I’d never actively disliked Lieutenant Jacob Ward, until now.
I’d heard the stories, of course. We all had. His reputation was infamous among the soldiers of the Order, fed by rumor and egged on by the man himself. Drills that routinely made soldiers pass out from exhaustion, pain or dehydration. Punishments ranging from cleaning his boots with your tongue to doing push-ups in full gear for three hours straight. How his personal goal was to make every new recruit cry at least once during their first week at the chapterhouse. In the past, I’d never looked forward to missions where we had to partner with Ward’s men, because the soldiers of the Eastern Chapterhouse eventually developed the cruelty and ruthless nature of their lieutenant. They were superb dragonslayers, brutal and efficient in the field, but their insatiable bloodlust, and the way they treated anyone smaller or weaker than themselves, sometimes made them difficult to work with. I had been the target of their hazing once, when a pair of soldiers took personal offense to my growing reputation and tried to “put me in my place.” Two broken jaws and a dislocated elbow later, they’d known I was someone to leave alone, but I’d had to be just as brutal and vicious as them to get my point across.
I wondered how many of those soldiers had survived and were here right now. I wondered what would happen if they did try to start something with any of the dragons here, particularly Riley.
I grimaced. It wouldn’t end well, for either side. Not that I doubted my dragon teammates could take care of themselves when faced with a soldier of the Order, but if tempers were lost and violence erupted, it could shatter everything we were trying to accomplish. We needed the Order’s help, but you could only push a dragon so far. And, former comrades or not, if any one of them hurt the girl across from me, they would end up in the infirmary with a lot more than a broken jaw.
Ember, I noticed, had grown quiet. She hadn’t moved from the edge of the table, but was gazing at the map spread across the center. Her fingers reached down, tracing the edge of the paper.
“Did we do the right thing?” she mused, her voice solemn. “Did I do the right thing, insisting we come, that we seek out the Order? Maybe Riley was right, after all.” She pulled her hand back, still staring down at the map as if it could give her answers. “What if the Order isn’t ready for this?” she murmured. “For hundreds of years, St. George has hunted us. We’ve been demons and monsters to them for centuries. They’re not going to change their beliefs in a few days. And I didn’t even think of the breeders. What’s going to happen when they see the Order of St. George arrive? They’re just as likely to panic and start fighting out of fear and desperation.” She sighed, bowing her head. “Dammit. If we go to that island, and a dragon is hurt or killed because of me…”
I moved behind her, slipping my arms around her waist. “It won’t be your fault,” I told her. “You have done everything you can to prepare both sides for this. You’re right, the Order won’t change their beliefs in a few days. And as long as St. George exists, dragons will continue to fear and hate us. But we have to start somewhere.” She leaned back, resting her head on my shoulder, and I tightened my grip, content not to move. “This is a huge first step, Ember,” I said. “You have no idea the magnitude of an officer of St. George agreeing to ally with dragons. They’re starting to listen. We just have to trust that they’ll keep their word. And that they’ll eventually realize the truth.”
“Martin, perhaps.” Ember’s hands came to rest on my arms, squeezing gently. “I could see him finally accepting us, or at least realizing that some dragons don’t want what Talon wants. But Lieutenant Ward…” She sighed, a shadow crossing her face. “I’m afraid of what he’ll do,” she whispered. “What he might order his soldiers to do. We’ll be in the middle of nowhere and there will be no place for the breeders to run. What if his real goal is to get to that island and slaughter every dragon there? Riley would never forgive me.” Her voice dropped, becoming nearly inaudible. “I’d never forgive myself.”
“That won’t happen,” I told her firmly. “We’ll stop him. I’ll stop him, Ember, I promise. Even if I have to shoot him myself.”
Ember shivered. “I hope it doesn’t come to that.”
I hoped it wouldn’t, either. I was weary of fighting my former brothers, sickened by their blood that stained my hands. I would protect the rogues, the underground and the dragon I loved, but that didn’t mean I didn’t hate myself each time I had to pull the trigger against the men I’d once fought beside.
“Garret?” Ember’s voice was contemplative, her fingers tracing small circles on my forearms. “Do you think…the war will come to an end in our lifetimes?”
I gazed down at her. It was hard to imagine. I’d known nothing but war my entire life. Everything I could remember was fighting, blood, battles and death. Except for one brief memory of a small town called Crescent Beach, and a summer that changed everything.
“I don’t know,” I murmured. Certainly the Order allying with rogue dragons was a huge step in the right direction, but it almost seemed to come too late. When Talon was poised to destroy everything. “Why?” I asked her. “What got you thinking of this?”
“Oh, I don’t know.” Ember reached back and slipped her fingers into my hair. “I was remembering that summer, I guess.” She didn’t have to say what she meant; it was seared into both our memories forever. “I was thinking it would be nice to go back to normal again. Where we’re not running or fighting for our lives. Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve even thought about surfing? Or anything that doesn’t involve bullets and guns and crazy suicide missions?”
I chuckled. “I thought that was normal for us.” She swatted my arm, and I grinned, pulling her closer. “Maybe someday,” I murmured, making her sigh. “Someday this will be over, and then you can drag me to parties and dancing and all the normal things people are supposed to do together.” I gave a wry grin, brushing her hair from her shoulder to place a kiss on her neck. “You’ll probably have to teach me, though. I still don’t have a great grasp of what normal is supposed to be.” I’m in love with a dragon. I’m as far removed from normal as anything can get.
“Honestly?” Ember whispered. “I don’t even care about those things anymore. I just… I want us to be alive at the end, all of us. You, Riley, Jade, Mist, the rogues… Dante.” She swallowed hard. “The longer the war goes on, the more likely it is I’m going to lose someone. We’ve gotten lucky so far. I can’t even remember how many close calls we’ve had, but I know it can’t last forever.” Her hands tightened almost painfully on my arms. “That’s all I want,” she whispered. “I’d rather die fighting beside you than spend normal alone.”
I gently turned her to face me and ran a thumb over her cheek. “I can’t promise you that, dragon girl,” I told her softly. “I wish I could. I wish I could protect everyone, but war doesn’t ever give you that luxury.” She nodded sadly, and I drew her closer, lowering my head. “But I can promise you this—as long as I have the breath to keep going, I won’t give up. I’ll keep fighting for that normal life. As long as this war doesn’t kill me, I plan to be right beside you when this is done.” She blinked, and I offered a small smile. “What do you say when this is all over we find a beach and go surfing again? I’ll bet money you fall off your board more than I do.”
Her eyes flashed, and a grin finally crept across her face. “I’ll take that bet, soldier boy,” she said, looping her arms around my neck. “And you’re going to eat those words, along with all that sand and seawater, when you wipe out.”
“Oh?” I tightened my arms around her waist, feeling heat start to flicker through my veins. “And what if I don’t? What do I get if I win?”
“The love and reluctant admiration of a dragon.”
“I thought I had that already.”
“Don’t push your luck, soldier boy,” Ember said, and kissed me. I closed my eyes, feeling the heat spread to all parts of my body, melting away the worry, stress, nervousness and fear, at least for the moment. We could still die. In war, it was all too easy; you’d blink, and someone else would be gone. But as long as I was killed fighting for her, for a future I would probably never see, I would have no regrets.
Of course, that didn’t mean I’d go down without a fight.
“Lieutenant Ward?”
Footsteps sounded outside the door, clipped and hurried, making us pull back. “Lieutenant Ward,” the voice said again as someone swept into the room. “I have those papers you wanted—”
He stopped short, blinking in surprise as he spotted me and Ember in the center of the room. I met his gaze, feeling a ripple of shock and recognition go up my spine, seeing the instant he recognized me, as well.
He hadn’t changed much since the time we’d last seen each other. It had been a couple years ago, and only in passing; I’d made certain to avoid him whenever I could. Since then, he’d gained a few inches, and that scar across his bottom lip was new. But everything else, from his hard blue eyes, to the set of his jaw, to the way his mouth twisted into a sneer when he saw me, was exactly as I remembered.
“Well, well,” Peter Matthews said, his voice that same smug taunt from when we were new recruits trying to scrape by at the Academy. “Look who it is. The lizard-loving traitor himself.”
“What do you want, Matthews?” I asked steadily, ignoring the instant flare of anger that shot through my veins. Not for his words; I’d been called far worse of late, by both friends and enemies. Nothing he said could anger me. I’d heard it all before. It was Matthews himself, the long years of torment and abuse, the competition and mutual hatred we shared for each other.
He doesn’t matter, I tried to tell myself. We were no longer in the Academy, competing for approval, trying to prove our worth. I was no longer eleven years old, trying to defend myself from being pummeled in the bathrooms. We were both soldiers, and he was no longer someone I needed to fear.
But something was building inside, a simmering heat that flickered through my lungs, rising in intensity. Heat and anger and a savage, almost primal urge to protect the girl beside me. I breathed out slowly, and the air in my throat felt scalding hot.
“Lieutenant Ward already left,” I told the other soldier, and jerked my head toward the exit. “You’ll probably catch him if you hurry.”
Matthews didn’t answer. His cruel gaze shifted to Ember standing beside me, and the sneer twisting his face turned even uglier. “And that must be your little dragon whore. I can see why you’re so infatuated—she’s almost cute. For a soul-sucking lizard. Tell me, Sebastian…” He shot me an evil grin, baring his teeth. “I’m curious. Does she take it from the front, or the back?”
The heat in my veins exploded. Fire roared through me, searing and furious, turning my vision red. I felt myself moving forward, muscles tensing, intending to drive my fist all the way through Matthews’s sneering mouth and out the back of his skull.
“Garret, don’t!”
Something caught my arm from behind, jerking me to a stop. “Don’t fight him,” Ember said, eyes narrowed and angry as I glanced back. “That’s what he wants. He’ll take any excuse to draw us out, to make everyone see that we’re violent and can’t be trusted.”
I took a deep breath, controlling the heat and the fiery rage that came with it. She was right. I couldn’t let Matthews draw me into a brawl now. Too much depended on everyone working together. One scuffle could ruin any chance of dragons and soldiers getting along. Ember knew that. I knew that.
Matthews, however, didn’t.
“Don’t give him too much credit,” I told Ember, straightening and casting a hard look back at the other soldier. “He can’t plan that far ahead. There’s no ulterior motive here. He’s just an asshole.”
Ember blinked, perhaps more stunned by my hostility toward the other soldier than the use of the word itself. I couldn’t blame her. I usually let insults roll off my back; life in the Order—where polite obedience was expected even if your superior officer was screaming in your face—taught you to take nothing personally. Words couldn’t hurt you; as long as you didn’t believe them, they meant nothing.
But Peter Matthews could get under my skin like no one else. There were too many memories, too many years of mutual dislike, that simmered into resentment and loathing. Too many incidents where Matthews did his best to threaten, harm or humiliate me. Graduating the Academy had been a relief on many levels; I could start killing dragons as I had trained to do my whole life, but it also meant that I had finally escaped the constant torment of Peter Matthews.
But now, it wasn’t about me. I had something more important to protect. And the whole Order would burn to the ground before I let him lay a finger on the girl at my side.
“Oh, what’s the matter, Sebastian?” Matthews said. “Still afraid of me?” He smirked, blue eyes glittering. “You were always a squirrelly little shit, even in the Academy. Still can’t look me in the eye, even now. Or does your dragon bitch not want her toy broken?”
A growl, faint but audible, rumbled deep in Ember’s throat, and the pupils of her eyes went razor-sharp. Despite her resolve, Matthews was treading on very thin ice right now. And he was either too arrogant to know the dangers of poking a dragon, or he was stupidly hoping something would happen. “Come on,” I told Ember, taking her hand and stepping away, toward the back door. “Let’s get out of here.” Before we both do something we’ll regret, and that idiot ends up in the infirmary with a shattered jaw. Or his face burned off.
“That’s right, run away, Sebastian,” Matthews called as we fled the room, his mocking voice following us out the door. “Just like you always did. Still the pissant little coward, huh? Even when you have a lizard to hide behind. That’s okay.” We slipped into the hall, but his last threat still echoed behind us. “I’ll find you. You and your lizards. Count on it.”
“Who the hell is that douchebag?” Ember muttered as we walked swiftly down the corridor. She was shaking, probably with anger and the effort of not Shifting into her true form and blasting the sneer off Matthews’s face.
“Peter Matthews,” I replied. “I went to the Academy with him. We were in the same class. He…never liked me much.”
Ember snorted at the understatement, casting a disgusted look back down the hall. “Has he always been such a jackass?”
“Actually, he’s worse. He was made squad commander a couple years ago, and has Ward backing him up. They share some similarities, if you hadn’t noticed.” Ember frowned, a grim shadow crossing her face as she put the two together. “Before, Matthews was just a bully. Now…” I shook my head. “He might actually be dangerous.”
“Great.” Ember crossed her arms. “I was nervous enough with Lieutenant Ward coming along. But if his whole squad is like Matthews…”
I nodded. “We’re going to have to be extra vigilant, and make sure the soldiers of the Eastern Chapterhouse don’t put the mission at risk.” How we were going to do that, I wasn’t exactly certain, but I did know that I wouldn’t let Matthews or any of his soldiers hurt the dragons we were trying to save. “We need to inform Riley and the others, let them know the situation,” I went on. “Matthews hates dragons as much as Ward does. If he and Riley ever get into it, it’ll be bad.”
She sighed. “Yeah. I’ll go find Riley and warn him about Commander Jackass. Where will you be?”
“I should join Tristan and Lieutenant Martin.” They would be in Martin’s office now, with the weapon we’d stolen. The dragon killer. I wanted to know more about it, if it was really as potent as Martin believed. If it could really take down a dragon with one shot. And if it could, what that would mean for us, both dragons and St. George, in the future.
* * *
Martin’s office door was locked when I got there, and the murmuring voices I heard through the room stopped instantly when I knocked. “Who is it?” came Martin’s gruff voice through the wood.
“Sebastian, sir.”
“Hang on.”
The locks clicked, and the door swung open to reveal Tristan’s unsmiling face on the other side. Martin stood behind his desk, looking grim, the weapon case open in front of him. I stepped through the frame, and Tristan locked the door behind me.
“Sebastian.” Martin nodded as I joined Tristan at the edge of the desk. “St. Anthony has given me the details regarding the heist. He says there were two soldiers of the United States Army that saw the dragons before you could escape.”
I nodded. “Yes, sir. It was unfortunate, but unavoidable. If Ember and Riley hadn’t showed up when they did, we’d either be dead or captured.”
Martin’s jaw tightened. “I doubt the eyewitness accounts will be taken seriously, even if the soldiers themselves believe what they saw. Still, it is concerning.” He frowned, folding his arms to his chest. “One of the main purposes of St. George is to ensure that the general public know nothing of the existence of dragons. If we are to start working with these rogues, we must be more cautious.” His eyes narrowed. “Especially now that Lieutenant Ward is here.”
“Yes, sir.” I understood Martin’s concern. Ward would take any excuse not to cooperate with us, to insist that working with dragons was not only immoral, it was dangerous. “But the dragons don’t want to be discovered, either, sir,” I added. “These rogues in particular have had plenty of experience keeping their heads down and off Talon’s radar. They understand it’s for the best that no one knows they exist.”
Martin nodded. “But you managed to get the weapon,” he said, gazing down at the open case on his desk, where the long length of the barrel glinted under the dim light. “Well done.”
Tristan edged forward, unable to keep the eagerness from his voice as he stared at the weapon. “Can this thing really one-shot a dragon?” he asked, sounding like he’d give anything to try it out. I frowned at his enthusiasm.
“We won’t know until it’s tested,” Martin replied. “It is a prototype, after all. All we have right now is theory.” Reaching out, he closed the case with a snap, making Tristan slump in disappointment. Martin smiled faintly. “Put it from your mind, St. Anthony,” he urged. “At this moment, we have larger issues to deal with.”
“Sir,” I ventured as Tristan gave the weapon case one last longing gaze. “How many from the Eastern Chapterhouse survived the attack?”
“A half dozen, including the lieutenant,” Martin replied, and I blinked in shock. Only six soldiers had made it through the Night of Fang and Fire. Six, out of what had been the largest St. George chapterhouse in the United States. I thought back to the attack on our own Chapterhouse a few weeks ago. It had been savage, violent and overwhelming, and even though we had prepared for it, we’d nearly been wiped out. Only the arrival of Ember and the rogues had been enough to turn the tide. Without them, it would have been a massacre.
“I’m counting on you both to help me keep the peace,” Martin said, glancing at Tristan, as well. “Sebastian, talk to your dragons. They should try to avoid any contact with the soldiers for now. St. Anthony, keep an eye on our men. I don’t want them getting into fights with Ward’s boys, nor do I want them listening to whatever rhetoric will be going around the barracks. We can’t fight a war with Talon if we’re constantly battling our own people.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And, Sebastian.” Martin looked at me. “You know you’re likely to be a target. From what I hear, a few of the men have already singled you out. But we’ll need every able body we can get for the upcoming war, so you are forbidden to put anyone in the infirmary unless it’s a matter of life or death, is that clear?”
I suppressed a wince, wondering if Martin knew Peter Matthews was here. I’d never told him about my old rival, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the lieutenant somehow knew of our history. “Yes, sir.”
“Good.” Martin looked down at the closed weapon case on his desk. “Because it appears that our next mission will be rescuing a colony of dragons in the middle of the ocean.”