Page 63 of Legion

“I need to speak with you,” she announced in her calm, pragmatic voice. “Can we talk?”

I shrugged. “I’m not stopping you.”

Mist frowned. “Alone.”

Wes gave a snort and hunched his shoulders, staring down at the laptop. “Oh, please, don’t let me stop you,” he muttered. “I’m just the other half of this bloody operation, no one special.”

I rolled my eyes. “Wait here,” I told Wes, stepping around the chair. “Keep doing what you’re doing. I’ll be right back.” I gestured at Mist, and she backed silently out of the room.

The farmhouse was dark as I closed the door behind me and stepped into the hall with the other dragon. Most of the hatchlings were asleep, exhausted from travel and the stress of getting here. Though I did have to enforce a strict “lights out” rule to prevent a few of the older ones from keeping everyone else up. That, too, was part of the talk I’d had to give once everyone arrived, laying out ground rules and the things youabsolutely could not dowhile on the farm, Shifting, fighting and wandering off alone being the top three. I didn’t like being so strict, but with seventeen young dragons under one roof and only three helpers to manage them, including Jess, the woman who took care of this place, I had to maintain some semblance of order or things would quickly spiral out of control. Fortunately, everyone here recognized and respected Cobalt, almost to the point of reverence. Except for the one incident with Kain, there hadn’t been any problems.

Mist waited for me at the end of the hall, staking out a dark corner near the bathroom. Her face was somber as I came up, and the look she gave me was a mix of annoyance and resignation. As if she would rather be anywhere else. For some reason, that bothered me and I frowned, crossing my arms as I glared down at her.

“So, what’s this about, Mist? Are you disappointed?” I nodded to one of the bedrooms down the hall and smirked. “You finally saw my underground, and you didn’t even have to torture me to get to it. Is it not what you were expecting?”

She raised an eyebrow. “Actually, it’s pretty much what I thought it would be,” she answered coolly. “A group of rebels and runaway hatchlings. Not particularly dangerous or inspiring. But that’s not what I wanted to talk about.” She drew in a deep breath, a hint of uncertainty crossing her face, as if she wasn’t sure what to do now. “My employer contacted me,” she went on, frowning slightly. “It seems I am to stay with you and aid you however I can, until he deems otherwise.”

“Huh.” I gave her a scrutinizing look. “So, what you’re saying is, after our escape from Talon, your employer doesn’t want you anywhere near him, in case the organization sees you together and figures out he’s the mastermind behind it all.”

“More or less.” Mist sighed. “I certainly can’t go back to Talon. They would kill me on sight. And I can’t risk exposing my employer. There’s nowhere for me to go that will be safe.” She bit her lip, and for just a moment, she wasn’t a Basilisk, but a scared young woman whose future was uncertain. She looked lost, strangely vulnerable, and my heart went out to her. Then she made a face and glanced back at me. “So, it appears I’m a rogue now,” she said, annoyance and defiance coloring her voice. “Just like you wanted, Cobalt. You must be proud.”

“Not really,” I said. Apprehension stirred. Mist was aBasilisk, I reminded myself. Not only that, mysterious employer or not, she had worked for Talon. “I do have a few questions for you,” I went on, narrowing my eyes. “If you’re going to be hanging around, I need to know a few things. You’ve seen my underground—that means I can’t take any chances. If I suspect that you’re a danger to everyone, or that you’re going to sell us out to Talon, Iwillkill you, Mist. You understand that, right?”

She gazed at me steadily. “Yes.”

“All right.” I nodded. “Then here’s the most important question. Who’s this mysterious employer who ordered you to help us escape?”

Her expression shut down instantly. “I can’t tell you that.”

“Why not?”

“Because if he discovers I told anyone,hewill kill me.” The girl’s voice was flat and completely serious. “I simply wouldn’t wake up one morning. And don’t think he wouldn’t find out, or that he wouldn’t be able to get to me—he has eyes and ears everywhere. Gathering information is his specialty, it’s literallyallhe does.”

“He wouldn’t be able to get to you here,” I insisted. “I don’t care who he is, no one is going to find you when you’re with me.” I narrowed my eyes, the hint of a growl creeping into my voice. “But this is my underground we’re talking about. I need to know you’re not a threat, Mist. I need to know I can trust you. So tell me who your employer is.”

“No,” Mist said calmly.

I glared at her. “You’re going to make this hard, aren’t you?”

“You could always interrogate me, if you want,” Mist replied, the hint of a dark smile on her face. “You went through the same training I did. Though I will warn you, I’m just as resistant to pain as you are. Without drugs or some kind of truth serum, it might take a while.”

“As if I’d ever do that,” I said, my lip curling at the thought. “I’m not Luther. I don’t interrogate people for shits and giggles.”

“Then I’m afraid we’re at an impasse.”

I exhaled. “All right,” I growled. She wasn’t going to tell me, and I wasn’t going to “interrogate her” to get her to talk. “But answer me this—who were you working for that night in Vegas? When you were trying to get me to reveal the locations of my safe houses?”

“That night?” Mist furrowed her brow slightly, remembering. “I was working for Talon.”

“So, you understand why I’m a little confused. Who are you loyal to, Mist? Your employer, or the organization?”

Mist glanced away, staring down the hall, as if gathering her thoughts and weighing how much she wanted to reveal. “My employer is part of Talon,” she finally said. “He has his own agents, his eyes and ears within the organization, though no one knows of them. Not even I know the identities of his other informants. Officially, we all work for Talon. We do our jobs and follow orders per normal, unless our employer tells us differently.

“That night in Vegas,” Mist went on, “I was following Talon’s orders. My mission was to separate you from your friends, discover the locations of your safe houses and then kill you. It was business. I was just doing what the organization required.”

“And your employer was okay with it?”

“Yes.” Mist nodded. “Back then, we didn’t know Talon was going to use the vessels against the Order. We didn’t know about the Night of Fang and Fire, or what the Elder Wyrm was truly planning.”

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