“And who the fuck are you?” Peter Matthews demanded.
My brother gave him a look of disdain. “You wouldn’t understand the significance even if I told you,” he said in a cold voice that was nothing like the Dante I’d known. “That said, I’m the one who holds your life in his hands. Keep talking to me like that, and I’ll have every one of you executed right here. Take them,” he told the vessels, and several closed in. Swiftly, we were disarmed, handcuffed and herded out of the elevator. A few stripped us of our packs, making my heart sink even lower. One vessel handed my bag to Dante, who unzipped the top and peered inside. His brows arched and he chuckled, shaking his head.
“Well, you certainly came prepared. I guess the Order doesn’t do anything halfheartedly.” Closing the pack, he carefully handed it back to a vessel, who swung it over his shoulders. “But I’m afraid you’re not going to be blowing anything up tonight. Tomorrow, the Awakening begins, and there will be no one left to stop it. The Order, Cobalt’s rogue underground—in the next hour, all of Talon’s enemies will be no more.”
“So why the elaborate ruse?” I asked. “Why didn’t you just kill us when you had the chance?”
“Because I want you to see our victory.” Dante turned cold green eyes on me. “Because I want you to watch as I destroy Cobalt and the rebellion. I want you to fully understand that there will be no one left to challenge Talon, and the only way you will survive is by joining us.”
“You don’t understand, do you?” My voice came out shaky, remembering the lab, the scientists and the Elder Wyrm gazing down at me with alien green eyes. “I can’t go back, Dante. You don’t know what the Elder Wyrm wants, what she’ll really do to me.”
Dante gave a small, sad smile. “Yes,” he said quietly. “I do.”
Stunned, I could only gape at him for a moment. “I know that you’re her vessel,” Dante went on, “and that she’ll be using you to live forever. I’ve known for a while now.”
“And…you’re okay with that?” I finally stammered. Not truly believing it. Dante was my enemy, the heir of Talon, and was responsible for countless deaths and suffering on our side. But even through all that, I couldn’t accept that my brother would willingly stand by and watch the Elder Wyrm kill me to extend her own life.
“We all have sacrifices to make, Ember.” Dante’s voice was flat, unemotional, and sent an icy lance through my stomach. “I’ve accepted mine. It’s time that you did the same.”
“Dante…” I stared at him, too horrified to say anything. Dante gazed back, utterly impassive, and a sick feeling spread through my body. This was the heir of Talon, the Elder Wyrm’s second in command and, next to the leader of Talon herself, our greatest enemy within the organization. My brother, the twin I’d known and loved, the sibling who’d looked after us both all the years we were growing up, was truly dead.
“Let’s go.” Dante turned, and the vessels surrounded us, silent and threatening as they closed in. “The Elder Wyrm is waiting.”
RILEY
Things weren’t going well for us.
Too many. There were too many of them. Around me, the air was filled with darting, swooping dragons, but many of them were the metallic gray, silver-eyed clones who never gave up and never seemed to get tired. My own dragons were putting up an incredible fight; after the initial shock, the hatchlings and dragonells, instead of meeting their enemies head-on, began using teamwork and group tactics against the single-minded, predatory clones. They even began using St. George to their advantage, luring a vessel into chasing them, only to fly close to a group of soldiers, who would immediately gun the enemy dragon down. The Order had retreated behind crates and vehicles and whatever obstacles they could, taking cover against enemy dragonfire. They were doing a good job of picking clones out of the sky, but they, too, had been pushed to the defensive. It was only a matter of time before raw numbers overwhelmed us.
But we had to keep fighting.
I gave my tired, aching wings a flap and dove toward a pair of vessels pursuing a hatchling, slamming into one from above and sending it crashing to the ground. The other turned on me, whipping around like a damned snake, and lunged. Its jaws closed on a wing joint, and I snarled, ripping and snapping at it as we plummeted from the air. At the last second, the dragon’s jaws loosened and I shoved it away, but barely had time to open my own wings to slow the fall before we both crashed into the ground. The impact snapped my jaws together and drove the breath from my lungs, forcing me to lay there for a moment, dazed and gasping.
“Riley!” a voice snapped in my ear, small and artificial sounding. After a confused moment, I realized it was Martin, speaking to my through the earbud. “Get up, dragon!” the lieutenant barked, making me frown. “You have hostiles closing on your six, and none of the men are close enough to help. If you can hear me, respond!”
Gritting my teeth, I pushed myself upright, and found myself surrounded by clones. Four of the bastards had closed in and were tensing to pounce.
My chest ached, my wings shook with exhaustion and I could feel the sting from a dozen or so gashes all over my body, but I planted my talons and snarled a challenge. Come on then, you bastards. If I die here, at least I’ll take all of you with me.
“My God.” Martin’s voice was a breath in my ear. He sounded stunned, but I didn’t dare take my attention off the circle of dragons closing in on me. “I don’t believe it.”
The first vessel lunged with a howl, jaws gaping…and was abruptly snatched out of the air as a forty-foot scaly body passed overhead, casting me in its shadow. Eyes wide, I looked up as an enormous Eastern dragon curled effortlessly into the sky, the twitching carcass of a vessel in its massive jaws. Tossing the body aside, Jade coiled around and flew back with a roar, smashing aside two vessels that leaped at her and catching a third in her jaws as she streaked past.
My pulse spiked, and a tiny ray of hope pierced the darkness of my mood. “About time you got here!” I called as the Eastern dragon circled around again to hover several feet overhead. “I swear you disappear just so you can come back at the most dramatic moments, don’t you?”
I didn’t know it was possible for a dragon to raise an eyebrow, but somehow the Eastern dragon managed it. “And you have the strangest way of showing appreciation,” she replied in that cool, slightly lofty voice. “Especially since—what is the Western term for it?—the cavalry has arrived.”
With a roar and a blast of wind, two more long, snakelike bodies soared overhead, manes and whiskers trailing behind them, to join the battle in the sky. One of them, a dragon with gleaming red scales and a golden underbelly, was slightly smaller than Jade. But the other, a turquoise-blue male with onyx horns and ridiculously long whiskers, was enormous, probably sixty feet from nose to tail tip. They sailed past us, momentarily blocking out the sun, and continued toward the fighting.
I gaped at the two behemoths, then glanced back at Jade, who gave a faint smile. “I made a promise, did I not?” she said. “I said I would return with help, if I could. Granted, only two of my kin decided to make the journey overseas, but three shen-lung are certainly better than none. Certainly, we are more than a match for these abominations. Now…” She raised her head, eyes glittering as she stared at the vessels, who had certainly noticed the appearance of three huge Eastern dragons and were whirling around to attack. “Let us see if we cannot turn the tide against Talon. I assume Ember and the others are already inside the laboratory?”
“Yeah,” I said, and opened my wings, ready to launch myself into battle once more. “Hopefully by now they’ve made it to the main chamber and are setting up the explosives. We just gotta keep Talon off their backs till then.”
EMBER