“Why not?” Ember gestured at the terrain around us. “They dumped us here, in the middle of freaking nowhere—why shouldn’t we have a little fun for once? Let’s go to town and watch that movie. We can say we got horribly lost and wandered around for hours and hours. How are they gonna say otherwise?” When I still hesitated, she rolled her eyes. “Come on, Dante, we’re going to fail the test anyway, you know that, right? What’ve we got to lose? Unless you really want to race me across the desert.”

I took a breath. It was tempting. I was tired, and not just physically. I was tired of tests, tired of studying, of staying up all night only to face another grueling day of exams. And, truth be told, I was angry at Talon for giving us this impossible test, requiring the one thing I refused to do: abandon my twin.

I looked at Ember and nodded. “Yeah,” I said, ignoring the brief stab of fear to the gut. “Let’s do it.”

* * *

It took us all afternoon to reach town, even knowing which direction we were going. The desert stretched on, eternal in its sameness. Even for two dragons who normally thrived in the heat, hours of trudging through the desert in over a hundred degree temperatures began to wear on us. By the time we saw the first of the roofs across the desert, we were hot, sweaty, thirsty and desperate to get out of the sun.

“Made it,” Ember breathed, sounding triumphant. She grinned at me, eager and relieved at the same time. Her skin was slightly pink from the sun, and my own felt uncomfortably tight, making me wonder if it was possible for dragons to get sunburned. “Come on,” she said, gesturing toward a distant gas station on the edge of the road. “I’m spitting sand here. Drinks first, then let’s go find the theater.”

My stomach danced as we approached the border of town, either in excitement, fear or a little of both. This was supremely forbidden. Cutting class, wandering into town alone, deliberately disobeying our instructors? I’d never done anything this risky before. I didn’t know if I liked this feeling of nervous exhilaration and utter terror, but we couldn’t turn back now.

However, as we crossed the road and headed toward the gas station, I spotted a disturbingly familiar black sedan sitting at the edge of the parking lot, and my insides gave a violent twist.

Get ahold of yourself, Dante. Not every black car is from Talon. There’s no way they could know where you went—

The back door opened, and Mr. Gordon stepped out of the car, followed by two Talon agents in suits.