by Julie Kagawa
He prowled out of the hallway then, thankfully unarmed, smiling stiffly as he walked into the kitchen. Ember jumped when he appeared. “Oh!” she exclaimed as Tristan arched a brow at her. “Tristan, right? I didn’t realize you were here. Haven’t seen you around lately.”
“Sadly, I’m not the party animal my cousin is.” He gave me a tight smile. “Garret, come here a second, will you?”
Frowning, I followed Tristan to the living room, where he bent close and hissed, “What is she doing here? You didn’t invite her, did you? Did you tell her she could come?”
“No,” I replied, glancing back toward the kitchen. “I didn’t know she would show up today.”
“Well, get rid of her! We can’t have her snooping around.”
“I’ll take care of it.”
A soft flutter from the kitchen drew our attention, and we looked back to see Ember leafing through one of Tristan’s gun magazines on the counter. Beside it was my laptop, where I’d just sent off that mission report to St. George.
“So, Ember,” Tristan said, quickly striding back to the room. I followed warily. “What brings you here? Do you and Garret have something planned?”
As he talked, smiling and holding her gaze the whole time, he smoothly picked up the laptop and tucked it under one arm, like he was going to take it back to his room. Ember flipped the magazine shut and shook her head.
“No, there’s nothing. I just, um, wanted to see Garret, that’s all.” She gave me an apologetic glance, perhaps sensing the subtle tension in the room. “Sorry. Is this a bad time? I could go...”
“No, you’re fine,” I said as the magazine joined the laptop under Tristan’s arm. He gave me a pointed look, raising his eyebrows, and I nodded. “Come on,” I said, motioning her out of the kitchen. “We can talk in my room.”
As she turned away, Tristan shot me a glare over her head that said, Call if you need help. I gave him another tight nod and led Ember down the hall into my room, shutting the door behind us.
“Wow,” she mused, turning in a slow circle, observing my shelf, my dresser, the neatly made bed in the corner. “Your room is so...clean. Not even Dante is this neat.”
“Blame my dad,” I said, turning around as the door closed. “He’s a retired sergeant. I had white-glove room inspections for—”
My words were stifled as Ember spun, wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me.
My mind instantly shut off. Heat shot through me, starting from where her lips pressed against mine, all the way down to the pit of my stomach. I wrapped my arms around her waist, lifting her up on her toes, as my mouth responded furiously to hers. Her fingers dug into my hair, raking over my scalp and setting every nerve aflame. I groaned, clutching her tighter, feeling her tongue tease my lips, making my head swim. I was losing control, drowning in emotion, and I didn’t want this to stop.
“Ember,” I panted, “wait.” With a monumental effort, I pulled back, breathing as though I’d just run several miles with a murderous dragon on my tail. She leaned against my chest, looking up at me, green eyes bright with passion. A part of me, a huge part, wanted to keep going, to forget everything and lose myself to the girl in my arms. But logic had ruled my life for so long, and instinct had kept me alive when I would’ve been killed otherwise; it told me now that something wasn’t right.
Ember’s lips were just a few inches from mine, tempting me to lean down and kiss her again. I controlled myself, running a thumb over her cheek. “Why did you come here?” I asked softly, and her eyes darkened. “Is everything all right?”
“Yes. No. I don’t know.” Pushing herself away, she turned and made a frustrated gesture, not looking at me. “Just... It’s been a rough day.”
“What happened?”
“I...” She paused. I could sense her struggling with herself, trying to find the right words. “I can’t talk about it,” she finally whispered.
Suspicion flared, and I narrowed my eyes. “Did something happen with your brother?”
“Garret, please.” Her shoulders hunched in misery. “I can’t. I wish I could but...” She raked both hands across her eyes, bowing her head. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have bothered you. I don’t even know why I came here.”
I should’ve pressed her. I should’ve tried to keep her talking, forced her to reveal things about her family, and herself. But at that moment, I found that I didn’t care. Ember was upset and had come to me. Not her brother, and not her friends. If I pushed, it might shatter the trust that was slowly beginning to build, but more important, I didn’t want her to leave. I might be new to this whole dating-relationship thing, but I was learning, very slowly, to ignore logic and strategy and let instinct guide the way.
Moving behind her, I slipped my arms around her waist and leaned close, holding her tight. “I’m here,” I told her quietly, feeling her shiver. “You don’t have to say anything, but if you need to talk, I’m here.”
She relaxed against me, laying her hands over mine and resting her head on my chest. “It’s not fair,” she whispered, so soft I barely caught it. “Everything is happening so fast. My life feels totally out of control, out of my control. I don’t want the summer to end, and...” She paused, the skin of her cheeks warming slightly. “I don’t want to give you up.”
My breath caught. I didn’t say anything but held her tighter, feeling the truth steal over me. I didn’t want to let her go, either. When did that happen? When had I become so attached? Closing my eyes, I pressed my face to Ember’s neck, feeling us both shiver. It didn’t matter. None of this mattered. I was a soldier, my life was not my own, and at the end, no matter the outcome, I would have to return to the war.
Ember reached up, slipping cool fingers into my hair, her voice wistful. “Garret?”
“Mmm,” I grunted, not opening my eyes.
“If you could be anywhere in the world right now,” she murmured, running her fingertips over my scalp, making it hard to concentrate, “where would you be?”
I frowned. Wishing to be somewhere else was useless. It wouldn’t do either of us any good. “Why?” I asked, pulling back to look at her.
“Garret.” She huffed and peered back at me. “I’m just curious. Humor me, will you?” She shook her head and leaned into me again, closing her eyes, and gestured vaguely at the ceiling. “Let’s say you could fly anywhere you wanted, anywhere at all, regardless of price, time or impossibility. Where would you go?”
I thought about it. I’d been a lot of places. All over the world, from huge cities to tiny villages to lonely corners of wilderness, wherever the war took us. After so long, they all ran together in my mind. Missions, battle, blood, death, repeat. Nothing really stood out.
Except for one.
I looked down at her, seeing my reflection in her eyes as she gazed back, our lips a few inches away. “If I could be anywhere I wanted,” I murmured, brushing a strand of hair from her face, “I would choose to be right here. Nowhere else.”
Her eyes gleamed. Turning in my arms, she slid her hands up my back and closed her eyes as I kissed her.
Her lips were gentle this time, searching. I felt the lightest flick of her tongue against my bottom lip and shivered, parting them slightly to let her in. She explored my mouth, and I clenched my fists against her back, feeling like I was drowning once more. The end of summer, and the mission, loomed overhead, dark and ominous, but I shoved it away. One more night, I told myself, hesitantly meeting Ember’s tongue, feeling like my knees might give out at any moment. Just one more night, to make believe I was normal. To pretend that the beautiful, fiery, unpredictable girl in my arms was mine.
A hollow bang caused me to jerk back, disengaging from Ember just as Tristan threw open the door. His dark eyes swept over us, taking in the scene, and narrowed suspiciously. I gave him a cold look, annoyed but knowing he wouldn�
�t have come in if it wasn’t important.
“Something’s come up,” he announced briskly, confirming my suspicion. “Garret, your dad is on the phone and wants to talk to you. Now.”
I straightened, my blood going cold. My “dad” was code for the Order, and any communications from them took top priority. “I’ll be right there,” I said, and Tristan ducked out without shutting the door behind him. I turned to Ember.
“I have to go,” I said, already thinking about what the Order might want. Maybe they had found the sleeper dragon and were calling us back to the front lines. The thought filled me with both dread and relief. If they had discovered the sleeper, that meant our target wasn’t Ember. But that also meant this was the last time I’d see her before I left Crescent Beach, vanished from her life and returned to the war.
Trying not to think about that, I held out a hand. “Come on, I’ll walk you out.”
Ember looked confused. “Is everything all right?”
“Yes,” I muttered, leading her down the hall, past Tristan’s room and the kitchen, to the front door. “It’s nothing, don’t worry about it. My dad’s...kind of important,” I temporized. “He doesn’t call unless it’s an emergency.”
The lie felt sour on my tongue. We halted in the entrance, and I couldn’t stop my hand from reaching out, running my fingers through her hair. Maybe for the last time. “I’ll...call you later, okay?” I hoped that wasn’t a lie, too.
She leaned forward, gently touching her lips to mine, and I closed my eyes. “Talk to you soon,” she whispered, and slipped through the door. I watched her walk away, feeling a small part of me leave with her, then firmly shut the door on Ember Hill and a normal life.
Tristan was standing over the laptop when I came into his room, hovering inside the doorway. “St. George just contacted us,” he announced, his eyes glued to the computer screen. “We’re on a twenty-four-hour alert. Apparently, they’re tracking a couple dragons that escaped a raid in Colorado, and they think they’re somewhere in Crescent Beach, possibly with the sleeper. They’re on their way now. We have orders to join the team when they arrive, so until we hear from mission control, we’re on standby. So get ready to head out as soon as they give the word.” A shadow of a smile crossed the stern look on his face, and his dark eyes gleamed as he glanced up at me. “Finally, some movement. I was half-afraid they’d forgotten we were here.”
I didn’t answer. Whirling from the desk, Tristan walked to his closet door, reached all the way to the back and gently removed a long black case, setting it almost reverently on the bed. Clicking it open, he ran his fingers over the polished metal of his sniper rifle, his eyes never leaving the deadly weapon. “Enough with this sitting around,” he muttered, “staking out houses and following teenagers down the beach. I was getting tired of it. It’s about time we got back to the war.”
Normally, I would’ve agreed. Before I came to Crescent Beach, the news of a raid, where there could likely be several dragons under one roof, would have made my heart race in excitement. Now, I was filled with disquiet, a faint unease that nagged at me and refused to settle. I’d never questioned orders before, never given our purpose a second thought. Before a certain redhead, I’d seen dragons as only one thing: monsters to be hunted down and slain.
Before Ember, everything was far less complicated.
“Garret.” Tristan’s voice was hard. I glanced at him warily, and he glared back. My partner had this uncanny ability to know exactly what I was thinking, even when I gave him nothing. “This is our job, partner,” he told me, his voice firm. “We both knew this was coming. Everything we’ve done here has led up to this.”
“I know,” I muttered.
“Then get ready, because the Order is on its way. And when they get here, you’d better have your priorities straight.”
“These things killed my entire family,” I said flatly, annoyed that he would question it, that he saw far too much. “My priorities haven’t changed. I know what I have to do.”
“Good.” Tristan nodded and picked up his scope, peering down the lens. “Because we move out as soon as they arrive.”
I retreated to my room, reached under my bed and pulled out a large black duffel bag. Yanking it open, I quickly changed into my battle dress: flame retardant suit, tactical fatigues, flak jacket, boots, gloves. My helmet and mask I left off for now, but when they did go on, no patch of skin would be left uncovered.
As I slipped my Glock into its thigh holster, I caught a glimpse of myself in the oval mirror above the dresser. A stark, cold-eyed soldier stared back at me, dressed for combat, for dealing death. It was a sudden, harsh reminder; this was who I was. The past few weeks had been a fantasy, a pleasant distraction. But it was time to return to the real world and what I was trained for. I was a soldier of St. George. My purpose was to kill.
Snatching my helmet from the bed, I returned to the kitchen, where Tristan had drawn all the blinds and was standing at the counter with the laptop. He had also changed into combat gear, and gave me a short nod as I came in.
“They’ve located the nest. Get ready. We move in tonight.”
Ember
After I left Garret’s apartment, I rode aimlessly for a while, my mind still a chaotic, swirling mess. Lexi had called me earlier, wanting to go surfing in the cove, but I knew I wasn’t clearheaded enough to tackle giant waves and would just end up getting pounded. Besides, Lexi would probably know something was up, and while she was great with human problems like boys and clothes and feelings, she could not help me with this.
I wished I could’ve talked to Garret, come totally clean and told him everything. After my training session and the atomic bomb Scary Talon Lady had dropped in my lap, I’d gone straight to his apartment, not really knowing what I would say, just that I had to see him.
That had been a mistake.
Meeting with Garret, stealing those kisses in his room, hearing his whispered confessions, made me realize how much I had to lose when the summer ended. I had thought it was just my freedom, but even that seemed to pale in comparison to losing Garret. He wasn’t just a cute human boy who could surf and play arcade games and take me to the carnival. This wasn’t a rebellious desire to show up my trainer, to experience human emotions because dragons weren’t supposed to have them. No, I really, truly wanted to be with him. And the thought of him leaving, of never seeing him again, made my heart ache in a way I’d never felt before.
So now there were two black clouds hanging over my head, making me even crazier. Or maybe it was just the one big cloud, and all my smaller issues stemmed from it. The suffocating, giant-ass cloud called Talon. Talon said humans were the inferior species. Talon forbade us from flying, or even changing into our real forms, without their permission. Talon sent an evil, sadistic trainer to make my life a living hell.
Talon wanted me to become a Viper.
I shivered, clenching the handlebars of the bike. Of all the factions and positions in the organization, I had never dreamed I would become a Viper. I knew I wasn’t big or strong enough for the Gilas, and I didn’t have the charm and grace to become a Chameleon. After talking with Riley that afternoon on the pier, I was almost certain I was destined to become a Basilisk. Not ideal, but better than getting lumped with the Monitors, doing boring busywork for the rest of my life.
But Viper. Talon’s most elite operatives. Officially, the Vipers were called in as a last resort, a final gamble when everything else had failed. And, of course, they were occasionally dispatched to hunt down rogues and deserters and return them to the organization. That was the official story, anyway. That was why going rogue was as futile as it was dangerous; you stood no chance against a Viper, once it was on your trail. They never gave up once they took a mission.
Was that my calling now? Hunting down my own kind, forcing them back to an organization that was slowly stifling
me? It didn’t seem right. Though I had no idea what else the Vipers actually did. Surely they didn’t just hunt down runaways. But when I’d asked Scary Talon Lady about it, she’d just laughed and said that wasn’t my concern just yet. That everything would reveal itself at the right time.
I needed to talk to someone. Garret had been a knee-jerk reaction because I was upset and not thinking clearly, but he couldn’t help me with Talon problems. I needed another dragon, someone who understood what I was going through. And I knew of only one person who fit that description.
I pulled out my phone as I ditched the bike in the yard and climbed the steps to the house. My heart thumped loudly as I pulled up his number, my thumb hovering over the call button.
Still staring at the screen, I opened the front door, and crashed right into Dante leaving the house.
“Oof. Ow. Again,” he complained, taking a step back and rubbing his chin, where he’d banged it against the top of my skull. “Jeez, it’s like walking into a bowling ball. But I always knew you were hardheaded.”
“Funny.” He was acting normal again, like nothing was wrong. But I was tired of pretending, and stepped aside to let him pass. “I guess it’s better to have a head like a bowling ball than no balls at all.”
“Below the belt, sis.” His forehead creased as he peered down at me. “You okay?”
“I’m fine. Besides, what do you care?” He wasn’t moving, so I tried sidling around him into the house. “Don’t you have things Talon wants you to do? Sucking up, brownnosing, that sort of thing?”
“Okaaay, someone is in a mood.” I slipped past him, but instead of leaving he followed me into the living room. His tone turned suspicious. “Wanna tell me what’s going on?”
“Would you listen?” I challenged, staring at him over the kitchen counter. “Or would you just sell me out to Talon if I said something wrong?”
A hurt, angry expression crossed his face. “All right, that’s it,” he growled. Striding into the kitchen, he leaned over the counter and lowered his voice, speaking in a harsh whisper. “When have I ever not listened to you, Ember?” he demanded. “You keep telling me I’m not on your side, but this whole time, I’ve done nothing but look out for you, lied to our guardians for you, looked the other way when you broke the rules. I lied for you when you went out flying, I covered for us at the party and I didn’t mention I saw you talking to that rogue. I haven’t even said anything about you and Garret.”
