I watched as the guards led Ember away, a furious, roaring buzz in my ears. Had she really just done that? Stood before the Elder Wyrm, the oldest, most powerful dragon in the world, and defied her? Told her flat out that she wouldn’t cooperate? That she wouldn’t take her destined place in Talon, because the rogue had showed her differently?

Dammit, Ember. I clenched my fists. How could she be so pointlessly stubborn? She was the Elder Wyrm’s heir. We both were. I’d really believed that, once she knew who she was, she would realize the enormous potential staring her in the face. Together, we could change Talon and the whole world, but she didn’t see that. She saw only what she wanted, what Cobalt had told her. He had blinded her with his lies, turned her against me. Everything she’d done, everything that had come between us, began the moment she had met the rogue in Crescent Beach.

“Well,” the Elder Wyrm mused as the doors to the office closed once more. Her voice wasn’t angry or surprised or remotely disturbed. “That could have gone better.”

I took a breath to calm the fear and anger roiling within. My sister refused to bend. What would happen to her now? You did not defy the Elder Wyrm without consequences. I desperately wanted to ask, but at the same time, I knew that would be a breach of protocol. The Elder Wyrm was not to be questioned. Her word was law. If she thought you needed to know something, she would tell you.

“Dante,” the Elder Wyrm said, making everything inside me go still. I turned out of habit, the calm, blank mask hiding the turmoil within. The CEO of Talon wasn’t looking at me, however. She was still gazing at the door through which Ember had disappeared.

“You will leave tomorrow,” she said, and my stomach dropped to my toes. “Go to our main laboratory and prepare the vessels and their handlers for the upcoming mission. The first stage of the plan is nearly upon us. I want you to lead it.”

“Of course,” I said, though my voice came out a little choked. “Right away. But...”

The but was out of my mouth before I could stop it, and I winced. It was a tremendous honor to be chosen for this assignment. This was the most important task I had ever been given, the first step in finally ending the war with St. George, and the Elder Wyrm was entrusting it to me. I knew I should be grateful, excited, terrified. But if I left now, would I ever see my sister alive again?

The Elder Wyrm turned then, raising an elegant silver eyebrow. “But?” she repeated, her voice lethally soft. I shivered, but there was no going back now.