“Nothing,” I said wearily. I could apologize, but it would hold no weight. It would not erase the crimes of my past, the blood on my hands or the hatred in the eyes of the dragons before me. They were not here for apologies or to be reasoned with. They wanted vengeance on St. George, to strike back against the Order that had persecuted them for years, and I was the perfect candidate.
“That’s what I thought,” the lead dragon growled, and drew back a fist. “Fucking bastard. This is for Isaac.”
Ember’s menacing growl cut through the air, making him pause. The girl hadn’t moved, but her eyes glowed ominously, her pupils razor-thin against the green. “One more step, and you’ll have to fight us both,” she warned.
“Ember,” I said quietly. “Don’t.” She glared at me, angry and defiant, and I shook my head. “Don’t defend me,” I told her. I’d known this could happen if anyone found out what I’d been.
Stepping forward, I faced the three enraged dragons and steeled myself for the barrage. “Take your shots,” I told them. “Let’s get this over with.”
They started toward me, fists raised, just as there was a ripple of power, and a wall of scales, wings and snarling red dragon lunged between us. I stepped back, and my attackers drew up short as Ember lowered her head, opened her wings and rumbled a growl that made the air tremble.
“I said, no,” the red dragon snarled. “I don’t care what Garret says, I’m not going to stand here and watch you three pound on him just because he’ll let you. You want him, you’ll have to go through me.”
“What the hell?” The leader sounded outraged. “You’re defending him? The stinking soldier of St. George? What kind of traitor dragon are you?”
“Yes, I’m defending him!” Ember exploded. Her tail lashed, smacking the barn wall with a hollow bang. “I’m defending him because he is not your enemy. Because all he has done from the moment he left the Order is try to help rogues and other dragons. Because it doesn’t matter what he tells you, you’ve already made up your minds not to listen.” Tongues of fire snapped along her fangs, flickering brightly in the shade as the red dragon gave a furious snarl. “This is why the war never ends,” she raged. “Because we refuse to let go of the past. Because we’re too damn stubborn to sit down and actually talk to each other.”
“Talk?” The lead dragon sneered, glaring at me over Ember’s spines. “What’s there to talk about? He’s a fucking dragonkiller.”
All three teens’ attention was focused on Ember now, so they didn’t see Riley melt out from behind the corner and stride up behind them, his expression dangerous. Without a word, the rogue leader calmly hooked the neck of the teen leader’s shirt, yanked him back and threw him face-first into the barn wall. The teen bounced off the planks, reeled back and collapsed to the ground as the other two yelped and skittered away, eyes wide.
Groaning, the stunned teen rolled over and looked up to see Riley standing over him, smiling grimly. “Kain,” Riley said in a perfectly conversational voice. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“Cobalt! Nothing, I...” Kain staggered upright, rubbing his jaw, then turned to point at me. “He’s a soldier of St. George! Did you know that? Did you know he’s a dragonkiller?”
“Of course I did, moron,” Riley growled, narrowing his eyes. “Considering I brought him here, did you think I had no idea? Yeah, he used to be part of St. George. He’s also fighting for us now, and he has a lot of info on the Order that I thought would be useful in, oh, I don’t know, protecting brats like you from St. George. I brought him here because I was looking at the bigger picture, and I thought everyone else could see it, too.” His eyes narrowed. “But it seems that my network is nothing but a bunch of hotheaded thugs who want to pick a fight.”
Kain shrank back, looking cowed, but still glaring at me with a mixture of fear and hate. “St. George killed Isaac.”
“We’ve all lost someone, hatchling,” Riley interrupted with a growl. “There’s not one of us who hasn’t been affected by the war. We’ve all been shot at. We’ve all seen friends die.” His voice softened a bit, his eyes going dark. “I remember that day. I remember getting the call from your guardian. I was going to move you and Isaac to another safe house because there were rumors of St. George activity in the area. But I waited too long and didn’t make the call in time. If you want to blame anyone for that, blame me.”
Kain glowered, looking sullen, and Riley sighed, running a hand through his hair. “I’m not here to argue with you,” he said. “I’ll make this perfectly clear once, after that I’ll get really annoyed. There is to be no fighting with anyone on this property. Human, dragon, soldier, rabid bull, I don’t care. This happens again, the next one you’ll be fighting is me. You got that?”
“Yeah,” Kain mumbled, looking at the ground. “I got it.”
Riley gave a short nod. “Then get out of here, all three of you. Save the fighting for when Talon or the Order storms the property. Move.” They scrambled off, heading back toward the farmhouse. Riley shook his head.
“Idiot hatchlings,” he muttered, crossing his arms. “Looks like I’m going to have to have a talk with everyone about what is and isn’t allowed around here. Though you would think ‘no Shifting, no flying, no beating the crap out of anyone’ would be common sense by now.” He glanced at Ember, still in dragon form, and raised an eyebrow. “I’m including you in that statement, Firebrand.”
She snorted and raised her chin. “Not sorry.”
“Color me shocked.”
I took a quiet breath. “Thanks,” I said, making them finally turn to look at me. “But you didn’t need to do that. Either of you. I could’ve handled it.”
“They were assholes.” The red dragon’s gaze narrowed, scrutinizing. “And three on one is not cool, in any world.” She thumped her tail against the ground. “Besides,” she continued, still glaring at me, “I know you, Garret. Would you have even fought back?”
I shrugged. “I know how to take a hit without being seriously injured. If I fought back, they might’ve Shifted, and then the potential for serious harm would be almost unavoidable. And I didn’t want you to have to deal with that.” I gave her a wry smile. “If I’m going to get beat up, I’d rather three humans do it than three dragons.”
“Don’t be so fucking noble, St. George,” Riley said. “It makes me want to punch your lights out.”
“Yeah, well...” Ember curled a lip, showing a flash of fangs. “I wasn’t about to stand there and let them attack you. In either form. Anyway, there was more to this than just stopping a fight.” She glanced at Riley, defiant. “Two dragons just stood up for a soldier of the Order—how often do you think that has happened? If we’re going to send a message, it has to be for everyone touched by the war. We have to show that dragons and St. George can actually get along, that they don’t have to fight each other.” She looked at me then, emerald gaze intense. “I’m ready to try. To show the Order who we really are, face-to-face.”
“What?” Riley straightened, his gaze turning suspicious and wary. “Hold on. Who’s going to face the Order?” he asked, a thread of warning in his voice.
I sighed; no trying to hide it now. Though he had to find out sooner or later. “We are.” I gestured to Ember and myself. “St. George needs to know about the threat that’s coming for them. Ember and I are going to meet with the Order and warn them about the clones. Before it’s too late for us all.”
RILEY
“Are you crazy?”
That was my second response. I didn’t voice my first, which went along the lines of Fuck that. Ember glared at me, ready for a fight, and St. George looked grim but determined.
“So, how long have you been planning this, St. George?” I glared at the soldier, who met my gaze calmly. “I seem to remember specifically saying we weren’t going to try to warn the Order. But
you were going to ignore that no matter what I said, weren’t you? When did you contact them?”
“Last night.” The soldier’s answer was unrepentant. “I sent a message to Tristan, no one else.”
“Uh-huh.” I looked at the red dragon now, matching her glare. “And when were you two going to let me in on your little scheme?” I asked her. “Or was the idea to sneak off without saying anything and leave the rest of us high and dry?”
“You know we wouldn’t do that, Riley,” Ember returned hotly, her spines bristling. “After everything we’ve been through, you should know us better by now. Do you really not trust us at all?”
“Dammit, that’s not it, Ember.” I groaned, raking a hand over my scalp in frustration. “It’s not that I don’t trust you. Or St. George, as much as it pains me to say it. It’s just that I can’t go with you this time.” I glanced back at the farmhouse. “My first responsibility is to my underground, especially now that Talon is coming for us. I can’t leave them alone, even for a day or two.”
She sobered. “I know, Riley.”
“No, you don’t.” I whirled on her and she took a step back. “You might have forgotten we’re supposed to be Sallith’tahn, Ember, but I haven’t. I’ve been as fucking patient and understanding as I can. I haven’t said anything about you and St. George, I haven’t gotten in your way and I’ve tried very hard not to notice whenever you two go sneaking off alone.” I didn’t glance at the soldier as I said this, but I could sense the brittle unease surrounding all three of us. “I’ve kept my promise,” I told her softly. “I’m trying to be all right with this, but you’re asking me to let you go into St. George territory, alone. I have to choose between the safety of my life-mate and the safety of my underground—do you realize what a sucky choice that is?”
“Life-mate,” the soldier said quietly, as if something had just clicked in his head. “Sallith’tahn is...life-mate, in Draconic?”
I blinked at Ember. “You didn’t tell him?”
We both stared at the red dragon. For a moment, Ember seemed frozen, trapped. She gazed past us with glassy green eyes, wings and muscles quivering, as if she couldn’t decide whether to stay or flee.
Then she relaxed. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath, and two thin wisps of smoke curled from her nostrils as she exhaled. When her lids opened, her eyes were dark, shadowed, but there was a steely resolve in her expression that made my heart beat faster.
“Garret.” Her voice was calm, serious. St. George watched her, his expression shut into that blank soldier’s mask I’d seen before. “I have to talk to Riley for a minute. It won’t take long. Don’t leave without me, all right?”
The soldier gave a stiff nod. He turned away, walked around the barn wall and disappeared. Ember let out a gusty sigh and bowed her head.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, almost too soft to be heard. And I didn’t know if it was directed at me, St. George or us both.
Raising her head, she gazed at me with shining green eyes, setting my blood on fire. “We need to talk, Riley.”
“Yeah,” I agreed, crossing my arms. “We do.”
“Not here.” Ember raised her head and looked around, as if suddenly realizing how out in the open we were. Granted, we were in the middle of nowhere; it wasn’t like a family in a minivan would come cruising around the bend and spot us. But it made me nervous all the same. “Can we find a place that’s more private?”
“Just Shift back, Firebrand. No need to stay scaly to talk, right?”
“I...can’t.” Ember looked momentarily embarrassed. If she hadn’t already been in dragon form, I suspected she would’ve turned as red as her scales. “They took my Viper suit while I was in Talon, so...”
I tried very hard not to grin and say the first thing that came to mind, which might’ve resulted in a blast of flame to my face. “What about inside the barn?” I asked instead. “No one will see us there, right?”
She nodded, and I led her into the barn, sliding open the heavy wooden door and waiting for the red dragon to pad inside. The interior of the building was spacious and cool, with high rafters and several stalls that were probably used for animals once. Thankfully, the stalls were empty now, as having a large, scaly predator waltzing in would not have gone over well. Bars of sunlight slanted through the wooden planks, gleaming along Ember’s scales as she stalked to the middle of the barn and turned to face me.
“All right,” I said, walking up to her. “We’re alone. Start talking, Firebrand.”
She shook her head. “I need you to do something for me first, Riley.”
“What’s that?”
“I need you to Shift. Right here.”
Surprised, I frowned at her. “Why?”
“Because I...I need to say this to Cobalt. That’s the other reason I asked to go into the barn. I want us both to be ourselves, with no interruptions. Please.”
I sighed. “All right,” I said, even as Cobalt surged up with excitement. “If that’s what you want. Though I do have to point out, a barn full of dry straw might not be the best place for this. Let’s try to remember that everything here is very flammable.”
I stripped out of my shirt, tossing it to one of the hay bales, feeling cool air hit my bare skin. As I started unbuckling my belt, Ember turned away, hiding her head under her wing. I smiled at her bashfulness.
“Still hanging on to that human modesty, Firebrand?” I asked as my jeans joined the T-shirt on the hay bale. “You can look, you know. I don’t mind.”
Her tail thumped the ground, and she didn’t peek up from the curtain of her wing. “Will you just hurry up and Shift?” she growled. I might have teased her some more, but the sudden desire to be in my real form was too great to ignore.
I relaxed, and Cobalt reared up with a growl of impatience, bursting through my skin. Wings and tail uncurled, feeling like they’d been crushed and flattened for far too long, and the rush of fire through my veins made the air around me shimmer with heat. Settling on all fours, talons digging into the soft wood, I raised my head and looked for Ember.
Ember met my gaze, eyes dilating as we stared at each other, both in our real forms at last. The heat in my veins didn’t die down but flared higher, consuming and powerful. Everything faded away, until she was the only thing I could see. I was filled with the urge to lope forward, cover the space between us in a few strides and pounce on the red dragon, driving us both to the ground. Where wings and tails and breath would intertwine in the hay, and our combined heat would rise up and spread through our veins until it consumed us both.
Swallowing a growl, I controlled my basest instincts and stalked forward, forcing myself to move slowly and not bound over the straw to get to her. “All right,” I said when I was about a lunge away. “Here we are. What was so important that you needed to tell me like this?”
“Cobalt.” She paused, as if gathering her courage. For a moment, I sensed a terrible struggle within; her talons sank into the floor planks as if she were teetering on the edge of something huge and had to force herself to go on. “I need you...to let me go.”
I snorted. “I’ve never been able to stop you, Firebrand,” I told her. “I knew St. George would probably try to warn the Order sooner or later. I just wish you weren’t going with him.”
“No.” Her voice was a whisper. “That’s not what I meant.” She looked away, her eyes distant and shadowed. “I wasn’t talking about what happened with me and Garret today. It’s more than that. I mean...” She hesitated, not meeting my gaze, then took a deep breath. “Cobalt, I don’t want you to wait for me any longer. I don’t... I don’t want to be your Sallith’tahn.”
For a moment, the world seemed to stop. I stared at her, the last statement echoing all the way to my soul. “What?” I finally asked, and my voice sounded hollow in my ears. Ember closed her eyes.
&n
bsp; “We were wrong,” she said, and though the words trembled, her expression was firm. Her eyes opened, piercing and intense, gazing up at me. “Talon was wrong. Dragons can love. We are quite capable of every emotion the organization has tried to stomp out. But Talon has told us we can’t feel human emotion for so long it’s become truth. And we’ve become sort of fractured because of it.
“I love Garret,” Ember said quietly. With a start, I realized I had never heard those words from her in dragon form. “I know we’re supposed to be life-mates, Cobalt, and I’m so sorry, but I don’t...” She faltered again, looking at the ground. “I don’t...”
“You don’t love me,” I finished for her, and she flinched as if I’d struck a physical blow. “I never asked you to, Ember.”
“I know,” she murmured. “But we can’t move on, any of us, with the Sallith’tahn hanging over our heads. I need you to let me go, Cobalt. I don’t want you to be waiting for Garret to die so we can be together. That’s not fair, to you or to me.”
“I’m a dragon, Firebrand,” I said flatly, trying not to let the anguish I was feeling bubble to the surface. “A human lifespan is nothing. I can be patient.”
She shook her head. “I don’t want you to,” she said, a little more forcefully. “I don’t want to be with someone because of instinct.”
I growled, feeling desperation rise up to swirl with the despair. “You said dragons can love like humans, that it’s a part of us. Well, so is the Sallith’tahn. If you deny it, you’re denying a part of who you are.”
“Cobalt.” Ember stepped forward, coming very close. I looked down and saw my reflection in her brilliant green eyes, felt the heat pulsing between us. She held my gaze a moment, then asked, very softly, “Do you love me?”