“I’m…good,” Faith whispered, though a tremor went through her voice at the end. She took a deep breath and straightened grimly. “I’m okay. Lead on. We’re right behind you.”

We crept silently across the deserted train yard, weaving between cars and hugging the shadows, always on guard for the Order. I kept my eyes trained for movement, footprints in the dust, spent bullet casings or drops of blood. Nothing.

“Are you sure Ava said they were here?” I asked, glancing at Ember as we crouched behind a row of shipping containers a few yards from the warehouse. She nodded vigorously.

“I’m sure. Old rail yard a few blocks from the abandoned hotel.” Ember scanned the open space between the tracks and the warehouse, frowning. “She said Riley was hurt and they had to hide because the Order was coming.”

Unease gnawed at me. It didn’t make sense. If I wasn’t sure that this was the only rail yard this side of the city, I would think we were in the wrong place. Still, we couldn’t go back, not until we were certain. If Ava and Riley were here, we had to find them.

There was no movement or sound as we approached the warehouse and sidled along the outer wall, looking for a way in. Several windowpanes were out, the glass shattered and broken, but they were filthy and covered in grime and cobwebs. Nothing had gone through them in a while. Beyond the filmy glass, the interior of the warehouse was dark, with aisles of freight stacked nearly to the ceiling. Again, my soldier’s instincts recoiled. Another maze of narrow halls and tight quarters; I was liking this situation less and less. The large metal doors, where freight was presumably taken and dropped off, were closed and locked tight, and nothing short of a blowtorch or a pack of C-4 was going to force them open. My hope that Ava and Riley were here was fading fast, when Faith gave a sudden gasp and surged forward.

“Ava!” she cried, making me jerk up. “Wait!”

Before I could stop her, she sprinted forward, toward an open door I hadn’t noticed, and vanished through the frame.

“Dammit,” Ember growled, and started forward, as well. “Come on, Garret, before she gets herself killed.”

I gave a silent curse and hurried after her, ducking through the opening into the enormous shipping room. The shadows of the warehouse closed around us, smelling of dust, wood and iron, and the maze of crates and shipping containers loomed overhead. Faith was nowhere to be seen.

Grimly, I raised my weapon and motioned Ember behind me. Hugging the walls, we edged around the stacks of crates, searching for the girl while staying on high alert. Light footsteps pattered across the floor, fading into the darkness, but it was impossible to tell which direction they were coming from.

“Dammit, where did she go?” Ember muttered.

A scream cut through the darkness, turning my blood cold. It was followed by a crash and the sound of a scuffle somewhere in the maze. Ember snarled something in Draconic and rushed past me, her eyes flaring green in the darkness. Gripping my weapon, I followed. The aisles of freight abruptly ended in a large open area, cement floor bare but for a few stacked pallets and a forklift.

“Faith!” Ember hissed, creeping forward with the gun raised. “Where are…”

A figure melted out of the shadows, dragging something into the light, and my stomach dropped. Faith met my gaze, her eyes huge with fear, as a man in a black suit yanked her forward, one arm around her neck, the other pressing a gun to her temple.

The lights came on, driving away the shadows, and a half dozen armed men stepped into view, muzzles of their M-16s pointed right at us.

Riley

“Comfortable, Cobalt?”

Ava lowered the phone and turned, smiling at me across the table. Without waiting for an answer, she reached over and flipped on the spotlight, beaming it right in my face. I squinted but refused to turn my head. “Anything you want to say before we get started?”

“I’m good, thanks.” I tried to shrug, which was harder than it looked, being tied to a chair with my arms behind the metal back. The plastic cuffs dug into my wrists as I turned, pretending to look around the room. “Though the service in this place sucks. I ordered a glass of ‘Screw you, Talon bitch’ an hour ago.”

Ava smiled.

“Vulgar bravado will not save you, I’m afraid.” The girl walked around the table, regarding me like she might a particularly tricky math problem. Plucking a needle and syringe from the table, she held it up and turned back to me. “I assume you already know what I stuck you with.”

“I’m guessing Dractylpromazine,” I replied. Developed in Talon labs using a mix of science and old magic, “Dractyl” was a powerful tranquilizer that essentially put the dragon side of us to sleep, preventing Shifting and locking us into a human form for a short time. One of Talon’s more terrifying weapons against their own kind, it was a jealously guarded secret, given to agents only in rare, special circumstances. I’d attempted to Shift earlier, as soon as I’d woken up and realized where I was. But the dragon had barely stirred, sluggish and groggy, as if coming out of a long hibernation. That was when I’d known this wasn’t an ordinary kidnapping, that whoever had captured me knew exactly what I was and how to counter my most potent weapon. Which meant only one thing.

Talon had finally caught up. I was in trouble.

“Yes,” Ava agreed, putting the syringe back on the table. “So you know escape is impossible. That dose is good for at least three hours, and I have several more where that came from. None of your friends know where you are, and I disabled your phone so that your human hacker friend won’t be able to track it. No one is coming for you.” She stepped in front of the table and faced me head-on. “This doesn’t have to be hard, Cobalt. You know I’m going to get what I want, sooner or later. How quick, and how painful, this is going to be depends on you.”

I smirked. “Is that your best opening? Take away all hope, make the victim think he has no options left, that you’re always one step ahead of him. If he has nothing left to cling to, nothing will matter to him, and he’ll be much more pliable to suggestion.” She blinked, and my smirk grew wider. “Psychological Warfare 101, hatchling. I’ve forgotten more about Talon mind games than you’ll ever know. If you think you’re going to out-psyche me, give it your best shot. I can do this all night.”

“Insightful,” Ava said, sounding reluctantly impressed. “You do remember your Basilisk training, after all. When we first met, I thought you were just a thug who kept getting lucky. I’d forgotten you were one of Talon’s best.”