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.
CHAPTER
17
I CLEARED THE space between us in a fraction of a second. He groaned, blinking. I wrapped my arms around him, squeezing Conlan in, willing with everything I had to keep Curran alive. Don’t disappear. Please, please don’t disappear.
“Curran, look at me. Look at me.”
He didn’t feel solid. Oh my God. It had happened. The balance within him had shifted. He was more god than man now, and the god part couldn’t exist without the magic. I was losing him.
“Curran!” I pulled magic out of myself and sent a burst of it into him.
His gray eyes focused on me.
I hugged him and kissed his lips, desperate. “Stay with me. Stay with me, honey.”
The muscles under my fingers gained density.
“I love you. Stay with me.”
“I’ve got it,” he said. “I’ve got it. Just took me by surprise, that’s all.”
“You shouldn’t have eaten the last one,” Erra said over me.
“Thanks, that helps.” He kissed me back. “You can stop now, honey. I’ve got it.”
I let the magic current die. The pain died with it. I hadn’t even realized I was hurting until it stopped.
Curran gripped my hand. I pulled him to his feet. He draped his arm around me. By the time we reached the kitchen, he was moving on his own. He sat in a chair. I kept my hand on his shoulder. I didn’t want him to disappear.
“Roland wants the kid,” Hugh said.
“Of course he wants the kid,” Curran growled. “He’ll stab us in the back the first chance he gets.”
They both looked at me. “I know,” I said. “We don’t have a choice. As bad as Roland is, Neig is worse. Neig is death and genocide. Roland wants to rule humans. Neig wants to eat us.”
The kitchen was silent.
“We know Roland will turn on us, so we plan for it,” Curran said. “We’re not going into it blind.”
And even if we did get blindsided, there was always the nuclear option. My father couldn’t live without me.
“We need to solve the problem of Neig,” Hugh said.
“And his many troops,” I added.
“Not counting the yeddimur,” Curran said. “If I were him, I’d run the yeddimur at us first, and then when we’re softened, finish us with troops.”
“That seemed to be his strategy when we fought them in Kentucky. Yeddimur are tough to kill. We can fight for hours before we ever touch his army,” Hugh said.
“Can we win this?” Elara asked.
Curran’s eyes went cold. “We don’t have a choice.”
“If we can get Roland to follow strategy,” Hugh said. “That’s a big ‘if.’”
“He will follow it,” Erra assured him.
“Do we even know where he is coming from?” Derek asked.
“My father’s old castle,” I said. “I told him I wanted to behold his army. That’s the only area around Atlanta large enough for him to field all his troops. I wanted to avoid attack on several fronts.”
“With any luck, he’ll do what Roland does,” Curran said.
“Arrange his troops into rectangles and run them at us?” I asked.
“Mm-hm. He’s likely used to relying on numerical advantage.”
“And fire,” I said. “Don’t forget fire.”
“He does breathe fire?” Julie asked.
“Like a jet of ignited napalm.”
“Can you hold him back if you’re in your territory?” Hugh asked.
“Possibly.”
Curran leaned back. “We need to call another Conclave.”
“The problem is, we can’t kill him,” I said.
“Who?” Curran asked.
“Neig. If he decides he’s near death, he’ll just vanish into his lair.”
A whisper of movement sounded from the hallway and Yu Fong stepped out into the kitchen, dressed in jeans, a T-shirt, and a light-brown hoodie. He looked no worse for wear. He moved with a slight stiffness, but his color was good.
“I tried to tell you before,” he said. “There may be a way.”
Everyone looked at me. “Saiman,” I told them. “He performed a ritual that let us talk briefly while Yu Fong was comatose. Each dragon lair has an anchor. It is the dragon’s most precious possession, his greatest treasure, cherished above all others. They pour their magic into it and it’s the foundation of the realm where the dragon makes its lair. But it can’t be destroyed.”
“As I tried to tell you,” Yu Fong said, “we don’t need to destroy it. If we can steal it for a time, the realm won’t respond to Neig’s commands. He will be trapped here and now.”
Everyone paused, mulling it over.
“Can you do it?” Hugh asked.
“No. I’m another dragon. Neig will sense the moment I enter his realm. Even if I could, I would not. The anchor is a thing of great magic that can’t exist outside its realm for long. It will seek to return. It will take enormous power to restrain it. The temptation for me would be too great. If I touch that anchor, it will pull me into Neig’s realm, and I have no intention of leaving this world. My place is here.”
“If not you, then who?” Curran asked.
“You have a book,” Yu Fong said. “About short people who sneak into a dragon’s lair and steal his anchor. Someone small and insignificant.”
“I’m small and insignificant,” Julie said.
“No,” I said.
“Yes,” she told me. “Kate, I’m small, sneaky, and quiet. I have a large reserve of magic and I know how to use it.”
“The child has a point,” Erra said.
“Everyone else is needed,” Julie continued. “You are the In-Shinar. Curran has to lead the mercs and inspire the shapeshifters. Hugh has to lead the Iron Dogs, Elara has to absorb witch magic, and Yu Fong can’t do it because he is a dragon. I can do it.”
“I’ll go with her,” Derek said.
“It would have to be done during the battle, when the madman is occupied,” Yu Fong said. “I know what will occupy him.”
I raised an eyebrow at him.
“Me,” he said. “The moment he sees me, he will attack. I will buy you some time.”
“One flaw in this plan,” I said. “How will Julie get to the dragon’s realm?”
“Did you keep the shard of his fang?” Yu Fong asked.
“Yes.”
“It will act as a key. I will open the way. The timing will have to be perfect.” Yu Fong leaned forward, his gaze on me. “I repeat, a removed anchor seeks to reunite with its realm. Neither can exist apart. It will require great power to hold the anchor. And we don’t know how vast Neig’s realm is. We don’t know where he hides the anchor.”
The phone rang. Julie picked it up. “Yes?”
She held it out to me. “Ghastek.”
I took the phone with one hand, keeping my other one on Curran. “Please tell me you have something.”