“If Talon takes them by surprise, when they’re outnumbered and they don’t know what’s coming, they won’t stand a chance,” Garret had insisted. “They’ve lost their Patriarch. The leadership is probably fractured and the council is scrambling for control. The Order is in chaos—no one will be ready to deal with an army of dragon clones. We have to contact them, let them know what Talon is planning.”

“What?” Riley had glared at him in the rearview mirror. “I’m sorry, are we talking about the same Order? The one whose leader shot you in the back a few weeks ago? Who threatened they would see our kind extinct, even after everything we did to break them away from Talon? Who would kill us all as soon as they see us, because they still haven’t learned there is a difference between rogues and Talon? No.” He’d shaken his head. “I’m done with the Order. They wouldn’t listen to us, anyway. My responsibility is to my underground and my hatchlings, nothing else. I won’t put them in danger, and I’m not going to lose them to Talon. The dragonslayers will have to get by without us.” Garret had started to protest, and Riley’s voice had become a snarl. “We are not contacting the Order, St. George. End of story.”

The soldier had backed off, falling silent, but his set jaw and the dark look in his eyes had told me that that wasn’t going to be the end of it.

We’d driven on through the night. Exhausted, I’d dozed on Garret’s shoulder, and he’d leaned back, drawing me into his arms. The mood of the car had been somber; everyone had seemed a bit shell-shocked. We’d known we had to talk, discuss what we had learned and plan what we were going to do next. But my brain had been fried, overloaded with the barrage of what we’d been through. I’d felt numb, and that apathy had been comforting. As had been the feel of Garret’s arms around me, reminding me that I was safe. That I wasn’t strapped to a table with a bunch of blank-eyed scientists poking and prodding me like I was a lab rat. I hadn’t wanted to remember the terror and helplessness I’d felt when the Elder Wyrm had told me I was simply a vessel, a body grown in a lab for the purpose of extending her life. I hadn’t wanted to think of the scientists messing around in my brain, or what memories they had taken before Garret and Riley showed up. Right then, I hadn’t wanted to remember anything.