The dragon below me shuddered, wings and tail twitching, before it went limp. I dropped the neck and backed away, surprised at how quickly it had died, how easy it had been to kill it. For just a moment, I thought I might feel horror, disgust at what I’d done. But something had changed. I was a dragon, and these things were trying to kill me, my friends and everything I loved. There was no time for regret. This was a war.

I bounded to Garret’s side again, blasting a cone of flame at a vessel coming in from the left. The flames didn’t stop it, but they did blind the vessel for the split second it took Garret to turn and gun it down.

“Ember! St. George!”

Cobalt swooped down, landing beside us with a blast of wind, his eyes blazing golden as he swung his head around to glare at the soldier. “We’re taking pretty heavy damage, but I think we’re slowly driving them out, thanks to Jade.” All three of us glanced at the sky, where the Eastern dragon was coiling back and forth among her smaller opponents, swatting or snapping them out of the air. Cobalt snorted and looked back at Garret. “She should be able to handle the cleanup. Where do we need to go?”

“The armory,” Garret said immediately. “We have to get to Lieutenant Martin, see if any of the clones broke through.”

Cobalt gave a brisk nod and bared his fangs. “Lead the way.”

We fought our way across the yard, to where the large square building loomed at the edge of the walk. A group of soldiers now stood in front of it, firing their guns at any clone that got close. They were, I noted in relief, shooting specifically at the vessels and not at the rogue hatchlings. The last thirty feet to the armory was a mass of writhing bodies, and we had to claw, shoot and fight our way past several clones before the way to the building was clear.

“Lieutenant!” Garret called as we rushed up.

“Sebastian.” The older man shook his head with a wry smile. “Still alive, are you? I’m glad. Looks like your dragons got here, after all.” His hard black eyes shifted to me and Cobalt, standing a few feet away. “You didn’t mention you were bringing an Adult.”

“That a problem?” Cobalt asked with only the barest hint of a curled lip.

“Not at all.” Martin spared a glance upward as Jade soared past, chasing a few stray clones. “We may actually win this fight...”

He trailed off. I felt the ripple of...something...go through the air, and a chill slid up my back. Maybe fifty feet overhead, Jade curled gracefully around to pursue the clones—