by Julie Kagawa
“Crap,” I muttered. Across the table, Garret watched me with serious gray eyes as I stuck the phone back in my pocket and rose, gazing up at him. “That was my brother,” I said. “There’s some kind of crisis at the house—he wants me to come back right away.”
Garret nodded. “I’ll take you home.”
* * *
There were no strange cars in the driveway when we rolled up to the house, nothing to indicate anything unusual was happening, but my stomach still twisted nervously as we pulled to a stop.
Why is Talon here? Do they... My stomach tied itself into a knot. Do they know about me and Cobalt? Have they come to take me back?
Forcing my gaze from the house, I looked at Garret, wondering if this was the last time I’d see him. “Thanks,” I said, trying to smile. “For lunch and the ride and everything. I guess I’ll talk to you later.”
“Ember.” He hesitated, as if trying to find the right words. “Are you in trouble?” he finally asked. “Do you want me to come in and explain what happened?”
“Um.” I cringed inside. Definitely no, and especially not today. Liam and Sarah had made it very clear that they didn’t want our friends in the house, for any reason. I always met everyone at the beach, or we’d hang at Kristin’s huge sprawling beach house, or head down to the Smoothie Hut. No one seemed to care that Dante and I never invited anyone inside. Lexi and Kristin had never been past the front door, and neither had any of Dante’s friends. We’d told everyone that our uncle was an eccentric writer who needed absolute quiet to work, and that was that.
Under normal circumstances, Liam would blow a gasket if I invited some strange boy into the house. Today, with Talon visiting, it was out of the question.
“You don’t have to do that,” I told him. “I’ll be all right. See you around, Garret.”
He looked faintly disappointed, which struck me as a little strange. I couldn’t think of any boy who would want to come in and take the heat for me. Dante’s friends, Calvin and Tyler especially, didn’t even knock on the door when they picked him up. They sat in the driveway and honked.
“You still owe me a surf lesson,” he said as I reached for the door handle. I looked back, and he smiled. “Tomorrow, if you’re up for it,” he offered quietly, those metallic eyes never leaving my face. “No Lexi or Calvin or anyone else this time. Just you and me.”
“Garret...” I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know if Talon would still be here tomorrow, if I would still be here tomorrow. Maybe Talon had come to whisk me back to the organization, proclaiming I was rebellious and disobedient, unfit for a life among humans. I didn’t want to promise him tomorrow when I wasn’t sure I would ever see him again.
But a day with Garret, alone... How could I say no? I liked being with him. I liked his quiet confidence and subtle sense of humor, the way having fun seemed like such a novelty to him. He challenged me, he was easy to talk to and he wasn’t bad on the eyes, either. (Okay, so that was an understatement; he was supercute, even my dragon side agreed with that.) I felt he was hiding so much, that I wasn’t seeing the real Garret at all, and the more I hung out with him, the more I would learn.
Also, being with him did strange, twisty things to my insides. My dragon instincts did not approve; they still didn’t like this human with his amazing reflexes and bright, intense eyes. The eyes of a predator. But there was another part of me that couldn’t resist. And the thought of never seeing him again was unfathomable. Even if I knew it was probably for the best.
“Tomorrow,” I said, and nodded. “Meet me at the cove at noon. Do you remember where it is? I can give you directions if you need it.”
He shook his head. “I remember.” One side of his mouth quirked up in that faint, wry smile. “I’ll see you then.”
Tomorrow. Tomorrow I would meet Garret alone on a secluded beach, and we would ride the waves and have fun until evening, and then we might head down to the main beach to hang out with Lexi and Dante and everyone. Just like always. Nothing would be different. I would not let myself think that I’d be gone.
He was still watching me with those bright metallic eyes, and the intensity was back, making my insides squirm. Tearing my gaze from his, I opened the Jeep door and slid out. “See you tomorrow,” I replied, a promise to us both, and turned away. I deliberately did not look back, but I could feel his gaze on me as I made my way up the walk, until the front door closed behind me.
* * *
As I walked into the entryway, something grabbed my upper arm, steely fingers digging into my skin, hard enough to make me gasp. Wincing, I turned and stared into the furious eyes of my trainer, who glared down like she wanted to bite my head off.
“Where have you been?” she whispered harshly, giving me a shake. I bit my lip to keep from crying out in pain. “I’ve been trying to contact you for hours. Why didn’t you answer?”
Too late, I remembered all the missed calls on my phone. The unknown number was probably hers. But she had never called me before; it was just assumed I’d see her again the next morning. “I was at the mall,” I whispered back. “I didn’t hear my phone ring.”
“Get in there,” Scary Talon Lady snapped, shoving me toward the living room. “Mind your manners, if you have any.” Her poisonous-green eyes narrowed to slits. “I swear, hatchling, if you embarrass me, you’ll pay for it tomorrow.”
Rubbing my bruised arm, I walked into the living room.
As I crossed the threshold, six people turned to stare at me. Uncle Liam and Aunt Sarah stood in the kitchen, glaring at me over the counter, but they weren’t important. Neither was Dante’s trainer, who stood along the opposite wall, his hands folded in front of him. Dante, sitting alone in the middle of the couch, shot me a relieved, almost frightened look as the pair of strangers in the room turned their attention to me.
A man rose from the armchair, a smile stretching across his narrow face. The smile looked forced, somehow, not real. As if he had seen pictures of a smile and was imitating them, but didn’t understand the meaning. My dragon hissed and cringed back as two pale blue eyes settled on me, ancient and terrifying. An adult, and a really old one at that, the way my instincts were screaming at me to run. He wore a plain gray business suit, and his dark hair was cut close, as was the neatly trimmed goatee.
“Ah, Ember Hill.” When he spoke, the entire room fell silent. Not that anyone had been speaking before, but my trainer, Dante’s trainer, our guardians and the well-muscled man in a black suit standing beside his chair all went completely motionless, their attention solely on him. His voice was low, confident, similar to the one I’d heard in the secret room that night, and I wondered if this was the same dragon. He gestured to the sofa where Dante sat, rigid and unmoving. “Please, have a seat.”
Warily, I sat, giving my brother a quick, nervous glance. “What’s going on?” I said, gazing around at the ring of somber adults, all still watching the man in the suit. “Are we in trouble?”
“Trouble? No, of course not.” Another blank, empty smile. “Why would you be in trouble?”
“Um...” I decided not to answer that. “No reason. I was just...curious.”
“This is a routine visit,” the man continued, his pale blue eyes watching me with the unblinking stare of a hawk. “There is no reason to be alarmed. My superiors sent me to check on your progress, see how you are coming along in your new home. So...” He laced his fingers under his chin, regarding us intently. “Have you settled in all right? Are you happy here?”
All attention shifted to us. Scary Talon Lady watched me from across the room, her eyes gleaming dangerously. It wouldn’t matter what I said, I realized. I was expected to be happy, settled in and doing fine. Admitting I was anything but would be useless, and probably result in a lot of pain for me tomorrow morning. Talon didn’t care about our happiness; they just wanted to make sure we were fo
llowing the rules. The discussion I’d overheard with Liam and Sarah in the secret room only confirmed that.
“Yeah,” I muttered as Dante stated a polite “Yes, sir” at the same time. “Everything’s peachy.”
As expected, the man in the suit didn’t notice my flat tone of voice, and if he did, he didn’t care. But my trainer’s eyes grew hard and cold and terrifying, making me cringe inside. Oh, I was going to pay for this tomorrow.
“Good!” the man in the suit exclaimed with a brisk nod. “Talon will be pleased to hear it.” His gaze shifted to Dante’s trainer and Scary Talon Lady, standing by the far wall. “And their education? How are they progressing?”
“The boy is doing well, sir,” said Dante’s teacher. I noticed he didn’t even look at the other man but stared straight ahead, averting his eyes. I shivered. In Talon society, looking directly into a dragon’s eyes and holding its gaze was considered a challenge or a threat. Of course, living among humans with their sloppy glances and wandering eyes, we’d learned to adapt, but you still didn’t want to hold a staring contest with an older, more powerful dragon. At best, it was considered extremely rude and asking for trouble. At worst, you’d get your head bitten off.
“And the girl?” The man in the suit looked at Scary Talon Lady. “There are concerns within the organization that your student lacks...discipline. Is this true?”
My trainer smiled, but it was an ominous, threatening smile, directed right at me.
“Oh, she’s coming along, sir,” my trainer said, her eyes gleaming with dark promise. “There are a few issues we need to work on, but worry not. We’ll fix them. We will indeed.”
I was not looking forward to tomorrow.
The man in the suit stayed a while longer, asking questions, speaking to my trainer and my guardians, occasionally talking to me and Dante. The tension in the room did not go away, and I began to feel very twitchy surrounded by four adult dragons, all their attention directed at me. Not only that, one of Talon’s cardinal rules was never to have too many dragons in one place at once, as it attracted St. George like moths to a flame. Some of Talon’s higher-ups, the big shots closest to the Elder Wyrm, never ventured into the open. Like the Elder Wyrm—Talon’s CEO and the most powerful dragon in existence—they remained behind the scenes and in the shadows. If the man in the suit was as important as everyone seemed to think he was, having him in Crescent Beach was really weird. Why would someone this powerful pay a visit to two insignificant hatchlings, just to see if they were “happy”?
Something else was going on, but I couldn’t figure out what. Just another mystery to add to the big, ominous cloud called Talon.
As the afternoon waned, Aunt Sarah politely offered to cook dinner for everyone, and it was just as politely declined. The man in the suit rose, spoke once more to our trainers, then turned to me and Dante. He didn’t say anything, though, just regarded us with those pale blue eyes that were somehow reptilian even in human form. With a nod and a last empty smile, he turned and left the room, his bodyguard following him out. They didn’t walk out the front door, but vanished down the basement stairs, probably going to the secret tunnel. The door creaked shut behind them.
I felt a presence beside me and turned to face my instructor, who beamed one of her scary smiles in my direction. She did not look pleased.
“Well,” she said in a conversational tone, despite the evilness of her expression. “You certainly made an impression, didn’t you? It appears that Talon thinks you have potential but you lack discipline.” Her smile grew wider, and her eyes glimmered. “We will have to work on that, won’t we? Rest up tonight, hatchling. Tomorrow is going to be...interesting.”
Garret
Ember was late again.
Parked under the same grove of palm trees from a few days ago, I checked my watch for the third time since arriving at the cove. Eighteen minutes past noon, and still no sign of the girl. I wondered if she’d “lost track of time” again, or had just forgotten. To me, it was incomprehensible. In the Order, punctuality was everything. You were either on time, or you were early, but you were never late. If a superior told you to meet them in the chapel at 0400, for no special reason whatsoever, you had better be in that pew when the time rolled around or you’d risk pulling KP duty for a month.
I figured the locals of Crescent Beach didn’t worry too much about being on time, at least in the summer. The whole place had a lazy serene feel to it, where you took each day as it came and didn’t stress about time, place or anything.
I could never live like that, not on a regular basis. It would drive me crazy. Much like these strange, unfamiliar urges a certain red-haired girl stirred in me. I didn’t understand them, and I wasn’t sure I liked them. When Ember had taken my hand yesterday, I’d frozen. For the first time in my life, I hadn’t known what to do. Looking back, I realized that it was highly unusual that I hadn’t responded, that I’d even let her touch me in the first place. In the Order, if anyone grabbed me like that, they would be on the ground. It was reflex, a reaction you couldn’t help when your life was constantly on the line.
But I’d let her touch me, let her trace the scars sustained in a fight with a stubborn green dragon that had refused to die. And I hadn’t pulled away. Her fingers had sent a rush of warmth up my arm all the way to the pit of my stomach. I’d never felt anything like that before. I...wanted her to touch me again.
Startled by my own thoughts, I leaned back and rubbed my eyes. What was wrong with me? I was a soldier, trained to keep emotions in check at all times. I could face down a charging dragon and show no fear. I could endure two hours of my superior screaming in my face and feel nothing. What was it about Ember that was different?
I shook myself. It didn’t matter. I still had my mission, and Ember was still a target. The rest of the group we had pretty much eliminated from the list. Lexi and Calvin had been born in Crescent Beach and hadn’t lived anywhere else. Kristin Duff, our other prime suspect, wasn’t a local but visited Crescent Beach every summer with her father and stepmother. They had an apartment in New York City, where Kristin’s father worked as a stockbroker.
That left the twins, Ember and Dante Hill. Who’d just arrived in Crescent Beach this summer. Who lived with their aunt and uncle in a large house on the beach. Who didn’t have any parents.
Nothing was certain, of course. We could be chasing a false lead. Ember Hill could be perfectly normal, but I wouldn’t be sure until I knew her better, or she slipped up. Regardless, I had to get her to trust me.
If she ever arrived.
Slumping against the seat, I resigned myself to waiting.
* * *
At 1331, Ember finally showed up.
Opening the car door, I got out and headed toward the beach, where a lone figure with mussed red hair stood facing the ocean, a surfboard under one arm. She was scanning the waves, shading her eyes with a hand, when I stepped behind her.
“Looking for someone?”
She jumped, spun around and blinked in surprise, as if not quite believing I was there. “Garret? How long have you... I mean... Wow, you’re still here.” When I didn’t say anything, a flush darkened her cheeks as she looked at the sand. “I thought you might’ve given up,” she admitted.
I almost had. I’d told myself I would wait a half hour past noon before calling it quits. That was a reasonable time to give someone who was late. But a half hour had turned into forty-five minutes, then an hour, then fifteen minutes past the hour. I’d finally accepted the fact that she wasn’t coming and had shoved the key into the ignition when the girl in question had suddenly gone stumbling down to the beach, not seeing me in the palm grove.
“Lost track of time again?” I asked coolly. She winced, probably thinking I was angry, but I wasn’t upset, not really. I was actually relieved to see her; in the hour and fifteen minutes I’d sat alone in the
Jeep, my mind had come up with a number of terrible things that could’ve happened. Illogical, improbable things, but still. Everything from car accidents to shark attacks had gone through my mind, making me restless with worry. It was a new experience, one I found I didn’t care for. I’d never worried about anyone before. My fellow soldiers, my brothers-in-arms, it was different with them. We knew that what we did was extremely dangerous. We all knew we could die at any time, and we accepted that. Worry for another’s safety was dangerous and could get everyone killed. You had to trust your team to know their orders and follow them through. Casualties were a certainty, a fact of life. That was one of the perks about being in the Order; soldiers of St. George never died of old age.
But...I had been worried for Ember. I’d desperately hoped nothing had happened to her to cause such tardiness. Which seemed rather foolish now. She was obviously okay, though she lacked her usual bounce.
“I’m really sorry, Garret,” Ember said, gazing at me with big green eyes. With a start, I noticed dark circles crouched beneath them, a sign of exhaustion that hadn’t been there yesterday. “Something came up at home, and I couldn’t get away. I wanted to be here—I came as fast as I could. Dante had the car, I had to call Lexi to get her to drop me off...”
She looked miserable, and I spoke quickly to reassure her. “It’s fine, Ember. I’m not upset. I’m just glad you came.” I smiled, and she seemed to relax. “We’re here now, so don’t worry about it. But...” I glanced at the single surfboard she held under one arm. “You only brought one board? I’m afraid I don’t have one.”
“Oh, right.” She brushed hair out of her eyes, suddenly embarrassed. “Well, I didn’t have time to grab a second one, so we’ll have to try something new. If you’re up for it.”
I started to answer, but as Ember dropped her arm, I noticed something on her shoulder that made my pulse skip. Gently, and without even thinking about it, I grabbed her elbow, tugging her sleeve up.