She’d walked to the door of the prison block and pushed it open. A pair of guards, the same dragon clones that had ambushed us that night with Dante, had entered the room, and Riley had stiffened.

“Don’t worry.” Mist had turned and smirked at him, as if she’d known what he was thinking. “The vessels have been trained for obedience and to follow the commands of certain dragons in this location. I happen to be one of them. They don’t disobey orders, they don’t talk back and they don’t ask questions. We’re going to walk through the building in plain sight, and no one will stop us.”

She’d given an order, and the clones had surrounded us, staring straight ahead as they’d moved into position. Riley had snorted, his expression curling with disgust. “Take a good look, St. George,” he’d muttered. “This is what Talon wants us to be. Soulless, mindless and obedient. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Elder Wyrm wants to get rid of us all and replace us with these things.”

Mist had opened the door again and peered down the hall. “We’re clear,” she’d said quietly, and glanced back at us. “Stay close, keep your heads down and don’t say anything unless I tell you to.” She’d straightened and taken a furtive breath, as if steeling herself. “All right, let’s go.”

I’m coming, Ember, I’d thought as we moved out, the clones flanking us and Mist in the lead. Wherever you are, just hang on a little longer.

We’d walked out of the room into a narrow cement corridor, which had turned into the long, well-lit hallway we were walking through now, with white tile floors and doors lining either side. A few humans in long white coats or business suits wandered the floors but, much as Mist had said, kept their heads down and paid us no attention when we walked past with the clones.

“Miss Anderson?”

A thin man stepped into the hallway, his black eyes narrowing as he stopped us in the corridor. With a chill, I realized it was the dragon that had interrogated Riley and me last night. I saw Riley’s shoulders tense, saw the muscles in his arms tighten as he clenched his fists, and hoped he wouldn’t do anything rash. The Basilisk gave us a wary look, then turned to Mist with a frown.