Rogue

  I sighed and put down my pen, where I’d been scribbling notes on a yellow sheet of paper. “Mist,” I said, smiling as I beckoned her into the office. “How many times have I asked you to call me Dante?”

  “Counting today, exactly five times.” As always, there was a subtle note of challenge beneath the polite tone. “And I predict you will ask me at least twice more in the future. But that is irrelevant at this point.” She stepped back into the hall, looking suddenly anxious. “If you would come with me, Mr. Hill, I think you should see this.”

  * * *

  Back in the operations room, I gazed up at one of the enormous screens, watching a satellite map blip into view, showing a swath of dusty brown, with patches of green interspersed throughout. Mist stood beside me, also watching the screen, while the two human workers sat at their keyboards, typing furiously.

  “This,” Mist explained, leaning back against a desk, “is the eastern Mojave Desert, close to the Arizona/Utah line. When you told us to look for the Order’s western chapterhouse, we began directing our satellite feeds to the areas close to and around Crescent Beach.”

  “Hold on,” I said, holding up a hand. “We have satellites?”

  Mist gave a short nod. “We own one of the largest satellite communication networks in the world,” she said coolly. “It isn’t difficult to put in a few extras.

  “Regardless,” she continued, as if that was unimportant, “when we started searching, we found…this.”

  The feed zoomed in, focused and showed a bird’s-eye view of a facility smack in the middle of nowhere. Even from this height, it didn’t look very impressive. I could see a fence with two gates, several long rectangular buildings and the road that cut through the vast, empty desert surrounding it.

  “That,” Mist announced, as if she could feel my skepticism, “is St. George’s western chapterhouse.”

  I frowned. “Are you sure? It doesn’t look like much. Certainly not a heavily armed military base.”

  She gave me a look of veiled annoyance. “That’s what they want you to see, Mr. Hill,” she said. “The Order uses a combination of security and complete isolation to hide their chapterhouses. Some of them, like the main headquarters in London, are too heavily armed for us to do anything about. Some of them, like this one, rely on isolation to keep them secure. Talon knows of several large Order facilities around the world, but the smaller chapterhouses are good at concealing themselves and hiding in plain sight. The only reason we found this one was because we were actively searching for St. George movement in the region. At your request, Mr. Hill, and this took us all night.”

  I held up my hands. “Point taken. No need to bite my head off. I believe you.” She sniffed, looking mollified, and I glanced back at the screen. “So, this is their western chapterhouse,” I mused, crossing my arms. “I’m sure Talon will want to know about this. Have you informed Mr. Roth?”

  “No,” Mist replied gravely. “I figured you deserved that honor. After all, you were the one who pointed us in the right direction. But that’s not all we found,” she continued, before I could feel smug that I had been right. “Look at this.”

  The screen went dark as the scene faded to night, only a few points of light glimmering in a sea of black. Then one of the humans clicked a key, and the image switched to a grainy green color. I could see the buildings, blurry and indistinct, through the emerald haze, and the fence surrounding the base as the camera zoomed in. The time on the bottom left of the screen read 3:26 a.m., dated two days ago.

  I blinked. Two small black dots were moving across the desert from the east, looking like tiny crawling insects from this height but definitely making a beeline toward the fence. They weren’t coming in from the road; in fact, it looked like they were actively avoiding the gates, heading toward the most isolated corner of the compound. As I stared, amazed, they paused at the fence a few seconds, slipped through a hole they must’ve cut out and began creeping across the yard toward the main headquarters.

  “What in the world?” I whispered, baffled as I watched their progress. “That can’t be…”

  “We believe it is Ember, Mr. Hill,” Mist finished solemnly. “And Cobalt. None of our agents have received orders to move on a St. George facility in several months. Cobalt has the knowledge and the skills for this type of work, and he is bold enough to infiltrate even an Order chapterhouse. It’s one of the reasons he is so dangerous to the organization.”

  “But why is Ember with him?” I asked, unable to tear my gaze from the two tiny figures, darting through shadows and around corners, avoiding the light. Anger and fear caught in my throat. She was inside a St. George base! What was she thinking? If anyone spotted her, she was dead. Get out of there, I wanted to shout, knowing it was futile. Ember, you stubborn idiot, why are you doing this? Get out of there before you’re killed.

  Mist didn’t say anything. Turning, she nodded to one of the humans, who bent over the keyboard. A moment later, the screen jumped to fast-forward, with the time in the left corner accelerating rapidly, though nothing inside the base appeared to move.

  “Stop,” Mist commanded, and the screen froze. “Look at the upper left corner, Mr. Hill,” she went on, nodding to the blurred image above us. “Behind the vehicle, near the main headquarters. What do you see?”

  I followed her gaze and drew in a sharp breath. “Three of them,” I muttered, squinting to make sure I was seeing correctly. No, I wasn’t mistaken. There were the two figures in black from earlier, only now there was a third party member, huddled behind the car. “They were there to get someone out,” I breathed, trying to wrap my head around what it could mean. “But…why? St. George doesn’t take prisoners, at least not with us. Who…?”

  I trailed off, a cold lump settling in my stomach. “The soldier,” I whispered, feeling the blood drain from my face. “The human from Crescent Beach. They were there to free the soldier of St. George.”

  My legs felt weak. This was not what I’d expected. I’d hoped that, by watching the chapterhouse Sebastian belonged to, he would lead us to Ember. Or that Ember would contact him, somehow, and we could follow when they moved on her and the rogue. I’d never expected her to breach St. George itself.

  Mist’s eyes were grave as she turned to me. “So, not only has your sister gone rogue, she is also fraternizing with the enemy,” she said. Her voice was quiet, meant only for me and our team members. “What do you intend to do with this information?”

  I took a deep breath. “I have to tell Mr. Roth,” I said, feeling slightly ill, but knowing there was no other choice. “If Ember is associating with St. George, Talon must know immediately. She could unknowingly put the organization at risk, though I have no idea what she thinks she’s doing.” Anger flickered, and I scrubbed a hand down my face, trying to stay calm. Ember going rogue was bad enough, but to aid one of the Order? How was I supposed to advance my cause, convince Talon that my sister was being manipulated, if she kept pulling stunts like this?

  Straightening, I looked back at the paused screen, at the trio of figures huddled against the car. “Did they escape?” I asked, almost dreading the answer. Surely Mist wouldn’t be showing me this footage if they hadn’t. But if the worst had occurred, if Ember hadn’t gotten out of that compound alive, I wasn’t going to stand here and watch. Even after everything, I didn’t think I could handle seeing my sister gunned down right in front of me.

  Surprisingly, the other dragon’s lip twitched into the faintest of smiles. “Oh, you could say that,” she said, and hit the pause key on the computer.

  Seconds later, with my heart in my throat, I watched the two dragons flee the compound amid a flurry of lights and gunshots. If I’d had any doubts that one of the figures in black was Ember, they were long gone now.

  I took a slow breath as the two dragons soared offscreen, vanishing westward and out of sight. The soldier s
at astride one of them, and a flicker of rage and disgust pierced my amazement. With a brisk nod, I turned on one of the humans.

  “Send a message to Mr. Roth immediately. Let him know we’ve found her.”

  Ember

  “Ember,” Dante said. “Get up.”

  I groaned. My bed was warm and comfortable, and the air outside my nest of blankets was cold. It was a Saturday, at least I thought it was a Saturday, and I was supposed to meet up with Lexi later this afternoon to go surfing. She didn’t want to go early because of reasons, which meant I could sleep in today. Of course, that didn’t account for obnoxious brothers coming into my room to bother me.

  I peeked through the covers, intending to tell said obnoxious brother to go away, only to find I was no longer in my room.

  I sat up, blinking. Moonlight filtered in from a window, casting hazy light over an assortment of shadows and unrecognizable lumps. I frowned in confusion, sliding out of bed, giving a little shiver as I stood. The floor beneath my bare feet was hard and icy cold.

  “Ember.”

  I turned. Dante stood a few feet away, watching me with eyes glowing green in the darkness. Behind him, the labyrinth of crates hovered at the edge of the light, looming and ominous, casting Dante in their jagged shadow.

  “Traitor,” he whispered.

  I growled, curling my lips back from my fangs. I didn’t know when I’d Shifted forms, but tongues of fire licked at my teeth as I snarled and half opened my wings, facing my brother down. “You’re one to talk,” I said, my voice echoing weirdly off the rafters. “I thought we were leaving Talon together, but you had no intention of coming with me, did you? You were going to tell Lilith where I was all along.”

  He didn’t respond and I slumped, tail and wings drooping, while my twin watched me without expression. “You lied to me, Dante,” I said, feeling the cold flood of regret douse the flames within. “I thought I could trust you, but you sold me out to Talon.”

  “I did no such thing.” Dante’s voice was calm, though his eyes narrowed to shining green slits. “You were the one who betrayed us, Ember. When you left with that rogue.” He slipped away, his voice growing faint as he faded into the black. “You made the call. It was your choice to leave, to abandon everything we had worked for. Sixteen years of preparation, gone in an instant. You walked out on Talon, and you walked out on me.”

  “Dante, wait.”

  He didn’t stop but vanished into the darkness, the echo of his footsteps fading to nothing. Calling out, I started after him, but the shadows closed in, and everything went black.

  * * *

  Wincing, I opened my eyes.

  I lay on the floor in a room I didn’t recognize, curled up on something soft. It took only a second to realize I was in dragon form, lying in a nest of blankets, and this had been a bedroom at one point, because a bed and a dresser had been shoved up against the far wall. Apart from those two pieces of furniture, the room was unnaturally empty. No clothes on the floor, no pictures or posters hanging from the walls, nothing to give the room personality. It seemed to have been empty a long time.

  My thoughts swirled sluggishly, like they were trapped in glue. I blinked hard, trying to focus as I raised my head, waiting for my vision to clear. What had happened to me? The last thing I remembered was flying away from something, and a sudden jolt to my side, like I’d been hit with a hammer. I didn’t remember passing out, but I must have, because everything after that was a blur. How much time had elapsed since then? I wondered.

  And where am I now?

  Cautiously, I looked around, trying to get a sense of where I was, and froze.

  A body was slumped in a chair a few feet away, sitting against the wall with his arms crossed and his eyes closed. Even through the confusion and sleep haze, I knew it was Garret.

  My stomach tightened, and memory came back in a rush. I remembered everything that had brought me here; infiltrating the St. George base with Riley, freeing Garret, fleeing across the wasteland with the soldier on my back. There was also one very hazy memory of a voice that sounded exactly like Garret’s, telling me to lie down, but that might’ve been from a dream.

  But I wasn’t dreaming now, and the soldier was here, in the very same room. Sunlight slanted through the blinds over the windows, glinting off his pale hair, painting bright bars over his clothes. He wore faded jeans and a white T-shirt, and in sleep, he appeared younger than he was. Less a hardened soldier and more like a normal teen. Like the Garret I’d known in Crescent Beach. Before he became St. George, the enemy, a soldier who had killed dragons his whole life.

  I rose carefully, trying to be silent as I sat up, but Garret was either just dozing or a really light sleeper, for his eyes shot open as soon as I moved. Piercing metallic-gray pupils met mine across the room.

  “Ember.”

  His voice made me shiver, low and soft with relief. Carefully, as if trying not to make any sudden moves, he stood, his expression teetering between wary and hopeful. “You’re awake,” he breathed. “Are you all right?”

  “I…think so.” I stood slowly, bracing myself for pain. There was a dull ache in my side as I moved, but nothing sharp or stabby, which was a relief. Cautiously, I eased myself upright, craning my neck, curling and uncurling my talons, testing muscles. Except for the subtle but persistent ache in my side, everything seemed to be working fine. I took a breath and let it out slowly. “Looks like I’m all here. What happened?”

  “You were shot,” Garret said quietly. “When we were running from St. George. We brought you here, and Wes managed to dig the slug out, but it was touch and go for a while.”

  “What do you mean?”

  His gaze flicked to my side, where the ache was coming from. “You nearly died, Ember,” he whispered. “We didn’t know how serious it was until we got here. You lost a lot of blood, and if the bullet had gone a few inches to the left…it would’ve struck your heart.”

  “Oh,” I said, as the gravity of that statement sank in. “Really?”

  He nodded, his face tightening. “That first night,” he said in a curiously choked voice, “I didn’t know if you were going to make it. You didn’t move the entire time, not to eat, or Shift, or anything. Riley said that…that you had gone into hibernation, that when the dragon body takes a lot of damage, it slows to almost nothing and falls into a near coma until it can heal itself. I had no reason to doubt him, but…you were so still. You’ve been out for three days, and I couldn’t even tell if you were breathing or not.”

  “Hey.” I stepped toward him, slowly, knowing I was still in dragon form and not wanting to make him nervous. “It’s all right. Look.” I half opened my wings, casting a dark shadow over the walls and floor. “I’m okay,” I said, offering a smile. “I’m still here.”

  He gazed at me with an expression that made my heart turn over, before his eyes narrowed and he shook his head. “You shouldn’t have come,” he said, sounding almost angry now. I blinked and reared back in surprise as he turned on me. “Back at St. George. You shouldn’t have risked it. You don’t know what you’ve done, what the Order will do to your kind now. St. George won’t let this stand. Word of the break-in has probably reached London. Every chapterhouse in the region will be looking for you. You’ll never be safe.”

  I lashed my tail, nearly knocking over a lamp on the dresser. “Guess next time I’ll just stand back and let you be shot to death.”

  Garret winced and had the grace to look ashamed. “I’m sorry,” he muttered, and the anger vanished as quickly as it had come. “I don’t mean to sound ungrateful. I owe you my life, and I’m glad you came for me. I just…” He paused, uncertainty creeping into his voice and stance. “I’m not entirely sure why.”

  “Why?” I cocked my head, peering down at him. “What do you mean, you don’t know why? The answer should be obvious.”
>
  Hope rippled across his features, so fast I might’ve imagined it. Though his voice remained neutral. “I’m a soldier of St. George,” he insisted. “All my life, I believed what the Order believed. I followed the tenets, and I killed when they told me to, what they told me to, without question. Every single time.” He looked away for a brief moment, eyes darkening. “You know what I’ve done,” he murmured, staring at the wall. “You know what I am. Why would you risk your life to save a dragonslayer?”

  A lump rose to my throat. “You weren’t a soldier of St. George to me.” The words came out a near whisper, and I swallowed hard. “Not in Crescent Beach. I never hated you, Garret. Even after…that night.” The night he’d pointed a gun at my face, and I’d seen what he really was for the very first time. The night we’d inevitably turned on each other, because what else could we be except lifelong enemies? A soldier of St. George and a dragon. “And after what happened with Lilith, I couldn’t leave you to die. Even if it was the Order, I wasn’t going to let them kill you.”

  Garret still wasn’t looking at me. He stared at the far wall as if he couldn’t bear to see a huge reptile standing beside him instead of a girl, and my heart sank. “So, what now?” I asked softly. “Are we enemies, Garret? Do you hate me for being a dragon?”

  “No!” He looked over quickly, his face earnest. “I could never hate you, Ember. If anything, I should be asking you that question. If you really knew what I’ve done…” He sighed, bowing his head. “But no. I’m not your enemy. You risked your life when you went into St. George, you and Riley both. I’m in your debt.”

  I sat down, curling my tail around my legs as I gave the former dragonslayer an exasperated snort. “Yes, well, for future reference,” I said, thumping the spade-tip of my tail against the ground, “when someone decides to save your life, for whatever reason, the proper response is thank you. Guilt and groveling optional but highly encouraged.”

  A tiny chuckle escaped him then, as if he couldn’t help himself. “Point taken,” he murmured, the hint of a smile finally crossing his face. “Would you like the groveling done now or later?”