“For Isaac,” Kain muttered in the back.
I closed my eyes. Too many to name, I thought as faces from the past flickered through my head. For everyone I’ve lost, everyone who won’t survive this. And for those who will. I’ll give you a better world, I swear it.
“Okay.” Opening my eyes, I turned to face the laboratory, resolve settling over me. Even from here, I could easily see the entrance, and the dozens of humans milling about, unaware of an impending attack from the sky. I took a deep breath, filling my lungs, feeling the heat and fire within surge to every part of my body. If these were my final hours, it was fitting that I should spend them as a dragon.
A flash of red lit up the sky, and the distant roar of an explosion echoed into the silence, as an RPG slammed into one of the watchtowers and blew it sky-high. Almost instantly, a siren blared, spotlights flashing on to sweep the ground, as the guards rushed to engage the soldiers charging in the front gate.
Here we go.
Rearing onto my hind legs, I gave a booming, defiant roar, and the dragons behind me took up the battle call, a few dozen Draconic voices rising into the air. Springing from the ledge, I opened my wings and plunged into a steep dive, hearing my army do the same, and we swooped toward what could be our very last battle.
EMBER
I hit the bottom of the ladder and quickly stepped aside for the others to come down, gazing around warily. We’d landed in what looked to be another mine shaft, with natural stone walls held up by thick wooden timbers, and a track stretching past us into the dark. I shone my flashlight in one direction and saw that it ended in a solid wall of rock and collapsed stone; either from a natural cave-in or one that Talon had orchestrated.
“Well,” I muttered as Garret landed beside me, “at least that makes one choice easier.”
We followed the tracks, taking the only direction that we could. They didn’t go far. Maybe a hundred yards from the ladder, they curved around a bend and ended at a door. And not just any door. A large, thick barrier of solid steel, set into a wall of iron. A keypad glowed green at the edge, though the screen was covered in a film of dust, indicating this had not been used in quite some time.
“Ah,” Mist said, sounding triumphant and awed at the same time. “There’s the high-tech security I was expecting.”
“Can you get us through?” asked Garret.
“I should be able to.” Mist stepped forward, frowning as she approached the massive door. “We’ll see if the codes the Archivist gave me will work.”
“And if they don’t?” Matthews asked.
“Then there will likely be an alarm, and the mission will be a failure,” the Basilisk stated bluntly, making him scowl. “To prevent that, I will need absolute silence to concentrate. So perhaps you could refrain from making any noise until I am finished.”
I bit my cheek to stifle a grin at the real meaning behind her words—please shut up and go away—and took a step back with Garret to give her some room.
“Hope this works,” Tristan muttered, his voice pitched very low. “Otherwise this is going to be a very short mission.”
“If it doesn’t,” I whispered back, “we’ll just have to find another way in. Or we’ll fight our way through the guards when they come.” It didn’t matter how we did it, but we had to get inside to destroy the vessel army. We couldn’t fail. Riley, Martin, the rogues, everyone—they were all out front, fighting and dying to give us this chance.
Fortunately, it was only a few seconds before the door gave a soft beep and clicked as it swung back. Relieved, we started forward, but Mist stood in front of the now-open door, a slight frown on her face as we joined her. Another tunnel, this one made of tile and concrete and lit with overhead lights, curved away past the frame. “Something wrong, Mist?”
Mist shook her head. “I know I got the codes from the Archivist, but…it shouldn’t be this easy,” she murmured. “This is Talon we’re talking about—there’s no such thing as luck.” The Basilisk crossed her arms and glared past the frame. “I don’t like it. It smells like a trap.”
Garret moved up beside me, also peering through the door. “Luck or not, we have to move on,” he said. “We can’t abandon the mission, even if there is a trap waiting for us inside. There’s no choice but to continue.”
Warily, we started down the corridor, following the lights and the piping that ran along the wall. I shivered as I trailed Garret, hugging the wall and feeling highly exposed with all the lights and no cover whatsoever. There were no cameras in the hall, no guards or security. When we came to an intersection, Garret paused, speaking quietly to Wes through the com. After a moment, he nodded and jerked his head down the passage to the right, and we continued.
The hallway ended at another heavy-duty steel door, though this one had a small square window near the top. As we approached, I could see flashing red lights through the glass, and heard the shrill howl of an alarm. Pressing against the frame, Garret and I peeked through the window and saw that the room beyond, though filled with pipes and gauges and strange blocky machines, was empty of people.
“Looks like the assault outside is doing its job,” Tristan muttered, his face lit by the eerie, flashing red lights. “Let’s hope they keep it up.”
I glanced at Garret. “The chamber with the vessels isn’t far, right?”
He shook his head. “According to Wes, it’s directly below this floor. We’ll have to find a way down, either by stairs or elevator.”
I looked through the glass again. Beyond the window, a man in a white coat rushed past the door, looking panicked or in a hurry. A couple of armed guards followed him as the alarm continued to blare and the lights flickered on and off, adding to the chaos.
Riley, I thought. I hope you’re okay. Wherever you are, keep it up for just a little while longer.
“Wes,” Garret said into the com. “Find us a way down. Once we’re through this room, we can’t stop for directions. Just get us there as quickly as you can.” He paused another few heartbeats, then nodded. “Understood. Heading there now.”
He looked at me, and I took a deep breath. Together, we pulled the door open and slipped into the flashing, blaring chaos of the lab.
We hurried through the halls of the laboratory as swiftly and quietly as we could, passing rooms of shelves, counters and strange equipment, going deeper into the lab. The lights and alarms continued to sound, and after a few minutes, I started to feel a headache throb behind my eyes. We saw very few people on our way through the corridors, and the ones we did see were either running away or huddled in a room, looking confused and scared. We didn’t slow down. Garret led us through twisting hallways and narrow corridors without hesitation, following instructions from Wes. Once, we turned a corner and ran into a trio of guards, who shouted and raised their weapons, but were swiftly gunned down by the soldiers before they could respond further. Another time, a pair of humans in white coats barged out of a room, nearly running into us, and rushed off down the hall without looking in our direction. Peter Matthews raised his gun to shoot them in the back, but was stopped by Garret’s sharp order to stand down.
After several tense minutes, we turned another corner and came to the end of the hallway. A pair of elevator doors stood in front of us, open and blinking red inside.
Mist balked when she saw what lay at the end of the hall. “I really don’t like the idea of using the elevator,” she remarked, gazing at the metal box with suspicion. “It might not even work, now that the alarms have sounded. Can we find a staircase?”