“No.” Ember shook her head, staggering away from me. “I mean, yes, I can, and I will, but…what about Riley? He’s still out there. We have to find him.”
“Ember, you’re hurt. Badly, by the looks of it.” I sidled around to face her, blocking her path. “We need to get you back to the hotel and let Wes know what’s going on. Maybe he’s heard from Riley by now.”
“He would’ve called us if he had!” Her tail lashed, and she raised her head in defiance. “I’m fine, Garret. We have to keep looking.”
“Where? We still don’t know his location. He could be anywhere in the city by now. Where are you planning to search?” Ember slitted her eyes, and I kept my voice calm, knowing that if a five-hundred-pound reptile wanted to walk right through me, there was little I could do to stop it. The strangeness of standing in a dark warehouse arguing with a dragon did not escape me, either.
“We have to regroup,” I said, hoping she would listen to reason, that her worry and eagerness to find Riley would not override logic. Some dark little part of me bristled with anger at the thought, but I shoved it down. “Let’s go back to the hotel, get you taken care of, and see if Wes has heard anything. That’s the most reasonable course of action right now.”
Ember lashed her tail, taking a breath to argue, then frowned. “Wait,” she muttered, cocking her head. “Did you hear that?”
I fell silent, pulling the gun from my belt and stepping around to her flank. For a moment, we stood there, a soldier of St. George and a dragon, guarding each other’s backs. Strangely, it felt no different than the hundreds of times I’d done this with Tristan.
A faint, familiar jingle sounded, somewhere in the maze. Ember gasped.
“My phone!”
She started forward, stumbled and nearly fell, hissing in pain. Hurrying to her side, I gently caught a wing joint, making her pause and look back at me. “Hold on a second,” I said, wishing I knew a trick to get a dragon to lie down, especially this dragon. “Ember, wait. You’re going to hurt yourself.” She snorted and glared at me, and I sighed. “Stay here and don’t move,” I said, holding out an arm as I backed away. “Lie down if you have to. I’ll find it. I’ll be right back.” And I jogged into the maze without waiting for a reply.
I sprinted back to the place we’d first been ambushed, passing the bodies of several Talon agents, slumped in corners or behind crates. The majority of the group lay sprawled on the cement where the line had been, torched with dragonfire or shot with the gun Ember had tossed me.
The weapon she was supposed to kill me with.
My jaw clenched. For a bleak moment, I’d really thought she would. I knew she and Dante were close, that they shared a bond unheard of between their kind. Dante was a dragon, her brother and her only family; I was a human soldier she had known only a few weeks. She’d told me herself, she would do anything to get him out of Talon.
Why had she chosen me over her twin?
The ringing had stopped by the time I reached the area, but after only a few seconds of searching, it sounded again. I discovered the phone lying beside a pallet and snatched it up, bringing it to my ear.
“Wes?”
“Oh, goodie.” The voice on the other end, though heavy with sarcasm, was not Wes. “You’re still alive.”
“Riley.” I felt a strange mix of both relief and disappointment. Relief because, no matter what his feelings toward me, the rogue dragon was a competent leader and strategist, a soldier in his own right. And he obviously cared about the rogues in his underground, the hatchlings he got out of Talon, something I hadn’t thought dragons capable of a month ago. I hadn’t wanted him dead; I was glad he survived.
But at the same time, I’d seen how Ember looked at him sometimes, and I’d caught the protectiveness on his face whenever they were close. He was a dragon; long-lived, intelligent, and able to understand Ember in a way I never would. Jealousy was not something I’d experienced before. I despised how it made me feel. But it was there all the same.
“Where’s Ember?” Riley asked, making resentment flare up again, stronger than ever. I stifled my anger, knowing it was unreasonable right now, and answered calmly.
“She’s fine. She’s wounded, but she’ll be okay. We…ran into some trouble with Talon.”
“Yeah, no shit.” Riley sighed, sounding angry and weary all at once. “I guess you know by now that Faith is a Viper,” he continued, sounding like he really didn’t want to know the answer.
“Yes,” I answered simply.
“Is she…?”
“She’s dead,” I replied, making him sigh again.
“I figured. Fucking Talon.” The pain in his voice surprised me. “They were just kids. Sending Vipers after us is one thing, but they weren’t even juveniles yet. Dammit.” There was a muffled thud, as if he’d slammed his fist into something. “Sending dragons to kill dragons. It makes no sense.”
“Where are you?” I asked.
“Heading your way now. Old rail yard, right? I was there when Mist gave you that false information.” Riley paused, then asked in a quieter voice, “How is she?”
Of course, he could mean only one person. “She sustained a few surface injuries when she was fighting the Viper,” I answered, making him mutter another curse. “The wounds themselves don’t look too deep, but the edges are burned fairly severely. Third-degree if I had to guess.” I stifled a wince, knowing from personal experience just how painful third-degree burns were. Though I continued to hear myself speak with clinical detachment. “Other than that, from what I can tell, her injuries are minor.”
“Dammit, Ember,” Riley growled. “Taking on a Viper yourself, you idiot hatchling. Where is Faith now?” he went on, sounding faintly hesitant now. “Did Ember…kill her?”
“No. I did.”
“Good.” He hesitated again, longer this time, as if struggling to make himself speak. “Look, let’s make one thing clear,” he finally muttered. “I don’t like you. I think you’re a murdering bastard, and the fact that you’ve recently had a change of heart doesn’t erase all the blood on your hands, and it never will. I also think you’re an idiot for believing Ember would ever choose a human over her own kind. She’s a dragon, and even if she hasn’t figured it out yet, dragons and humans don’t belong together. You should know that, St. George. And if you truly care for her, you’ll let her be with her own kind. For both your sakes.