Fate of Dragons

by Olivia Ash

  With a rush of relief, I look over my shoulder to find the three soldiers who were holding Tucker step backward. He abruptly stands, roughly brushing off his shirt as he glares daggers at them. He no doubt wants to break all their noses, but he is thankfully holding back.

  For the moment.

  “You,” Jace finally says, his voice drenched with anger.

  I return my attention to the Grand Master, only to find him pointing at me.

  “You and I have a lot to discuss,” he snaps. He whistles abruptly, the piercing sound splitting through the night, and nods back toward the dark castle in the distance. “Now.”

  With a steadying breath, I indulge him. He waits until I near, and together, we head back toward the dojo with him slightly in the lead. He has me firmly in his peripheral vision, and I have the eerie feeling he’ll be watching a little closer from now on.

  That, I have to confess, is not good.

  Chapter Twenty

  As I sit in the war room adjacent to Jace’s suite, the sun cracks over the mountains in the distance.

  Day five of Irena’s countdown.

  My chest seizes with anxiety. Nerves. Concern.

  Technically, today is the day he promised to go over his intel with me, but so far he hasn’t brought her up at all. I hate waiting. Hate the fact that only Jace and Drew can get me the information I need to formulate a plan.

  Unless they get me something concrete—and soon—I might have to do this on my own after all.

  I rub my eyes to get rid of the sting from my sheer exhaustion, since the Grand Master hasn’t let me out of this room since we got back.

  I’ve decided to give him another title—the Royal Pain in My Ass.

  Jace sits beside me, his elbows on the table as he rubs his forehead. Tucker sits on the other end of the long, rectangular table, as far from me as Jace could put him, and Drew leans against the wall behind me.

  Any time I look over my shoulder, the fire dragon is glaring daggers at Tucker. He’s been doing that pretty much nonstop since he realized what Tucker is.

  For a few moments, none of us speak.

  We’ve been in here for hours, giving Jace the info he asks for. I tried to keep our exit a secret, but it just wasn’t possible—and, as we speak, crews are down there, patching it up, locking the sconce, destroying the one exit I had out of this place.

  Awesome.

  “I can’t believe you hid a secret exit from me,” Jace says quietly. Deeply injured. He won’t look at me and hasn’t since Tucker told him about the secret wall. “A chink in my armor, something that could compromise my entire building, and you didn’t say a word.”

  I subtly look over my shoulder at Drew—at the shifter who has access to the web of tunnels and secret corridors behind the walls—but he gently shakes his head.

  Guess we’re keeping that secret, then.

  No way that could backfire.

  Too tired to fight this, I just sigh. “Jace, of course I wanted to tell you. You have weak points of entry in your fortress, and you can’t allow that. But Jesus, man, look at us.” I gesture between the two of us, even though he won’t turn his head my way. “The only time we get along is when we’re literally fighting in an arena. You want to hole me away in the Capital, keep me in some tower—”

  “I never said that,” he snaps, finally shifting those stormy gray eyes toward me. “Not once. I don’t know where this tower nonsense even comes from.”

  “The tower isn’t the point,” I bark back. “It’s a fun little metaphor for the life you want me to lead! Good lord, man.” I rub my eyes. “I’m talking about the commands, the orders, the militant control you try to keep over my life—for goodness sake, I’m not some porcelain doll.”

  He glares at me down the bridge of his nose. “You are the key to destroying me. If anyone ever killed you, they could—”

  “I’m a goddamn Spectre!” I shout, slamming my fist on the table.

  The wood cracks beneath my fist. Though the table doesn’t shatter, the crack slices halfway along the surface.

  “I’m awake!” Tucker flinches, briefly looking around the room as if he’s not entirely sure of where he is. “Who said I was sleeping?” He rubs his eyes. “I agree with her.” Eyes still closed, he gestures vaguely in the direction of Drew.

  In unison, the rest of us just sigh.

  “You shouldn’t shout things like that,” Jace chides, his heart clearly not in it. He doesn’t even seem to care about the table I just ruined. He crosses his arms and leans back in his chair, studying the wood grains in the table’s surface. “No one else knows. Just us. I would like to keep it that way.”

  I shrug. Hopefully, my outburst made a dent in that thick skull of his. But his comment rings a little bell in the back of my mind, and I raise one eyebrow in curiosity. “Not even Harper?”

  “Especially not Harper.” Jace rolls his eyes. “I protect the secrets worth keeping.”

  Hmm. I nod in gratitude, fully aware of the trouble he would be in if she ever found out the truth—and the fact that he was hiding it from her.

  His hypocrisy is palpable, of course, but I decide not to start a fresh new argument. We won’t get anywhere, and I just want this conversation to end.

  “How’s Levi doing?” I ask to break the silence.

  Jace pulls a phone out of his pocket and glances down, tapping the screen with his thumb. His eyes scan something for a moment, probably a report. “Stable.”

  I let out a sigh of relief.

  The four of us are silent, and a large part of me just wants to go to bed. To rest. To let this settle, and to hopefully find Jace more forgiving when I wake.

  The other part of me is concerned he’ll kill Tucker in his sleep, though, so I’m hesitant to leave until I know everything is safe.

  Leaning my elbow on the table, I rest my head on my fist. “Look, Jace—”

  “There’s nothing else to say.” He shakes his head, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Truly, nothing. I see where you’re coming from, even if I don’t agree with you. And as for him—” Jace nods toward Tucker as the weapons expert tries not to nod off again. “As far as I’m concerned, this isn’t over. I don’t believe he deserves a pardon, but I won’t act until I have proof otherwise. Which I will be looking for,” he added with a brief glare toward me.

  I’m not happy with that, but it’s a truce I can live with for the moment.

  “I guess this means you won’t be helping me save Irena, then?” I ask, leaning back in my chair so I can study his face.

  He leans his tired head on his hand, watching me, so many thoughts buzzing behind those stormy gray eyes of his that I can practically hear the hum of all the things he wants to say.

  “I’m tempted to order you to remain here,” he admits, tapping his pointer finger on the table. “I’m tempted to lock you in the dungeon if I have to, but you’ll still find a way to put yourself in the line of fire.” He rolls his eyes. “You always do.”

  “Thanks,” I say dryly.

  “So, yes, I’ll help,” he finishes, a bit begrudgingly. “But we do it my way.”

  “And that means?”

  He gives me a terse look. “We act with strategy. We absolutely will not take this mission like you did with Zurie’s rescue.”

  “Hey, I had a strategy.” I shrug. “You’re just mad you weren’t part of the original plan.”

  Jace groans in frustration but doesn’t say anything.

  I hide a little smirk.

  Checkmate.

  “Let’s look at what information we have, then,” Drew says from behind me, dragging out a chair so he can sit down at my side. He leans in toward the two of us, his expression intense and focused.

  It’s like he doesn’t even need sleep. It’s baffling—I don’t know how he has the energy to discuss any of this.

  But I press on. We need to iron out a plan, and we need to do it as soon as freaking possible.

  Because Irena—

&nbs
p; As I think of my sister, my heart sinks. I can’t believe for one moment that Irena would betray us—and certainly not me.

  It doesn’t add up.

  “What?” Jace asks, his eyes scanning my face. “What’s wrong?”

  I shift my gaze toward him, wondering if I should tell them.

  Briefly, I look at Tucker as he fights to stay awake at the far end of the table, and this whole nightmare serves as a valuable reminder of what happens if the dark secrets—the big ones—are kept too long.

  With a sigh, I tense and prepare myself for the worst.

  “Right before he threw me into the pit, Mason said someone betrayed me and the other Spectres to the Vaer,” I say softly, looking at the table, refusing to look anyone in the eye as I say the words that feel almost impossible to comprehend. “Someone gave him everything—our names, safehouses, the works. Out there in the forest last night, when I faced off with Zurie, she told me Irena was responsible.” I rub my eyes in frustration. “With everything that was going on, I couldn’t tell if she was lying or not.”

  Jace shakes his head, furious. “Do you have even one normal friend or family member? Just one that isn’t a direct threat to my dojo and dragon life in general?”

  I glare at him, hardly in the mood.

  “Do you believe her?” Drew asks simply, showing no emotion.

  “No, I don’t…” As I trail off, I shake my head on impulse, without thinking it through, but I have to pause and force myself to consider the possibility.

  To blindly ignore the idea would be foolish. I have to at least think this through.

  After a moment, I tap my finger on the table as I think over the question a little more carefully. “If I’m being honest, I don’t know,” I confess. “I don’t want to believe her. Zurie is hardly reliable, and it would make sense if she lied to mess with me.” I frown. “To throw me off my game.”

  And that she did.

  “Who do you think the traitor is?” Jace asks, leaning in. “If not Irena?”

  “Diesel,” I admit.

  Everything points to him. Motive. Means. Opportunity. He doesn’t have access to all of Zurie’s missions, but the two of them grew up together, trained together, and yet she was chosen as the Ghost instead of him.

  Though he tried to hide it throughout my life, he has always held a bit of a grudge for that.

  “He’s a pleasant fellow,” Tucker says, yawning as he stretches at the far end of the table. “Jace, can I join the party yet, or—”

  “No,” the Grand Master snaps, no doubt just to be spiteful.

  I roll my eyes.

  “That’s quite a dilemma,” Drew says, ignoring Tucker as he props one foot on the elegant wooden table and leans back in his chair.

  Jace shoots him a nasty look, like he can’t believe Drew could act so uncivilized. If Drew notices, he doesn’t care.

  “I’m still going to save her,” I say, shaking my head. “I need to ask her myself.”

  “If she’s the traitor, she won’t tell you,” Drew points out with a bemused laugh.

  “She will,” I say, straightening in my seat. “Zurie’s hard to read, but Irena—I’ll know in a heartbeat if she’s lying.”

  “And if she’s guilty?” Jace raises one eyebrow quizzically. “If she did betray you?”

  I sit with the thought, not entirely willing to process it, but there’s only one answer to a question like that. “Then she’s dead to me, too.”

  My heart clenches at the thought, but I’m resolute. Zurie is a terrifying enemy—I don’t need another one just like her. After rescuing Zurie, only to have it backfire, I learned my lesson.

  Hardened Spectres like Zurie don’t forgive—and they won’t ever let me live in peace.

  If Irena really was trying to kill me by handing me over to the Vaer, then she’s not who I thought she was—and I’ll stop her before she has the chance to follow through.

  Drew leans forward with a heavy sigh. Beneath the table, his hand slides over my thigh, squeezing lightly in a soothing display of solidarity. I catch his eye and manage a weak smile in gratitude.

  “We’re doing this, then,” Jace says, a hint of disbelief in his voice. “Fine. What information do each of you have thus far?”

  “I’m working on getting the blueprints,” Drew says carefully. “My contact has to make a few more very risky trips to get all of them, and there’s no guarantee he’ll succeed. So far, though, he’s made good progress. He’s been sending me what he has bit by bit.”

  I tilt my head, annoyed that he hasn’t told me this yet.

  “What?” Drew asks with an incredulous frown. “I need to make sure they’re real. Don’t give me that look.”

  “Fine,” I mutter, crossing my arms stubbornly.

  “Wait,” Jace interjects with a suspicious glare at Drew. “After the light drone recon I’ve done so far, it’s clear this place where she’s being held is a fortress. It’s a military compound far superior to Mason’s little smuggling outpost. How the hell are you getting blueprints?”

  “I have methods,” Drew says dryly.

  In unison, Jace and I both frown with annoyance and disbelief.

  Deep within me, something shifts—a little flare of doubt, and it’s slowly getting stronger.

  A while back, I jokingly asked Drew if he was a Vaer—and he very quickly said no. But he seems to have so much access to the very information we need. So much intel. He admitted himself he has authority outside the dojo walls, and Jace said this was the dragon he hated most in the world.

  When it comes to dragon-on-dragon violence, who do most shifters hate more than the Vaer?

  However, given how tired I am, I just don’t want to think about this right now.

  I press on, returning to the conversation at hand. “We need to find a way into this fortress of theirs and then, more importantly, find a way back out with an unconscious assassin.” I lean my head on my hand, weary and aching for sleep. “Not to mention, we need to find the antidote while we’re in there. If we don’t, she will die. We just don’t know how much time is left, and we have to assume she’s a breath away from dying.”

  “And all without official help.” Jace adjusts in his seat. “None of this is entirely legal, mind you. Even Harper would question who we’re rescuing and why. It would leak your connection to the Spectres, and that’s something I can’t risk. Any help from the Fairfax family has to come from favors I cash in so that the people involved are willing to do what they’re told and not ask questions.”

  That catches my attention. “You’re still willing to cash in favors for me? After—well, after last night?”

  “Of course,” he says quietly, though he frowns a bit as he says it.

  I’m not sure if he’s trying to convince me… or himself.

  “Do we have the guy’s name, yet?” Tucker asks. “Anything about him at all besides the fact that he’s insane?”

  Ah, crap.

  Yet another thing I’ve been hiding from everyone but Drew—the flip phone.

  The name.

  I clear my throat, wondering if this is just going to start another fight, when Drew interjects. “All we have right now is a first name. Ian.”

  Drew and I catch each other’s gaze, and I nod slightly in gratitude. He winks.

  “Keep looking,” Jace orders Drew, his eyes glossed over in thought. “We need more than a first name, especially since it could easily be fake.”

  Drew nods, his eye twitching a little at the order, but he thankfully doesn’t press the issue.

  “There’s a lot missing in this plan.” Drew points out. “And we only have, what? A couple days left?”

  “A lot missing?” Tucker asks, standing and walking over to us. “What do we even have?”

  Jace sits upright, scowling. “Hey, don’t—”

  The scrape of the chair across from me drowns him out as Tucker sits near us, a grin on his face. “Sorry, what was that?”

  “Let it go, Jace
,” I say quietly, just wanting to get on with this. “Please.”

  The Grand Master frowns and leans back in his seat, but his furious gaze lingers on the Knight sitting barely five feet away.

  I tap my finger on the table to get their attention. “We need to find the least guarded entry points into the base, take out the guards, and infiltrate the facility,” I say, trying to get us back on track. “And remain unseen through it all.”

  Drew nods. “Somehow, we have to disable security long enough to avoid being swarmed by guards. Last I heard, there’s a battalion there that’s two hundred strong, maybe more.” His jaw tenses. “All shifters.”

  “Fabulous,” I mutter.

  Jace absently scratches his cheek. “Once we’re in, we have to find Irena, figure out how to unhook her from their machines, and get her into a transport pod.” As the list of things we have to do adds up, he sighs in resigned exhaustion. “We also need to figure out how to transport an unconscious woman out of a military zone, secure a medevac chopper, guard it, and then get the hell out of there.”

  “Easy,” Tucker says with a sarcastic shrug.

  “When can your doctor arrive at the dojo to get everything ready for her arrival?” I ask, leaning in toward Jace.

  He shakes his head. “Irena is not coming here.”

  I nearly flinch in confusion. “But—”

  “She’s going to a secluded wing of a dragon-only hospital.” Jace frowns. “And before you get upset with me, I’m not doing this to punish you.”

  “You sure about that?” Drew says in a gravely tone.

  Jace ignores the fire dragon and intently leans toward me instead. “If we bring her here, she might die. We don’t have a hospital here.” He gestures vaguely at the room around us. “A medic ward, sure, but that’s bare bones. We can’t give her the advanced care she needs. We just don’t have the facilities.”

  I sigh.

  He has a point.

  “But I need to be there,” I point out. “When she wakes up, when—”