Looking up, I met the gaze of my enemy and muttered a single word, my voice coming out raspy and harsh. “Why?”

She took a deep, shaky breath. “If you have to ask that,” she whispered, glaring at me, “then you don’t know me as well as you think.”

She paused, then added in an even softer voice, “You don’t know us as well as you think.”

“Ember…”

“Goodbye, Garret.” Ember stepped back, her eyes hard. “Don’t follow me. Don’t come near me. If I see you or anyone else from St.

George again, I won’t hold back. Stay the hell away from us.”

Turning, she fled barefoot across the rock without looking back, reached the stairs on the other side, and was gone.

Alone, I dragged myself to my feet, feeling like I’d been sucker punched in the head, and leaned against the railing. The ocean breeze tugged at my hair, cooling my heated skin, as I closed my eyes and tried to make sense of what had just happened.

I was still alive. I’d met a dragon, alone, fought it without any backup, lost, and…I was still alive. I put a hand to my chest, feeling something warm seep through my shirt. My fingers came away red and sticky from where the dragon dug its claws into my skin, but it could’ve done worse. It could’ve ripped me open like a paper sack.

Charred the skin from my bones with a single blast of flame. But, it didn’t. It— she—had let me go.

You don’t know us as well as you think.

“ We’ve been wrong,” I whispered. It killed me to say it, to finally realize, after years of believing dragons were evil, could only be evil, but tonight’s encounter left no room for doubt. Dragons, at least some dragons, weren’t the vicious, calculating monsters we’d thought. Not all dragons hated mankind. If they did, I wouldn’t be standing here, feeling like the world had been tipped on its head. I’d been wrong, and the Order had been wrong. Ember had known I was St. George, that I was her greatest enemy, and she’d spared my life.

In a daze, I stumbled back to the parking lot, my mind spinning.

What did I do, now? Return to the Order? Rejoin the war, as if nothing had happened? As if hunting down and killing more dragons wouldn’t remind me of her, and what I learned here tonight?

As I reached my Jeep, still unsure of my next move, my phone buzzed. I pulled it out, wincing as Tristan’s number blinked across the screen. I’d already ignored one call from him, but I couldn’t ignore him forever.

Sighing, I put the phone to my ear. “Where are you, Tristan?”

“Where am I?” the furious voice on the other side answered.

“Where the f**k are you? What the hell do you think you’re doing?

If the captain finds out you ran out like that, you’ll be lucky to get fifty lashes in front of the whole squad.”

“I…had to think.”

“Well, get your damn head back in the game, partner. We’ve got orders. Where are you?”

I told him.

“Meet me at the corner of Palm and Main in ten minutes. I’ll explain everything then. St. Anthony, out.”

Seconds after I arrived at the rendezvous point, a white van screeched to a stop at the curb, and Tristan flung open the door.

“Come on,” he ordered, and I obeyed, sliding into the passenger seat.

Tristan hit the gas almost before I closed the door, and we sped out of the lot.

“What’s going on?” I asked, snapping the seat belt into place.

Tristan flashed me an exasperated glare and shook his head.

“New orders,” he said, gunning the engine and speeding through an aging yellow light. “Headquarters wasn’t pleased when they heard about the raid. There’s not much time before the targets leave town and drop off the grid again. But we know one of them is injured, and will probably have to hole up for a few hours, at least. They’re sending out all available soldiers to search every potential bug-out spot, cave, or abandoned building. Any place these dragons could hide.”

“Is that what we’re doing, then?” I asked, clenching my fist against my leg. Tristan shook his head.

“No. We have a special mission.” He nodded to the dashboard, where his laptop lay open between us. On the computer screen, a blinking red dot was moving through a grid of streets, toward the ocean. “That’s our target. Ember Hill.”

My stomach twisted violently. I forced myself to speak, to remain calm. “Why her?”

“We don’t have any idea where the other targets could be,” Tristan said, glancing at the computer screen, following the dot as it moved swiftly across the map. “Right now, she’s our best and only suspect.

When you were at the carnival with her that day, I went to her house and put a tracking device on her car, so we could follow her if she went anywhere suspicious. When I received orders tonight, I knew exactly how to find her.” He tapped the computer screen with a grim smile. “It sure looks like she’s on the run, doesn’t it? If we’re lucky, she’ll lead us right to the other targets.”

The walls of the vehicle were closing in, and the seatbelt felt suffocating tight. I stared at the red blip on the screen, willing it to stop, to turn around and head back home. It didn’t. It sped unerringly toward the ocean and the edge of town, driving me closer to a looming, inevitable choice.

Feeling the noose tighten around me with every block.

Riley

Where was she?

I stood on the beach facing the ocean, the cliff wall at my back, waiting for her. Remy and Nettle were hunkered down in the cave behind me, and I’d told them not to leave, not to show themselves, until I gave the word to move out. Wes had already taken the car to a safe location, and was waiting for my call to return and pick us up.

It was better that way, in case there was trouble. I was taking a huge risk myself, standing in the open like this, knowing St. George was still out there, searching for us. But I couldn’t risk not seeing Ember when she came. If she came. From our last phone call, she should’ve been here by now.

What if she doesn’t come?

She’ll be here, I told myself. I had to believe that. St. George was probably scouring Crescent Beach for dragons, that twin of hers would be reluctant to turn rogue, and Ember herself had grown to love this town and everything in it, but I had to believe that my fiery hatchling would keep her promise and return. Because I was one hundred percent positive I couldn’t leave without her.

This is stupid, Cobalt. What’s happened to you? You’re acting like those weak wil ed humans you always made fun of. You’re acting like a sap who’s fal en in love.