it, but they need me to survive.” My voice sounded dead. “So I’ll lie, and cheat, and give up my pride. I’ll do whatever I have to do to keep them all safe. I’m not my own person.”

Erra stepped to me. Her arms closed around me. I couldn’t feel her body, but I felt her magic coursing around me.

“Poor child,” she whispered, her voice so soft. “I tried to keep you from it as long as I could.”

I felt like crying, but it didn’t quite come to the surface. I couldn’t afford crying. I had things I had to do.

Curran picked Conlan up and tossed him into the air. The sun hit them just right and I saw an aura emanating from him, a faint shimmer of warm glow. My heart flipped in my chest. He was so far gone.

“You encouraged him to become a god,” I whispered into her embrace.

“I did.”

“I’ll never forgive you for that.”

“You’ll change your mind with time.”

No. I won’t. I wanted to rage and scream at her, but it was Curran who’d made the final decision. I loved him so much and even now he was slipping away from me.

A dull noise echoed through my mind, a silent sound. Someone had just tested my wards. I stepped away from Erra, got up, picked up Sarrat, and headed for the door.

THE WARRIOR STOOD at the end of the street. He wore dark armor and held his helmet in his left hand and a golden chain in his right. I marched toward him, sword smoking.

I stopped just before my ward. He stood on the other side of it.

He was young, maybe twenty, with clear blue eyes like two chips of winter ice, a line of tattoos running down one side of his pale face, and long blond hair pulled back with a leather cord. The chain in his hand was attached to a locket with a gemstone the size of a walnut that looked like pure red fire caught under glass.

“My lord extends an invitation,” he said, his English stilted. “Come with me, and he will show you the might of his realm.”

If my father had lied to me and I went into Neig’s realm, I could be trapped there forever, or dead.

Behind me Curran walked onto the street. I didn’t have to turn to know that by now he was sprinting. If he got here, he would talk me out of it. We needed to know how many troops Neig had. Without it, we were blind.

“Kate!” Curran barked.

My father wouldn’t want me to be stuck in Neig’s realm, at the dragon’s beck and call. He and I had our problems, but he hated Neig. There was too much rage in his eyes when he talked about the dragon. He wouldn’t lie to me, not about this.

Curran was almost to me.

“Trust me,” I called out. “I’ve got this.”

I would catch hell for this later. I dissolved the ward and held out my left hand. “Lead the way.”

The warrior took my fingers in his, pressing the stone against my hand.

Curran was almost to us. He jumped, covering the last twenty feet.

The world turned white and then my stomach tried to go one way while most of me went the other. The white light faded. My body clenched. I spun around and vomited onto the rocky ground. Awesome entrance. So regal and impressive.

I straightened. We stood on a stone bridge spanning a deep gorge. In front of us a castle rose. Built with dark stone, it didn’t have the elaborate spires and ornamental work of Victorian English palaces or German gingerbread castles. No, this was an Anglo-Norman square stone keep, with thick walls and a forest of massive towers scratching at the sky. To the left, a mountain ridge curved down and away into the mists. To the right, a deep wide valley stretched, bordered at the horizon by more mountains. Far in the distance, at the foot of that other mountain ridge, a lake caught the sun and glistened. The air smelled like pines. A cold draft slid against my skin and I shivered.

In his realm, you are a ghost . . . Well, this ghost should’ve brought a sweater.

“This way,” the warrior told me.

I sheathed Sarrat. We walked down the stone bridge to the massive gates. I couldn’t see the sun, but the sky was light.

“How long have you served Neig?” I asked.

“Forever.”

“What about your family? Did you leave anyone behind?”

No answer.

“Do you remember where you used to live? Was it here in Georgia? Was it in Ireland?”

No answer.

We reached the gates.

“Are you sure you don’t remember your family? You must’ve come from somewhere. What was your mother’s name?”

No answer.

The gates swung open and we walked into the courtyard. A second pair of gates creaked open at our approach. The soldier halted and pointed at the gateway. I was meant to keep going on my own.

I marched through the doors and into a throne room, lit by glass globes dripping from the walls. The floor glistered. At first glance it looked like glass, but no, it was gold. Melted down and allowed to cool into a perfectly smooth surface that gleamed with a mirror sheen. A man-made stream wound its way through the floor in a gentle curve, only a couple of inches deep. Gems lined the creek bed, gleaming in the water: red rubies, green emeralds, blue sapphires, purple amethysts, light-green peridots . . . A fortune in precious jewels, cast there like sea glass at the bottom of a fish tank.

A throne dominated the far wall, carved from the bones of some enormous creature into the shape of a dragon in profile. A red gem the size of a grapefruit sat in the dragon’s eye socket. It felt warm and suffused with magic, as if it were somehow alive. I brushed it with my magic and it sparked off my power. Wow. It was condensed magic, so potent it felt like a tiny sun.

The anchor. The arrogant bastard had his anchor right there, just past his front door.

Neig waited for me on the throne, dressed in full regalia, his fur cape draped over his armor, the golden torque bright. To his left, a long table offered a feast. Roasted meat, golden bread, fruit, wine. The aroma made my mouth water.

“Should’ve colored the water in your stream red,” I told him.

“A river of blood?” he said. His voice enveloped me, deep and vibrating with power.

“It would be more honest.”

“But you wouldn’t be able to see the beauty of the jewels.” He indicated the table with a sweep of his hand. “Please. Sate your hunger.”

Nice try. I did my Erra sneer. “Really?”

Neig smiled, betraying a hint of sharp teeth. The table vanished. Okay then.

He stepped off the throne and approached me. I’d clocked him at about six-six, six-seven before. I was off by about half a foot. He towered over me.

“I wish to give you a tour of my domain.”

“Oh goody.”

We strolled out of the throne room into a hallway of enormous arched windows.

“Are you a man or a dragon?” I asked him.

“I’m both.”

“But what were you born as?”

“It was a long time ago. I do not remember. Some of us were born with talons, others with hands, but we are all Dragon.”

“What are Dragon?”

“An ancient race. We were here when humans crawled out of the mud. We watched you try to walk upright and bang rocks against each other, trying to make claws and teeth.”

Yeah, right. “You’re not that old.”

He grinned again. Tiny streaks of smoke escaped his mouth. Awesome. If I got too cold, I could ask him to breathe on me.

“Why do you want to conquer?” I asked.

“Why would I not?”

“You brought me here to convince me to join you. So far, you’re doing a terrible job of it.”

“You’re an interesting creature, Daughter of Nimrod.”

“The name is Kate Lennart. I’m not defined by being my father’s daughter.”

“But you’re defined by your husband’s name.”

“I chose that name. I decided I wanted it.”

His thick eyebrows came together.

“If you’re not going to answer any questions, this will be a very one-sided conversation,” I told him.

“Very well. I will answer your question. I want to conquer because it pleases me. I like to rule, I like to own, and I like to be acknowledged as the supreme power.”

“Your conquest will cost hundreds of thousands of lives. Millions.”

“Human lives.”

“Yes.”

“There are always more humans,” he said. “There is never a shortage.”

We passed from the hallway into a massive room. Shelves lined the fifty-foot walls. Books filled the shelves, thousands and thousands of books: some bound in leather, some hidden in scroll tubes, papyrus, clay tablets, Chinese bamboo books, long strips of animal hide sheltered by wooden covers . . . Above it all, a skylight spilled a stream of sunlight into the middle of the room, never touching the precious volumes. My father would kill himself out of jealousy.

“Have you read any of these?”

“Yes.”

“Were they written by humans?”

“Most of them.”

“Then you saw into their minds. You know that each human is unique. Once you kill one, there will never be another one exactly like it.”

Neig stepped to the shelf and pulled out a heavy tome, bound in leather and inlaid with gold. The writing on the cover resembled Ashuri script, but the ancient Hebrews wrote on scrolls, not in bound books. Neig stepped to the window. It swung open in front of him and he tossed the book outside.

“Wait!” I lunged for the window and saw the book plunge down and disappear into mists somewhere far below.

“Fifty humans wrote that book,” Neig said, and indicated the library with a sweep of his hand. “Is my collection any less magnificent?”

I sighed.

“Why do you care?” he asked. “You are more powerful than them. You are faster, stronger, better in every way. I watched you kill. You enjoy it.”

“I kill to protect myself and others. I don’t begin violence, I respond to it.”

“Why not kill for pleasure?”

“Because I find pleasure in other ways. When I see people prospering and enjoying their lives, it makes me happy.”

He puzzled over me and resumed his walk. I followed him.

“Why?” he asked.

“Because when people prosper, the world is safer. There are pleasures in the world that you have never dreamed of. Why do you read books?”

“To understand those I wish to subjugate.”

“Bullshit. You’re stuck here, in a place where time has no meaning, with nothing to do. You read because you are bored.”

He laughed. Every hair on the back of my neck stood on end. The sharp, cold punch of alarm hit me low in the gut. Note to self: avoid laughing dragons.

“If you conquer everyone, life will be boring and empty of all meaning. There will be no more books to read or fun conversations to be had.”

“It will take some time to conquer the world. In the meantime, I will be greatly entertained.”

“Have you tried actually walking around among people?”

We passed out of the library into another large room. Heaps of gold leaned against the walls. Coins, nuggets, jewelry. He was showing me his hoard. How predictable.

“I have, when I was young,” he said. “I lived with humans for half a century. I’ve learned that you are weak, stupid, and easily cowed. Given the chance, you would rather fight each other than unite against a threat. I’ve never seen creatures who hate themselves so much.”

“Then you’re in for a surprise,” I said.

“The twisted furry things you fought and killed,” he said. “My slave-hounds.”

“The yeddimur.”

“Each started its life as a human babe. Each inhaled the fumes of my venom. Now they are beasts, primitive and filthy. They know nothing except rage and hunger. They eat their own. That is the true nature of humanity. I simply brought it to the surface.”

Ahead, double doors opened before us.

“Let me show you my power,” he said.

We walked through the door onto a balcony. The valley below spread before us, covered in odd blue vegetation. I squinted.

He passed me a spyglass. I looked through it.

Warriors. They stood packed next to each other like sardines. Miles and miles of warriors standing completely still.

Oh God.

“My army,” he said. “In my domain, there is no time, no hunger, and no thirst, unless I will it to be. Here I rule uncontested.”

They stood in squares, two, four, six, twenty men per row. Twenty by twenty equaled four hundred. How many squares? One, two, three . . .

“They sleep until I call them. They’ve waited for thousands of your years, but for them it is a blink.”

. . . Twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three . . .

“Their muscles are trained; their skills are sharp. They live to battle in my name.”

. . . Thirty-four . . . I stopped. We didn’t have enough people. Even if the Conclave put every fighter they had on the field, we wouldn’t have enough.

I swung the spyglass left, toward some dark-brown stains, and saw corrals filled with yeddimur, curled into swarms, piled onto each other. A horde waiting to be unleashed.

“How do I know it’s not an illusion?”

“I have no need to lie,” he said. “What would be the point? It would be a short-lived deception. Whether you agree to my terms or you don’t, I will still field my army. I require sustenance to remain in your world, and I am ready for battle. You will see the size of my force when I unleash it. Nothing would stop you from turning on me if I lied.”

Thousands and thousands and thousands of troops. Nausea squirmed through me. Atlanta was doomed. “You cook people and devour their bones.”

“Yes. It is faster and more efficient than devouring them whole. Eventually I’ll consume enough and will no longer require it.”

“How many people will die to reach that eventually?”

“There will be enough left,” he said.

He stepped closer to me. His fingers rested on my shoulders.

“You hate your father,” he said. “Everyone knows it. People whisper of it.”

“I also love my father.”

“Families are complicated. I loved my father, but I killed him and took his land. I’m giving you the chance to do the same. I need a guide to your world. You can be my queen. You are brimming with magic. I can taste it.”

He leaned down next to me. The smoke from his mouth brushed my cheek. My skin crawled.

“Our children would be powerful beyond measure. They would be kings and queens.”

“I’m married, and I already have a child.”

“Keep him. Keep your husband as a plaything.” His deep voice rolled over my skin. “I will help you kill your father. We will rule the world together.”

“And what happens to Atlanta?”

He touched my hair. “The city is yours to do with as you wish. A wedding gift, if you like. I only require the slaves.”

“The slaves?”

“The humans. We can bargain, if you want. How many do you wish to keep? I will give you the pretty ones.”

“Ugh. You’re really inhuman.”

“Riches, power, the pleasure of conquest, pleasures of the flesh, pleasures of the mind. What is it you want, Kate Lennart?”

“To cut off your head.”

He laughed again. His hands flexed on my shoulders as if his fingers had talons. “I will give you three days to decide. Three days of peace and contemplation. After three days, with the first magic wave that arrives, I come to conquer.”

He had enough troops to attack the city from multiple fronts. We had no walls, no fortifications to stop him, and not enough soldiers to respond to simultaneous assaults. We’d be fighting everywhere, and I’d be crisscrossing Atlanta like a chicken with its head cut off, trying to put out the fires. I had to define the rules of this engagement before he tried to do it.

“Meet me in three days on the ruins of my father’s castle.”

He raised his eyebrows.

“Show me the entirety of your army. Let me behold it. I’ll give you my answer then.”

“Agreed,” he promised, his voice rolling through the vastness of his castle. Smoke escaped his mouth.

“That’s my cue to leave.”

“Stay with me for a while longer. I’ll show you more of my wonders.”

“I’ve seen enough.”

“But you haven’t seen me.”

He stepped aside and slid the fur cape off his shoulders. His armor clattered to the floor. He stood before me naked, big, muscular, and with a champion-sized hard-on.

Really? What was the thinking here? I know you loathe me, because I’m an inhuman mass murderer, but behold my giant erection. That will make you betray everything you stand for.

I crossed my arms on my chest. “Is this supposed to convince me?”

“No,” he said. “This is.”

He ran and took a dive off the balcony. Midway down the catastrophic drop, his body tore. A colossal shape clawed itself free, obsidian black, with a terrifying reptilian head on a long neck and two wings that snapped open. My heart hammered in my chest while every instinct screamed at me to run and hide and hope he wouldn’t find me.

He was bigger than Aspid. His wingspan dwarfed the largest airplanes I’d seen.

The dragon swooped, banked, and dived under the balcony. A moment and his head reared above the rail, two fiery eyes staring straight at me. He rose into the air, climbing straight up, his gaze fixed on me. It took every ounce of my will to stay where I was.

His mouth opened, revealing nightmarish fangs.

In his realm, you are a ghost . . .

Fire burst out of his mouth in a blazing torrent and washed over me. The flames blinded me, passing over my body but doing no damage.

I waited until he was done. When the flames fell, I stood exactly where I’d been before, my arms still crossed on my chest.

The dragon’s eyes studied me, and for the first time I saw a hint of uncertainty in their depths.

I forced myself to shrug and reached for home in my mind.

The world went white. I landed on the grass, blinked, and saw my father, his face twisted with fury.

“SHARRIM! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?”

EVERYTHING HURT. THE pain wasn’t acute, just thorough. Every cell in my body throbbed.

“ARE YOU HARD OF HEARING, SHARRIM? ANSWER ME! SHARRIM?”

It dawned on me that he expected me to make some sort of sound. “No.”

“DO YOU POSSESS THE GIFT OF SPEECH? DO YOU UNDERSTAND THE WORDS I UTTER?”

“Yes.” I sat up. I was sitting in the clearing outside our backyard. Curran, Hugh, and Elara were standing only a few yards away. They looked like they were screaming, but for some reason I couldn’t hear them.

“REPEAT BACK TO ME WHAT I SAID ABOUT NEIG’S REALM.”

“You forbade me to go,” I intoned.

“AND WHAT DID YOU DO?”

“I went.”

“SO, YOU DELIBERATELY DISOBEYED ME.”

“Yes, Mufasa.”

“DO I LOOK LIKE I AM IN THE MOOD FOR JOKES?” my father thundered.

When not sure what to say, stall for time. I had a role to play in this drama, and I had to think of exactly how to play it to push my dad over the edge. That is, assuming my aunt didn’t chicken out.

“I GAVE YOU A CLEAR SET OF INSTRUCTIONS. MORE, I EXPLAINED WHY CAUTION WAS NECESSARY.”

Curran took a running start and jumped. An invisible wall pulsed with bright crimson, and he bounced back.

“Did you set a blood ward around us, so you could scream at me uninterrupted?”

“YES!”

Of course he did. “Carry on then.”

I lay flat on the grass. It was nice and soft. Come on, Rose of Tigris. Don’t leave me hanging. If Erra didn’t show up, I’d have to rethink my strategy fast.

He bent over me. “You went into the dragon’s den. You could’ve died.”

Ah. That’s why the freak-out. “I’m alive. You’re still with us, Father. Don’t be so dramatic.”

“I WAS WORRIED ABOUT YOU, YOU FOOLISH CHILD!”

“You were worried about your own survival.”

My father slapped his hand over his face. “Why, gods? Why me? What have I done to deserve this punishment?”

“Conquered, pillaged, manipulated, imposed your will on others . . .”

“Murdered your children,” my aunt’s icy voice said behind us.

I almost cheered.

My father went completely still. I twisted my neck and saw Erra. She’d strolled through the blood ward like it wasn’t there.

“So, it is true,” he said, the ancient words lyrical and filled with pain. “You betrayed me.”

“You made an order of assassins to murder me.” There was so much in my aunt’s voice: pain, anger, surprise, grief. It almost broke me.

She could do it. If I had to swallow my pride and deal with a man who wanted to murder my child, she could deal with him, too.

“I never meant for it to be used.”

Erra raised her hand. My father fell silent.

“We’ve destroyed our family, Im,” she said. “We ruined it.”

“We were fighting a war.”

She shook her head. “Death gives you a certain perspective. We broke Shinar. It wasn’t the invaders. It was us. We grieved, and we let rage blind us. We destroyed everything our family had built. Look at us now. Look at our legacy. Mother mourns us.”

My father sneered. It was almost as impressive as when my aunt did it. Apparently, it ran in the family. “Our mother has committed plenty of her own sins.”

“This child”—Erra pointed at me—“is our best hope for the future. How could you?”

Roland raised his chin.

“Yes. I know,” she said. “You bound her. Are you really that terrified of death?”

“I did it out of love,” he ground out.

“You did a thing to a babe in the womb that cannot be undone. Do you wage war on the unborn now, Nimrod? Is this how far you have fallen?”

I got up to my feet and touched the ward. The magic clutched at my wrist. For a moment the ward became visible, a translucent dome of red glass. It held for half a breath, fractured, and shattered, melting into empty air, and Curran’s enraged face greeted me.

Here goes nothing. “It doesn’t matter,” I said. “I’ve seen Neig’s army. He has thousands of warriors. Enough to overrun the city and murder every single person who lives here. In his lair, a horde of yeddimur is waiting. He takes an offering of newborns and then he poisons them with his venom until they turn into those creatures. He told me that they are primitive and filthy beasts who know only rage and hunger and who eat their own. He says this is the true nature of humanity. He is worse than you are, Father. You seek to rule. He wants to exterminate us.”

You could hear a pin drop.

“I have no allies. I’m alone. It’s just me and the city. No help is coming. But I’m the In-Shinar and I won’t bow to a dragon. I will fight for humanity, even if nobody stands with me. I am Sharratum here. I’m responsible for this city. I won’t dishonor my blood and my family.”

Curran frowned at me. Don’t you dare ruin my speech. I pushed every button my dad had.

“Neimheadh is coming for us in three days. Atlanta will fall. We will die. Then you’ll follow, Father. Make your peace.”

I walked away and didn’t look back.

I SAT ON the porch steps and held a glass of iced tea. The ice had melted long ago, so what I had was mostly tea-flavored water. My father and my aunt still argued on our lawn. They put the blood ward back up for privacy, I suppose, which didn’t do them a lot of good, because I could still see their faces. All the arm waving and finger pointing was quite entertaining.

Curran sat on my left. Hugh leaned against the porch post on my right. Conlan was inside in the basement, surrounded by werebears and guarded by Adora and Christopher. My father would have to go through me and Curran to get to him, and if it came to that, Christopher would fly him out of there while the werebears held Roland back.

Dali and Doolittle had left once I vanished. It was just us again, family and friends. Well, us and Hugh and Elara.

My father clenched his fists. Light exploded in the dome, hiding him from view. It faded, revealing my aunt, her arms crossed on her chest. She rolled her eyes and said something.

My father spun away, throwing up his arms.

“I stand corrected,” my husband said. “There is another person who can drive your father as crazy as you.”

“This is the most human I’ve ever seen him,” I said.

“You’re not alone,” Hugh said, his voice flat. “That was some speech. I thought you’d lost your mind for a second.”

“We need his army. I primed him for my aunt. If anyone can convince him, she will.”

We watched the drama play out in the bubble. My aunt switched to lecturing. My father pinched the bridge of his nose with his hand, looking down.

“Come on, you selfish asshole,” Hugh growled under his breath.

At the far edge of the lawn, Julie had parked herself, a determined look on her face. Derek waited with her, his face impassive.

“How many troops does Neig have?” Curran asked.

“I stopped counting at thirteen thousand.”

Curran didn’t say anything. A thousand wouldn’t be a problem. Five thousand would be hard. They were armored, so we’d have to wrench them out of their armor to kill them, while they spat fire at us. Ten thousand was impossible.

Ten thousand troops, that’s more soldiers than the National Guard had pre-Shift. And Neig had even more than that.

The bubble of the ward fell. My father turned to us. My aunt walked over to the porch steps.

“Your father has agreed to ally with you to face the dragon.”

“Aha.” Waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“He wants to see Conlan,” Erra said.

“No,” Curran said.

“I will hold my grandson,” Roland said, “and he will know I am his grandfather. That’s my price.”

Everything in me rebelled at putting Conlan anywhere within his reach.

We couldn’t survive without my father. It wasn’t just his army; it was him. We needed my father’s power and magic. He’d fought a dragon before and won.

I felt like I was walking down a winding staircase. Every stair was a piece of my life I would fight to the end to keep. My friends. My relationships. Each had a name or some concession I wasn’t willing to make. My pride. My dignity. My privacy. Julie. Derek. Ascanio. Ghastek. Rowena. Jim. Dali. Curran . . .

I fought for every one. I clawed onto them, holding on with the edges of my nails, but in the end, I would surrender and step down in the name of the greater good. This was queenship, and if only I could find someone to take it from me, I’d unload it in a fraction of a second.

The name of this step was “Never let my father touch my child.”

I let my magic out. It flowed out of me like a mantle. I decided not to bother with hiding it anymore.

The power streamed out of me, branching, stretching, reaching. I became the center of Atlanta, the heart of the land I claimed. I sat on the porch steps, but I might as well have sat on a throne.

My father felt it. His eyes narrowed. He blinked and his whole being seemed to have picked up a faint golden sheen. This was no longer a conversation between Roland and me. This was a conversation between New Shinar and Atlanta. Two rival kingdoms negotiating a brief peace.

“What do you offer, Im-Shinar?” I asked.

My father’s eyes narrowed further. “The full power of my army and myself.”

“You will fight Neig until he is dead. You will honor our alliance for the duration of this war.”

“Yes.”

“Kate,” Curran said.

“Don’t do it,” Julie yelled from across the lawn.

This was it. This was the last thing I had to give. I was about to place my son into my father’s hands.

“The word of Sharrum is binding,” I said. “Swear to me, father, that you will put my son back in my arms after you hold him.”

“I swear,” he said.

There were lines even my father wouldn’t cross. I had to believe that.

“Atlanta accepts your alliance. Bring my son to me,” I said. My voice carried, slipping through the walls like they were air. I knew Adora heard me.

Julie swore.

There was a scuffle in the house. A moment later Adora opened the door, put Conlan on my lap, and took one step back, her hand on her sword. Blood slid down her left temple, but she ignored it.

Conlan blinked at the light. My baby. My tiny sweet baby. Curran’s gray eyes and my brown hair.

I pointed to my father. “This is your other grandfather.”

“Gampa?”

“Grandpa. Grandfather. Great king.”

My father crouched by me. In these few seconds he somehow became everything a grandfather should be: wise, kind, warm, and filled with love. If I’d met him as a child, I would’ve trusted him instantly.

Carefully, I passed Conlan to him.

His hands closed around my son.

Everyone on the lawn waited, primed to explode. Curran paused in a half crouch, a hair away from violence. Hugh bared his teeth. Adora focused on my father like nothing else in the world existed. Only my aunt seemed relaxed, standing by Roland’s side.

My father straightened and raised Conlan up. My son blinked.

Roland’s eyes were full of awe. A smile stretched his lips, a warm, real smile that reached all the way to his eyes.

“You are a wonder . . .” he said softly.

My aunt smiled.

“Do you see the Wild?” Roland asked her.

“I do. You have no idea what he can do with it. Isn’t he the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen?”

“He is. Well done, my daughter,” my father said. “Well done. He is brilliant like a star in the heavens.”

Shit.

The same look slapped Hugh’s and Julie’s faces. They had seen that expression before.

My father liked shiny things and gifted children. It was the potential; it drew him like a magnet. He told me once that Hugh had been a glowing meteor he caught and forged into a sword. If Hugh was a meteor, my son was a supernova. He was like nothing else I had ever seen.

My father wanted my son. He wanted him more than anything in the world. And if he took him, he would raise him like a prince. He would give him everything and it would be terrible.

“Conlan,” I called. “Come to Mommy.”

My son twisted in his grandfather’s hands.

Roland hesitated. Curran leaned forward a quarter of an inch.

My father took three steps forward and deposited Conlan into my arms. I hugged him to me.

“We have three days then,” my father said. “Possibly more, since the attack will come with the first magic wave after the three days pass. I shall come to discuss strategy before then.”

He vanished in a burst of pale gold light.

Everyone screamed at me at once.

I hugged Conlan to me. “Grandpa is bad,” I whispered to him. “I won’t let him get you. I won’t.”

That was one price I wasn’t willing to pay.

The magic wave fell, the technology reasserting itself once more.

Curran collapsed.