But mostly, I wished I could’ve had more time with a certain red-haired girl. Not that we hadn’t seen each other lately; Ember had taken it upon herself to train the hatchlings to both fight and use a weapon, and had recruited me to help. I had spent the past two days going over gun safety, how to reload and how to shoot, while Ember took them through sparring as both a human and a dragon. A few hours of training wasn’t ideal, but it was better than none at all. At least they wouldn’t be going into battle completely unprepared.
So Ember and I had spent quite a bit of time together, preparing for and getting our side ready for the assault. We’d had a few quiet moments alone, stolen between mission briefings, updates and day-to-day tasks. But with our base of operations so crowded with dragons, soldiers and rebels, even those moments were few and far between.
I wondered what she was doing now. After dinner I’d gone looking for her, only to find a scowling Nettle barring the door to the room they shared. The black dragon had informed me that Ember had passed out on her bed from exhaustion, and that I could just keep it in my pants until she woke up again. Not wanting to disturb her, or argue with a bristling dragonell, I had retreated.
Tristan was still watching me with a dubious look on his face. “I’m not afraid,” I said, staring out over the fields. “I just… Ah, it’s not important. Forget it.”
“Uh-huh,” Tristan said, and I heard the grin in his voice. “I see.”
“What?” I muttered.
“Oh, nothing,” Tristan drawled. “Just… I remember the Garret from two years ago. All you talked about was guns, bullets and killing things. You were about as fun as a used dishrag, and the only thing that scared you more than inactivity was talking to a girl.” Leaning back on his palms, he regarded me with a lazy smirk. “You really are head over heels, aren’t you? It’s kind of adorable.”
“Shut up before I push you off this roof.”
He snickered, and I looked away to hide my burning face. Silence fell, the two of us quietly perusing the countryside, keeping watch as we’d done countless times before. No more words were passed between us; we already knew exactly what the other would say.
“There you are.”
The familiar voice made my senses flare to life. I glanced over to see Ember sticking her head through the attic window Tristan and I had used. Ducking to avoid the frame, she slid gracefully through the opening and walked over the shingles to where we sat in the middle of the roof. For a second, she stood behind me, gazing at the landscape stretching away below us.
“Wow, you can see everything from up here,” she murmured before glancing down at us, a smile crossing her lips. “So, what were you two discussing so intently?”
“Oh, not much,” Tristan said in a gleefully smug voice that fooled no one. “Certainly nothing that would make the Perfect Soldier want to hurl me off the roof.” Abruptly, he rose, yawning and stretching his long limbs. “Well, I’m tired of sitting in one place,” he announced, which was a bald-faced lie; Tristan’s specialty was remaining motionless for hours on end, waiting for his target to show itself. Something he not only excelled at, but actively enjoyed. “Think I’ll patrol the grounds for a bit, see if the guards are keeping an eye out. You two have fun up here.”
He gave me a very unsubtle grin, nodded to Ember, then turned and walked along the roof until he reached the window. After carefully maneuvering his rifle through the frame, he slipped through the opening and closed the panel behind him, leaving Ember and me alone.
Silence fell, broken only by the cicadas and the wind in the trees. Ember gazed down at me, and for a moment, I could see the outline of her other self in the moonlight, eyes glowing green, wings partially outstretched for balance.
“Huh,” she remarked, cocking her head. “Listen to that. You can actually hear it.”
“What?” I asked, bewildered.
“Absolutely nothing,” Ember said.
Smiling, I held out a hand. She took it and carefully stepped over my legs to sit down between my knees. I wrapped my arms around her and leaned close, feeling her body against mine, the warmth of her in the cool night air. She relaxed against me, and I closed my eyes for a moment, letting myself sink into the feeling of peace. Tomorrow, we went to war. Tomorrow, we would lead a group of soldiers and dragons into battle with Talon, a battle in which many of us would die. Tomorrow.
“Well,” Ember mused after a moment of peaceful quiet. “This is it, isn’t it? The Very Last Battle, in capitals and italics. If we win, Talon’s army will be gone. They won’t be able to do…whatever it is they’re planning. Which is probably try to take over the world, knowing the Elder Wyrm. If we lose…”
“We won’t be around to regret it,” I murmured.
She shivered, though her voice remained contemplative. “Are you scared?”
“Yes,” I said quietly. “But not for me. For everyone we could lose tomorrow.” Reaching up, I ran my fingers through her hair, brushing it from her neck. “For you.”
“I’ll be right beside you, soldier boy,” Ember said, leaning into my touch. “If we die, we go down together.”
“No,” I whispered, making her tense. Closing my eyes, I pressed my forehead to the back of her neck, willing her to understand. “Ember, my life isn’t important. If I die, nothing will change. The Order will either rebuild itself or be broken completely, and Talon will continue on as it’s always done. The loss of a single soldier will mean nothing in the long run.
“But you,” I went on, before she could mount a protest, “you’ll be the one to change things, Ember. Riley, Jade, even Mist…they’ll all play a part, but if we survive, the one who will determine the future of Talon and St. George will be you. I don’t think Riley could do it—he still doesn’t trust the Order, and his underground will always come first. Jade craves the isolation of her homeland, and Mist is more comfortable in the shadows than in the thick of things. You’re the bridge between us, dragon girl. We’re all here because of you.”
Ember gave a short, humorless laugh. “No pressure or anything,” she muttered. “But you’re wrong, Garret. It’s not just me. I might be the dragon who started questioning the way things were, but I could do that…because I met you. Because I fell in love with you, a soldier of St. George, when it was supposed to be impossible. If we never met, I might still be in Talon. I could be a Viper now, killing for them, hunting down innocent dragons. Everyone here would be a target.” She shuddered. “Actually, no, scratch that. I wouldn’t even be a Viper, because the freaking Elder Wyrm would be living in my head right now.” She clenched a fist on my arm, and my stomach curled. “I wouldn’t even be myself anymore. I’d be her. The enemy of everyone here.”
Ember took a shaky breath, pressing closer to me. “If things had gone differently in Crescent Beach,” she whispered, her voice trembling, “we wouldn’t be sitting here now. If anything, you’re the reason I’m not on the other side of this war, that I’m not the enemy of the rogues and the Order, and maybe the whole world. I’m here, Garret, because of you.”
Turning in my arms, she gave me a fierce glare as a lump rose to my throat. “So don’t you dare say your life isn’t worth anything,” she finished, staring me in the eye. “And don’t you dare go into battle tomorrow with the intent of charging off into some ultimate noble sacrifice.” One hand rose, caressing the side of my face, as she gave a faint smile. “Your past has been forgiven, Garret. Those years with the Order—you’ve redeemed yourself a hundred times over. Now, you just have to forgive yourself.” Her other hand came to rest against my cheek as she leaned in and touched her forehead to mine. “We end this together, like we’ve always done. And maybe, somehow, we’ll beat the odds and win one more time. But I’m not going to do anything without you, so you’d better be there. Besides…” The smile curled at one corner, becoming teasing, though her eyes were dark with emotion. “You still have a wager to lose, soldier boy. How am I going to kick your ass in surfing if you’re gone?”
Something hot slid down my cheek, even as I smiled back. “You’re awfully confident about that,” I said, and my voice came out slightly choked. Ember gave me a defiant grin.