by Julie Kagawa
“All over the place. Austin, Phoenix, San Francisco. There was even one in Mexico for a little while.” I listened to myself ramble on, unable to stop. “I thought about moving some of them overseas, but that would require me to travel more. I can’t be on two continents at once.”
“No, you cannot.” I heard the triumph in her voice. “And how many hatchlings are you hiding, right now?”
“Twenty-three.”
She blinked, the only outward sign of surprise. “You have been busy, haven’t you?”
“I’ve been doing this awhile.”
“Indeed.” Mist leaned farther forward, her gaze intense. “Where can we find them, Cobalt? Tell me exactly where they are.”
“You’ll never find them,” I slurred, smiling up at her with the knowledge. “If I disappear, Wes will give the signal for everyone to move. They’ll be gone before Talon ever gets there.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Mist said. “Once we have them on the run, they’ll be easy to track down. You’re only delaying the inevitable.” Her voice dropped, became soothing again. “Stop fighting, Cobalt. Where are they? Tell me the closest safe house from here.”
Fighting. Why was I fighting? That seemed hard right now, too much work. “The closest safe house from here?” I shrugged. “That’s easy. I have one right in the city.”
Mist frowned. “Here?” she asked. “In Las Vegas?”
“Yep.” I nodded, tilting my head back. The inside of my skull felt full of cotton; a weird sensation. “We were just there a few days ago, in fact.”
“Who was there?”
“All of us. Me, Wes, the soldier of St. George, Ember…”
Ember.
Deep inside, the dragon stirred, rousing sluggishly at her name. It struggled into consciousness, growling defiantly, before sleep overcame it and it sank into the void again. But that brief rush of heat and fire burned away the fog and, for just a moment, my thoughts were clear.
“Was there anyone else in that safe house?” Mist went on, her voice closer now, not seeming to come from a great distance away. “Any hatchlings that could still be there, right now?”
I clenched my fist, curling my fingers around the item in my palm. It bit into my skin, and I exhaled in relief. Still there. I hadn’t dropped it. “No,” I muttered, almost before I knew what I was saying, and winced. The damn truth serum was still in full effect. “There was no one else. Just us.”
“All right.” Mist slid off the table, coming to stand in front of me. “Enough of this,” she said, and a note of impatience had crept into her voice. “You know what we want, Cobalt. You know you cannot hide them from Talon any longer. I will make this as clear as I possibly can. Where—”
“Before you ask,” I interrupted, making her frown in surprise, “there’s something you should probably know. Well, a couple things, really. One, you’re either very inexperienced at this, or overconfident. Or both. You realize you left that second dose of Dractylpromazine sitting on the table there, right?”
“Yes,” Mist said, glancing at the syringe. Her brow furrowed in wary confusion as she turned back. “But I’m in no danger. The dose I gave you is good for another hour, at least. Why?”
“No reason.” I shrugged. “Only, you forgot one of the prime rules of interrogation training. Never leave possible weapons like that lying within the prisoner’s reach. Because if they ever escape their plastic cuffs, that’s the first thing they’ll go for.”
Mist jerked back, eyes widening…as I surged to my feet, snapping the weakened plastic restraints, and lunged for the syringe.
Ember
“Dante?”
The flames within sputtered and died as I sucked in a horrified breath. Faith smiled, looking pleased, and I clenched my fist, glaring at the other hatchling. “Where is he?” I demanded. “What have they done to him?”
“He’s safe with Talon,” Faith went on. “For the moment, at least.” She paused to let that sink in, before continuing, “You don’t quite realize what’s at stake here, do you? This isn’t only your final exam. It’s also Dante’s. The organization is testing him, making sure they can trust him, the brother of a rogue and a traitor. This plan, well, most of it anyway, was his idea. If you fail and refuse to return to the organization, he fails, as well.” Faith smiled evilly. “And you know how Talon feels about failures.”
I felt like I’d been punched in the stomach. Dante was in charge of this. He’d sent Mist and Faith after us. He was responsible for Riley’s disappearance and, if things continued down this road, Garret’s death. Did he know what he was doing? Was Talon coercing him, forcing my brother to go along with their plans? If I didn’t return to the organization tonight, Dante would fail. I might never see him again. But to go back, to make sure my brother would be safe…Garret had to die.
“So, you have to ask yourself—” Faith’s voice was a croon, low and dangerous “—who is more important to you? Who are you going to save? The soldier of St. George? The greatest enemy of our kind? The human whose pitiful life span will be over in the blink of an eye?” She glanced at the kneeling soldier, a look of contempt crossing her face, before turning to me again. “Or will you choose Dante, the twin you’ve known all your life? The dragon whose only concern, from the moment you ran away from Talon, has been your safety? He’s waiting for you, Ember. Everyone is. We all want you to come home.”
I was suffocating, struggling to breathe, to make an impossible choice that wasn’t really a choice at all. I couldn’t shoot Garret—there was no way I could do that. But if I didn’t, they would kill us both anyway. And who knew what Talon would do to Dante.
I looked down at the weapon in my hand, then back to Garret, kneeling on the floor in front of the firing squad. His expression was blank, carefully guarded, though his eyes were bleak as they met mine.
Faith eased closer, her dark gaze burning the side of my face, as her voice dropped to a soothing murmur. “You can start over,” she said. “Everything you’ve done will be erased, all your crimes against Talon will be forgiven. You belong with your own kind. But, if you don’t pass this test, you will die. And Dante will suffer for your failure.” She leaned back, her expression confident, as if everything had already been decided. “I think you know what you have to do.”
And suddenly, I did.
I shivered and closed my eyes, willing my hands to stop shaking. “If…if I do this,” I whispered, “can you promise that Dante will be safe? That none of this will impact his place in the organization? And that we’ll be able to see each other again, without consequence?”
Faith’s voice was full of triumph. “You have our word.”
“Okay.” My voice came out choked. Raising my head, I met the gaze of the soldier in front of me, knowing he hadn’t glanced away from us the whole time. Garret watched me, gray eyes resigned, the look of someone who expected to die.
“I’m sorry,” I told him in a shaking voice, and felt my stomach wrench sideways at the look on his face. Betrayal and disbelief glimmered from his eyes, a split-second reaction, before his expression shut down and became a blank mask. Taking a deep breath, I stepped forward. “This is my brother,” I went on, my voice pleading and defiant at the same time. “My twin. Dante has always been my first priority. I’ll do anything to keep him safe, even this.”
Garret didn’t answer. I spared a glance at the men behind him and found they were watching me, not the soldier. Clearly, the dragon girl with the gun was the bigger threat, though they still kept their weapons trained on the back of his head.
My heart was pounding in my ears as I stopped a few feet from the kneeling soldier. I could feel Faith’s eyes on my back, the hawk-like stares of the men behind him, but my gaze was only for Garret. He was still watching me, though his eyes were distant now, almost glassy. Like he was staring right through me, at s
omething I couldn’t detect. A lump caught in my throat, and my stomach twisted so hard I felt sick.
With trembling hands, I raised the gun, aiming it at his forehead. Garret closed his eyes, bracing himself. For a split second, with my finger curled around the trigger, everything held its breath.
“Look at me,” I whispered. He didn’t move, and I hardened my voice. “Look at me, Garret. I want to see your face when I do this. Open your eyes.”
For a heartbeat, the soldier remained motionless. For an agonizing moment, I thought he would refuse. But then he opened his eyes and his dark, tormented gaze met mine. I stared into those gray eyes and mouthed a single phrase, hoping he would understand.
Trust me.
He blinked…and I opened my fingers, dropping the weapon at my feet.
The second the gun left my hands, I Shifted, exploding into dragon form with a roar, my wings snapping behind me as I reared onto my hind legs. The Talon agents instantly raised their weapons, sighting down the much bigger threat, but I sucked in a breath and blasted them with fire, sending two of them reeling back. Still, I couldn’t catch all of them, and the chatter of assault rifle fire echoed through the room. Bullets whizzed by me, sparking off my horns and chest plates, and at least two punched through my wing membranes, making me shriek with pain.
A gun barked and two men fell. Garret had lunged forward, snatched the fallen pistol and fired with deadly accuracy into the line of Talon agents. The rest of them scattered, diving behind cover, as Garret leaped upright, still firing his weapon, and I tensed to attack.
Something slammed into me from the side, knocking me away from Garret and sending me tumbling across the floor. I caught myself, looking up just in time to see a lithe dragon, its scales a dark indigo, lunge at me with the speed of a cobra. I managed to scramble back, and Garret raised his gun to shoot it, but a hailstorm of bullets caused him to duck behind a stack of crates, hunkering down as the shots tore into the wood and peppered the wall behind him.
Ignoring the preoccupied soldier, the purple dragon turned to me, eyes gleaming yellow in the dim light. She was a little smaller than I was, with an elegant tapered head and a long, graceful neck and tail. Her scales were so dark they were nearly black, her chest and belly plates a lighter indigo, as were the wing membranes. A mane of curved black spines ran down her back from a narrow, hornless skull as she raised her head and hissed a challenge, needlelike fangs flashing viciously in my direction.
“Come on then, Viper,” she called, raising her voice to be heard over the cacophony of shouts and gunfire around us. “Let’s see who’s the better student. Just you and me, no friends, no interference.” She half spread her wings, giving me an evil smile. “Of course, if you want to know about your brother, you’ll have to beat me first.”
She launched herself into the air, soaring over my head, to land somewhere in the maze behind us. I tensed to spring after her but paused, looking back at Garret. He was still crouched behind the stack of crates, pistol in hand, bursts of gunfire tearing splinters from the barrier in front of him. Our gazes met across the room.
“Garret—”
“Go,” he called, motioning with his free hand. “I’ll cover you, and I’ll catch up when I’m done. Go!”
He turned, firing twice at a cluster of pallets. There was a cry, and a Talon agent fell into the open, his gun clattering to the cement. I winced, then spun and bounded into the maze.
Riley
Mist hit me hard, side-kicking me in the ribs just as I reached the table, knocking me back. Grunting, I staggered, and she followed with a nasty roundhouse kick to the temple that, had it connected, might’ve knocked my lights out. But she’d taken the bait, left herself open, and I caught the foot as it came in, spinning and throwing her into the corner. She crashed into the wall and slumped to the floor, dazed, though not for long. I snatched the syringe and bolted out the door.
Bursting through the frame, I hit the railing of a flight of stairs and stared into the dark, open expanse of a warehouse, aisles of containers and crates spread out below. Of course, it was the perfect place to stage this little encounter. Silent, empty and isolated—no one around to see an interrogation, a murder or a huge mythological creature chasing someone through the aisles.
Speaking of which…
There was a low growl behind me, raising the hairs on the back of my neck. I leaped over the railing, dropped the eight or so feet to the ground and sprinted behind a stack of crates as the door burst open and the roar of a pissed-off dragon echoed through the room. Ducking into the nearest aisle, I pressed back into a corner and tried to Shift, hoping that the tranquilizer had worn off.
Nope. Couldn’t do it. My body stayed locked in human form, the dragon barely responding. Cursing, I looked around frantically, searching for anything that would help me even out this fight. Crates, containers, random boxes. Unless I found a hidden stash of guns, or maybe a couple grenades, this was going to go poorly for me.
My hand throbbed, and I clenched my fist, gritting my teeth. Thank God Mist hadn’t removed my jacket before the interrogation; she might’ve discovered a few other precautions hidden within the lining, as well. A lifetime of close calls had taught me to be ready for anything: capture, imprisonment, being abandoned behind enemy lines. I’d learned to rely on myself and to always have a backup plan. Case in point: having to cut myself free with the razor blade hidden in my jacket cuff. The thin lacerations across my wrists were shallow and would heal quickly, but they still stung like the world’s most obnoxious paper cut.
A large, ghostly shadow soared overhead, landing atop a nearby crate, and I froze. In her true form, Mist was as slender and poised as her human counterpart, her scales a glittering blue-white, her ivory horns curling back from her skull. Sinking to her haunches, the pale dragon folded her wings, curled a long, diamond-tipped tail around herself and peered into the darkness with slitted blue eyes.
I didn’t move, holding my breath as that piercing gaze swept the warehouse. This was bad. The white hatchling was graceful, elegant and probably one of the prettier dragons I’d seen in my long existence, but I was still human, and she could turn me inside out with one claw.
Abruptly, Mist raised her hair, nostrils flaring, to sniff the air. And I winced, realizing my mistake.
She can smell your blood, idiot. Move!
I bolted from the corner just as Mist turned her head sharply, blue eyes narrowed in my direction. With a hiss, she leaped gracefully atop another aisle, then another, following me as I sprinted through the labyrinth of crates. I could hear her talons scraping over metal and wood, and didn’t dare look back as I fled through the aisles, searching for anything that would save my hide.
As I hurried down a dark, narrow corridor, stacks of plywood on either side, there was a blur of motion from above. I skidded to a halt, tensing to run back the way I’d come, as the white dragon landed in front of me with a snarl. Raising her head, she drew in a breath, the fire gland below her jaw swelling, and my pulse spiked. I dived aside, toward a narrow gap between piles of wood, and squeezed through as a massive firestorm erupted behind me, setting everything ablaze. Wrenching myself through the space, I scrambled upright, feeling the immense heat at my back, searing through my clothes. Panting, I tensed to run again, when I spotted a gleam of yellow in the corner of the aisle, half-hidden in shadow, and my heart jumped.
Oh, please let that work.
An angry roar echoed behind me. Without looking back, I bolted to the corner, swung into the forklift seat and grabbed for the key, praying it would be there. It was still in the ignition, and the engine sputtered to life as I wrenched the key up and threw the machine into Drive.
A white dragon landed in the aisle with a snarl, hellish firelight playing across her scales. She had just enough time to glance up and hiss in alarm…as the forklift slammed into her, the metal prongs
catching her on either side. Shrieking, she was dragged across the cement floor, ripping and tearing at the forklift, until I drove full speed into the opposite wall. The impact rocked me forward, nearly throwing me out of the vehicle, and several large crates tumbled free and crashed around us, spilling their contents everywhere.
Mist slumped against the prongs, trapped between the forklift and the wall. Her legs moved weakly, and she raised her head, dazed, as I dropped from the seat and stepped around to her side. Crystal-blue eyes opened, trying to focus as I fished in my jacket and pulled out the syringe.
“Wait,” she muttered, trying to struggle free. Her wings fluttered, pinned against the wall, and she clawed feebly at the metal prongs. “Cobalt, stop. You don’t know what you’re doing.”
“Sorry, kid,” I muttered, and drove the needle into her neck, angling up to slide it between the scales. She snapped at me, and I dodged back, watching as her struggles grew weaker and weaker. Eventually, her eyes rolled up, and she collapsed against the forklift. I sighed, stepping away, as the white hatchling gave a final twitch and lapsed into a drugged sleep.
“I do know what I’m doing,” I told the unconscious dragon. “I’ve always known. I just wish you could have seen it, too. I wish you could see what Talon is doing, to all of us.” Shaking my head, I watched her for another moment, then took a step back. “I would have shown you everything, if you had let me.”
Raking a hand through my hair, I turned and sprinted out of the aisle, back to the office to search for my phone. I had to contact the others, let them know I was okay. Let them know they were probably walking into an ambush. Alone.
With a Viper.
Ember
Well, isn’t this déjà vu?
I crept through the shadowy labyrinth of metal containers, all senses alert, searching for any hint of the other dragon. Of course, it reminded me of my training sessions with Lilith, stalking through a warehouse maze just like this one, hunting those who were hunting me. I was sure that was exactly Faith’s intention; she seemed to emulate her trainer flawlessly, taking sadistic pleasure in my pain. But she wasn’t going to win this time.