Beside me, Mr. Smith leaned back and rested a foot on his knee, looking perfectly comfortable and at ease. As if reading my thoughts, my trainer shot me a glance, dark eyes appraising. “Breathe, Dante,” he ordered. “It’s a good plan. It will work.”

I smiled. “I know it will.”

“Good.” Mr. Smith narrowed his gaze. “Don’t hope. Know. Hope will not bring your sister back. Hope will not impress Mr. Roth, or anyone in the organization. You must be confident of this plan, you must believe that it will work, otherwise you have wasted everyone’s time.”

“I’m aware of that, sir,” I replied, still smiling. “And Ember will return to the organization before the night is out, I swear it.”

Mr. Smith nodded and turned away, breaking eye contact as the door opened and Mr. Roth entered, followed by two more dragons. One, a slender man with slick dark hair and a goatee, I didn’t recognize. He took a seat across from me and nodded, and I ducked my head in respect, but it was the second dragon that caught my attention. Lilith seated herself beside him, crossing long legs beneath the table, and smiled at me.

“I’m looking forward to seeing your plan in action, Mr. Hill,” she said.

Her words were almost a threat. As if she, too, needed this plan to succeed, and there would be terrible repercussions if it did not. My blood chilled, but at that moment, Mr. Roth took the seat at the head of the table, facing us all.

“It is almost time,” he stated, glancing at his watch. “Mr. Hill, have your agents contacted you?”

I breathed deep and nodded, putting my phone on the table in front of me. “Yes, sir. Everything has been set up. They’re ready to move forward with the mission.”

“Excellent.” Mr. Roth leaned back, watching me with those cold dark eyes. “Then all we have to do now is wait. I look forward to seeing your success, Mr. Hill. Good luck.”

I swallowed, glancing at the phone lying innocently on the table, and my heart began pounding against my will. Ember, I thought, staring at the device as if I could sense her on the other side. Please, don’t do anything stupid. This is your last chance to choose the right thing.

Folding my hands on the table, I waited for the phone to ring.

PART III

Leap of Faith

Ember

You could cut the tension in the cab with a knife and serve it on a plate.

No one, of course, wanted to sit up front. Riley refused to have me and Garret in the back by ourselves, Garret wouldn’t leave me alone with Riley, and I certainly wasn’t going to sit up front so the boys could murder each other in the backseat. So we sat there, the three of us, myself in the middle, Garret and Riley flanking me on either side. And the silence was deafening.

Riley still looked murderous. He didn’t look at me or Garret, but stared out the window, one arm on the sill. I could feel his anger radiating from every part of him, as if the dragon hissed and raged just below the surface. It prodded at my own dragon, riling her up, making me twitchy and restless. I felt guilty, and at the same time, I was angry about feeling guilty. Riley was way out of line; we hadn’t done anything wrong. But his words still echoed in my mind, harsh and accusing, as if I’d betrayed not only him, but my entire race.

How long do you think he’s going to stick around? Where do you think you’ll be sixty years from now? A hundred years from now? Have you even thought about that?

He was being unreasonable. Of course I wasn’t thinking about the future; what sixteen-year-old—of any species—did that? I hadn’t been trying to piss Riley off tonight. I was just feeling bored, guilty, homesick and frankly pretty miserable, and somehow, Garret could bring me out of it. He made me forget the bad things for a while, just like he had in Crescent Beach. When I was with him, I could almost pretend I was normal.

My dragon snarled at me, disgusted. You’re not normal, she whispered, an insidious worm in my brain. You’re not human, and the soldier won’t be here forever. Riley will.

A slight brush against my leg jolted me out of my dark thoughts. I peeked over and met Garret’s eyes, worried and questioning, red neon lights washing over his face. His hand lay between us, the back of his knuckles resting against my jeans. A warm glow spread through my stomach and I gave him a furtive smile, even as my dragon recoiled with a hiss.

The cab took us away from the main flow of traffic, moving away from the Strip and the glittering behemoths on either side of the street. We drove for several more silent minutes, going deeper into the fringe neighborhoods, until the taxi pulled up to a curb seemingly in the middle of nowhere and lurched to a stop. A tall chain-link fence ran the length of the sidewalk, and beyond the metal barrier, a flat expanse of nothing stretched away into the darkness.

Riley shoved a bill into the driver’s palm and exited the cab without speaking. Garret and I followed, and the taxi sped off. Leaving us on a deserted sidewalk many blocks from the lights and crowds of the Strip.

“What is this place?” I asked, peering through the fence. There were no lights, no roads or even pavement. The ground was dusty and flat, an odd field of dirt surrounded by concrete. Though in the distance, I could see the uneven, skeletal outline of some huge structure hiding in the shadows.

“It’s a hotel,” Riley said brusquely, shoving his wallet into his back pocket again. “Started but never finished due to the recession, most likely. It’s abandoned now.”

“Why are we here?” Garret added, observing the area with a wary, practiced eye. The paranoia had returned; he was a soldier once more, and every shadow could hide a possible threat.