Page 79 of Talon

Brushing past him, I hurried down the hall, out the front door and sprinted to the sedan waiting in the driveway. Tossing the backpack to the front seat, I hopped in and turned the key in the ignition, bringing the car to life. It had been a while since I’d driven, but I remembered how it worked, more or less.

Backing onto the road, I caught sight of Dante, watching me from the window, right before I hit the gas and sped off toward the bluff and Garret.

* * *

The tiny parking lot close to the bluff was deserted, except for a single black Jeep that I instantly recognized. By now, the sun had set, and a shimmering full moon was climbing into the sky. It was very quiet as I climbed out of the car, looking around for Garret. I didn’t see him, but the sign pointing up the steps to Lover’s Bluff was easily visible in the darkness.

My stomach fluttered. It wasn’t long ago that I’d snuck out to meet Cobalt here and spent the night flying the waves with him. So much had happened since. Meeting Garret. Training with Lilith. Discovering things about the Vipers and Talon I wished I’d known earlier. Facing down St. George. Deciding to go rogue, leave everything I knew behind and not look back. Who could’ve guessed that one fateful meeting would lead to this?

Now, there was just one more thing I had to let go of. One last goodbye.

Taking a deep breath, I started up the narrow, twisty path to Lover’s Bluff.

He was leaning against the railing with his back to the sky, the moonlight blazing down on him, as I climbed that final step. Silvery light glinted off his pale hair and washed over his lean form, dressed head to toe in black. His arms were crossed and his head was bowed, but I saw the gleam of gunmetal eyes as he spotted me and pushed himself off the railing.

A warning tickled the back of my brain as I crossed the flat rock toward the lone figure waiting at the edge of the cliff. Something about him seemed...wrong. This wasn’t the same Garret I’d met before, the boy I’d kissed in the ocean, whose smile could turn my insides to mush. This was a cold, remote stranger, and my heart began to crash in my chest.

“Garret?” I asked softly, peering into his face as I got closer. His expression was blank, completely closed off. “I’m here. Are you all right?”

He didn’t answer, but a flicker of anguish went through his eyes as he looked at me. He looked completely lost, then, like something horrible had happened, and he didn’t know what to do. Worried, I stepped closer, and he stiffened, almost like he was...afraid of me. “Garret.” Confused, I tried again, wanting him to talk, to tell me what was going on. We didn’t have a lot of time. Seeing him now, even though he was acting so strange, made my throat ache with longing. He could never come with us; he could never be part of my world. And no matter my feelings, I knew better than to bring him into it. He would return to Chicago and live a normal life, free of genocidal dragon killers, shady organizations and Viper assassins hunting him down. The best thing I could do for him...was to let him go.

I just wished he would tell me what was going on.

“I’m glad you’re here,” I offered, feeling time slip further away from us. “I’m glad we could meet like this, because I have something to tell you, and I wanted to do it face-to-face.” He continued to watch me, metallic eyes glimmering in the darkness, still giving nothing away. “I’m leaving,” I said, and a tiny furrow creased his brow. Well, at leastthatgot through to him. “Something came up,” I continued, “and I have to get out of town. Tonight. Please don’t ask what’s going on, I can’t tell you that. I just...I wanted to say goodbye.”

Garret’s expression went hard and cold. Without warning, he raised his arm, and pointed a dull black pistol at my face. The click of metal echoed loudly in the looming silence.

“You’re not going anywhere.”

Garret

The raid that evening had been disastrous.

Not only had our targets escaped, they had left chaos behind them. By the time the fire department arrived, the mansion had burned nearly to the ground, billowing black smoke into the evening sky. Of course, we’d vacated the premises long before anyone knew something was wrong, and no one had seen us enter or leave. But now, a smoldering ruin sat where a multimillion-dollar house once stood, three of my teammates had suffered major burns and there were two escaped dragons who could be anywhere at the moment.

And all of it could have been avoided, if I had done my job.

Because I’d hesitated. I’d seen Ember in the lair of my enemy, and I’d faltered, instead of gunning her down like I’d been taught. I’d seen her change and shift before my eyes, turn from the girl I’d known into one of the monsters. And, like all her kind, she was at her most dangerous cornered and trapped, and responded as all dragons would. With fire and savagery, giving her and her companion time to escape. Surprise was always our best weapon; now that the dragons knew we were here, they would become even harder to track down. We could lose our quarry forever.

And it was all on me.

No one said anything about my failure on the ride back. Stunned, wounded, furious soldiers filled the van, smelling of smoke and burned armor, but no one blamed me. When our livid commander demanded to know what had happened, we took the blame and the dressing-down as a unit. Not even Tristan, whom we met back at the safe house, could guess the truth.

But I knew the real reason we’d failed. And I knew something no one else did.

Ember Hillwasthe sleeper.

Ember, the girl I’d kissed in my bedroom, who’d made me wonder what a normal life was like, who had been on my mind every single day from the time we met, was the enemy.

And now, I had to kill her.

I wasn’t sure what I’d been thinking, calling her so many times, hoping and dreading she’d pick up. What I should have done was tell the captain immediately, reveal her identity, where she lived, where we could find her. If Ember was the sleeper, that meant her brother was likely a dragon, as well. There might be numerous dragons in Crescent Beach, not just the pair they’d been tracking. It was my duty to tell the Order everything I knew.

But I couldn’t do it. Not yet. Though I didn’t knowwhatI was going to do. Especially when she called me back. Hearing her voice, familiar and strange at the same time, I’d frozen up. What did I want? To talk? To demand she explain what I already knew? She was a dragon. I was St. George. What was left to discuss?

“Meet me at Lover’s Bluff in twenty minutes,” I heard myself saying. It was a good spot to do what had to be done—isolated yet fairly close to where we were now. No one would hear the gunshots, or the screams of a dying dragon. And she agreed, though it was fairly obvious she was in a hurry. Planning to leave town, most likely. But when she promised to meet me there, alone, I believed her.

After we hung up, I stood there for a moment, debating with myself. The smart thing would be to tell Tristan, have him back me up. The smarter thing would be to inform my captain where this meeting would take place, and have the whole squad ready to take down a known dragon when she finally showed.

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