Confused, I shook my head. “You…you wanted me to attack,” I guessed. “To go on the offensive. That was the whole point, wasn’t it?” My trainer raised a mocking eyebrow, and I scowled. “You weren’t going to let me quit until I started fighting back, no matter how long I survived down here.”

She lowered the gun and nodded. “Exactly. Dragons are never prey, hatchling. Dragons are hunters. Even to the soldiers of St. George, we are deadly, intelligent, highly adaptable killers. We are not to be taken lightly. If you are ever trapped in a building with a soldier of St. George, his life should be in just as much danger, do you understand? Because you’ll be hunting him, as well. And one more thing…”

Faster than thought, she raised the gun and fired it, point blank, at my chest. The paint bullet exploded in a spray of crimson, making me flinch even though it didn’t hurt. My instructor smiled coldly.

“Neve r hesitate to go in for the kill.”

Garret

Fifteen twenty-two, and still no Ember.

I resisted the urge to check my watch again and leaned back in the hard booth seat, staring out at the parking lot. The orange smoothie I’d gotten in an effort to look normal sat melting on the edge of the table, condensation pooling around the Styrofoam. Around me, the small fast-food restaurant was fairly packed; people sat at tables or in booths, talking and laughing, while I sat quietly by myself and waited for a girl who might be a dragon.

An ancient white Volkswagen with several surfboards strapped to the roof wheeled into the parking spot next to my jeep, and Ember hopped out almost before the car stopped moving. All my senses went alert as the girl, dressed in shorts and a loose top with a bikini underneath, scurried up the walk and ducked through the glass doors.

She spotted me almost instantly and hurried over, smiling. “Garret! Hey, sorry I’m late. I…uh…lost track of time. Thanks for waiting, were you here long?”

Since fourteen hundred. “No,” I said, but movement outside caught my attention. Two more people were emerging from the car, now—

Lexi Thompson, whom I’d met the other day with Ember, and a taller boy with blond hair pulled into a ponytail.

Ember followed my gaze. “Oh, yeah. Lexi and Calvin will be joining us. They were the ones who taught me to surf, after all, and Calvin knows all the best spots on the beach. Hope you don’t mind.”

She gave me an apologetic smile and leaned in, resting her palm on the corner of the table. My stomach jumped as her face hovered close to mine. “Actually, they kinda invited themselves,” she whispered. “I made the mistake of telling Lexi, and when she heard I was going to teach you, she had to come. And then Calvin didn’t want us hanging out with some strange guy after yesterday, so…yeah. Sorry.”

Well, this was…unexpected. But surmountable. There was no reason the others shouldn’t come; my objective was to fit in with the whole group, after all. And if Lexi was Ember’s friend, she likely knew a lot about her, secret things perhaps. If I could get her to open up and share what she knew, that would bring me one step closer to my objective.

So why did I feel like they were intruders?

“That’s fine,” I said, shrugging. “Not a problem.”

“Hey, Garret!” Lexi bounced up and slid into the booth across from me. “So, you’re actually going to put your life in Ember’s hands today, huh? Did she tell you what she did on her very first day of surf lessons?”

“Lexi,” Ember sighed, as I leaned back to give myself a little more space away from the other girl. “We want him to come with us, you know. Not run away screaming.”

I tilted my head at the girl across from me. “What happened?”

“She almost drowned,” Lexi went on, cheerfully oblivious. “Got the basics down really quick, than decided to brave an eighteen-footer all by herself. It was a pretty spectacular wipeout.”

I glanced at Ember and raised an eyebrow, and she actually colored a little. “Don’t worry,” she said, with an exasperated glare at her friend. “I’m not going to throw you at eighteen-footers on your first day. We’ll start with baby waves and work our way up. I’ll go easy on you, I promise.”

Calvin sauntered up, a trio of smoothies in hand. “Dude,” he greeted, setting the drinks on the table, where they were pounced upon by the girls. “Garret, right? So you’ll be joining us today, huh?

Ever gone surfing before?”

“No.”

He smirked, but it was without malice, lazy and knowing at the same time. “Well, it’s gonna be interesting, I can tell you that.”

We didn’t drive far. I sat in the back seat with Ember, gazing out the window, while Lexi craned her neck around to talk to us both, chattering nonstop. I didn’t say much, but I didn’t need to, as the two girls more than made up for my silence. I began to have serious doubts that the friendly, cheerful girl sitting beside me could be anything but a normal teen. She certainly didn’t fit the normal dragon model: vicious, ruthless, power-hungry. Then again, all the dragons I’d encountered had been trying to kill me, and vice-versa. I’d never really seen a dragon in human form for an extended amount of time, never encountered one that was trying to fit in. Still, I wondered if I wasn’t wasting my time pursuing this.

Oddly enough, I found that I didn’t care. The back seat of the Volkswagen was very small, and Ember’s slim leg was brushing against mine, a fact I was acutely aware of as the car trundled down a narrow back road. At one point, the tires hit either a rock or a log and bounced so hard, the top of my head struck the roof and Ember nearly ended up in my lap.