“Why?” I asked, needing to know. “Why did you save us? Did St.

George send you? Or was this just to repay me for earlier? Clear your conscience before you start shooting us again?”

“No.” He quickly shook his head. “Never again. I…” He broke off, raking a hand through his hair, before looking up. His gray eyes were haunted as they met mine. “I’m done,” he said firmly. “No more missions. No more raids or strikes or killings. No more deaths. I’m not hunting your people anymore.”

Stunned, I could only stare at him. “Really?”

He didn’t smile, but his eyes softened a touch as he gazed at me.

“How could I,” he almost whispered, “after I met you?”

A lump rose to my throat, and I swallowed hard. “What about St. George?”

“It doesn’t matter.” His voice was resigned now, weary. “I can’t follow their beliefs, and I can’t condone what we’ve done. I knew what I was doing when I came here tonight.” For a moment, his expression clouded with what might’ve been fear, before he shook himself with a deep, steadying breath. “I knew the consequences. I would do it again if I had to.”

“Ember!” Cobalt’s impatient voice rang over the sand. I looked back to see him at the edge of the water, wings half-open and ready to go. Behind him, a whip-thin black dragon and a smaller male with dusty brown scales bounded toward him from the cave. Nettle and Remy in their true forms, staring at me wide eyed. “What are you waiting for? Come on!”

“Go,” Garret said, nodding toward the other dragons. “Forget about me. I’m already dead. Just go.”

“Garret…”

A shout echoed from the other direction, and we turned. Figures spilled onto the beach from between the cliffs, guns leading the way as they came toward us in a black swarm. I cringed, and Garret spun back, eyes narrowed.

“Ember, go! Now!”

I bit my lip, turned, and sprinted away, seeing Nettle and Remy already taking flight, rising into the air. Cobalt waited for me, holding his ground, even as the first shots rang out behind me. Shifting mid-stride, I hit the ground running, already pumping my wings as I launched myself skyward, seeing Cobalt do the same. As we soared up the cliff wall, bullets zipped by me, sparking off the rocks, and there was a stab of pain as something punched a hole through my wingtip, making me falter in midair. I hissed in fear, beating my wings and scrabbling my claws down the rock face, expecting a bullet in the spine at any moment.

Cobalt soared over the top of the cliff, landed, and spun back, peeking over the edge even through the bullet storm around us. Shots echoed around me, sparking off rock and sending jagged chips and dust into the air. With a defiant snarl, I gave my wings a final thrust and half flew, half clawed myself over the edge. Staggering several feet from the drop off, finally clear of St. George and their deadly weapons, I collapsed to the dusty ground.

“Ember.” Cobalt’s gold eyes peered down at me, worried and anxious. From where I lay, panting, his horns and wings seemed to frame the moon, and the light shimmered off his metallic blue scales. Maybe it was the adrenaline, or maybe it was living through yet another near death experience, but I decided I preferred his real form far more than his human one. I wished he could stay in this body forever.

“Ember,” he said again, his tail thumping a panicked rhythm in the dirt. “Are you hurt? Did they hit you?” He nudged me, anxious yet gentle. “Talk to me, Firebrand.”

“I’m fine,” I rasped out, and struggled to my feet. My right wing, down near the last finger joint, throbbed where the bullets had torn through the membrane, but it wasn’t serious. I stretched it out, gave it a couple flaps to make sure it still worked, and folded it to my back again. “Looks like I’m still in one piece.”

Nettle and Remy crept forward, a slinky black dragon with a crown of spines bristling from her head, and a runty brown dragon with stripes down his neck and tail. They both had backpacks looped around their necks, and it would’ve looked ridiculous if the situation wasn’t so dire. “What now?” Nettle asked, her sibilant voice tight with fear. “Where do we go now?” Cobalt pulled away from me and turned, facing the desert.

“We run,” he said simply. “Far away from here. As far from St.

George and Talon as we can. Let’s find Wes, and get the hell out of Dodge. I have a place in Nevada where we’ll be safe, at least for a few months while we decide what to do. It’s not the nicest place, but it’s better than nothing. Firebrand?” He turned to look at me, offering a brave smile. “You ready to go?”

Go. Leave Crescent Beach. My stomach twisted. This was it. I was going rogue, leaving Talon for good to go on the run like a criminal.

With Cobalt and two others of my kind, but still. Would I see my brother again? Or any of my friends?

No. No, I wouldn’t. My time as a normal human was done. I had chosen my path, and the consequences that came with it. No more surfing, volleyball, parties, or hanging with friends. No more kissing boys in the ocean, feeling butterflies in my stomach, wishing the whole world would just stop for a while. Summer had come to an end, as I knew it must, and I had to move on.

After I took care of one final thing.

“Not yet,” I told Cobalt, watching his eyes widen in surprise.

“There’s one more thing I have to do.”

Garret