“I’ll do it,” I said softly.

All three stared at me. “Garret, no,” Ember said, putting a hand on my knee. “It’s too dangerous. We won’t be there to help you and...” She glanced warily at Tristan. “What’s to stop him from turning you over to the Order once you’re there?”

“Nothing,” I told her. “I’ll be putting myself in his custody. If he wants to turn me in, there’ll be nothing I can do to stop it.” I caught Tristan’s gaze as I said this; he glared back at me, though he didn’t look away. “But, he’s right,” I went on. “We have to do this now. We won’t get a better shot at exposing the Patriarch to the rest of St. George.”

“We don’t even know if the Patriarch is really coming here,” Riley said. “What if this is an elaborate setup and you’re walking oh so casually into a trap?” When I hesitated, he raised his hands. “Look, I know you two had a great time slaughtering dragons together once, but times have changed. You really trust this dragonkiller not to stab you in the back?”

“It has to start somewhere,” I said quietly. Someone had to take that first step, or we’d never accomplish anything. “Tristan has saved my life dozens of times before.” I looked him right in the eye as I said this. “If he wants it now, he’s welcome to it.”

My former partner rose, giving us all a hard look. “I’ll meet you in Salt Lake City in forty-eight hours,” he told me. “Remember, Garret, come alone if you want this to work. No guns, no wires, no transmitters, nothing. Your dragons stay as far away from this as possible, got it?”

“Understood.”

He spun on a heel and strode away without looking back.

“Dammit,” Riley sighed, giving the retreating Tristan a disgusted look. “I hate Salt Lake.”

EMBER

I watched Garret pull his pistol from his back holster, check the chamber for a round, then carefully place it on the dresser. For a moment he hesitated, fingers curled lightly around the weapon, before he released it and pulled his hand away, empty.

Dread blossomed within, adding to the suffocating feeling that had clung to me ever since the meeting with Tristan. We’d driven straight to Salt Lake City and taken refuge in one of Riley’s safe houses, a foreclosed home on the outskirts of the city. Despite his aforementioned hatred of Salt Lake, it being one of St. George’s primary cities, Riley kept a safe house within enemy territory, “just in case.” Talon wouldn’t bother us here. If Riley was on the run from the organization and needed to get them off his back, this was a good spot to lie low and wait for things to blow over. If he didn’t attract the Order’s attention, too.

It was not the best of neighborhoods, and you could barely get through an hour without hearing a siren wail in the distance, but the house itself was actually fairly roomy, and everyone was relieved not to spend another night in a cramped hotel room. The extra space was definitely a good thing. I’d been afraid, from the confrontation earlier, that Garret and Riley would try to kill each other on the way up. But after the meeting with Tristan, it appeared to be business as usual once more. Garret, Riley and Wes talked—or argued, mostly—about the plan, with Riley and Wes insisting that this was probably a trap and Garret would be delivering himself right to the Order’s doorstep. The three of us—Riley, Wes and myself—tried to come up with a plan that would let us keep tabs on the soldier, or at least know what was going on within Order territory. But Garret was adamant he would go alone, and in the end, nothing we said would deter him.

Not one word had been said about what had happened in the hotel room right before Tristan contacted us. The boys seemed content to pretend it never happened. Though Riley spoke to us all a lot less now. There was a coldness to him that hadn’t been there before; he was still perfectly civil and businesslike, but he kept all of us, even Wes, at arm’s length. As if this was a job he had to complete, and when it was over, so were we.

It made my stomach ache with guilt, especially since every time I looked at him, I could see Cobalt’s gold eyes staring back at me, hurt, angry, betrayed. I wanted to talk to him, but what could I say? I’d made my choice. Even though my dragon side still protested. Even though she still insisted that Cobalt was our other half, and I was making a huge mistake pretending to be human.

And now, it was forty-six hours later. The time had come. Garret was going to walk out of the room alone, meet with a former ally turned enemy and let himself be taken before the Order of St. George. If something went wrong, I couldn’t be there. If Tristan betrayed Garret... I would never see him again.