Was it worth it?

I glanced at Ember, lying in the sand a few yards away, sides heaving. Ember, not “the dragon.” She had a name, a personality, a normal life. Or, she’d had a normal life, before tonight. Before we kicked down the door and tried to kill her for existing.

A heavy weight settled over me. If there had been time, I would have told her I was sorry, that we’d been wrong. Though any apology was grossly insufficient for the things I had done, the numbers slaughtered, and the blood on my hands. Ember would hate me, she deserved to hate me, but I couldn’t return to the Order and blindly kill her people like I used to. She had opened my eyes, and I couldn’t…I wouldn’t, return to what I had been.

A growl cut through the silence, raising the hair on my neck.

I jerked up to see the blue dragon glaring at me with teeth bared, looking decidedly hostile. I tensed, fighting the instinct to raise my weapon. Of course, he saw only his greatest enemy, a soldier of St.

George. I might have helped drive off the Adult, but when Talon and the Order stood face to face, the only outcome was death.

I forced myself to lower the gun, keeping it at my side, as I raised my other hand. “I’m not here to fight,” I told the dragon, who snorted in obvious contempt.

“Bullshit,” he spat at me, the word sounding strange coming from a dragon’s mouth. I’d rarely heard them speak in their true forms;

hearing one snarl an expletive was a weird sensation. “I suppose you didn’t mean to kill us earlier tonight, either.” He stalked toward me, eyes narrowed, lips pulled back in hate. “Way I see it, you came here expecting one dragon, not three. And now that you have no squad to back you up, you’re trying to beg your way out. Well, it doesn’t work that way, St. George,” the dragon hissed. “Don’t expect us to play nice when you tried to kill us all.”

I raised my weapon, backing up as the dragon pressed forward menacingly. “I don’t want to shoot you. Stand down.”

“I’ve already been shot twice tonight,” the dragon answered, the murderous gleam in his eyes growing bright as he backed me toward the cliff. “I don’t think once more will matter.”

He tensed to spring at me. I tightened my grip on the trigger—

And Ember lunged between us.

Ember

Cobalt stopped short as I leaped in front of him, blocking the path to Garret. Growling, I lowered my head and spread my wings, sinking into a crouch. The dragon’s gold eyes blinked in surprise, then narrowed angrily.

“Ember, what are you doing?” he snarled in Draconic. “He’s St.

George, Firebrand. Move, before he shoots you in the back.”

“I know what he is,” I retorted. “And I’m not going to let you do this.” Planting my claws, I stayed where I was. “He helped us, Cobalt.

He drove off the Viper. Lilith would’ve killed us both.”

“That doesn’t matter!” Aghast, he stared at me, confusion and disgust written over his reptilian face. “He’s still part of the Order. He’s killed dozens of our kind! The only reason he’s not trying to murder us now is that we outnumber him.” I stubbornly set my jaw, and Cobalt snarled impatiently. “You think he would’ve spared us tonight?

If those alarms hadn’t gone off, they would’ve slaughtered us. You, me, the hatchlings, Wes—they would’ve killed us all.”

“So we’re going to kill him in cold blood now? How does that make us any different?”

“Dammit, Ember!” He started toward me, but I bared my fangs at him and hissed, making him stop. I wasn’t screwing around. I was not going to let Cobalt kill Garret, even if he was St. George. He’d saved our lives. Why, I had no idea. He knew I was a dragon. He knew St. George tried to kill us tonight; hell, maybe he’d been there, too.

But he wasn’t firing on us now. He’d helped drive off Talon’s notorious Viper assassin. And when I spared a glance at him, the human standing quietly on the beach was a different person than the soldier I’d faced earlier tonight.

We were enemies. I knew that. But I couldn’t let Cobalt attack him now. There had been far too much fighting and blood already.

I’d had enough.

“Ember.”

Garret’s voice, low and grim, echoed at my back. I glanced over my shoulder to find him watching us, a grave look on his face. From the faint crease of his brow, he hadn’t understood the snarled, hissed conversation between two dragons, but he’d probably gotten the gist of it.

I wanted to talk to him, but not like this. Not as lifelong enemies, dragon to St. George. Turning slowly, keeping my movements calm and unthreatening, I Shifted back, hearing Cobalt’s warning growl echo behind me. But as I shrank down, my human form kneeling in the sand between the soldier and the dragon, Garret stepped forward, earning a hiss from Cobalt.

“Don’t,” he said urgently, and I glanced up at him, puzzled. “Don’t change back, Ember, there’s no time. You have to leave, now.” He shot a wary look back at the cliffs, at the path he’d come in. “St. George, the rest of my team, is on their way. You should go.”

I blinked, but Cobalt gave a snarled curse and backed away. “I knew it,” he hissed with a furious look at Garret. “I knew we shouldn’t trust him. Come on, Firebrand. Before they get here and start shooting anything that moves.” Whirling, he bounded toward the cave, his lithe body flying over the sand, moving like a huge scaly cat. But I hesitated, looking back at the soldier.