“Before you ask,” I interrupted, making her frown in surprise, “there’s something you should probably know. Well, a couple things, really. One, you’re either very inexperienced at this, or overconfident. Or both. You realize you left that second dose of Dractylpromazine sitting on the table there, right?”

“Yes,” Mist said, glancing at the syringe. Her brow furrowed in wary confusion as she turned back. “But I’m in no danger. The dose I gave you is good for another hour, at least. Why?”

“No reason.” I shrugged. “Only, you forgot one of the prime rules of interrogation training. Never leave possible weapons like that lying within the prisoner’s reach. Because if they ever escape their plastic cuffs, that’s the first thing they’ll go for.”

Mist jerked back, eyes widening…as I surged to my feet, snapping the weakened plastic restraints, and lunged for the syringe.

Ember

“Dante?”

The flames within sputtered and died as I sucked in a horrified breath. Faith smiled, looking pleased, and I clenched my fist, glaring at the other hatchling. “Where is he?” I demanded. “What have they done to him?”

“He’s safe with Talon,” Faith went on. “For the moment, at least.” She paused to let that sink in, before continuing, “You don’t quite realize what’s at stake here, do you? This isn’t only your final exam. It’s also Dante’s. The organization is testing him, making sure they can trust him, the brother of a rogue and a traitor. This plan, well, most of it anyway, was his idea. If you fail and refuse to return to the organization, he fails, as well.” Faith smiled evilly. “And you know how Talon feels about failures.”

I felt like I’d been punched in the stomach. Dante was in charge of this. He’d sent Mist and Faith after us. He was responsible for Riley’s disappearance and, if things continued down this road, Garret’s death. Did he know what he was doing? Was Talon coercing him, forcing my brother to go along with their plans? If I didn’t return to the organization tonight, Dante would fail. I might never see him again. But to go back, to make sure my brother would be safe…Garret had to die.

“So, you have to ask yourself—” Faith’s voice was a croon, low and dangerous “—who is more important to you? Who are you going to save? The soldier of St. George? The greatest enemy of our kind? The human whose pitiful life span will be over in the blink of an eye?” She glanced at the kneeling soldier, a look of contempt crossing her face, before turning to me again. “Or will you choose Dante, the twin you’ve known all your life? The dragon whose only concern, from the moment you ran away from Talon, has been your safety? He’s waiting for you, Ember. Everyone is. We all want you to come home.”

I was suffocating, struggling to breathe, to make an impossible choice that wasn’t really a choice at all. I couldn’t shoot Garret—there was no way I could do that. But if I didn’t, they would kill us both anyway. And who knew what Talon would do to Dante.

I looked down at the weapon in my hand, then back to Garret, kneeling on the floor in front of the firing squad. His expression was blank, carefully guarded, though his eyes were bleak as they met mine.

Faith eased closer, her dark gaze burning the side of my face, as her voice dropped to a soothing murmur. “You can start over,” she said. “Everything you’ve done will be erased, all your crimes against Talon will be forgiven. You belong with your own kind. But, if you don’t pass this test, you will die. And Dante will suffer for your failure.” She leaned back, her expression confident, as if everything had already been decided. “I think you know what you have to do.”

And suddenly, I did.

I shivered and closed my eyes, willing my hands to stop shaking. “If…if I do this,” I whispered, “can you promise that Dante will be safe? That none of this will impact his place in the organization? And that we’ll be able to see each other again, without consequence?”

Faith’s voice was full of triumph. “You have our word.”

“Okay.” My voice came out choked. Raising my head, I met the gaze of the soldier in front of me, knowing he hadn’t glanced away from us the whole time. Garret watched me, gray eyes resigned, the look of someone who expected to die.

“I’m sorry,” I told him in a shaking voice, and felt my stomach wrench sideways at the look on his face. Betrayal and disbelief glimmered from his eyes, a split-second reaction, before his expression shut down and became a blank mask. Taking a deep breath, I stepped forward. “This is my brother,” I went on, my voice pleading and defiant at the same time. “My twin. Dante has always been my first priority. I’ll do anything to keep him safe, even this.”

Garret didn’t answer. I spared a glance at the men behind him and found they were watching me, not the soldier. Clearly, the dragon girl with the gun was the bigger threat, though they still kept their weapons trained on the back of his head.

My heart was pounding in my ears as I stopped a few feet from the kneeling soldier. I could feel Faith’s eyes on my back, the hawk-like stares of the men behind him, but my gaze was only for Garret. He was still watching me, though his eyes were distant now, almost glassy. Like he was staring right through me, at something I couldn’t detect. A lump caught in my throat, and my stomach twisted so hard I felt sick.

With trembling hands, I raised the gun, aiming it at his forehead. Garret closed his eyes, bracing himself. For a split second, with my finger curled around the trigger, everything held its breath.