“Does it ever get any easier?” she whispered at last.

She didn’t have to explain what she meant. “Yes,” I told her. “Unfortunately. You have nightmares for a few weeks, and you question yourself for a long time—did you do the right thing, was there anything you could have done differently—but after a while, if you keep at it, pulling the trigger gets easier and easier. Eventually, it becomes routine, something you do without thinking.” I glanced at her, hoping she didn’t think I was bragging. “It’s not something to be proud of,” I said softly. “And it’s not something you should strive for, not if you want to be anywhere near normal. I’ve been a soldier all my life. St. George taught me how to kill, but that’s all I can do. It’s the only thing I know how to do.” Ember didn’t answer, her gaze far away and dark. Maybe she despised me now, a soldier who took lives so easily, who killed without thinking. I wouldn’t blame her if she did. “You don’t want that, Ember,” I said, not adding what I really thought, my own selfish desires. I don’t want that for you. I kill when I must for survival, but I wish you didn’t have to be part of this war. If I could take you away from all of it, I would.

“I know.” She shivered and pulled away, hugging her arms as if cold. “That’s why I left, after all,” she went on, her voice barely audible. “Because they wanted to turn me into a killer, an assassin for Talon. They wanted me to slaughter people, not only in the war with St. George, but to silence anyone who wasn’t loyal to the organization. They expected me to take out my own kind, rogues like Riley, if they ordered it.”

I nodded, remembering an earlier conversation with Riley, how he’d said not all dragons wanted to be a part of Talon. And while he hadn’t actually come out and said what happened to the rogues who left the organization, it had been strongly implied. Suspicion rose up, mingling with the guilt. Before this summer, it had never occurred to me that there were dragons who rejected Talon’s ambitions, who wanted to be free of the organization. Dragons like Riley and Ember. Rogues hunted by their own.

I wondered how much St. George really knew about their ancient enemies. Were they truly ignorant of the rogues and the dragons outside of Talon? Or did our superiors choose to hide certain things from the rest of us?

“My old trainer, she was teaching me to be just like her,” Ember continued, interrupting my dark thoughts. “Ruthless and completely unmerciful. Someone who would kill a defenseless hatchling in cold blood if Talon gave the word. She wanted me to strike fast and never question why, to execute people without thinking about it. She wanted me to become a killer.” A shudder racked her body, and she gripped the railing, her voice a low rasp. “And now, I am.”

I moved beside her and rested an arm on the railing. She didn’t look at me, continuing to gaze at the streets below. Her posture was stiff, but I saw the grief, the helpless anger, the fear that she was becoming what she hated. The Perfect Soldier scoffed in disgust; this was a war. It was either kill or be killed. Pull the trigger before your enemy did, that was the only way to survive.

Before Crescent Beach, I would’ve agreed. Second-guessing yourself was dangerous. I had killed because the Order told me to, and I hadn’t thought twice about it. But this summer, I’d met a daring, cheerful, fiery dragon girl who had turned my world upside down. Who showed me things I’d never seen, imagined or experienced. And it might’ve been selfish, dangerous even, considering where we were now, but I didn’t want her to ever change.

“I know about the Vipers,” I said, which made Ember glance at me sharply, perhaps surprised that I knew the name of Talon’s infamous assassins. “I know what they do. I’ve seen what they’re capable of.”

“You have?” She blinked rapidly, her voice surprised and a little awed. “I mean, you actually saw one? And…lived?”

I gave a solemn nod. “Yes, but everyone in the Order has seen this particular Viper,” I said. “Not firsthand,” I added quickly, as her eyes got huge. “No one who was there that night survived. But we’ve all seen the footage. It’s from a security camera the Order managed to recover from the area. They make us watch it as part of our training. To fully realize what we’re dealing with.”

Ember wrinkled her nose. “That’s morbid.”

“Yes.” I paused, remembering the fuzzy, black-and-white images: a warehouse aisle, a flickering overhead light, four soldiers creeping forward with guns raised. A blur of shadow as something dropped from the ceiling, into their midst. Screams. Gunfire. The light swinging wildly back and forth.

And then silence, as the lamp swayed over a blood-streaked floor and the sprawl of blackened, shredded bodies, the killer nowhere to be found. “They didn’t have a chance,” I said, remembering the horror I’d felt when I first saw the footage. I was eleven years old, and for weeks afterward, I couldn’t walk into a dark room without scouring the ceiling for dragons. “There was no hesitation on the Viper’s part. It knew exactly what it was doing.”

Ember was still watching me as if she could see the scene play out in my eyes. “That dragon from the video,” I went on, my voice just a breath between us, “the assassin, the killer…you’re not like that, Ember.” I paused, then said, very softly, “You’re not like any dragon I’ve seen before.”