Ember, I’m coming. Just hold on.

EMBER

No way. I stared at the human before me, waiting for my startled brain to catch up to reality. This... How was he here? I hadn’t seen him in nearly a month, and he suddenly popped in out of nowhere, at the exact moment we needed him most?

“Ember!” The soldier fired twice more and turned to me, metallic-gray eyes piercing through the smoke and darkness, making my heart leap with recognition. If I hadn’t been sure this was Garret Xavier Sebastian before, there could be no question now. “We have to move,” he snapped, jerking me back to the present. Oh, right. Guns. Bullets. Soldiers. We were kind of surrounded, weren’t we? “Where’s Riley?”

“Here.” The sleek blue dragon appeared out of the smoke, eyes shining gold in the smoke and darkness. Relief shot through me at his arrival, though if we got out of this, I was going to tear into him for that crazy suicide rush. He eyed Garret suspiciously but didn’t challenge him as we turned toward the exit. “Never thought I’d be mildly happy to see you, St. George,” he growled. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

Garret took something from his belt and moved to the door, peering through with narrowed eyes. “When we reach the main room,” he said over his shoulder, “go left. There are fewer soldiers on that side. I’ll take right and meet you at the exit.” He raised his arm, and I tensed to bolt through the door. “On my signal...close your eyes for a second, then go!”

He hurled the grenade into the dark room, where it exploded in a blinding flash of light that flared even through my closed lids. Lunging through the flash, Garret immediately began firing short three-round bursts as he went. Shouts and returning gunfire followed, flaring white in the shadows, and the soldier disappeared into the chaos.

Cobalt and I sprang through the door and quickly banked left, hugging the wall and keeping low as we fled. Tile scraped frantically under my claws as I made a beeline toward the door, ignoring the shots and bullets sparking off the counters and machines around us. A soldier popped out of cover, firing his gun at the other side of the room, and I pounced on him with a snarl, driving him to the ground and slamming his head against the floor until he stopped fighting. Another masked human stepped in front of us, raising his weapon, and Cobalt blasted out a line of flame that engulfed the human and sent him reeling away.

Something hit me in the flank, tearing through scales and muscle and sending a flare of pain up my leg. I staggered, nearly crashing to the floor, and heard Cobalt’s enraged snarl behind me. Lunging to my side, he nudged me anxiously, his shoulder brushing mine as he crouched down.

“Come on, Firebrand. Keep going. We’re almost there.”

Gritting my teeth, I made a last rush for the exit. A soldier stood in front of the door, barring the way out, but gunfire blared, and the human jerked and dropped to the floor a moment before Garret appeared, his face grim as he slammed into the door and shoved it open.

“Go!”

We went, scrambling single file up the stairs, our talons scraping against metal and iron. The soldier followed, covering our escape and firing back down the staircase. The ground floor was eerily empty, save for a couple motionless soldiers on the floor near the entrance to the stairwell. I ignored them, and the blood pooling beneath their bodies, and bounded for the exit. Lowering my head as I reached the door, I hit the glass barrier with my horns and it flew open with a crash, spilling us into the open.

Cobalt spun on Garret as he followed us into the empty lot. “Where to now, St. George?” he snarled.

A deafening honk interrupted him. I looked up to see a semi barrel through a couple parked vehicles, smashing them aside, before it came to a skidding halt in front of the building. A dark-haired woman leaned out the driver’s window, gesturing frantically to Garret.

“Get in! The soldiers are following! Let’s go!”

Garret immediately ran for the back of the truck, not stopping to question this strange person who showed up out of nowhere with a tractor-trailer. I shook off my astonishment and hurried after him, just as gunshots rang out behind us and pinged against the side of the truck. The soldier leaped into the open container and returned fire as Cobalt and I bounded into the metal box. The long container was musty and hot, and smelled of rust, but I wasn’t going to complain. As soon as we were inside, the wheels screeched and the truck surged forward, picking up speed as it moved away from the building. A trio of soldiers rushed into the lot and raised their guns at the back of the truck a second before Garret reached out and slammed down the door, plunging us into darkness.