Jealous? I took a deep, cooling breath and stepped back, shaking my head at them both. “I don’t have time for this,” I said, which was true. The runaway hatchlings were still a question, and I’d wasted enough time already. “I’m supposed to be somewhere else right now,” I went on, “and I’m done talking to the pair of you. Might as well beat my head against a wall.”
“You’re leaving?” Ember narrowed her eyes. “Again? Where are you going this time?”
“Out,” I retorted, feeling mulish and immature. “Somewhere important, if you have to know.” Her expression darkened, and I knew she was on the verge of demanding to come along. I took a step back. “Come or stay,” I growled, “it makes no difference to me. I’m done here.”
I spun on a heel, then strode across the roof without looking back. I heard them start after me, and controlled the urge to spin back around and lay the soldier flat on his back. It was my dragon talking, but what troubled me wasn’t the anger, or the disgust, that Ember had forgotten everything St. George had done. She was still young. She didn’t know the Order like I did, hadn’t seen the true face of St. George, not yet.
No, what bothered me most was that, even after everything, my fiery red hatchling had still chosen the human…instead of me.
Dante
The meeting room was frigid.
I didn’t like the cold. Maybe it was growing up in deserts and sunny beach communities, where much of my free time was spent outside. I liked the feel of the sun on my skin, the heat blazing down on me, seeping into my bones. I didn’t know what it was with Talon’s executives, but all their office buildings had the AC cranked up so high you could almost see your breath. Even in Reign’s opulent hotel, where the carpets were thick and gold and the leather chairs probably cost over a thousand dollars each, it was still cold enough to make my skin prickle. It certainly wasn’t my place to tell Talon how to run things, but a few degrees of warmth would make things less uncomfortable. I hoped I could get through this without my teeth clacking together. I was already nervous enough.
Beside me, Mr. Smith leaned back and rested a foot on his knee, looking perfectly comfortable and at ease. As if reading my thoughts, my trainer shot me a glance, dark eyes appraising. “Breathe, Dante,” he ordered. “It’s a good plan. It will work.”
I smiled. “I know it will.”
“Good.” Mr. Smith narrowed his gaze. “Don’t hope. Know. Hope will not bring your sister back. Hope will not impress Mr. Roth, or anyone in the organization. You must be confident of this plan, you must believe that it will work, otherwise you have wasted everyone’s time.”
“I’m aware of that, sir,” I replied, still smiling. “And Ember will return to the organization before the night is out, I swear it.”
Mr. Smith nodded and turned away, breaking eye contact as the door opened and Mr. Roth entered, followed by two more dragons. One, a slender man with slick dark hair and a goatee, I didn’t recognize. He took a seat across from me and nodded, and I ducked my head in respect, but it was the second dragon that caught my attention. Lilith seated herself beside him, crossing long legs beneath the table, and smiled at me.
“I’m looking forward to seeing your plan in action, Mr. Hill,” she said.
Her words were almost a threat. As if she, too, needed this plan to succeed, and there would be terrible repercussions if it did not. My blood chilled, but at that moment, Mr. Roth took the seat at the head of the table, facing us all.
“It is almost time,” he stated, glancing at his watch. “Mr. Hill, have your agents contacted you?”
I breathed deep and nodded, putting my phone on the table in front of me. “Yes, sir. Everything has been set up. They’re ready to move forward with the mission.”
“Excellent.” Mr. Roth leaned back, watching me with those cold dark eyes. “Then all we have to do now is wait. I look forward to seeing your success, Mr. Hill. Good luck.”
I swallowed, glancing at the phone lying innocently on the table, and my heart began pounding against my will. Ember, I thought, staring at the device as if I could sense her on the other side. Please, don’t do anything stupid. This is your last chance to choose the right thing.
Folding my hands on the table, I waited for the phone to ring.
PART III
Leap of Faith
Ember
You could cut the tension in the cab with a knife and serve it on a plate.
No one, of course, wanted to sit up front. Riley refused to have me and Garret in the back by ourselves, Garret wouldn’t leave me alone with Riley, and I certainly wasn’t going to sit up front so the boys could murder each other in the backseat. So we sat there, the three of us, myself in the middle, Garret and Riley flanking me on either side. And the silence was deafening.
Riley still looked murderous. He didn’t look at me or Garret, but stared out the window, one arm on the sill. I could feel his anger radiating from every part of him, as if the dragon hissed and raged just below the surface. It prodded at my own dragon, riling her up, making me twitchy and restless. I felt guilty, and at the same time, I was angry about feeling guilty. Riley was way out of line; we hadn’t done anything wrong. But his words still echoed in my mind, harsh and accusing, as if I’d betrayed not only him, but my entire race.
How long do you think he’s going to stick around? Where do you think you’ll be sixty years from now? A hundred years from now? Have you even thought about that?
He was being unreasonable. Of course I wasn’t thinking about the future; what sixteen-year-old—of any species—did that? I hadn’t been trying to piss Riley off tonight. I was just feeling bored, guilty, homesick and frankly pretty miserable, and somehow, Garret could bring me out of it. He made me forget the bad things for a while, just like he had in Crescent Beach. When I was with him, I could almost pretend I was normal.
My dragon snarled at me, disgusted. You’re not normal, she whispered, an insidious worm in my brain. You’re not human, and the soldier won’t be here forever. Riley will.
A slight brush against my leg jolted me out of my dark thoughts. I peeked over and met Garret’s eyes, worried and questioning, red neon lights washing over his face. His hand lay between us, the back of his knuckles resting against my jeans. A warm glow spread through my stomach and I gave him a furtive smile, even as my dragon recoiled with a hiss.
The cab took us away from the main flow of traffic, moving away from the Strip and the glittering behemoths on either side of the street. We drove for several more silent minutes, going deeper into the fringe neighborhoods, until the taxi pulled up to a curb seemingly in the middle of nowhere and lurched to a stop. A tall chain-link fence ran the length of the sidewalk, and beyond the metal barrier, a flat expanse of nothing stretched away into the darkness.