I stayed in my room, listening to music and chatting with Lexi online, killing time until the rest of the house grew quiet. At 11:45, I switched off the computer, tiptoed to the door, and cracked it open, peering out.

The house was dark and silent. Liam and Sarah had gone to bed, and from the shadows under Dante’s door, he had turned in as well.

I hoped he was truly asleep; maybe that annoying twin radar he had attuned to my every mood would be shut off if he was unconscious.

I crept down the stairs as silently as I could, avoiding the squeaky third step, crossed the moonlight drenched kitchen, and pushed open the door to the basement. In one corner, the door to the secret tunnel sat firmly closed and locked, but that wasn’t even remotely interesting anymore. Not when there could be a whole other room somewhere behind these plain cement walls, hiding any number of secrets. About Talon, and my guardians, and me.

I poked around aimlessly for a few minutes, wishing I could Shift into my other form, the one that could see in the dark. I didn’t find any panels, levers, touchpads, anything that would indicate a secret room, and after scouring the walls and finding nothing but mold and a couple spiders, I was ready to give up. Maybe Cobalt was wrong, or just delusional.

Wait a minute. Annoyed with myself, I paused, turning to scan the room carefully this time. If Talon did have a hidden keypad, do you think they’d put it in plain sight? Come on, Ember, use your brain and the hundreds of spy movies you’ve watched over the years. The panel will be hidden, just like the room. Maybe in a wall safe, or under a counter, or behind a picture frame…But there were no pictures, or counters, or anything in the room that a switch could hide behind. The walls were bare.

Except, maybe…I turned, and padded to the gray electrical box, pulling back the door. Black switches marched down the center in perfectly straight lines, neatly labeled with the circuits they were attached to.

Except, for one, near the very bottom, that was unmarked.

Hoping my hunch was right, and that I wasn’t about to short circuit the whole house, I threw the switch.

There was a click, and a tiny section of wall slid down beside the box.

I grinned in triumph. Wel , what do you know? There it is. A small white panel was set into the concrete, a simple touch pad like the kind you’d see for home security. Numbered buttons sat above a lighted green strip, which currently said locked in digital black letters . My heart began an excited thump in my chest. It was real. Cobalt had been right.

Let’s hope he’s right about this code.

I punched in the eight-number sequence and waited.

There was a hiss, then a section of wall beside the washer shifted and rotated out, like the secret passageway in a spy movie. The room beyond the hidden door was dark, but glowed with a faint green light.

For a moment, I just stood there, gaping at the revolving door like an idiot, until the panel beeped a warning and the wall section began to glide shut.

Whoops. Move, Ember! I sprinted across the floor and ducked through the opening with only seconds to spare. As the panel closed behind me with a hiss, I had the fleeting thought that I might be trapped, but then I saw the rest of the room.

“Holy…” I blinked in astonishment, gazing around. This was definitely not the basement, or even the secret tunnel, with rough cement floors and dim lighting. This looked more like the set of Star Trek or NCIS. The entire back wall was one gigantic screen, dark for now, but I could tell the images would be nearly life-size when it was on. The floor was shiny black tile and reflected the blinking lights of a long computer console that ran the length of one wall.

Against the other wall…My stomach went cold. What looked like a large metal cell sat in one corner. Not exactly a cage, but pretty darn close. It had tiny barred windows near the top, fireproof walls, and thick double doors big enough to hold a horse. Or a Shifted hatchling dragon.

“What the hell?” I whispered, venturing farther into the room.

My eyes hurt from being open so wide. I could hardly believe this place sat right beneath a sleepy little beach community, and no one had any idea. Talon never mentioned anything like this. Cobalt had been right.

So, what else is he right about?

My gaze fell on the console and the myriad blinking lights that ran along the surface. A chair sat in front of a smaller screen, with a keyboard below it, and I headed in that direction. If I could get into Talon’s files, or my guardian’s email, maybe I could discover what they were doing. Or at least figure out what they wanted from me and Dante.

I’d just taken a few steps when I heard the hiss of the door behind me and realized someone was coming in.

Crap. Turning, I flung myself at the only visible hiding spot, the open door of the cell, pressing myself against the cold metal wall.

The inside of the cage was dark; only a few slivers of light filtered in from the barred windows up top, and I shivered. I couldn’t imagine being locked inside this thing, dragon or no. I’d be clawing at the walls to get out.

Peeking through the crack in the door, I saw Liam and Sarah pass briefly through my line of sight before continuing toward the back of the room. The chair squeaked as someone sat in it, and a sequence of taps and clicks soon followed. The light through the windows flickered, becoming brighter, and I realized the huge screen had come to life.

“Report,” droned a deep male voice, in a brusque tone that reminded me of my trainer. Even through the walls of the cell, it made me jump. “What is the status of Ember and Dante Hill?”

I froze, suddenly afraid to move. I couldn’t see the screen, of course.