I knew that was true. I knew everything we did was for the good of our race. And the vessels were our most powerful force to date in the war with St. George. With them, we could finally start to turn the tide, strike a real blow against our ancient enemies. Numbers had always been our weakness, not enough bodies to fight back against the Order, and every loss we took was devastating to our entire race. The vessels would change that. Without them, we would still be heavily outnumbered and outgunned. Without them, St. George would still be pushing us toward extinction.

But there was a difference between sending the vessels into war with genocidal, highly trained soldiers who hated our kind and normal, everyday humans who didn’t even know about dragons. And there was a large distinction between attacking heavily armed and armored humans and those sleeping peacefully in their beds. That community hadn’t stood a chance. They hadn’t even known what hit them before they were dead.

What will Ember think of this? What will she think of you?

I smiled grimly. I knew what Ember would think. She would be horrified, appalled. She would call me all kinds of terrible names. And she would be right. I had chosen this course, for the good of our race and our people. She would never believe it, but I was still doing this for her. For all of us.

And though I would never admit it out loud, I was doing it for myself. I was almost there. I was closer to my goal than ever before, but I wasn’t there yet. Just one more step, I told myself. One more step to the top, and the thing I desired most.

Freedom.

Silently, I made note of everything in the box, recording it all carefully onto my tablet. More would be arriving soon—more containers full of burned clothes, blood, ashes and death. I would inspect them, as well, before they made their final journey to the Vault, but I had seen all I needed. Now I had to wait and trust the Elder Wyrm, as I always had. We would make our race powerful again. Together, we would not only bring our species back from the edge of extinction, we would make certain neither St. George nor any other humans ever threatened our survival again.

By any means necessary.

* * *