This time, the weapon dropped swiftly, and the girl stared at me with wide, stunned eyes. “You’re Cobalt,” she whispered, and all the tension left her, replaced with relief. The pipe fell from her fingers with a clank and rolled across the floor, but she didn’t give it a second glance. “You’re really here,” she whispered, grabbing a beam as if to steady herself. “We heard you might be in the city, but we had no way to contact you.”

I stared at her in surprise. “You were looking for me?”

She nodded. Taking a deep breath, she seemed to regain her composure. “Sorry about before. I’m Ava. A friend and I escaped the organization maybe two weeks ago. There were rumors that you were in Las Vegas, and we heard that you could help those who got out of Talon, so we came here to find you. But we had to hide as soon as we arrived in the city. St. George…”

I nodded. “You mentioned a friend,” I said, hoping the worst had not happened, that St. George had not already found them. “Are they still alive?”

Ava nodded. “Yes, she’s here. One moment.” She walked a few steps to peer around a wall. “It’s okay,” she called into the shadows. “You can come out. They’re not from Talon.” She gave a short, breathless laugh, as if she couldn’t believe what she was saying. “It’s actually Cobalt, of all the lucky breaks.”

“Cobalt?”

Another hatchling emerged around the corner, edging shyly into view. She was shorter than Ava by several inches and looked even younger than Ember. Her skin was pale, almost porcelain colored, and a mass of jet-black curls tumbled down her back and shoulders. Enormous dark eyes peered out at us with a mix of curiosity and fear.

“This is Faith,” Ava introduced, holding out her hand to the other girl. Faith blinked as she came forward, pressing close to the other hatchling. Ava put a protective arm around her, though she still spoke to me. “The day before she completed assimilation, she discovered that Talon was going to send her to ‘the facility,’ because she was unsuitable to be a Chameleon, which is what they had originally planned for her.”

I clenched my jaw, trying not to let the rage show. “The facility” was Talon’s term for the place they sent dragonells to become breeder females, whose only job was to produce eggs for the rest of their life. Talon liked to start their breeder females young, because, like everything else in a dragon’s life, producing offspring took a long time. Nearly two years to lay the egg after the dragonell had been mated, and another year for the egg to hatch. When I’d still been part of Talon, there had been dark rumors circling the organization that the number of fertile eggs was in sharp decline. An alarming one in three eggs simply never hatched, and no one could figure out why. What happened to the “dud” eggs was also a mystery; they disappeared, sent off to places unknown. I didn’t know what the real story was, or where the eggs vanished to, but one of my bigger goals was to find the facility, free all the dragonells there and burn the place to the ground.

Later, I told myself, as rage heated my lungs, making the air taste like smoke. Someday, you’ll be able to save them all, but not tonight. Don’t get distracted.

“How did you know about me?” I asked the hatchlings.

“Everyone in the organization knows about you,” Ava said. “The executives try to deny it, but we’ve all heard rumors of a rogue dragon who helps those wanting to leave Talon. You just have to find him—or hope that he finds you—

before the Vipers catch up.”

Ember blinked. “Wow, look at that,” she said, grinning at me. “You’re famous, or at least infamous. A real-life Robin Hood.”

I stifled the urge to rub my eyes. My defiant little Firebrand might think it was great news, sticking it to the organization, but I did not want that much attention from Talon. That they talked about me meant they were thinking about me, which was never a good thing. I’d always been careful to lie low, especially after getting a hatchling out. We’d survived this long because I knew how to disappear, to vanish into obscurity without a trace. Talon was far too big to challenge head-on. As much as I hated them and would love to see them brought down, I knew that my tiny, ragtag underground could never stand against the massive force that was Talon. Right now, I was an annoyance at best. I did not want to reach the point where the organization brought its full might against me and my network, because we likely would not survive.

Faith’s dark gaze abruptly shifted to my companions. “Who are they?” she whispered.

“I’m Ember.” Ember stepped forward before I could say anything. “I just got out of Talon, too. You can trust Riley, uh…Cobalt. He knows what he’s doing. He’ll keep you away from them.”

Faith blinked. “What about him?” she asked, glancing at the soldier standing a little behind us. “He’s not a dragon. Why is he here?”

Ember stiffened, and I quickly jumped in. “He’s all right,” I said smoothly, and ignored Ember’s raised eyebrow. “You can trust him. He’s here to help.” I nearly choked on the words, but getting the hatchlings to trust us was more important than the truth now. I couldn’t have them freaking out if they discovered what he really was. The soldier’s expression remained neutral in the face of such blatant lies, and Faith finally seemed to relax.

I turned to Ava. “Are you two ready to go?” I asked. The night was fading quickly, and I was uncomfortable standing out in the open like this. Once we got back to the safety of the hotel, I’d figure out what we were going to do. “You’ll have to stay with us for a bit, until we can leave the city. But after that, I’ll find a safe place for you both.”

She nodded tiredly. “Yes, please. Anywhere is better than here, waiting for Talon or St. George to catch up.”

“No arguments there.”

The phone buzzed in my jeans pocket, making me jump, then whisper a curse. There was only one person would call me now. For one reason.

No. Not now. With dread blooming through my stomach, I put the phone to my ear and snapped, “Wes. Tell me you’re not going to say what I think you’re—”

His hissed words interrupted me. I listened to the frantic voice on the other end, lowered the phone and turned to Ember and the soldier.

“They’re here.”

Garret

“The Order?”

The rogue glared at me, anger and loathing crossing his face, as if I had summoned my former brothers here with my presence alone. “What do you think?” he spat. “Of course it’s the Order. They always seem to appear these days, like magic, wherever we are.” He shoved the phone in his jacket and raked both hands through his hair. “Dammit, of all the crappy timing. How the hell do they keep finding us?”