Angrily, I shoved that thought from my mind as the jeep pulled through the gates of the Western chapterhouse, the guard saluting briskly as we went by. The Order was not home to me any longer, I reminded myself, feeling an ache of recognition as the familiar rows of buildings came into view over the sand. The chapel, the barracks, the mess hall. Places I knew by heart, where I had sat with my brothers and talked about killing dragons.

They aren’t your brothers, and this isn’t your place. You don’t belong here anymore.

No, I did not. But I would still fight to defend it. Regardless of the enmity between us, the fact that I was a traitor to my Order and my former brothers despised me, I would still stand with them against the slaughter I knew was coming. Because Talon could not win. Because if they truly shattered the Order of St. George, there would be no one left to stop the Elder Wyrm and Talon from sweeping over the rest of the world.

And because, despite everything, the Order still had good people within it. Tristan, Gabriel Martin, a few others I had trained with and fought beside. They were misguided—they had been indoctrinated like every other soldier—but they were not evil. They were just like I had been, before I’d met a fiery red dragon in Crescent Beach. If I could change, if I could see dragons for what they really were, surely there were others who would do the same. They just needed to be shown the truth.

The sun was a faint red smear on the horizon, the chapterhouse quiet and dark, as Martin pulled up to the assembly hall and killed the engine. He paused, hands on the steering wheel, then turned to fix me with a somber glare.

“I’ve called ahead and told my officers to gather the soldiers,” he stated. “They’re waiting in the assembly hall now. Are you ready for this, Sebastian?”

“Yes, sir.”

“You know what they’re going to say to you, how they’re going to react. No one will shoot you on my watch, but it’s not going to be pretty. Everyone in St. George knows you’ve sided with the dragons, but you are from this chapterhouse, and these are the men you’ve personally betrayed. Think about what that means, Sebastian.”

“I know, sir. And I don’t expect any understanding or sympathy, but this has to be done.”

He nodded briskly and stepped out of the jeep. I followed him around the building to the assembly hall, thankful when we stepped through a side door instead of through the main entrance. A soldier I recognized, one of the squad leaders by the name of Williams, waited for Martin beside the door to the main hall.

“Sir.” He saluted sharply, and Martin returned it. “Welcome back. The soldiers are...”