After escaping Talon, we’d driven through the night, setting a frantic, nonstop pace as we strove to outrun the organization and whatever agents they were sure to send after us. At the next town, we’d ditched our driver, Mist’s contact, who’d told us he would return to his employer now that we were away from Talon. Though we still hadn’t known who this mysterious employer was, no one had really cared at that point. We were out of Talon; that was all that mattered. After dropping the driver off at a bus stop, Riley had taken over, heading west into the setting sun.

“Where are we going?” Garret had asked, peering out the front window at the road stretching out before us.

“Somewhere safe,” Riley had answered, his voice short. “Somewhere I can gather all my rogues together so we can avoid the shitstorm that’s coming. We only have three days to make sure everyone is out of the open when that Night of Fang and Fire hits.”

I’d blinked. That had been news to me. “The Night of Fang and Fire?” I’d asked, and Riley had cursed.

“Dammit, that’s right. You weren’t with us when we hacked those files. Wanna give her the short version, St. George?”

“Talon is going to attack,” Garret had told me, his voice grim. “They plan to hit all the Order chapterhouses in one night, as well as all of Riley’s safe houses. They’re going to use the clones to wipe out their enemies in one fell swoop.”

Horror had flooded me. “Oh, God,” I’d whispered. “That’s what Dante was talking about. His plan...when he said we wouldn’t survive what was coming.” I’d remembered the genuine fear in his eyes when I refused to cooperate with the Elder Wyrm, his desperate insistence that I give in, and my rage had boiled. He’d known. He’d known what would happen that whole time. And, sickening as it was, he was probably in charge of it. “What are we going to do?” I’d asked.

“I told you,” Riley had said gravely. “We’re getting the hell out of the way. We’re calling the underground back, making sure everyone is accounted for, and then we’re going to hide as deep and hard as we can while we wait for this hurricane to blow over.”

“What about the Order?” Garret had asked.

“What about the Order?” Riley had snapped in return. “They know how to kill dragons, they’ll be fine. Let them deal with it themselves.”