Inferno

by Julie Kagawa

  Her eyes flashed, and a grin finally crept across her face. “I’ll take that bet, soldier boy,” she said, looping her arms around my neck. “And you’re going to eat those words, along with all that sand and seawater, when you wipe out.”

  “Oh?” I tightened my arms around her waist, feeling heat start to flicker through my veins. “And what if I don’t? What do I get if I win?”

  “The love and reluctant admiration of a dragon.”

  “I thought I had that already.”

  “Don’t push your luck, soldier boy,” Ember said, and kissed me. I closed my eyes, feeling the heat spread to all parts of my body, melting away the worry, stress, nervousness and fear, at least for the moment. We could still die. In war, it was all too easy; you’d blink, and someone else would be gone. But as long as I was killed fighting for her, for a future I would probably never see, I would have no regrets.

  Of course, that didn’t mean I’d go down without a fight.

  “Lieutenant Ward?”

  Footsteps sounded outside the door, clipped and hurried, making us pull back. “Lieutenant Ward,” the voice said again as someone swept into the room. “I have those papers you wanted—”

  He stopped short, blinking in surprise as he spotted me and Ember in the center of the room. I met his gaze, feeling a ripple of shock and recognition go up my spine, seeing the instant he recognized me, as well.

  He hadn’t changed much since the time we’d last seen each other. It had been a couple years ago, and only in passing; I’d made certain to avoid him whenever I could. Since then, he’d gained a few inches, and that scar across his bottom lip was new. But everything else, from his hard blue eyes, to the set of his jaw, to the way his mouth twisted into a sneer when he saw me, was exactly as I remembered.

  “Well, well,” Peter Matthews said, his voice that same smug taunt from when we were new recruits trying to scrape by at the Academy. “Look who it is. The lizard-loving traitor himself.”

  “What do you want, Matthews?” I asked steadily, ignoring the instant flare of anger that shot through my veins. Not for his words; I’d been called far worse of late, by both friends and enemies. Nothing he said could anger me. I’d heard it all before. It was Matthews himself, the long years of torment and abuse, the competition and mutual hatred we shared for each other.

  He doesn’t matter, I tried to tell myself. We were no longer in the Academy, competing for approval, trying to prove our worth. I was no longer eleven years old, trying to defend myself from being pummeled in the bathrooms. We were both soldiers, and he was no longer someone I needed to fear.

  But something was building inside, a simmering heat that flickered through my lungs, rising in intensity. Heat and anger and a savage, almost primal urge to protect the girl beside me. I breathed out slowly, and the air in my throat felt scalding hot.

  “Lieutenant Ward already left,” I told the other soldier, and jerked my head toward the exit. “You’ll probably catch him if you hurry.”

  Matthews didn’t answer. His cruel gaze shifted to Ember standing beside me, and the sneer twisting his face turned even uglier. “And that must be your little dragon whore. I can see why you’re so infatuated—she’s almost cute. For a soul-sucking lizard. Tell me, Sebastian...” He shot me an evil grin, baring his teeth. “I’m curious. Does she take it from the front, or the back?”

  The heat in my veins exploded. Fire roared through me, searing and furious, turning my vision red. I felt myself moving forward, muscles tensing, intending to drive my fist all the way through Matthews’s sneering mouth and out the back of his skull.

  “Garret, don’t!”

  Something caught my arm from behind, jerking me to a stop. “Don’t fight him,” Ember said, eyes narrowed and angry as I glanced back. “That’s what he wants. He’ll take any excuse to draw us out, to make everyone see that we’re violent and can’t be trusted.”

  I took a deep breath, controlling the heat and the fiery rage that came with it. She was right. I couldn’t let Matthews draw me into a brawl now. Too much depended on everyone working together. One scuffle could ruin any chance of dragons and soldiers getting along. Ember knew that. I knew that.

  Matthews, however, didn’t.

  “Don’t give him too much credit,” I told Ember, straightening and casting a hard look back at the other soldier. “He can’t plan that far ahead. There’s no ulterior motive here. He’s just an asshole.”

  Ember blinked, perhaps more stunned by my hostility toward the other soldier than the use of the word itself. I couldn’t blame her. I usually let insults roll off my back; life in the Order—where polite obedience was expected even if your superior officer was screaming in your face—taught you to take nothing personally. Words couldn’t hurt you; as long as you didn’t believe them, they meant nothing.

  But Peter Matthews could get under my skin like no one else. There were too many memories, too many years of mutual dislike, that simmered into resentment and loathing. Too many incidents where Matthews did his best to threaten, harm or humiliate me. Graduating the Academy had been a relief on many levels; I could start killing dragons as I had trained to do my whole life, but it also meant that I had finally escaped the constant torment of Peter Matthews.

  But now, it wasn’t about me. I had something more important to protect. And the whole Order would burn to the ground before I let him lay a finger on the girl at my side.

  “Oh, what’s the matter, Sebastian?” Matthews said. “Still afraid of me?” He smirked, blue eyes glittering. “You were always a squirrelly little shit, even in the Academy. Still can’t look me in the eye, even now. Or does your dragon bitch not want her toy broken?”

  A growl, faint but audible, rumbled deep in Ember’s throat, and the pupils of her eyes went razor-sharp. Despite her resolve, Matthews was treading on very thin ice right now. And he was either too arrogant to know the dangers of poking a dragon, or he was stupidly hoping something would happen. “Come on,” I told Ember, taking her hand and stepping away, toward the back door. “Let’s get out of here.” Before we both do something we’ll regret, and that idiot ends up in the infirmary with a shattered jaw. Or his face burned off.

  “That’s right, run away, Sebastian,” Matthews called as we fled the room, his mocking voice following us out the door. “Just like you always did. Still the pissant little coward, huh? Even when you have a lizard to hide behind. That’s okay.” We slipped into the hall, but his last threat still echoed behind us. “I’ll find you. You and your lizards. Count on it.”

  “Who the hell is that douchebag?” Ember muttered as we walked swiftly down the corridor. She was shaking, probably with anger and the effort of not Shifting into her true form and blasting the sneer off Matthews’s face.

  “Peter Matthews,” I replied. “I went to the Academy with him. We were in the same class. He...never liked me much.”

  Ember snorted at the understatement, casting a disgusted look back down the hall. “Has he always been such a jackass?”

  “Actually, he’s worse. He was made squad commander a couple years ago, and has Ward backing him up. They share some similarities, if you hadn’t noticed.” Ember frowned, a grim shadow crossing her face as she put the two together. “Before, Matthews was just a bully. Now...” I shook my head. “He might actually be dangerous.”

  “Great.” Ember crossed her arms. “I was nervous enough with Lieutenant Ward coming along. But if his whole squad is like Matthews...”

  I nodded. “We’re going to have to be extra vigilant, and make sure the soldiers of the Eastern Chapterhouse don’t put the mission at risk.” How we were going to do that, I wasn’t exactly certain, but I did know that I wouldn’t let Matthews or any of his soldiers hurt the dragons we were trying to save. “We need to inform Riley and the others, let them know the situation,” I went on. “Matthews hates dragons as much as Ward does. If he and Rile
y ever get into it, it’ll be bad.”

  She sighed. “Yeah. I’ll go find Riley and warn him about Commander Jackass. Where will you be?”

  “I should join Tristan and Lieutenant Martin.” They would be in Martin’s office now, with the weapon we’d stolen. The dragon killer. I wanted to know more about it, if it was really as potent as Martin believed. If it could really take down a dragon with one shot. And if it could, what that would mean for us, both dragons and St. George, in the future.

  * * *

  Martin’s office door was locked when I got there, and the murmuring voices I heard through the room stopped instantly when I knocked. “Who is it?” came Martin’s gruff voice through the wood.

  “Sebastian, sir.”

  “Hang on.”

  The locks clicked, and the door swung open to reveal Tristan’s unsmiling face on the other side. Martin stood behind his desk, looking grim, the weapon case open in front of him. I stepped through the frame, and Tristan locked the door behind me.

  “Sebastian.” Martin nodded as I joined Tristan at the edge of the desk. “St. Anthony has given me the details regarding the heist. He says there were two soldiers of the United States Army that saw the dragons before you could escape.”

  I nodded. “Yes, sir. It was unfortunate, but unavoidable. If Ember and Riley hadn’t showed up when they did, we’d either be dead or captured.”

  Martin’s jaw tightened. “I doubt the eyewitness accounts will be taken seriously, even if the soldiers themselves believe what they saw. Still, it is concerning.” He frowned, folding his arms to his chest. “One of the main purposes of St. George is to ensure that the general public know nothing of the existence of dragons. If we are to start working with these rogues, we must be more cautious.” His eyes narrowed. “Especially now that Lieutenant Ward is here.”

  “Yes, sir.” I understood Martin’s concern. Ward would take any excuse not to cooperate with us, to insist that working with dragons was not only immoral, it was dangerous. “But the dragons don’t want to be discovered, either, sir,” I added. “These rogues in particular have had plenty of experience keeping their heads down and off Talon’s radar. They understand it’s for the best that no one knows they exist.”

  Martin nodded. “But you managed to get the weapon,” he said, gazing down at the open case on his desk, where the long length of the barrel glinted under the dim light. “Well done.”

  Tristan edged forward, unable to keep the eagerness from his voice as he stared at the weapon. “Can this thing really one-shot a dragon?” he asked, sounding like he’d give anything to try it out. I frowned at his enthusiasm.

  “We won’t know until it’s tested,” Martin replied. “It is a prototype, after all. All we have right now is theory.” Reaching out, he closed the case with a snap, making Tristan slump in disappointment. Martin smiled faintly. “Put it from your mind, St. Anthony,” he urged. “At this moment, we have larger issues to deal with.”

  “Sir,” I ventured as Tristan gave the weapon case one last longing gaze. “How many from the Eastern Chapterhouse survived the attack?”

  “A half dozen, including the lieutenant,” Martin replied, and I blinked in shock. Only six soldiers had made it through the Night of Fang and Fire. Six, out of what had been the largest St. George chapterhouse in the United States. I thought back to the attack on our own chapterhouse a few weeks ago. It had been savage, violent and overwhelming, and even though we had prepared for it, we’d nearly been wiped out. Only the arrival of Ember and the rogues had been enough to turn the tide. Without them, it would have been a massacre.

  “I’m counting on you both to help me keep the peace,” Martin said, glancing at Tristan, as well. “Sebastian, talk to your dragons. They should try to avoid any contact with the soldiers for now. St. Anthony, keep an eye on our men. I don’t want them getting into fights with Ward’s boys, nor do I want them listening to whatever rhetoric will be going around the barracks. We can’t fight a war with Talon if we’re constantly battling our own people.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “And, Sebastian.” Martin looked at me. “You know you’re likely to be a target. From what I hear, a few of the men have already singled you out. But we’ll need every able body we can get for the upcoming war, so you are forbidden to put anyone in the infirmary unless it’s a matter of life or death, is that clear?”

  I suppressed a wince, wondering if Martin knew Peter Matthews was here. I’d never told him about my old rival, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the lieutenant somehow knew of our history. “Yes, sir.”

  “Good.” Martin looked down at the closed weapon case on his desk. “Because it appears that our next mission will be rescuing a colony of dragons in the middle of the ocean.”

  Riley

  The next few days, things were tense. I went out of my way to avoid the soldiers, and I noticed Sebastian doing the same, particularly when the soldiers of the other chapterhouse were around. Ember stayed near me or St. George when she wasn’t in her room, and Wes ventured out only to use the bathroom across the hall.

  And then there was Mist. Or, more accurately, the lack of her. I knew she was around; sometimes I’d catch a glimpse of her slipping out of a room, or hovering in a corner, watching and listening, while everyone talked. It worried me; she was an ex-Basilisk and shady as hell. If she was sending Talon vital information about us, we’d be dead before our little rescue operation ever got off the ground. But Mist was either too good to be caught, or she was just a naturally cautious person, because I never saw her in the act of something overtly suspicious.

  One night, I was more restless than usual. I lay on the hard mattress, listening to Wes snore in the corner, the million thoughts swirling around my head making sleep impossible. Per normal, I wondered if my underground was all right; Wes had checked their status as soon as he’d woken up, and every couple hours thereafter until we went to sleep. They were fine for now, but they were still just kids and I worried for them constantly, hoping Jade could keep them safe while I wasn’t there.

  I thought of Ember a lot, still feeling the ache of the severed life-mate bond deep inside. It wasn’t as sharp as before, where Cobalt had raged and mourned the loss of his Sallith’tahn, but it was still there. I’d buried it under work and planning, keeping myself deliberately busy so I wouldn’t have to think about it, but in the quiet hours of the night, it crept up again, reminding me of what I’d lost. Strangely enough, I didn’t hate the soldier for it. If Ember didn’t want him, there’d be nothing he could do to change her mind. But watching them together... Ember truly seemed content with her human, so who was I to interfere?

  I did think she was being shortsighted and setting herself up for heartbreak; humans didn’t live very long compared to dragons, even if there wasn’t a war going on. Sixty years, eighty years; it was a heartbeat to us, the blink of an eye. Even if the soldier didn’t get his head blown off in the next year or so, he would eventually grow old, wither and die, as all humans did. And Ember would still have her whole life ahead of her like the rest of us. That was another reason dragons rarely formed attachments to humans; they just weren’t around very long. Even my friendship with Wes was a bit of an anomaly. I was sure that Jade or Mist didn’t have a best girlfriend that was human.

  Mist. I shifted on the mattress, putting my hands under my head to stare at the ceiling. Mist had been on my mind a lot lately. Mostly because I knew she was up to something, and yet I could never pin her down long enough to prove it. Infuriating Basilisk. It was all the more aggravating because I should know her tricks; I had been doing this far longer than her. I knew she thought she was smarter than me; maybe this was a game to her, see how far she got before I finally caught on.

  Annoyed and knowing I wouldn’t get any sleep tonight, I swung my feet off the cot and sat up. Wes’s snores vibrated through the room as I checked my watch—3:22 a.m. Still too e
arly for even the soldiers to be awake. I wished I knew what that Martin guy was planning, and what the damn holdup was. Organizing a raid on a heavily armed facility in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean wasn’t something you could pull out of your ass, but still. We were wasting time; the breeders weren’t getting any younger, and Talon wasn’t getting any less powerful.

  A rustle in the hall just outside the room made the hairs on my neck stand up. It was barely audible, especially through the locked door and the snores of my hacker friend, but my dragon instincts stirred. Something, or someone, was out there.

  I stood up and glided to my door, opening it just enough to peer through the crack.

  A glimmer of pale, silvery hair vanished around the corner at the end of the corridor, making my gut clench and my suspicion flare to life. Mist. The Basilisk was up and on the move. This was my chance. Now we would finally see whose side she was really on.

  I pushed the door open as smoothly as I could, careful not to make it creak, and slipped into the hall after the girl. Barefoot, I followed that faint shimmer of silvery hair through narrow, pitch-black corridors, the stone floor cold against my feet. Mist moved swiftly through the underground bunker, silent as a ghost, thankfully not looking back. She might not have seen me in the darkness and shadow—I’d be difficult to spot in my black jogging pants and T-shirt—but she was an ex-Basilisk. Naturally wary and suspicious.

  Then again, so was I.

  I followed her up the steps to the old church, across the room and out one of the back doors into the hazy moonlight. Now Mist started to act nervous, glancing over her shoulder, even pausing to scan the trees behind her. But the woods surrounding the church had plenty of places to hide, and human eyesight could not pierce the shadows well enough to spot a person crouched at the foot of a tree. The challenge was moving when she moved so that my footsteps, rustling through leaves and bushes, didn’t give me away. Still, I’d been trained for this, and was able to follow the pale form through the woods fairly easily, a shadow trailing a ghost.