Page 21 of Legion

And Dante stepped out of the vehicle.

I gasped, and for a moment, the world lurched to a stop. I hadn’t seen my twin since that fateful night I’d fled Crescent Beach, when Dante had sent Lilith after me and Riley. The night he’d betrayed us to Talon. I remembered him in shorts and a T-shirt, with a baseball cap perched atop his head and a backpack slung over one shoulder.

He looked different now, in an expensive black suit and tie, his previously longish red hair cut short. He looked poised and important and busy as he stepped onto the sidewalk, talking into his phone and ignoring everything around him. He looked...like a true Talon executive.

My heart ached, and I swallowed hard, watching as my brother hung up the phone and slipped it into his jacket pocket. I’d been secretly hoping Dante was unhappy in Talon, that he had realized his mistake and was regretting everything that had happened. But seeing him like this, watching him straighten his tie, gaze imperiously down the street and head briskly toward the office building...it was like he had stepped into the role he was destined for.

“Well, well,” Riley growled beside me, and I heard the anger in his voice as he peered through his own binoculars. “Look who showed up. The little snitch himself.”

“Dante is here?” Garret echoed as the lump in my throat grew bigger. He leaned forward, gazing through the windshield at the street as my brother and his bodyguards walked up the steps and vanished through the glass doors. “Why do you think he’s come?”

“Who knows,” Riley muttered. “But I’m guessing it has something to do with that evidence. If he was involved with what happened at the crash site, maybe he wants to see it for himself.”

My hands were shaking as I lowered the binoculars, but I wasn’t sure which emotion it was attached to. Grief, rage, excitement? Something else? All three? “I have to see him,” I said quietly, making both Riley and Garret glance at me. “I have to talk to him before he goes back to Talon. This might be my only chance.”

“Ember...” Riley began, his voice a warning. I turned on him with a growl.

“It’s Dante, Riley,” I said, narrowing my eyes. “I don’t care that he’s part of Talon now. He’s still my brother.”

“Dammit, Firebrand, you know what he’s like,” Riley snarled back, gesturing down at the street. “You know we can’t trust him. Brother or not, he sold us out to Talon. Hell, he sent a Viper tokill you. Remember that? Remember Faith, and Mist? That was all Dante, Ember. Family doesn’t matter to him anymore. After everything he put us through, you should know that by now.”

“I know,” I said in the most reasonable voice I could manage, though it was hard not to snarl back at him. Frustration and anger boiled, made worse by the dragon and the sudden heat erupting inside me, but I kept my words calm. “I know I can’t trust him. I know he’ll sell us out to Talon again.” I gazed down at the office building, at the doors my twin had vanished through, and clenched my jaw. “I want him to confirm it. I want to look him in the eye and ask why he would give the order to have his own sister killed because she wouldn’t conform to Talon.” My voice trembled a bit on the last sentence, and I took a breath to steady it. “I want to ask why he chose the organization over me. And I want to see his face when he answers.”

Garret placed a hand on my arm and squeezed gently before turning to Riley. “If Dante was involved with what happened at the crash site, then he’ll likely know what Talon is up to,” he said calmly. “If we want answers, he might be the best one to ask.”

“If we can even get to him,” Riley muttered, crossing his arms. “And that he’ll actually talk when we do.” He gave me an exasperated look. “If he’s as stubborn as his sister, I foresee all kinds of problems.”

“Also, not to be the voice of reason or anything,” Wes broke in, “but thisisa Talon facility. You’re not going to just stroll in the front doors and say,‘Hello, we’re your most wanted dragons and we’ve wandered right into your office. Cooperate with us please.’I say ‘you’ and not ‘me,’ because there’s no way you’re getting me anywhere near that building. I will stay up here with the sane people, thank you very much. Which, I think, is just down to me, at this point.”

I narrowed my eyes at the rogue. “You know I’m going to see him, Riley, with or without you.”

“Shit, yes, I know.” Riley sighed, raking a hand through his hair. “I just want you to be very sure, Firebrand. Dante is part of Talon. I don’t want you going down there thinking you can convince him to leave. He’s dangerous, because he’s your brother and you’re not seeing him as the enemy. But heis, do you understand? He is just as dangerous as Lilith or Faith, maybe even more so. A Viper will kill you without blinking an eye, but you at least know where you stand with them. Chameleons, though, are masters of manipulation and lies. They’ll tell you exactly what you want to hear, and they’ll screw you over while smiling at you all the while.” He shook his head in disgust, giving me a piercing glare. “So, you can’t trust anything he says, Ember. No matter how much you want to believe it. He’ll try to get us to lower our guard, to relax around him, and then he’ll sell us out to Talon at the first opportunity.”

“I know,” I said, though my chest squeezed tight at Riley’s words.

“Repeat it back to me, Ember. Just so I know you get it.”

“I can’t trust him,” I echoed bitterly. “Dante is part of Talon and will betray us all if we give him the chance. Satisfied?”

“Wish I wasn’t.” Riley exhaled and peered down at the building again. For a few moments, he stared out the window, eyes narrowed, mouth drawn into a thin line. I saw the echo of Cobalt in his profile, a phantom blue dragon with sweeping black horns and bright golden eyes, and felt a flicker of heat pulse through my veins. “All right,” the rogue muttered at last. “This is what we’re going to do.”

DANTE

“Welcome, Mr. Hill,” the man in the business suit greeted me as we came through the front doors. “We cannot express what a pleasure it is that you are here. How was your flight?”

“Fine,” I returned shortly. Then, in an attempt not to let my mood get the better of me, I added, “Mostly uneventful, thank you.”

“Good to hear, Mr. Hill,” the human continued, and began rambling about how truly privileged they were that I had arrived, how they hoped this office was doing wonderful things for the organization, and other useless compliments that were mostly lip service. As if I couldn’t smell the fear that radiated from the human like body odor. How he was trying so hard to appear normal and conversational, when he knew exactly what was happening.

“Have the packages arrived?” I asked when there was a break in the stream of endless chatter and adulation. The human bobbed his head as we stepped into a narrow elevator, squeezing into the center of the floor. My two guards loomed over us, silent and menacing, and the human eyed them nervously as the elevator climbed toward the higher floors.

“Yes, Mr. Hill. All arrived safely this morning.” The man pulled a handkerchief out of his jacket pocket and dotted his balding head with it. “And the boxes you requested were delivered to conference room C for your inspection. We’re headed there now.”

“Good.”

The elevator stopped on the eleventh floor and opened with a ding. I followed my bodyguards out and immediately turned, pressing my palm into the doors to stop them from closing. The human blinked at me across the threshold.

“I can find my own way from here,” I told him. “Thank you for your assistance, but I’m sure you’re busy enough without having to escort me around the building. We’ll be fine.” He hesitated, and I gave a wry smile. “I’m actually fairly adept at finding my way around Talon offices. It’s no trouble at all. You can return to your work.”

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